Thursday, November 4th, 6:30 – 7:30 p.m.
Weaver Auditorium in the Coastal Institute on the URI Kingston Campus
Panelists:
Ken Ayars – Chief of the Division of Agriculture and Resource Marketing of the RI Department of Environmental Management
Kristen Castrataro – Cooperative Extension Specialist – URI
Chef Matt Gennuso – Chez Pascal
Pat McNiff – Pat’s Pastured
Moderated by Rick Rhodes – Associate Dean of Research and Outreach – CELS – URI
Temple Grandin, one of the world’s leading animal behaviorists and expert on the humane treatment of animals destined for slaughter, will be visiting New England and signing her books at the Memorial Union Building at the University of Rhode Island on Wednesday, March 3rd. A recent HBO movie and biography states that animal behavioral scientist Temple Grandin has “devoted her career to improving conditions at the large processing plants that slaughter some of the 40 billion pounds of cattle and pigs for human consumption every year in the United States. She is a strong advocate for more humane livestock handling, and has designed numerous innovations at such facilities that help to reduce stress in the animals during their final minutes. Grandin’s mission is deeply connected to her autism, and she credits this developmental brain disorder for her success as a scientist. Once she recognized that animals and autistic people share certain traits, such as a reliance on visual clues to navigate their environment, she began to rethink how livestock are handled in the beef and pork industry. Since the early 1990s, a large number of U.S slaughterhouses have implemented her designs and innovations, and comply with the humane-handling guidelines she authored for the American Meat Institute.”
Temple Grandin book signing at the Memorial Union Building at the University of Rhode Island
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
5:30-6:30 pm
OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
For more information contact:
Katherine Petersson – kpetersson@uri.edu – 401-874-2951
or
Kristen Castrataro – kcas@uri.edu – 401-874-2967
This Thursday, January 21, 2010, a free talk entitled “An Economic Development Framework for Sustainable Agriculture”, sponsored by the van Beuren Foundation, Rhode Island Foundation, and University of Rhode Island, will be presented at URI by Michael Hamm, CS Mott Professor of Sustainable Agriculture, Michigan State University.
To be discussed:
If the regional population were to eat the USDA recommended daily portion of fruit and vegetables, what would be the increased consumption?
What share of that consumption pattern could be grown locally?
How much more land would have to be in cultivation in order to produce that quantity of food?
What would be the economic impact of the agricultural expansion?
talk location: University of Rhode Island Center for Biotechnology and Life Sciences, Flagg Road, Kingston Campus
Thursday, January 21, 2010, 10am – 12pm
RSVP for parking to Kim Dame, Grants Manager, van Beuren Charitable Foundation, 401.619.5910 or kdame@vbcfoundation.org
As we’re all interested in the local food scene – and we mean the growing, as well as the preparing and serving – this article (excerpted below) from Providence the Creative Capitol caught our eye:
The national trend towards locally grown, organic, seasonal foods has been gaining momentum thanks to recent food scares and recalls. Vegetables containing E-coli and peanuts spreading salmonella have helped raise awareness about food production, called into question factory-farming practices, and led consumers to want to know where their food is coming from…
…Bruce Tillinghast, owner and chef of New Rivers, a Providence restaurant serving refined bistro food made from fresh, organic ingredients, was an early local promoter of locally grown food.
We were thrilled to see that the article included insight into the Rhode Island food system, with our friends from New Rivers, Farmstead, Red Planet, Farm Fresh Rhode Island, and Southside Community Land Trust all mentioned in the article. We think it nicely demonstrates how many people are working so diligently at building and maintaining a local food system right here in Rhode Island.
To read the article in its entirety, click here.
We are pleased to present the “Building and Sustaining a Local Food System” panel discussion at the URI Kingston campus on Thursday, November 5, 2009.
The panel members include Matt Jennings of Farmstead and La Laiterie at Farmstead and Don Minto of Watson Farm.
This same panel participated last year, and by all accounts, it was a fabulous discussion. What’s more, the event is free of charge.
The talk starts at 6 pm and will run approximately 1.5 to 2 hours. The location is the Weaver Auditorium at the Coastal Institute (click on the link, the Coastal Institute is #13 on the map) on the URI Kingston campus.
Parking is available along Flagg Road and in nearby parking lots.
We hope to see you at URI for a budget-friendly, educational evening.