#local policy

Join us in September to push for the passage of this historic piece of legislation

When DC City Council Member David Grosso introduced the DC Food Security Act of 2014, it built upon the legacy of the urban farming act of 1986 and the DC Healthy Schools Act of 2010.This bill takes it a step further by opening up more public and private land to grow healthy food. Its passage is extremely significant to the future success of Three Part Harmony Farm. We’ve been building the soil and productivity on our city plots for the last 3 years but we need these policy changes to take the next step to really grow (in so many different ways!)

Please get involved in this brief grassroots effort to make sure the City Council knows how important this issue is to us.

Contact the Chairman and folks on the Finance and Revenue Committee. They are currently in the mark up phase of the bill.

Please feel free to use these points as a guide:

“Hi, My Name is: I live in Ward: I’m calling/ emailing to let you know that the D.C. Urban Agriculture and Food Security Act of 2014 is an important piece of legislation for our city and that I hope it will get passed soon.

• The Act encourages private, District landowners to lease their land for agricultural purposes and encourages urban farming on unused city owned land in response to problems of blighted property.

• The Act responds to the District’s continued struggle to address chronic hunger amongst residents with a local solution: encouraging urban farmers to donate a portion of their produce to District-based food banks and shelters.

• The Act enables urban farmers to sell their produce both on and off the leased land, bringing easy, fresh food access to neighborhoods across the city, including those currently identified as food deserts.

Thank you!”

Chairman Phil Mendelson: (202) 724-8032, [email protected]

Jack Evans: (202) 724-8058, [email protected]

Muriel Bowser: [email protected], (202) 724-8052

Marion Barry: (202) 724-8045, [email protected]

David Catania (202) 724-7772, [email protected]

Thank Grosso and Cheh for their leadership, and the other supporters of the bill as well:

David Grosso: (202) 724-8105, [email protected]

Mary Cheh: (202) 724-8062, [email protected]

Jim Graham: (202) 724-8181, [email protected]

Kenyan McDuffie: (202) 724-8028, [email protected]

Key To The City

National Treasure For Sale

A National Natural Landmark

The New Jersey Palisades are a unique geologic formation along the New Jersey side of the Hudson River across from New York City.  Sheer basalt cliffs that rise between 300 and 550 feet above the river, they stretch for nearly 20 miles. In 1983, the Palisades were listed as a National Natural Landmark, a designation that includes iconic…

Have your heard about the  D.C. Urban Farming and Food Security Act of 2014? This bill was recently submitted by District Of Columbia Councilmember David Grosso and is supported by Councilmembers Mary Cheh and Tommy Wells. CFA Co-Founder and urban farmer, Gail Taylor, has been collaborating with councilmember Grosso to push this bill forward. She, along with with members of Health Affordable Food For All have helped draft the bill so that it includes small farmers. This Saturday at 10:15am in room 230 at Rooting DC, Gail and other HAFA members will lead a session to discuss the impacts of this Bill on local farmers and the DC food justice community as a whole.

Among the most significant pieces of the bill is the Urban Farming Land Initiative, which charges the Mayor with identifying 25 District-owned vacant lots with the potential to be made into urban farms. Qualified applicants would be able to apply to lease the lot for the purpose of urban agriculture.

The bill will also make it possible for DC taxpayer to receive tax credits for food donations made to non-profits. Lastly, the Bill will amend the Real Property Tax Abatement Initiative to include a tax deduction for leasing property for agriculture use.This is a huge incentive that can be used to encourage landowners to rent/lease land in the D.C. metro area. If signed into law, the changes go into effect January 1, 2015. This bill will build of of previously abandoned legislation like the Food Production and Urban Gardens Program Act of 1986, passed during the Barry Administration.

This bill could potentially be a huge windfall for urban farmers and residents of D.C demanding more local food. It has at least united D.C. legislators, community members and local farmers in work to grow a healthier, and more sustainable DC food system.  

A feature that really amazed me in Windows 7, and maybe in earlier versions, is the ability to disable the execution from the removable storage, so, if you plugged your thumb drive into an infected computer, then plugged it into your Windows 7, virus will infect your computer, at least from the thumb drive.

To do so, go to Start -> mmc, it's preferable to right click mmc and run it as admin.

Click File -> Add/Remove Snap-in and look for Local Computer Policy

Then go to Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> System and choose Removable Storage Access.

Boom times turned to bust, and the students of one California district are the ones paying for it.

From the LA Times:

When it's completed this fall, Riverside's Hillcrest High School will be a high-tech academic hub with wireless Internet, a robotics lab, digital smart boards in every classroom and a first-rate performance hall worthy of any "Glee" hopeful. But no students.

Sapped by state budget cuts, the Alvord Unified School District doesn't have the money to turn on the lights or hire staff for the $105-million campus. There's no guarantee it will open in 2012-13, despite being built specifically to relieve the packed classrooms in the district's other high schools.