Setting the table

Your blogger was looking for more information about a bill introduced by Martha Fuller Clark in the NH Senate this session to establish a Granite State Farm to Plate program, and came upon this great article from last summer.

It starts like this:

Our nation is in the midst of the most widespread and devastating drought it has experienced in 70 years. So far in 2012, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has designated some 1,369 counties across 31 states as disaster areas.
The majority of those states are in the South, West and Midwest; the Northeast has mostly been spared of the ruin. But, since more than 90 percent of the food we eat in New Hampshire is produced in other states—including grain to feed our livestock—the drought is still taking a huge toll on our food supply.
“Basically, half the country has declared disaster, including large swaths of the grain-producing regions. That’s a major concern for New Hampshire farmers and New Hampshire eaters,” said agriculture commissioner Lorraine Stuart Merrill.

Read the rest while you're looking at your seed catalogues.

Update: and here's some information from the Vermont Farm to Plate program.

Granite State Future Outreach Event

Want to talk about what you want to see in NH's future? Here's the place this Saturday.
SRPC Granite State Future Wentworth Greenhouse Farmer's Market Outreach Event
Sat, January 26, 10am – 2pm
Wentworth Greenhouse, 141 Rollins Road, Rollinsford, NH

Master Plan: Agriculture and Related Issues

The Northwood Planning Board invites you to discuss Agriculture and Related Issues at its January 10 work session at the Community Center on Main Street at 6:30 pm. The board decided to address agriculture in more depth since it has received some input on agriculture from its visioning sessions and the community survey responses as part of its Master Plan Update review. The public is encouraged to attend to listen, provide input, and take part in the discussion.

The board’s Master Plan Update work session schedule has been revised as follows:

Economic Development, Income & Employment will be discussed on March 14, 2013 (no change)

Transportation will be discussed on April 11, 2013

Population and Housing will be discussed on May 9, 2013.

Master plan discussions begin at 6:30 pm.