Travis County Commissioners Court
February 2, 2010,
Item 5
>> number 5 is to approve resolution from the sustainel food policy board declaring Commissioners court support for responsible agriculture farms.
>> marla, would you like to make the steng shun between these two resolutions for the listening public?
>> certainly.
community gardens primarily engage private citizens and encourage the education of how to grow nutritious food for your family and usually your media neighbors and sometimes other, just loose associations of individuals.
responsible urban farming is very critical to our local food economy in that that is the source for providing institutions, restaurants, private citizens with affordable healthy nutritious and sustain ably raised food which includes all kinds of things like combating childhood obesity, working on making nutritious food affordable to people who don't have as much income to spend on food as others, and just about in every, again, for schools and institutions, to have access to the kind of supply that there is a growing demand for among consumers.
>> with that, I will read the resolution excerpting out the mission statement and the charge since we previously read it.
resolution whereas local sustainable and/or organic farms provide access to new trish us foods produced with less cash won resources than those shipped in from other regions, and whereas local sustainable and/or organic farms contribute to food security for the county, support the local economy and provide educational opportunities for county residents, now therefore be it resolved that the Travis County Commissioners court supports responsible agriculture and directs county staff to facilitate creation, function and stability of responsible farms through, one, streamlining the process to establish a responsible farm, one a, define a responsible farm as one using water conservation practices, composting and nonpolluting growing practice, b, identify and map public lands that would be appropriate for responsible agriculture, c, identify and map public lands that would be appropriate for community gardens, and d, support efforts to gauge interest and public size responsible agriculture.
two, naming a staff person in Travis County to support community members in establishing and sustaining responsible farms who will help farmers outside the city limits and in Travis County navigate requirements related to responsible agriculture.
and three, encouraging relevant utility boards in the county to create a special designation and water rate for responsible farms that applies the said farms, facility state taits the start-up and does not include wastewater fees.
the structure can be based on best practices in similar counties, b, waive start-up fees related to installation of taps, c, exempt water restrictions, d, lowest possible rate options.
4, direct plan committee and contractors to encourage the growth of responsible farming.
and I move approval.
>> second.
>> any other comments?
all in favor.
that passes by unanimous vote.
>> thank you.
>> thank you for bringing us these, marla.
>> thank you for your support .
we really look forward to working with you.
The Closed Caption log for this Commissioners Court agenda item is provided by Travis County Internet Services. Since this file is derived from the Closed Captions created during live cablecasts, there are occasional spelling and grammatical errors. This Closed Caption log is not an official record the Commissioners Court Meeting and cannot be relied on for official purposes. For official records please contact the County Clerk at (512) 854-4722.
Last Modified:
Tuesday, February 2, 2010 2:15 PM
