Posts Tagged ‘DC’

Posted on March 1, 2010 - by Lisa Madison

Inspired by “Fresh”?

By Liz Reitzig, Secretary of National Independent Consumers and Farmers Association

Take action by serving a Local Foods Feast to Congress and Join in Grassroots Lobbying to Protect Local Food

Presented in conjunction with the National Independent Consumers and Farmers Association Fourth Annual National Small Farm and Ranch Grassroots Lobby Day & Legislative Reception Wednesday, March 10, 2010.

You’ve seen Fresh and it taught you the importance of a local, safe food supply, but most in Congress haven’t seen the movie yet. Remind Congress about the importance of fresh Local foods and direct farmer-to-consumer trade.

Join farmers and consumers from around the country as we converge on DC on March 10 to lobby our legislators so they understand how certain bills will affect local food. Then enjoy a local food feast at the reception. If you cannot make it to DC on March 10, please call your legislators anyway; your voice is important and effective! You can schedule a phone meeting with your legislator’s office.

Need help? There will be a training call with all the info you need to have an effective appointment with your legislator’s aide.  More information about the training calls can be found here: http://www.nicfa.com/ffvdc.html

See www.NICFA.com to learn more about March 10, lobbying and for updates. Please sign up for future action alerts.

Posted on January 13, 2010 - by Lisa Madison

Mie N Yu: Georgetown Eatery Focuses on Local and Sustainable Food

By Bill Couzens, Founder of Less Cancer

Mie N Yu
3125 M Street, NW
Historic Georgetown, in Washington DC

This Georgetown restaurant’s culinary and service team pride themselves on the fact that they are serving “the highest quality products to their guests.”

Mie N Yu’s Chef Tim Miller and General Manager Oren Molovinsky have personally visited all of the farms that the restaurant’s wonderful products are sourced from. “I’m always surprised by the incredible advantage in flavor and texture that local products have, for example, it’s very important that our meat products have never been injected with hormones or antibiotics from birth…” explains General Manager, Oren Molovinsky.

In addition to his role as General Manager for Mie N Yu, Oren and his business partner Jack Boyle have set up a Farm to Table Partnership involving twenty local Virginia Farmers and participating restaurants to supply chefs with whole animals. He also makes it a practice to visit the farmers that supply the restaurant.

Mie N Yu has sourced close to a dozen local farms, sourcing everything from lettuce to lamb. Examples of the Virginia Farms that supply Mie N Yu include: Whitewood Farm; The Plains Virginia for Black Angus Beef; Oak Spring Dairy; Upperville Virginia-Raw Milk Artisan Cheeses; and Cannon Hill Farm, Mount Jackson, Virgina for Certified Organic Belted Galloway Hereford and Angus Beef.

There are many benefits to buying locally. Oren can frequently visit the farms to ensure that the restaurant will receive the best quality meats, produce, cheeses and eggs. Because of the relationship that he builds with each farmer, Oren is able to develop a partnership to reinforce with the farmer the importance of continuous improvement of best practices for natural or organic farming and attention to animal husbandry and environmental stewardship.

All of the farms are at most located within a 5-6 hour drive of the restaurant. Several are Certified Organic and/or Certified Humane. In addition, the Farm to Table DC program has added the additional requirement that farms be family owned, excluding mass production farms. Importantly as a healthy choice- the criteria stipulates that the foods by hormone, antibiotics, and medication free and the preference is that animals be fed non- GMO food.

The establishment of rigorous criteria for food sourcing can be especially important for reducing unnecessary and preventable exposures to chemicals and pesticides, some of which have been shown to have biological effects in laboratory studies and have been identified as contaminants in humans by researchers as well as in studies of body burden levels of contaminants that are being conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention according to Dr. Maryann Donovan, Director of the Center for Environmental Oncology at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute.

Mie N Yu is aware that as consumers become more conscious about the environmental and human health impact of their purchases, restaurants are also becoming more aware of what it takes to bring food from the farm to the table. Working with local farmers means fewer miles to the table, which reduces carbon-emissions and fuel usage by restaurants.