The Ecology Center supports the desire of community members and activists to ensure that the Gill Tract land remains in agricultural use, and calls upon them to embrace a vision that includes university research and training that benefits urban communities across the state, nation, and globe.

The Ecology Center calls upon the University of California to commit to the creation of a Center for Urban Agriculture Research and Training, and to allow farming to continue alongside relevant research. We call on UC Berkeley to engage in meaningful, good faith discussion with the community, urban agriculture organizations, UC researchers, and the City of Albany on how to best manifest this vision.

This conference, put on by the Biosafety Alliance, is bringing together a great swath of global thinkers and activists on food sovereignty, with a keynote talk by Winona LaDuke. There will also be a panel on the Label GMO movement on Saturday. BASIL’s coordinator, Patrick O’Connor will be on a panel Friday afternoon from 4 -6 pm, which will double as a seed swap!
To see the full program, click here. To register for the conference, click here. Scholarships and volunteer opportunities are available, contact miguel@biosafetyalliance.org.

Berkeley resident Ernest “Chick” Callenbach passed away in April, best known as the author of Ecotopia. In his writing, Callenbach envisioned a hopeful future of the world, where recycling, local food and sustainable transportation prevail. Written in the height of 70s awareness of the dire consequences of pollution, the book was self published by Callenbach and friends after being rejected by 25 publishers. The book has proven that wider perspectives of ecology are more than a passing phase, with a million copies sold. Callenbach was a dedicated member of the Ecology Center, and as part of his community, we extend our condolences to his family. For those who wish to be more familiar with his work, copies of two of his books are available in our Library: Ecotopia and Ecotopia Emerging.

Adam Yauch, aka MCA of the band Beastie Boys, died this past week. The tragedy of his early death at age 47 has been widely mourned among the band’s fans and other musical giants who were influenced by the Beastie Boys. What isn’t as widely known is that Yauch had a side career as a producer and director, founding the independent film production company Oscilloscope Laboratories. Check out this summary of his work in this are from Grist. Supporting powerful environmental documentaries means giving voice to stories that mainstream media outlets won’t touch. For this work, we pay tribute to Yauch’s life. Those interested in Oscilloscope’s documentaries can check them out from our Library, which has the films Flow, No Impact Man, and The Garden. All very worth the watch, thanks to MCA!

The agenda for the May 16 meeting will be posted toward the bottom of the Planning Commission’s webpage a week before the hearing. The proposed legislation will be very similar to the version included within the April 4th agenda, which is available at the same location. For background on Berkeley’s Edible Gardens legislation, visit www.berkeleyediblegardens.org.

Thank you in advance for coming out to support this important legislation. The City Council Chambers are located at Old City Hall, 2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way.

“Yesterday afternoon, the Senate Agriculture Committee approved the Agricultural Reform, Food and Jobs Act (Farm Bill) in a bipartisan 16-5 vote. The bill includes $23 billion in savings over 10 years by cutting $15 billion from the Commodity Title, $6 billion from Conservation programs and $4 billion from nutrition programs.

The Community Food Security Coalition (CFSC) commends Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) and Ranking Member Pat Roberts (R-KS) on their bipartisan leadership of the committee and on crafting a bill that minimizes cuts to nutrition programs while supporting programs that are building a more resilient, equitable, environmentally and economically sustainable American food system for the future.

The bill includes increased funding for CFSC Farm Bill priorities that support community food security programs and local food initiatives including:

• Community Food Projects Program – Doubling mandatory funding for this program to $10 million per year
• Farmers Market and Local Food Promotion Program – Expanding the Farmers Market Promotion Program to include developing food hubs and doubling funding to $20 million in mandatory funds per year for five years
• Hunger-Free Community Incentive Grants – A new local fruit and vegetable incentive grant program to increase purchases by SNAP customers at farmers markets and other healthy food retailers with mandatory funding totaling $100 million over five years
• Specialty Crop Block Grants – Funding increased to $70 million per year for five years from the current level of $55 million
• Healthy Food Financing Initiative – Authorization for funding up to $125 million
• Improving ease of SNAP Redemption at Farmers Markets, Mobile Markets and CSAs- Authority to establish pilot programs to test mobile technology and online ordering as well as ease SNAP redemption at Community Supported Agriculture (CSAs)
• Seniors Farmers Market Nutrition Program – Mandatory funding maintained at $20 million per year

The $4 billion cut from the Nutrition title mirrors last fall’s cut in the Super Committee proposal and is significantly better than last week’s House Ag Committee vote to cut $33 billion from the program for deficit reduction.

The Agriculture Reform, Food and Jobs Act (ARFJA) eliminates the direct and counter cyclical payment programs and includes a payment limit for farmers and a maximize size for farms to received federal farm support, important reforms to the flawed agriculture subsidy system. It also includes support (albeit at reduced levels) for beginning farmer programs, key organic provisions and instructions to USDA to create crop insurance that will serve the needs of small and diversified farmers.

The bill does not include mandatory funding for the 2501 Outreach and Assistance to Socially Disadvantaged Farmers and Ranchers program.

CFSC looks forward to the bill getting a hearing soon on the Senate floor. CFSC staff and members will be working to get good provisions from the Senate bill included in the House version of the 2012 Farm Bill.”

[Photo by Steve Rhodes]

In The Great Divide, a natural gas boom is lifting the economy in Doctor Katherine Stockmann’s hometown, but she soon discovers several people afflicted with a mysterious illness. One woman’s search for the truth stretches the community to the breaking point. Inspired by Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People, this retelling examines what a person will sacrifice for what they believe is right.

The Ecology Center is partnering with the Shotgun Players to promote this timely theatrical production. The first 100 people who sign up for Ecology Center memberships get free tickets (one per member) to the first two weeks of the play’s run. Sign up online here or call Leah at 510-548-2220 x235. If you already are an Ecology Center member, you can get $5 off tickets to this play. Call or email us for the discount code.

If you can’t make it to the Ashby Stage for The Great Divide this spring, read “The Best Watchdog Journalism on Fracking” at ProPublica.