Produce to the People

Deconstructing Dinner has long been exploring the many ways through which farmers, businesses, organizations and communities are accessing food using new and innovative models. On today's broadcast we hear more of those examples shared as part of the March 2010 panel - Produce to the People, hosted by the San Francisco based CUESA.

The Produce to the People panel examined a few inspiring models for getting fresh, local food to residents in the San Francisco Bay area of California and featured Grayson James of Petaluma Bounty, Melanine Cheng of FarmsReach and Christine Cherdboonmuang of the Oakland Farms-to-Schools Network and Oakland FRESH School Produce Markets. Moderating the panel was Michael Dimock of Roots of Change.

And closing out the broadcast - a new episode from Bucky Buckaw and his Backyard Chicken broadcast. Bucky discusses the pros and cons of eating raw eggs and provides suggestions on the safest source of those eggs to reduce exposure to the risks of salmonella.

Voices

Grayson James, executive director, Petaluma Bounty (Petaluma, CA) - Petaluma Bounty is a non-profit organization formed in 2006. The organization works to create a sustainable Petaluma food system with healthy fresh food for everyone by helping residents to grow their own healthy food, redistributing surplus food, and providing affordable fresh food to low-income families and seniors.

Melanie Cheng, founder, FarmsReach (San Francisco, CA) - FarmsReach is an online farm food marketplace focusing on the San Francisco Bay area that connects farmers to business buyers. Their mission is to help businesses source fresher and healthier foods and put better food on more plates while supporting healthy farms.

Christine Cherdboonmuang, coordinator, Oakland Farms-to-Schools Network (Oakland, CA) - The Oakland Fresh School Produce Markets is a program of the Oakland Unified School District Nutrition Services and the East Bay Asian Youth Center. The markets are set up to sell fresh, mostly locally grown and pesticide-free fruits, vegetables, eggs, nuts, honey and other foods at public schools. The produce is purchased from local family farms and distributors, and sold by parents and students during after-school hours every week at each school site. The markets, which operate at 12 schools are open to parents, students, staff and community residents. Their goal is to open 25 markets by 2012.

Michael Dimock, president, Roots of Change (San Francisco, CA) - Roots of Change is a collaboration of community, nonprofit, philanthropic, government, and business organizations that seeks to accelerate the transition to more sustainable food systems in California.

Bucky Buckaw - host, Bucky Buckaw's Backyard Chicken Broadcast (New York, NY) - Bucky Buckaw gives advice on raising backyard chickens as just one example of how a locally based economy can work. Through this segment, he informs listeners about the downside of factory farming and what kinds of toxic chemicals you can expect to find in the resultant livestock. He promotes organic gardening and composting, and supporting local farmers.