All posts in the topic TRUTH TO TELL 11AM FEB 10-KFAI: MINORITY AND IMMIGRANT FARMING: Unsung Producers (Short link)

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TRUTH TO TELL 11AM FEBRUARY 10 MINORITY AND IMMIGRANT FARMING: Unsung
Producers

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KFAI - 90.3FM-Minneapolis/106.7FM Saint Paul and STREAMING at KFAI.org

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 10 - 11:00AM

MINORITY AND IMMIGRANT FARMING: Unsung Producers

Despite the significant trend away from family farming in Minnesota
and elsewhere - for many reasons giving way to the power of (often
polluting and environmentally unsound) corporate farming enterprises,
chemical companies and federal farm policies, Minnesota is showing
growth in small to mid-sized family farms. Why? Because we are blessed
by a surge in farms run by minority and immigrant families as a
counterweight to the massive feedlots, bio-fed livestock, and
chemically infused fruit and vegetable crops.

Most of us now know that farmers' markets are multiplying throughout
our cities, providing us with farm-to-table fresh and nutritionally
better foods. Again, we can thank enlightened organic farmers who
practice strong, sustainable and healthy alternatives to the highly
processed foods peddled in most of our supermarkets.

The Minnesota Food Association, the Association for the Advancement of
Hmong Women in Minnesota, and the USDA-Farm Service Agency will
jointly co-host the 5th Annual Minority and Immigrant Farming
Conference (brochure/registration) - February 19-20, 2010, in the
Wilder Foundation Auditorium in St. Paul at 451 Lexington Parkway
North, at the corner of University Ave. (MAP), an ideal opportunity
for all of us to understand the important role minorities and new
Americans are playing in bringing us to a sustainable food future.

TTT's ANDY DRISCOLL and LYNNELL MICKELSEN talk with some of the key
players in this excellent movement toward a resurgence of family farms
and healthy eating.

GUESTS:

 GLEN HILL - Executive Director, Minnesota Food Association

 NIGATU TADESSE - USDAFarm Service Agency

 LY VANG - Association for the Advancement of Hmong Women in Minnesota

 RODRIGO CALA - Latino Farmer

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FEBRUARY 3: CENTRAL CORRIDOR: Back on Track? or Legal Quagmire?

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The embattled, but currently thriving Central Corridor light rail
project is proceeding apace toward construction of the 11-mile line
between the downtowns of Minneapolis and St. Paul. A singular victory
for proponents of adding stations at the half-mile marks along
University Ave. in St. Paul (Western, Victoria and Hamline avenues)
came recently when Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and Federal
Transportation Administration head Peter Rogoff revised a long-
standing Bush policy to base federal funding on a convoluted formula
called the cost effectiveness index (CEI), opening the door to meeting
the needs and demands of communities along the corridor to make it
easier for residents to use the line while not losing the speed and
convenience of the rail itself.

And yet, with the historical fragmentation of St. Paul's black
community in the mid-1960's by the ditch known as I-94 burrowing its
way through the center of the once-robust Rondo neighborhood still
burning, a group calling itself the African-American Rondo Community
(including the NAACP, the Community Stabilization Project, and Pilgrim
Baptist Church) has filed a federal lawsuit challenging the legality
of the planning of the Central Corridor Light Rail Transit Project and
alleging that "government planning agencies have neglected to
adequately consider both the impacts of the CCLRT on area businesses
and residents. The lawsuit also alleges that the responsible agencies
have failed to adequately consider mitigating the impacts of the
project."

Moreover, the Asian Economic Development Association, acting as
Concerned Asian Business Owners, has lodged a civil rights complaint
against the FTA alleging discrimination based on the disruption to
their business and the loss of critical retail parking they contend
the line will create. They are joined in their resistance to these
losses by the University Avenue Business Association. Preliminary
construction is under way in downtown St. Paul as utility lines are
dug up and moved off to the side to make clear the route of the rails.
Actual construction is scheduled to get underway this summer.

TTT's ANDY DRISCOLL and LYNNELL MICKELSEN query some of the principals
in these disparate developments to update the status of this
protracted project as it moves toward a 2014 start-up date.

GUESTS:

 ANNE WHITE - President, District Councils Collaborative of St. Paul
and Minneapolis

 JACK McCANN - President, University Avenue Business Association

 THOMAS DEVINCKE - Attorney representing the African-American Rondo
Community

 PETE VANG - President, Asian Economic Development Association


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GarageBand- All shows list; Twitter; Subscribe in iTunes

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