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If you enjoy growing your own food or flowers, but lack garden space, the Batesville Community Garden may be your answer. The FGA is in the preliminary stage of planning a community garden site. For more information and to fill out the Interest Survey, click here.

The Market Basket Give-Away is back! The winner of each week's Market Basket will be chosen by WRBI 103.9 FM on Thursday mornings from 9:30-10:00 a.m. during the program with Becky Hand from Margaret Mary Community Hospital. The baskets will feature in-season produce donated by the market vendors.

The Brookville Farmers' Market is open Fridays from 3:30 until 8:00 p.m. The market features produce, crafts, eggs, plants, and more, grown or raised within a 2-county radius of Franklin county, Indiana, including contiguous Ohio counties. The market is located at the historic Co-op Mill site, which is on the west side of highway 52 on the south end of town behind Curves. The market will be open through the month of October.

For Vendor information, contact Lisa Spencer at (765) 265-6115 or PenningtonCSA@penningtonhollowfarm.com

For some good news, see FGA's "Food for Thought" page to view Rodale Institute's Web Update Newsletter.

Play a new Eco-Game sold at stores in Batesville and other nearby towns and increase your appreciation for Earth using a unique deck of cards that feature common plants and animals. Three Square for Earth Care is a rummy game played on a Tic-Tac-Toe Square of nine cards. Go to the card's website to find out what stores are selling this new game - http://www.threesquareforearthcare.com/. All proceeds from the sale of this game will benefit Michaela Farm in Oldenburg, Indiana. This farm has been a coop member of the newly founded Laughery Valley Growers, Inc. since its establishment in 2006 and participates in the CSA program of that coop.

Other News...

FarmFreshCSA is now accepting subscriptions for the 2008 growing season. View our LVG, Inc. page for information.

LOOKING AHEAD

Come join us for a short meeting followed by a cooking demonstration and tasting using fresh local foods.

September 17, 2008
6:00-8:00 pm
Oldenburg Franciscan Center
To register, please call (812) 933-6437

For more information, click here

KEEPING UP WITH THE US FARM BILL

NCRLC update

Farm Bill nearly finished; Congress passes another brief extension

After marathon meetings last week, the House-Senate farm bill conferees are closer than ever to finalizing a new farm bill. If the bill is approved this week, then the conference report and scoring tables could be filed before the end of next week. That would send the final bill for House and Senate floor votes the following week, after which the 2008 Farm Bill would go to the President for his signature.

Given the caveat that nothing is final until everything is voted on and signed, we will keep an eye on Capitol Hill as remaining open issues on the farm bill are concluded. The Commodity Title is still open in respect to subsidy payment limits and income eligibility tests; this bears watching due to the potential veto threat from the White House if Congress does not move far enough in such reforms.

Other titles with some open issues include Nutrition and Trade. If the bill goes final this week, we will share a summary of the final decisions and what looks good and what is disappointing. Please stay tuned for one last action alert as the Farm Bill goes to floor votes in the House and Senate.

FYI: Environmental Working Group Releases 2007 Crop Payments Data
Interested in learning how much farmers and others received in direct payments for crops in 2007? The EWG database exposes who received what percentage of the $5 billion in direct payments made in 2007. The "winner" of the 2007 highest direct payment award is Sandridge Partners in Sunnyvale, CA, who pulled in a total of $1,064,134 in direct payments.

To access the database, visit http://farm.ewg.org/farm/dp_analysis.php