So, perhaps you have seen those round, green “Eat More Kale” stickers … No?  Maybe you don’t live in the right state …

Eat More Kale Sticker

Well, the fellow that makes them, Bo,  runs a small tee shirt design & print shop in Vermont.  I won’t tell his story, but Bo is not big time by any means.  Running a small shop, traveling around to music festivals, selling tee shirts and stickers …

When Bo applied for a trademark, Chick-fil-A  claimed infringement on their trademark “Eat Mor Chikn” (note, not “eat more factory farmed processed chicken by-product”, which would actually be accurate).

Now, you wouldn’t think people would confuse Kale with Chicken.  And, it difficult, if not impossible, to mistake round green stickers on rusted out Vermont Subarus with neon signs over the food court in the mall, especially as there are no Chick-fil-a’s in Vermont.  And most people with a third grade education can correctly distinguish a misspelled slogan, no matter how cute, from a properly spelled one.

Even so, this multibillion dollar corporation insists that it has to “defend our trademarks to protect our slogan”.

Here a link to a piece that appeared in the times about the case last December about the case.

Despite an outpouring of public support for Bo, and the patent ridiculousness of the claim, Chick-fil-a is pressing on with the suit.  To raise awareness Vermont filmmaker and playwright Jim Lantz is producing a documentary on Bo and the lawsuit.

Titled “A Defiant Dude”, the film will tell the story of corporate bullying and harassment.  In situations like this, most small businesses unable to match the endless resources of these corporate aggressors, just give up.  Bo is not going to.

And, unlike some films, at this point we don’t know the ending.  As Bo says “If I win, it’s a great story; if I loose it’s a sad story.  Either way Jim and I think it is a story worth telling”

If you would like help – and live out your lifelong dream of helping produce a smash hit film – now is your chance.  Simply go to the project page on Kickstarter and become an early funder (just so you know, I am in).   Every funder gets something – from stickers and tee shirts to credit in the film – regardless of amount.

This is not a charity.  It is a chance for us to pool our funds and push back against corporate bullying.

See you at opening night …

The first ever Mayoral Candidate Forum on Food System Issues “Local Food, Local Economies” was a success by any measure.  We packed the Barnes school cafeteria, a full house. The moderator, Hillary Martin, a co-owner of Digger’s Mirth Collective Farm, was congenial and managed to keep everything on track.  And, we practice what we preach, feeding 80 people a simple supper of corn bread and chili that was (measured by dollar volume) 2/3 locally sourced.

The candidates were well informed; the audience as well.  According to (now mayor elect) Miro, this was the forum that asked the most detailed questions.  “Local food folks are extremely passionate,” and that passion is evidenced by a knowledge and depth of practice that you don’t find in too many places.

In case you missed it, you can find a video, produced by CCTV here.

And, in case you want to follow along with the opening remarks word for word, the text of my intro (being the food council facilitator and all) … can be found below the fold.

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What has been taking up all my time?

The Burlington Food Council is hosting a mayoral candidate forum on local food issues. Yes, this Saturday, the 25th, from 6:00 – 8:00 PM at the Sustainability Academy at Lawernce Barnes, 123 North Street.

We had a brilliant young up-and-coming designer (who wishes to remain anonymous) do a poster for us, and I will be cooking chili & cornbread … with lots of help. See you there.

Ok, well not personally. But Kathleen Merrigan, Deputy Secretary of Agrciultre of the US Department of Agriculture asked Net Impact for student input. And based on work with the Slow Living Summit, the Marlboro College Chapter, was chosen to contribute. As I got my MBA there, I had the opportunity to throw somehting into the mix …

Continue to strengthen Farm To School Programs Many thoughtful suggestions have been givenin the previous post. Farm to School programs, by providing a direct connection between children and their food, develop health behaviors and strengthen the community’s ability to feed itself.

Continue to lower the threshold for open community sites (I believe it is now 40%) for school lunch, breakfast, and the Seamless Summer programs across the board. The resulting increased participation allows schools more flexibility in producing healthy meals.

Work to align the farm subsidy program spending with the nutritional requirements for USDA school and hunger relief programs – and with the USDA’s own nutritional recommendations. Farm subsidies accounts for the vast majority of USDA program expenditures, and most of these dollars go to sugar, corn and soy – which in turn used to produce factory farmed meat and highly processed carbohydrate rich junk foods. These are not the types of food that the USDA itself recommends, or requires in their school food programs. The USDA should base the distribution of farm subsidy dollars on the their own dietary recommendations and the nutritional needs of children.

Move towards scale-appropriate food safety regulations. “Industrial” food needs industrial safety regulations in order to keep the food supply safe. However, applying these regulations across the board unnecessarily cripples small farmers and food-based entrepreneurs. A small scale dairy or slaughter operation can produce safe, wholesome food for direct sale under a much different food safety regime that a CAFO or milk plant processing thousands of gallons a day. The USDA can should and support scale-appropriate regulation.

Move funding to programs that directly strengthen communities through basic research and project funding, such as ATTRA (now housed at NCAT due to budget cuts …), SARE, AFSIC, and the Rural Development Community Facilities Financing Program. These dollars directly fund economic development that stays in the community, and builds robust food systems that provide may social, environmental, and health benefits. Large commodity subsidies, on the other hand, tend to flow dollars to large agribusiness corporations, which leave the community.

Pursue the recommendations made to identify alternatives to annual applications through continued pilot testing of the use of ACS (American Community Survey, conducted by the US Census), and the use of a community based Socioeconomic survey as means to authorize districts. The bill did not fund these recommendations made in section 104 of the Hunger Free Kids Act of 2010. In addition to providing an efficient, data-based way to ensure that funds go to schools in need, these methods contextualize childhood nutrition as a community issue and provide a rich set of data that would allow us to strengthen whole-community responses to the issue.