It looks like Spokane Valley is out of the blocks first on revising ordinances for keeping chickens in residential neighborhoods. If you'll recall, it is legal to keep up to 3 chickens within the city of Spokane Valley but you have to have something like…
A friend passed along this link to the 2011 report on the estimated costs of crops production in Iowa. I was most intrigued by the break-even worksheet at the bottom of the page. Among other things, this resource describes all the anticipated costs associated with…
I'm looking forward to reading more this year and I'm on book #2 in 2011, Enough: Why the World's Poorest Starve in an Age of Plenty, a detailed account of modern issues of agriculture, hunger, and poverty. In the preface they flesh out the question…
The California Restaurant Association is lobbying San Diego County supervisors to allow participants in the CalFresh Food Benefits program to use their federally funded debit cards to receive hot, prepared meals at restaurants. North County Times reports: The San Diego County Board of Supervisors on…
I am honored and excited that Eugene Peterson has written the foreword to Year of Plenty. Peterson has been a mentor from afar through his numerous books on pastoral practice and the spiritual life. He is most well known for his paraphrase translation of the…
This morning President Obama signed into law the new Food Safety Bill that has been all the talk of the online food community. Go here for more background on how the much anticipated bill actually got to this point. But just as this milestone is…
The Globe and Mail had a story last week that caught my attention titled, "The Fat Cats of Agribusiness." The article references growing concerns about large corporations muscling their way into the food chain, but observes that not much is being said among effected nations…
The Year of Plenty blog was created by Craig Goodwin in the winter of 2008 to chronicle the experiences of his family as they sought to consume everything local, used, homegrown or homemade. That journey was a wonderful introduction to people and movements in the Spokane area who are seeking the welfare of the community through local foods, farmers markets, community gardens, sustainable transportation, and more fulfilling and just patterns of consumption. In 2009 and beyond the blog will continue to report on these relationships and practices, all through the eyes of a family with young children. Craig manages the Millwood Farmers' Market, is a Master Food Preserver and Pastor at Millwood Presbyterian Church. Craig can be reached at goody2230@gmail.com