Film has become a powerful medium when exploring controversial topics or when making a point about a particular subject. For the last several years those concerned with the state of our food supply in this country have done well in exploring, exposing, and initiating dialogue on this critical subject. The Lexington Cooperative Market and Edible Buffalo have joined together to present Food Matters: A Four Film Series. The films selected for the series are some of the most critically acclaimed on the topic of food production, food supply and the overall state of our food economy. The series includes the following films; King Corn, The Real Dirt on Farmer John, Dirt! The Movie, and FRESH. Each screening will take place at Hallwalls ContemporaryArt Center in Buffalo.

King Corn was first released in 2007 and explores the tenuous topic of corn production in the United States. As America’s most subsidized crop, this film follows to young gentleman as they try to follow their corn crop as it enters our food system. What they learn is both troubling and eye-opening as it raises many questions about how we eat and how we farm. As more and more industrial food companies are coming under fire for their prevalent use of high fructose corn syrup in their products, this film continues to be timely and relevant. The screening date for this film is May 27, 2010 at HallwallsContemporaryArtCenter at 341 Delaware Avenue, Buffalo. Doors open at 6:30pm with the film beginning promptly at 7pm.
The Real Dirt on Farmer John is the true story of third-generation Illinois farmer John Peterson and how he struggles to stay afloat as family farms decline. His story is one that parallels the history of American farming. His family farm eventually hits rock bottom but Peterson is able to turn things around and become one of the leaders in the CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) movement as head of Angelic Organics. The screening date for this film is June 30, 2010 at HallwallsContemporaryArtCenter at 341 Delaware Avenue, Buffalo. Doors open at 6:30pm with the film beginning promptly at 7pm.
Dirt! The Movie takes on the unlikely subject of soil. This film tells the story of Earth’s most valuable and underappreciated resource. Through modern industrial pursuits and the clamoring for both profit and natural resources, our human connection to dirt has been disrupted. The film makes the case that drought, climate change, even war all directly related to how we are treating our soils. The only remedy is to reconnect with this precious natural resource. The screening date for this film is July 28, 2010 at HallwallsContemporaryArtCenter at 341 Delaware Avenue, Buffalo. Doors open at 6:30pm with the film beginning promptly at 7pm.
The Food Matters film series concludes with an encore screening of FRESH. As films like Food Inc. and Super Size Me expose the pitfalls and wrong doings of our industrial food system, FRESH goes in the direction of looking at solutions to our ailing food supply by celebrating the farmers, thinkers and business people across America who are re-inventing our food system. Among several main characters, FRESH features urban farmer and activist, Will Allen, a 2008 MacArthur’s “Genius Award” fellow; sustainable farmer and entrepreneur, Joel Salatin, made famous by Michael Pollan’s book, the Omnivore’s Dilemma; and supermarket owner, David Ball, who is creating a new market model for our family farmers. FRESH’s focus on these inspiring individuals and their initiatives around the US provides the audience with actionable solutions. The screening date for this film is September 30, 2010 at HallwallsContemporaryArtCenter at 341 Delaware Avenue, Buffalo. Doors open at 6:30pm with the film beginning promptly at 7pm.

Each film is approximately 85 minutes in length and will be followed by an audience discussion. Tickets for each film are $8.00 for general admission and $6.00 for Lexington Cooperative Market members, Edible Buffalo subscribers, seniors and students. There is also a series pass available for $20.00 which provides you admission to all four films. Tickets are available at the Lexington Cooperative Market at 807 Elmwood Avenue, Buffalo or online at www.ediblebuffalo.com. The net proceeds from the film series will benefit Field & Fork Network, a non-profit organization dedicated to connecting local consumers and food industry professionals with area farmers and artisan food producers.

The Green Expo is a free event that will give you the opportunity to learn about the worlds of sustainable energy, weatherization and energy efficiency for buildings, green landscaping and gardening, holistic health, and so much more. (you know we’ll be there, come stop by our table)

SATURDAY, APRIL 17, 2010
10AM – 6 PM
Walden Galleria Mall

Visit the Bflo Niagara Green Expo website for more details:
http://buffaloniagaragreenexpo.wordpress.com/

Tuesday, February 23rd, 2009 7pm Allen Hall Theatre, South Campus: Less is More: Promoting Recycling and Waste Reduction in Western New York

We hope to see you there!!!

When: Tuesday, Feb. 23 @ 6PM (see poster below for future dates)

Be there for the launch of the Food and Emerging Media Speaker Series, and hear the opening speaker, David Szanto, give a talk entitled “Towards Intelligent Gastronomy: Equilibrating Human Food Systems.

The public is invited to join members of GLUE in completing the sentence: “I Will Stay If…”

When: 5:30 on Thursday, December 3rd

Where: Century Grill at 320 Pearl Street in downtown Buffalo.

Who: Representatives from Buffalo 2032, The B Team, Buffalo Niagara 360 and other community organizations will be present. oh yeah, and YOU!!
Sponsors of the event include Century Grill, Flying Bison Brewery and Douglas Levere Photography.

The “I Will Stay If…” campaign is an attempt to involve a diverse crowd of people to participate in a vital conversation about the future of our cities. The campaign collects visually powerful data
about what residents want most from their cities. Similar events have taken place in Pittsburgh, Detroit, and Cleveland and are being planned in other Great Lakes cities.

Kevin Hayes,  store manager, said “I Will Stay If…I don’t die” (meaning he already plans on staying in Buffalo FOREVER). Rachel Mathews, volunteer coordinator, said “I Will Stay If…Buffalo gets better public transportation.”

How will we get you to stay??

For more information regarding the “I Will Stay If…” event, contact Amy Maxwell at 716.316.4264, or visit www.GLUEspace.org.

We arrived in Dayton Friday night, heading straight to Garden Station. Garden Station is an art park and community garden established on a lot that had been abandoned for over four decades. The space serves as a place where artists, sculptors, gardeners, musicians, performers and other “creatives” can express themselves. The manager, Lisa Helm, welcomed us with open arms – and even let us crash at her house Friday and Saturday. We stayed for the Garden’s outdoor screening of “Ferris Beuller’s Day Off” before calling it a night.

After a hearty breakfast Saturday morning, we went to the Dayton Convention Center for the Symposium.

The first speaker was Josh Zumbrun, author of the much-detested Forbes article. He apologized for the negativity surrounding the article, saying it was not his intention to bring such bad press to these places, to lower residents’ morale, or to ignore what these cities are doing right. By the end of the day Josh had heard more than an earful from concerned and upset citizens and community leaders.

Eight of the ten cities were in attendance, and from 9 am -1 pm a representative from each city stood up on stage to discuss their strategies and to boast new projects or encouraging statistics. Most of these representatives were public officials – Dayton and Youngstown’s Mayors, Charleston, WV’s City Councilwoman, Cleveland’s Chief of Governmental Affairs, Canton’s Director of Development – but no elected officials from Buffalo were present. Instead, Michael Gainer took the stage to talk about our grassroots efforts to improve the city. All in all the symposium was a great opportunity for networking, the exchanging of ideas, and positive discussion, and it’s a shame to think that if Buffalo ReUse hadn’t driven down, our city would not have been represented.

Sunday morning Lisa took us on a drive through Dayton’s blighted neighborhoods and several of Five Rivers Metroparks’ community gardens. Though Dayton’s blight has not yet reached the extent of Buffalo’s, it was important to see how another city compares to us in both its problems and its solutions. Their urbans parks and gardens were very impressive and well-developed, and the RiverScape MetroPark even included a fountain for us to cool down in amidst the high 85-degree weather. We left Dayton feeling inspired, and made one very hot drive to our next destination: Detroit.

Detroit’s blight situation is much more serious than Dayton’s, and in turn, much more similar to ours. Our first stop in Detroit was The Heidelberg Project, a non-profit organization using art and education to encourage community development. The project is a mostly-abandoned two-block area full of everyday, discarded objects as art, symbolizing taking a stand to save forgotten neighborhoods. Though meant to inspire people to heal communities through art, I found the project eerie, somber, and pretty depressing in this desolate neighborhood. Fortunately, Monday brought a more upbeat view of Detroit. For $15 Greening of Detroit gave us a 2-hour long bike ride of Detroit’s east side, showing us several of their community gardens. Though they have a few years on Buffalo ReUse, I was blown away by how developed and organized Detroit’s gardens were. One soup kitchen has its own gardens and hoop house, growing fresh food for daily use at the kitchen. We saw a church with prospering gardens on the outskirts of its parking lot – making the most out of what space they have and using the food to feed its parishioners. One of the coolest sites was an abandoned, roofless building that a group has turned into gardenspace. Our tour concluded with a stop at the Eastern Market, where many farmers – urban and rural – come together to sell their goods every Thurs-Sat, and a ride on a brand-new bike path, established where old train tracks used to run.

Even though Detroit’s east side is drastically bare, and the smell of burning garbage (yes, they still burn their garbage in an incinerator) continually permeates the air, we were able to see hope and progress in many different ways. Leaving Monday afternoon, I had a much different impression of Detroit than I had when we had first arrived. Upon our return, I tried to look at Buffalo through a new lens, imagining I hadn’t grown up here and was seeing the city like I had seen Dayton and Detroit – for the very first time. I have a new appreciation for being a part of Buffalo ReUse’s efforts to keep our city hopeful and progressive. The mayor of Youngstown stated Saturday that these ten cities aren’t dying – it’s more like they’re endangered. It is important to realize that through all of Buffalo’s grassroots community efforts, we can keep Buffalonians off of what could be Josh Zumbrun’s next article: Forbes’ Endangered Species list.

The Vacant Property Summit is free and open to the public. It will be moderated by Michael Groman, founder of Pennsylvania Horticultural Society’s Philadelphia Green program and Anthony Armstrong, of Local Initiative Support Corporation – Buffalo. Members of the City of Buffalo Mayor’s Office and Council Member David Rivera’s office have already committed their attendance. The more city and county officials who enter into this conversation, the more we will accomplish.

Summit participants also include people from other cities who have established successful programming, community members, and stakeholders interested in issues of abandoned properties in Buffalo. Please join us at the table!

In order to plan for a room large enough, we ask that you RSVP to this email address, rebekah {at} buffaloreuse(.)org, by 5pm on Monday, November 17.  We hope that you will join us for the Summit. If you know of others who should attend, please extend an invitation to them.

It is sure to be an important event!  The Summit is part of a four-day conference – the Great Lakes Building ReUse Conference – which will take place November 16 through November 19, 2008 at the Hyatt Regency Buffalo. The Great Lakes Building ReUse Conference will focus on deconstruction, vacant property stabilization, neighborhood revitalization, and policy & implementation. We are hosting an exciting group of keynote speakers from around the country as well as local movers and shakers for nine workshops, two keynote addresses, networking and exchange. For more information or to register for the Great Lakes Building ReUse Conference, please visit www.greatlakesreuse.org.

Paypal for the conference ends at 5pm
If you’re still deliberating over whether or not attend The Great Lakes ReUse Building Conference –on-line registration ends at 5pm, but you can still pay for the conference in person Sunday at the registration tables.  Please remember there are discounted rates for nonprofs and students.  Take a peek at the schedule.  There’s a one-day only rate and if you have an interest in one workshop or one keynote speaker, bring $10 and you’re in (sorry, that doesn’t include the tours; they’re full).

What is it like to be a mayor of such a town–a town that is vulnerable to criticism and wary of people coming in and making undeliverable promises.  We invited Jay Williams, the first African-American mayor (and the youngest) of Youngstown, OH to come and participate in our Great Lakes Building ReUse Conference and share his controversial ideas about right-sizing and regionalism.  How does a mayor “shrink” a city, yet still provide services and opportunities for growth?  Mayor Williams’ program, Youngstown 2010, is a strategy to create collaboration with policy makers from suburbs, towns, villages and the urban core.  The plan also involves targeted demolition and redevelopment in key neighborhoods.   Part of the program offers grants to relocate residents in sparsely populated neighborhoods, which would allow the city to divert the cost for street lighting and trash pickups elsewhere.  Naturally, some lifelong residents don’t want to leave their houses.  What if their houses could be moved to more populated neighborhoods?  Can some combination of this work in Buffalo?

We invited our own Mayor Brown as well.  If the two mayors don’t already know one another, we hope they will talk and exchange ideas with each other and all the conference participants.
It should be a very interesting workshop.  If you would like to register for the conference, please know there are a variety of options and the final deadline is soon.

deconstruct more houses

You’ll get to meet other people involved in the ReUse and the Deconstruction movement.  Dr. Robert Falk, coauthor of UNBUILDING: Salvaging The Architectural Treasures of Unwanted Houses will be available.  Here is a review of UNBUILDING, “Much of America’s architectural heritage is ending up in landfills. Bob Falk and Brad Guy want to change that. The book is a guide to “unbuilding,” or deconstruction, the process of dismantling buildings that otherwise would be razed. The purpose is to save reusable elements such as building materials, fixtures and architectural details. Falk and Guy say deconstruction preserves the past, reduces costs, benefits the environment and has the potential to create jobs in urban areas, where they’re needed most. Unbuilding covers the many aspects of deconstruction, including site preparation, safety issues, tools, techniques and resale ideas. Interviews with successful salvagers are included, along with resources for those interested in deconstruction. –Akron Beacon Journal”

You can register to attend just one day and you can still get a discounted rate if you pay your registration before October 23rd.