Hudson Valley food and culture were on grand display at Glynwood’s recent Hudson Valley Harvest event at the New Amsterdam Market. Check out these gorgeous photographs from our very talented friend Sara Forrest:
New Amsterdam Market. Photo by Sara Forrest.
Glynwood at New Amsterdam Market. Photo by Sara Forrest.
Hudson Valley Harvest at New Amsterdam Market. Photo by Sara Forrest.
Hudson Valley Harvest at New Amsterdam Market. Photo by Sara Forrest.
It’s not often that the Secretary of the USDA comes to the Hudson Valley to hear about our efforts to save farming and to see our region’s farms. In fact, prior to Secretary Vilsack’s recent visit, no one could remember the last time the head of the USDA was actually here.
Glynwood President Judy LaBelle answering questions from USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack, in a listening session for America's Great Outdoors.
So the Secretary’s presence here on August 6th, as part of a “listening tour” for President Obama’s America’s Great Outdoors Initiative, was an unusual opportunity for us to make the case for the importance of the Hudson Valley’s farms and working landscapes.
This Initiative was created by the President to develop a conservation and recreation agenda for the 21st century. He recognized that in some parts of the country, conserving the “great outdoors” requires the conservation of working farms and forests as well.
It was very significant that the USDA, rather than one of the many other agencies involved, was leading the delegation to the Hudson Valley. It signaled the importance of the working lands in this region and the farmers who maintain them, in particular to the Valley’s economy and quality of life.
In the three weeks since the story appeared in The New York Times about the launch of Glynwood’s Modular Harvest System™, a next generation mobile slaughterhouse, we have received many emails and letters of support and interest from around the country. And some questions, too, about animal welfare, which I’d like to address.
Christine Muhlke succeeded in compressing a complicated story into her feature on Glynwood’s successful effort to provide the slaughtering infrastructure smaller farmers need to reach the market for high quality, pastured meats. However, in one key instance her choice of words was not the clearest:
Since attending the Slow Money national gathering, I’ve been posting some thoughts on what I saw there.
One of the major challenges that the Slow Money Alliance has taken on is to design new structures to encourage the flow of funding to businesses that will help heal the environment and support local economies.
The “legal landscape for aggregating funds” is complicated by securities laws designed to protect small investors that can make it difficult and expensive for them to pool investments without running afoul of the law.
“Money makes the world go around…” You may remember Joel Gray’s cynical rendition of this line in Cabaret. Or it may just be a trueism you have heard along the way.
In any event, we need more in the sustainable food and farming movement! To support entrepreneurs who have a great idea for a new value-added product, or to make it possible for a local organization to recreate a needed piece of infrastructure, or you name it.
Today and tomorrow I will be attending Slow Money’s National Gathering at Shelburne Farm in Vermont to learn more about this emerging movement and the support it may provide for the sustainable food and farming movement. The basic idea behind Slow Money is to create a cadre of investors who are not focused on immediate, quarterly returns, but are willing to invest in socially oriented enterprises for smaller returns over the longer term.
Bill McKibben, Joel Salatin, Gary Hirshberg, Eliot Coleman, and Erika Allen will be here, in addition to investors and entrepreneurs from around the country. Should be an interesting two days. Stay tuned!
Judith LaBelle is the President of Glynwood. She will be posting more comments about the conference after it concludes – in the meantime, enjoy this video from the folks at Slow Money:
Glynwood has just announced the launch of the first USDA inspected mobile slaughterhouse for large animals east of New Mexico. The Modular Harvest System™ (MHS) addresses a critical gap in the infrastructure needed by livestock producers in the Hudson Valley, a region with many dispersed smaller farms near a major metropolitan market, and provides a model for other similar regions.
Cattle and sheep grazing in the Hudson Valley.
The need for additional slaughtering capacity had been recognized – and studied – for several years. In late 2008, Glynwood created a task force to address this need. (To hear the need described by farmers, chefs and others, please take a look at a video we produced early in this project.)
Having the MHS, a “next generation” modular mobile unit, in operation on its first docking site in Delaware County about 18 months later represents a major accomplishment, achieved with the support, assistance and encouragement of the members of the task force and a great many other people from across the Valley.
But why did Glynwood think it was so important to grasp the nettle on this issue — and believe me, that nettle had some very sharp points along the way!
Keep Farming is Glynwood’s community-based program, through which we empower communities to support their local farming. When a community chooses to engage in the program, we become involved in a hands-on process of helping them to identify their agricultural resources and the challenges they may face. We then help them think through options and create a strategy for the future.
Last year, we created a video about our mission to save farming. We were honored to have the participation of so many leaders in our local system (see the full list of interviewees after the jump).
Since its completion, the video has been touring with the Wild & Scenic Film Festival, and has played in venues across the country, including California, West Virginia, Indiana, Massachusetts, Utah, Wisconsin – and of course, here at Glynwood.
Glynwood is a not-for-profit located in the Hudson Valley. We are dedicated to saving farming—because farming, food, and community matter. This blog presents news and updates on our work, along with photos, videos, and notes on our efforts to promote locally grown food and sustainable agriculture.
