Growing Power produces enough produce and fish year-round to feed thousands. Employing young people from the neighboring housing project and community, Growing Power shows how local food systems can help troubled youths, dismantle racism, create jobs, bring urban and rural communities closer together and improve public health. Today his organization helps develop community food systems across the country.
In 2008 Allen was a John D. and Katherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellow and “genius grant” winner. He has been given the National Education Association Security Benefit Corporation Award for Outstanding Service to Public Education in recognition of his work with children, teachers and schools.
He continues to do his work out of Growing Power’s national headquarters in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to bring good food to people all over the world to help end poverty.
Beal’s lifelong interest in how we produce food began as a child growing up on her family's Maine dairy farm, as well as on the coast of Casco Bay, where she has fond memories of digging for dinner alongside her grandfather in the clam flats in summer and warming the bench of his smelt shanty in winter. Beal served on MOFGA’s board for 10 years, including two years (2008-2009) as president, and returned to the board in 2015 after a five-year hiatus while she pursued graduate studies in the Agriculture, Food & Environment master's program at Tufts Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy. She is now completing her Ph.D. in the Natural Resources and Earth Systems Science program at the University of New Hampshire while working for Maine Farmland Trust.
With a 700-percent increase in the distribution of home-use pesticide products in Maine in recent years,(1) what are citizens’ options when state and federal governments are not adequately protecting our health and the environment from these toxic chemicals?
Maine is fortunate to be one of seven states that allow towns to create local laws that are more restrictive than state or federal laws. Currently, 26 Maine municipalities have passed ordinances tailored to the special needs of their communities and restricting pesticide use beyond state requirements.(2) The most comprehensive, in Ogunquit, prohibits outdoor pesticide application on public and private property. South Portland and Portland are considering similar prohibitions.
Our 2016 Teach-In features the cofounder of a national advocacy organization, the sustainability coordinator for one of Maine’s largest cities, a local activist, a town conservation commission chair, a director of a conservation organization and a physician. Hear how they are helping their communities better protect themselves from pesticide exposure.
Citations:
(1) Source: Maine Board of Pesticides Control.
(2) http://www.maine.gov/dacf/php/pesticides/public/municipal_ordinances.shtml
