BC residents rally for Farm Bill Family Fun Day - Battle Creek Enquirer

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BC residents rally for Farm Bill Family Fun Day - Battle Creek Enquirer Mar 24th 2012, 22:46 A handful of people in Battle Creek put on gardening gloves Saturday to pull weeds, stopping only for a bit of political lobbying. Despite some rain, about 20 people were digging in the soil at Mt. Zion AME Church during Farm Bill Family Fun Day. The obvious work was in the Patch of Heaven Community Garden on a vacant lot adjacent to the church at 364 W. Van Buren St. where the Rev. Michael Smith, a few members of his church and some other volunteers cleared away remains of last year's plants and prepared for new growth. With support from Leila Arboretum and students at Ann J Kellogg School, the church opened the garden in 2011. "It's on a vacant lot owned by the church," Smith said, "but it was truly a community effort." He said vegetables were offered to people not just from the church but from the neighborhood. "I would be sitting at my desk during the week and glance out the window and see people with a small bag for some tomatoes and greens," he said. "If you need some vegetables you can come and pick some things." He said a neighbor frequently watered the garden, no one damaged the fence or the plants and people took only what they needed and could use. Smith also said the garden and others like it around Battle Creek are a way to combat obesity and other health problems like diabetes and hypertension which can be linked to diets heavy with processed foods and without fresh fruits and vegetables and a lifestyle with limited exercise. "It's good that you have to leave the car and walk to the garden," he joked to the group. "This is a way for the church to live outside the walls and we want everyone to eat well." Organizers of the Saturday event also used it to promote changes in the 2012 Farm Bill now being written in Congress. The non-profit consumer group, Food and Water Watch encouraged people at the event to contact members of Congress to advocate against what they say is growing control of the food industry by large corporations. The group is advocating use of anti-trust laws and preventing further consolidation, to return competition and improve the food system in the country, according to Alistair Hall, an organizer for Food and Water Watch. "This is a problem that we cannot shop or grow our way out of" Hall said. "Without much needed reform in the 2012 Farm Bill, the glass ceiling of corporate control will prevent any substantial progress in truly correcting our food system." Hall encouraged those attending the event to sign petitions and write to members of Congress, especially Michigan Democratic Senator Debbie Stabenow, chairwoman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, to seek changes in the new farm bill to help small farmers. Trace Christenson can be reached at 966-0685 or tchrist@battlecreekenquirer.com. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.

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