Two events are coming up in early 1999 in the Kansas City area to help build alternative food distribution systems.

Food, Justice, Community a symposium on rural urban connections, sponsored by the Justice and Peace office of the Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph

Saturday, February 27, 8:30 - 3, at St. Therese (North) Catholic Church, Kansas City, Missouri. Structured around the theme of Observe, Judge, Act, participants will hear an analysis of what is going wrong with our food distribution system, and how we fix it, starting at the neighborhood level. Participants in the planning for this program include:

- community garden advocates
- the Sierra Club
- Kansas City and Columbia Food Circles
- U of Missouri Columbia Extension Dept
- National Farmers Organization
- the Catholic justice and peace offices in KC and St. Joseph
- plus some working farmers.

There will be table exhibits, chili and cornbread lunch provided (100% made from local ingredients), participants are asked to bring their own plate, utensils, and cup, and a dessert or salad. the program is designed to produce specific action items, including organizing a community garden and community canning kitchen movement, direct contacts between farmers and urban customers, and home processing/preservation of food. This event is free, although donations will be accepted.

On the following weekend, March 6, the Southern Plains Regional Conservation committee of the Sierra Club and the Kansas City Food Circle is sponsoring a FOOD SYSTEM CONFERENCE and FARMER's EXHIBITION, at the Holiday Inn of Overland Park, Kansas (just west of KC). The workshop is designed for activists from Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, and Arkansas, and will focus on the impacts of the industrial food system on urban citizens and rural communities and what we can do about this. The Farmers Exhibition will have exhibits from farmers who want to sell directly to urban customers, and from manufacturers and distributors of food processing and storage equipment. The cost of the workshop is $20, the Farmer's Exhibition is free.

Speakers at this event include:

• Dr. Mary Hendrickson (rural sociologist)

• Gail Eisnitz (chief investigator of the Humane Farming Association and author of Slaughterhouse)

• Diane Halverson (producer of the Pig Picture and And On This Farm videos)

• Kamyar Enshayan (University of Northern Oiowa, coordinator of the UNI Local Food Project)

• Dr. Terry Shistar (science consultant to Beyond PEsticides NCAMP)

• and a panel of local farmers.

For more information, feel free to contact me at rmwj@kc.net.

Robert Waldrop

http://www.y2k-civil-society.org (Y2k and Civil Society)
http://www.justpeace.org (Access to Catholic Social Justice Teachings)

-- Robert Waldrop (rmwj@kc.net), December 01, 1998