Legalize Beekeeping in NYC: bees are essential for pollenating plants in our public parks and nature centers as well as increasing the production of fruits and vegetables in our urban farms. Read more on Just Food and don't forget to Sign the petition.

HR 875, HR 1332, HR 759: keep an eye on any 'Food Safety Act' that legislates food producers. Grist has a comprehensive article regarding these bills: there are several floating around out there whose one-size-fits-all language do not address small, local farms and could put us out of business. Furthermore, the food-born diseases that these acts try to prevent are a product of large scale food production and distribution, not local farms. Follow HR-875 in the news as well as Q1 2009 on which Monsanto spent $2 billion lobbying.

Compost collection in NYC: Compost is a natural fertilizer made of decomposed organic material. It is one of the foundations of healthy soil that our gardens, parks and all green spaces depend on. It is also an efficient and green way to manage our city’s trash by diverting recyclable organic material from the waste stream. Reinstate the production of municipal compost from Fall Leaf Collection. Sign the petition. Before the funding stopped, the project was responsible for diverting 20,000 tons per year of compost from the landfills. Soil quality is a science: brush up on the basics from NRCS.

Food Democracy: Hunger is not caused by lack of food, but lack of democracy: The City that Ended Hunger written by Frances Lappe of the Small Planet Institute is a good primer on the subject. United States urban farming efforts are learning from Cuba.