There is a growing awareness that it is important for us to have easier, cheaper, healthier access to fresh fruit and vegetables.  Yet another example of this is a bill that has been filed in the U.S. House called the Greening Food Deserts Act by Rep. Marcy Kaptur of Ohio that is meant to increase the supply of fresh produce in American's cities.  The bill, H.R. 4971, has the following stated purpose:

It's the infrastructure, stupid!  The New York Times discusses the reason it's difficult to produce and sell food grown in a sustainable manner.  The infrastructure that moves product from farm to retail outlets is decreasing just when the demand for sustainably grown, local food is growing.  In Vermont, where there is increased demand for meat and dairy raised in a sustainable manner, farmers are having difficulty.  The state had 25 slaughterhouses in the mid-1080s; now there are seven.  Nationally, the number of slaughterhouses declined from 1,211 in 1992 while the number of small farmers has increased by 108,000 in the last five years.

One of the (only) good things about the economic downturn is that government agencies at all levels have to get creative about how they provide services.  The City of Seattle is asking residents to adopt storm drains to help with the huge chore of removing leaves and debris that clog the drainage system especially during the rainy season.  The new program, akin to the popular Adopt a Street program, provides volunteers with a storm drain kit.

David Owen, New Yorker staff writer and author, has written a book, "Green Metropolis" about the energy savings inherent in living and working in highly populated and dense areas.   Owen says that the most realistic way to reduce our carbon footprints is to live in "densely-settled, pedestrian-friendly, public-transit-oriented cities like New York".  Furthermore, he suggests that cities such as New York stop worrying about what he calls "environmental fixations" such as residential solar panels and LEED-certified buildings and instead concentrate on “old-fashioned quality-of-life concerns” such as education, crime, noise, and recreational amenities in order to draw people back into the cities.

Seattle residents can apply to get free apple and cherry trees under a pilot program provided by the City of Seattle's Neighborhood Matching Fund.  If interested, check out Seattle's ReLeaf Web site.  The program, the City of Seattle's Tree Fund, created to absorb carbon dioxide emissions, filter air pollution, reduce noise pollution, and provide habitat for birds and wildlife.

Jim Wilcox, of the Wilcox Family Farms, has slowly become a believer in sustainable agricultural methods.  According to an article in the Tacoma News Tribune, he says of Wilcox Farm's shifts, “We’re changing for two reasons.  One, it’s good business, and, two, it’s the right thing to do.” . . . “Twenty to 30 years ago, we weren’t very good stewards of the land,” he said. “We’ve kind of seen the light.”

Wilcox Farms has been in business 100 years this week. The family has 1,500 acres along a mile-long stretch of the Nisqually River; they've been selling milk and eggs, at one point selling 1 million gallons of milk a week.