If you’ve been shopping at Northern California Farmers’ Markets for several years, you may have noticed that the farmer demographics are slowly shifting and that the farmers selling produce are more ethnically and racially diverse than in past years. You may also notice that many of these farmers are Latino. Some of these newer farmers are graduates of a program called the Agricultural and Land-Based Training Association (ALBA).

A little background: The passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1994 can be directly linked to immigration from Mexico to the United States.

Subsidized corn from the US flooded Mexican markets, forcing farmers to leave their farms in search of other opportunities.

Many rural farmers from corn producing states in Mexico migrated to urban centers and many others migrated to the United States to find work. Plenty of those former Mexican farmers ended up as low-paid, seasonal farm workers, with little hope for their family’s future.

The same agricultural system that benefited from newly opened markets benefited from the cheap labor that entered the US as a result of opening the markets. This is a fact that immigration critics rarely acknowledge and immigration reform must take into account.

But there is hope for a better future for some of these farm workers, and an opportunity for them to contribute to rural and overall economic development here in the states. ALBA is a farm incubator where farmworkers and aspiring farmers can grow their own crops on organic land in Monterey County, CA., and learn the skills they need to market those crops and, one day, start their own farms.

This is important for a sustainable, stable food system. We are losing family farms to development every day, farms are consolidating into larger operations further from urban centers, and the average age of farmers is increasing – just as consumers are beginning to see the value in buying locally produced foods .

ALBA farmers can not only provide consumers (and themselves) with more sources of locally grown, organic produce at reasonable prices, but an influx of new farm families may even help save the family farm.

But the ALBA program does much more than that. ALBA teaches farmers how to farm in a way that is better for the environment than conventional, petroleum-dependent farming. Situated on two parcels of organic land, with a total of 305 acres, ALBA provides economic opportunity while teaching ecological land management techniques, habitat restoration, and conservation.

And though many of the beginning farmers in the ALBA program do hail from Mexico – especially the rural states of Guanajuato, Guerrero, Jalisco, Michoacán and Oaxaca – some of the graduates of the program have come from Argentina, Armenia, Iran, Chile, El Salvador, and Vietnam. The program welcomes all undercapitalized beginning farmers.

Over the past 20 plus years, ALBA has graduated over 600 farming families from the program. About 100 of those families have left the incubator and have leased or purchased their own farms.

If you shop at Bay Area and Northern California farmers’ markets, you are likely to encounter an ALBA farmer or two. I especially appreciate the ALBA farmers I see at my weekly market stops (Avalos Organic Farm and Catalan Family Farm) because the farmers and their families are on-site selling their own crops, providing a more direct consumer to producer connection, quality is high, and the prices are very reasonable.

ALBA also does advocacy work to help rework the farm bill in a way that will benefit both eaters and small farmers, and also works with state legislators to increase food stamp recipient’s access to fresh food from farmers’ markets.

“Our work has helped catalyze more discussion and action around small business education and development. It needs to be recognized as an option right alongside expanding good employment options. The economic activities of farmers from ALBA have generated and supported a tripling of farmers’ markets in the past five years, and many more people are now able to access truly local, organic foods,” said Gary Peterson, Deputy Director, ALBA

This is the latest installment in Vanessa Barrington’s weekly column, The Green Plate, on the environmental, social, and political issues related to what and how we eat.

Images: Courtesy of ALBA

If you plan on stocking up on fresh produce at your farmers’ market this weekend, why not pick up a few items for your pets as well? Commercial dog food may be harmful to the environment, but you can lessen the amount of kibble you feed your pup by adding in-season produce (bonus points if you find locally-grown options).

So which of the summer produce work for your pets? Surprisingly, you have many options that add very few calories to your pet’s diet. Though you should introduce foods to your pet slowly to watch for any reactions, your dog or cat is bound to discover a fresh, new favorite.

Here are a few to consider when you’re shopping the market this week:

Vegetables:

• cucumbers
• summer squash (cooked and pureed is best)
• corn
• green beans

Fruits:

• watermelon (seedless)
• strawberries
• cantaloupe
• blueberries
• raspberries

Bonus: For a special summer treat to help beat the heat, freeze a variety of fruits to provide nutritious munchies that help keep your pet hydrated.

Image: The Left Field

Maybe it’s the result of an economy that requires a skill for penny pinching or maybe it’s just a renewed love of food, but whatever the reasons behind it, amateur involvement in culinary culture is happening big time, bringing the power of being a foodie into the hands of everyone who wants a taste. Call it indie, call it DIY, but this trend is simply expanding on something we’ve done for centuries: create sustenance.

Independent food markets are taking place more frequently in underground economies, providing an outlet for small-time food vendors to take a stab at doing what they’re best at and at the same time turn a profit. In places like these, a friend’s, “Mmm… that’s delicious, you should sell it!” is no longer just a compliment, it’s motivation for business.

In Brooklyn, $20 gets you a six-foot folding table at the Greenpoint Food Market, where you’re welcome to sell whatever concoctions you wish. “Some of my vendors just sell granola bars wrapped in saran wrap or foil and that’s about as far as they want to go,” market founder Joan Kim told Chow.

In San Francisco, kumbucha is pitted against jam in a competitive audition to get into the Underground Farmers Market. So far, there have only been a handful of the markets hosted, but interest is at a high, feeding both people’s desire to sell something they’ve made themselves, and also, to buy homemade goods that don’t have a commercial flair.

Independent markets like these give people with a penchant for crafting creative edibles the opportunity to try their hand at the food industry, but with very low barriers to entry. The result is a diverse array of foods, with something to please every taste, that is as empowering as it is cutting-edge.

But even those not willing to devote late nights to baking up a storm and hauling the goods to the local market early on a Saturday morning are still taking part in the changing food movement.

At Forage in Los Angeles, the restaurant depends on connecting with its customers to provide seasonal fare at a reasonable prices. When a chef is on the lookout for a special ingredient, they don’t turn to a distributor, they turn to urban foragers, depending on the restaurants clientele to bring them the taste of the day – be it lavender or bundles of citrus fruit. Chefs sample and select which produce will make it to the restaurant’s palate. The concept is aptly named Harvest Call.

The result is a menu that is inherently more local, but also more communal with various clientele getting to take part in deciding what they eat. Taking the idea of urban foraging to a new level, restaurants like Forage encourage interaction with food, not just a passive experience of it.

This idea of gastronomic equality, making everyone an equal part in the food process, may just be an edgy passing fad – people do in fact still love the occasional 5 star experience – but in the meantime, it’s truly changing how we think about food and our relationship to it. And encouraging all of us, no matter what our foodie level, to get more involved with what we eat.

Editor’s note: This is the debut of Anna Brones’s new column at EcoSalon, Foodie Underground. Each week, Anna will be taking a look at something new and different that’s taking place in the underground food movement, from supper clubs to mini markets to culinary avant garde.

Images: ginnerobot, Greenpoint Food Market, R Stanek

Every time you leave the water running while brushing your teeth, you vow you will break the habit soon because you care deeply about the planet’s resources. Eating meat makes you feel sad, knowing we are no longer hunters who cannot survive without animal protein, yet those subliminal burger ads are bringing out the Edward in you. And every time you leave the TV on all night, you wake up without the proper REM sleep and a higher power bill.

Be compassionate with yourself. Baby steps, dude. Baby steps.

At EcoSalon, we are proud to hold your hand and walk you through those first steps to becoming the conscious citizen of the world you envision. Here are 10 resolutions to get you from A (affluenza) to Z (zooplankton).

1. Phantom Energy

The no-brainer action you can take right now in your home to eliminate daily waste is to pull the plugs on appliances, machines and lights not in use. You will discover the savings and rewards by checking out this post.

2. Downer Meat

If you are what you eat, do you really aspire to be a sickly cow, pig or chicken? That’s exactly what you are pumping into your bloodstream and your family’s diet every time you buy and serve meat that has been treated with growth hormones and antibiotics and raised in inhumane, filthy conditions. Review how to avoid this putrid protein which is not only harming your body but the natural resources we treasure. Eat this up.

3. Over Dependence on Electric Appliances

Hanging your laundry out to dry will not bring down the hood! Give it a go and see how much it cuts down your power bill. Also, switch to Energy Star appliances to reduce the waste. Other steps include buying rechargable solar batteries, watching commercial-free television (meaning less TV) and yes, finding a mate more satisfying than your computer and other electric gadgets. Turn on here.

4. Refusal to Compost and Recycle at Home and at Work

Seriously, this is the new way of keeping up with the Joneses. It’s not about the new car in the garage but the bins on the curb. Our landfills are rapidly filling up, and said to be the most telling time capsules of our history as a modern people. Reuse and composting is everything because when you are throwing something out, remember, there is no “out.” Get on board, January 1! Back peddle to find out more.

5. All Driving and No Biking

We’ve told you how to improve your gas mileage, but you should also do what you will be forced to do in the future: Drive less because gas is pricey and bad for the air. Bike when you can, walk or take public transportation and get more fit a the the same time. You’ll also save on dreaded parking tickets! Looks good!

6. Wasting Water

Turn off that tap, shorten that shower, switch to a low water flush toilet, use towels more than once, switch out your green lawn for succulents. It’s that easy to make a difference for a thirsty world – growing more thirsty every day. Extra reading here.

7. Using Plastic and Other Disposables

Buy reusable water bottles and challenge yourself at the market to avoid single use plastic bags and packaging of all sorts. Take reusable bags with you, and when you forget, keep reusing the paper ones the market issued until they are ready to be recycled. Carry a reusable lunch box to work. Use cloth napkins, biodegradable utensils and plates. Say NO to plastics no matter what you hear in The Graduate. Save paper, and save trees! More info here, here and here.

8. Being Too Rushed to Buy Fresh, Local and Organic

You love your body, right? Not loving it means not taking the time to shop and eat sustainably, whether frequenting the local farmer’s market to choosing organic from the shelves of your neighborhood market. It’s not just about shedding pounds in the new year, but taking stock in the crock, and slowing down on the cooking and consuming. You will find healthiest people love their bodies this way.

9. Not Shopping Eco Wear

Wear your green on your sleeves in the coming year by investing in eco wear. It’s a matter of putting quality above quantity and supporting emerging vendors of garments woven of healthy fibers sans the harsh chemicals and dyes. Shop the top online eco boutiques.

10. Consistently Exposing Yourself to Chemicals You Can Avoid

Our moms got their hair and nails done weekly, and used make-up laced with poison that seeped into the skin. We don’t have to expose ourselves to chemicals in our everyday beauty and household products, but it takes discipline. Beauty background here.

Image: Sally M

Money doesn’t grow on trees, but the excess fruit from a neighbor’s yard can make your diet richer and it won’t cost a dime. Shouldn’t we share the wealth?

That’s the thinking of Neighborhood Fruit, created by San Francisco urban farmers to reduce the tragic waste of fruit, which is forbidden in their vision of sustainability. Their website lets subscribers find and share fruit locally both in backyards and on public lands.

Since planting the seed in June, they’ve attracted between 3,000 and 5,000 visitors a month and located a total of 10,000 trees nationwide and growing.

Much of the fruit the nation consumes is grown in water-intensive orchards far from our homes and shipped at the high cost of fuel. Instead, co-founder Kaytea Petro sees a future where the bulk of seasonal backyard fruit is utilized and shared between neighbors for snacking, baking, putting up organic preserves, even setting up a lemonade stand – any good uses you might have for the bounty.

“I first thought of the idea when I lived on Bernal Hill and my neighbor had an apple tree with a lot of excess fruit that she would never share,” says Petro, who decided to refine the fruit network notion for her graduate thesis at the Presidio School of Management, where she received an MBA in sustainable business.

“We’re a nationwide tool that helps people connect locally,” says Petro. “The typical user is someone with a plum tree who knows what a pain it is when the fruit comes in because it all comes in at once. Those seeking the fruit are into making pies and jams or to show their city kids where food comes from.”

The mechanics of connecting are simple. I register my lemons and oranges and when the fruit arrives, I put out the word on the site. “Come and get it!” I decide if I want to pick it myself or have interested takers come over with their bushels to help pick what they want.

It seems to be attracting those who don’t want to go through the red tape of becoming a registered producer who sells at the farmers’ market, the only way to sell fruit legally.

“It can be a lot of paperwork,” observes Petro, who adds that 25% of her users are people with fruit trees. And for obvious reasons, those with trees in L.A., Miami and Austin see more of a year-round yield than those in Boston and Seattle.

In addition to making connections, Petro and co-founder, Oriana Sarac, manage a monthly newsletter, The Grapevine, featuring the voices of gardeners, bee keepers and other experts in the field, as well as a blog for sharing timely articles, recipes and success stories.

They call their neighbor fruit sharing network Fruitfillment. Anyone who believes in this vision for making use of our abundance knows the ripe concept is fulfilling a mission, indeed.

Images: DieselDemon, Seph Swain, Neighborhood Fruit

Forget Britain’s Got Talent and American Idol.

There’s a new contest happening that will dig up a lot more dirt but without the snark of Simon Cowell and Co.

It’s the first annual America’s Favorite Farmers’ Market contest. Organized by the American Farmland Trust, this contest offers consumers a way to say thank you to their favorite local farmers’ market. It could be the one down the road or the one you visited across the country last summer.

You can get out and vote by going to the American Farmland Trust website. Results will be announced during Farmer’s Market Week in early August.

Because farmers’ markets come in all sizes and shapes, there are three awards on offer. They are for the favorite large, medium size, and small farmers’ market. At the end of the contest, one from each category will be able to claim the title of America’s Favorite Farmers’ Market 2009.

Besides the title, these three farmers’ markets will be sent a shipment of  No Farms No Food®  tote bags to give out their loyal customers.

Image: Natalie Maynor