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Monday Mailing

Year 20 • Issue 40 07 July 2014 1. 10 Significant Things You Likely Didn’t Know About Social Media But Should 2. In The Making Of Megafarms, A Mixture Of Pride And Pain 3. Free, User-Friendly Tool to Help Economies Recover after Disasters 4. Free Webinar - Farmer Networks: Getting Started and How Can They Help?

5. Can the “Playable City” Make Smart City Critics Smile?

6. Study Shows More Bicyclists on Road Means Fewer Collisions 7. Resources for Finding and Creating Images for Promotional Materials 8. US Cycling From a Dutch Perspective 9. Why It's Time to Stop Romanticising Where Our Food Comes From 10. U.S. Breweries are Booming According to Census Bureau 11. Funding Opportunities 1. 10 Significant Things You Likely Didn’t Know About Social Media But Should We love to make decisions and form strategies based on statistics. It’s why we A/B test and how we change directions on our social sharing.

Who doesn’t love a good statistic, especially one that has an actionable next step?

You’re likely to find a sea of statistics for social media--I know I’m amazed at how many are out there. My favorite finds are those that are just a bit surprising or unique or even counterintuitive.

Quote of the Week: “To find yourself, think for yourself” ~Socrates Oregon Fast Fact: High above the city of Portland the International Rose Test Garden features more than 500 varieties of roses cultivated continuously since 1917.

I’ve saved some of the best social media stats I’ve found over the past few months and I’m happy to share them here with you. Keep reading to see some fun, surprising, and (you guessed it) actionable stats for how you can better share on social media. Got any stats that you’ve found helpful? I’d love to hear about them in the comments.

To access the full story, click here.

2. In The Making Of Megafarms, A Mixture Of Pride And Pain It seems that everybody, going back at least to Thomas Jefferson, loves small family farms.

Yet those beloved small farms are becoming increasingly irrelevant. Big farms are taking over.

According to the latest census of American agriculture, released this year, there are two million farms in America. But just four percent of those farms account for two-thirds of all agricultural production.

There are, of course, mixed feelings about this trend, even among farmers themselves. Talking to people in rural communities, one hears resignation, sadness, even some anger. Because as farms grow bigger, many small towns are shrinking and even dying.

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To understand this trend from the inside, I made an appointment to meet Todd Zenger, a young man in his thirties who's among the top grain producers in Kansas.

To access the full story, click here.

3. Free, User-Friendly Tool to Help Economies Recover after Disasters Leadership in Times of Crisis provides strategies and tactics for community leaders to focus on for economic recovery and preserving jobs, incorporating useful information for convening private and public stakeholders to identify key economic recovery strategies, tips on how to navigate federal resources for response and recovery, and implementation of recovery initiatives.

Developed by IEDC with nationwide input and funded in part by a grant from the U.S. Commerce Department's Economic Development Administration, the Toolkit is designed to benefit a wide range of public and private sector officials working with businesses and industries in the economic recovery process.

To access this resource, click here.

4. Free Webinar - Farmer Networks: Getting Started and How Can They Help? - Wed July 9th, 10:30-11:45am PST "A farmer network is a way for farmers to exchange information, socialize, learn, and connect with peers on a regular, on-going basis. What is most important about a farmer network and sets it apart from, for example, traditional Extension-based classes, is that the farmers decide what they want to learn and create together.

Data suggests that when farmers convene, new opportunities arise for increased economic viability, improved quality of life, and greater community interaction." *From the Pacific Northwest Extension Publication, Creating Farmer Networks: A Toolkit for Promoting Vibrant Farm Communities Our presenters will be Oregon State University Extension Small Farms agents Melissa Fery and Maud Powell, who co-authored the "Creating Farmer Networks" toolkit. They will talk about starting farmer networks and how they can be helpful, using examples from Oregon like the Willamette Women's Farmer Network.

This webinar is part of a quarterly webinar series for Oregon Food Bank’s FEAST Leadership Network. FEAST (Food Education Agriculture Solutions Together) is Oregon Food Bank’s award winning community organizing process that allows participants to engage in an informed and facilitated discussion about food, education and agriculture in their community and begin to work toward solutions together to help build a healthier, more equitable and more resilient local food system. If you’d like to receive information about future webinars, please send an email to smasterson@oregonfoodbank.org and we’ll add you to the FEAST Leadership Network list.

Farmer Networks: Getting Started and How Can They Help?

Wednesday July 9th from 10:30am-11:45am PST Attend the webinar via GoToMeeting To call in toll-free, dial 1-213-929-4131 and use the passcode 610-730-677.

(This is a FREE webinar and there is no need to pre-register. Just follow this link, or call in, at the date/time of the webinar.

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5. Can the “Playable City” Make Smart City Critics Smile?

Imagine a city where, as you walk along the sidewalk, you can see the moving shadows of pedestrians who preceded you. A city where you can exchange text messages with lampposts, where poems appear in light on waterways, and pipes emit music.

Such urban whimsy would constitute a “playable city,” according to the UK-based organization Watershed. All of the above concepts were either winners or finalists in Watershed’s Playable City Award, now in its second year. (This year’s winner, the shadow project, was announced earlier this month.) The goal of the award is to encourage use of technology to foster an engaging and playful urban environment. According to Watershed’s website, “A Playable City is a city where people, hospitality and openness are key, enabling its residents and visitors to reconfigure and rewrite its services, places and stories.”

To access the full story, click here.

6. Study Shows More Bicyclists on Road Means Fewer Collisions A University of Colorado Denver study examining collisions between bicycles and motorists, shows bicyclist safety significantly increases when there are more bikes on the road, a finding that could be attributed to a "safety in numbers effect."

The study focused on Boulder, Colorado, which has one of the highest rates of bicycling in the country at about 12 percent of the population.

That makes it one of the few U.S. cities with enough bicycling to achieve the safety benefits already documented by researchers in Europe, said study co-author Wesley Marshall, PhD, PE, assistant professor of civil engineering at CU Denver's College of Engineering and Applied Science.

And Boulder's close proximity to CU Denver's downtown campus offered an ideal opportunity for the researchers and students.

To access the full story, click here.

7. Resources for Finding and Creating Images for Promotional Materials Images help bring your story to life and you can use them on almost all your promotional materials such as fliers, websites, videos, newsletters, and social media. If your program is just getting started, you can use stock photos to spruce up your marketing materials. If you have your own, you can edit them using free tools available online.

To access this resource, click here.

8. US Cycling From a Dutch Perspective While a delegation from Portland Oregon was visiting my hometown’s-Hertogenbosch and some other places in the Netherlands to experience Dutch cycling, I was looking at cycling in the United States. Not that that was the main goal of my journey -I was in the US for a self-paid holiday and to visit friends- but I couldn’t help seeing and recording what some of the cycling and the infrastructure was like. (Video at the end of this post.)

Of course I know it is not really possible to say something in general about “cycling in the US”.

There are many different places with very different cycling cultures. But I have now visited the US so often and I have been in so many places, that I do observe some general patterns that I think may be interesting to share.

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The main difference between the US and the Netherlands is that cycling is not seen as transportation in the US by the general public. Only very few people use the bicycle to go from A to B for their daily business. For the average American cycling is something kids do or when you do cycle as an adult, it is mainly for recreational purposes. And you dress up for the part: wearing hi-viz, a helmet, with a bicycle to match, one the Dutch would call a ‘race bike’.

To access the full story (and video), click here.

9. Why It's Time to Stop Romanticising Where Our Food Comes From A buffalo walks slowly through the fog of the shower area, while several others vie for position under giant roller massagers. Their diet is purely organic, grown on Tenuta Vannulo Organic Farm's 100 hectares of land and fertilized by buffalo manure. The animals eat when they want, are milked when they want, and, as a result of their stress-free lifestyle, this buffalo milk is some of the most valuable in all of southern Italy. Every drop of it is sold on-site at the ranch in the Cliento region near Naples, direct to consumers as delicious mozzarella balls, exquisite pistachio ice cream, and rich cream-filled cannolis.

"They are incredibly intelligent creatures and learn really fast," says farm tour guide, Daniel Aleman Lucker. Lucker worked in the stables with the buffalo for ten months before turning tour guide for the facility, which now hosts 15,000 visitors each year.

To access the full story, click here.

10. U.S. Breweries are Booming According to Census Bureau When it comes to agriculture, the World Food Prize is the equivalent of the Oscars.

This year, the prestigious award went the mastermind behind Monsanto’s big move into genetically modified crops. In foodie terms, that is like a commercial blockbuster winning best picture rather than an independent, artsy film.

Started in 1987, the prize aims to recognize people who improve the “quality, quantity or availability” of food in the world. The founder of the award, Norman E. Borlaug, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970 as the father of the Green Revolution, which vastly increased grain output.

To access the full story, click here.

11. Funding Opportunities White House Announces National Disaster Resilience Competition On June 14, the White House announced the National Disaster Resilience Competition<http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-pressoffice/2014/06/14/fact-sheet-national-disaster-resilience-competition>. The nearly $1 billion competition will invite communities that have experienced disasters to compete for funds to help them rebuild and increase their resilience to future disasters. Of the competition funds available through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) funds from the Disaster Relief Appropriations Act of 2013, about $820 million will be available to all states and local governments that experienced a Presidentially-declared disaster in 2011, 2012, and 2013. States in the Hurricane Sandy-affected region will be eligible to compete for approximately $180 million. All successful applicants will need to show how their proposed action relates to the disaster from which they are recovering. HUD will ensure that geographic diversity is a consideration in the selection of participating communities. Additional details are forthcoming. Click here <http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/06/14/fact-sheet-national-disaster-resiliencePage 4 of 5

competition> to view the White House Fact Sheet on the competition. Contact Megan McConville at mmcconville@nado.org<mailto:mmcconville@nado.org> with any questions.

Native Strong: Healthy Kids, Healthy Futures Promising Program Grant s<http://www.raconline.org/funding/3590/?utm_source=racupdate&utm_medium=email&utm_ca mpaign=update062614> - Application deadline: Jul 14, 2014 Awards funding to existing programs that work to reduce childhood obesity and type 2 diabetes for Native American children. Sponsor: Notah Begay III Foundation EREF Accepting Applications for Sustainable Solid Waste Management Research Grant s<http://e.foundationcenter.org/a/hBTrc$mB8ixfdB867j3AACSSkhD/rfpb26> - DEADLINE: July 15, 2014 Grants of up to $500,000 will be awarded for research projects related to sustainable solid waste management practices....

Local Foods, Local Place s<http://www.raconline.org/funding/3596/?utm_source=racupdate&utm_medium=email&utm_ca mpaign=update062614> - Application deadline: Jul 15, 2014 Provides direct technical support to communities to help them build strong local food systems and revitalize downtowns, main streets, and traditional neighborhoods through food system projects, providing access to healthy, fresh food.

Sponsor: U.S. Department of Agriculture Community Economic Development (CED) Projects <http://www.raconline.org/funding/2098/?utm_source=racupdate&utm_medium=email&utm_ca mpaign=update062614> - Application deadline: Jul 21, 2014 Offers funds to Community Development Corporations (CDCs) for projects designed to address the economic needs of lowincome individuals and families through the creation of employment and business opportunities, including expansion or construction of clinics and health centers. Bonus points will be given to projects that create jobs in rural communities. Sponsor: Administration for Children and Families Section 533 Rural Housing Preservation Grants <http://www.raconline.org/funding/366/?utm_source=racupdate&utm_medium=email&utm_cam paign=update062614> - Application deadline: Jul 28, 2014. Grants to organizations that work to assist rural low-income homeowners and renters to repair and rehabilitate their homes. Sponsor: USDA Housing and Community Facilities Programs PSEG Foundation Invites Grant Applications for Neighborhood Partner Program <http://e.foundationcenter.org/a/hBTpJDKB8ixfdB86zkSAACSSkJV/rfp14> -DEADLINE: August 1, 2014 Grants of up to $5,000 will be awarded in support of programs in the areas of sustainability, minorities, STEM education, and safety that are based in and focus on communities served by PSEG and its subsidiaries....

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