skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Thursday, March 28, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Pulling back the curtains on wage-theft enforcement in MN; Trump's latest attack is on RFK, Jr; NM LGBTQ+ equality group endorses 2024 'Rock Star' candidates; Michigan's youth justice reforms: Expanded diversion, no fees.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says rebuilding Baltimore's Key Bridge will be challenging and expensive. An Alabama Democrat flips a state legislature seat and former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman dies at 82.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Minnesotans Head Back to the Future for Food

play audio
Play

Monday, February 12, 2018   

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Community food systems are a growing trend in Minnesota - farmers markets are just one example.

Erin McKee with the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy runs a program that helps schools and day care centers buy from local farmers. She'd like to expand the system, but said processors and markets are friendlier to industrial agriculture.

"So if we want to support those small to mid-sized farmers, we also need to support growing the infrastructure again to provide them a place to sell their food and to process their food and to get it to the customers that exist,” McKee said.

She said momentum is building for a new movement that would bring together farmers, environmentalists, anti-hunger activists and public health professionals. They want to hold elected officials accountable for both state legislation and provisions in the Farm Bill that either support or sabotage community food systems.

McKee said both producers and consumers deserve a better food system.

"If we don't have access to affordable healthy food, that's a big contributing factor to the fact that Minnesota has some of the worst health disparities in the country,” she said.

For instance, the state health department reports that African-American, Native American and Latino youths have much higher rates of obesity than white children.

Advocates for community food say the commodity system and globalization have damaged both consumers and producers. The average age of farmers in Minnesota is now over 60. Land and markets are hard to come by for young people who want to farm.

Eric Sannerud farms hops near St. Cloud. He said he’d like to grow his farm, but he needs access to credit and markets beyond craft breweries.

"The opportunity to shift into more specialty production or to move your marketing closer to your farm - removing some middle folks and giving you more control over your operation, your livelihood - is something that is huge for growers,” Sannerud said.

Sannerud said community food systems are better at protecting the environment than the industrial systems. His farm recently won a water-quality certification from the Minnesota Department of Agriculture.


get more stories like this via email

more stories
A report from the Tennessee HealthCare Campaign recommended the federal government needs to strengthen 340B drug pricing and other federal negotiation mechanisms to make needed medicines more readily available and less expensive for hospitals to purchase and administer. (Spotmatikphoto/AdobeStock)

Health and Wellness

play sound

A recent report examined how some rural Tennessee hospitals have managed to stay afloat despite financial challenges. The report includes interviews …


Social Issues

play sound

Earlier this month, a new Arizona Public Service rate hike went into effect and one senior advocacy group said those on a fixed income may struggle …

Social Issues

play sound

Michigan recently implemented a significant juvenile justice reform package following recommendations from a task force made up of prosecutors…


Nearly 13 million Americans receive health coverage through unique plans under both Medicare and Medicaid. They are known as Dual-Eligible Special Needs Plans. (Adobe Stock)

Health and Wellness

play sound

Medicare and Medicaid are key sources of health coverage for many Americans and some people qualify for assistance under both programs. With lagging …

Social Issues

play sound

A mix of policy updates and staffing boosts has helped to put wage theft enforcement on the radar in Minnesota, and officials leading the efforts are …

More than six in 10 Americans favor keeping the abortion pill mifepristone available in the U.S. as a prescription drug, while over a third are opposed, according to a Gallup poll. (Adobe Stock)

Social Issues

play sound

New research shows more than six in 10 abortions in the U.S. last year were medically induced, and U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto - D-NV - is …

Social Issues

play sound

Missouri lawmakers are concerned with protecting people from the potential risks of the increasing accessibility of AI-generated images and videos…

Social Issues

play sound

A 2023 study from the University of Nebraska Medical Center concluded the number of Nebraskans with a mental health or substance abuse disorder has pr…

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021