Week 7 in the food industry

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Triscuit and Urban Farming Pledge to Build 50 Community-Based Home Farms in 2010
Triscuit 'Home Farming Movement' Aims to Help People Grow and Harvest Their Own Food at Home and in Their Communities

EAST HANOVER, N.J., March 10 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Triscuit wants Americans to discover the simple joy of growing and sharing their own herbs and vegetables. Today the brand announced the launch of the Triscuit "Home Farming" movement and its collaboration with Urban Farming, a non-profit organization, to create 50 community-based home farms across the country in 2010.
Home Farming is about growing your own herbs and vegetables, no matter where you live. To help people on their path to Home Farming, four million packages of Original and Reduced-Fat Triscuit crackers will include cards with basil or dill herb seeds that can be planted directly into the ground. An interactive Web-based community, www.triscuit.com/homefarming, helps to plant the seeds of success with tips from master gardener Paul James and information about how people can start their own home farm or volunteer at an Urban Farming location.
Americans Getting "Back to Simple"
A recent Triscuit survey found nearly two-thirds of Americans are interested in growing food in a backyard garden. And three out of four of those surveyed prefer to eat foods with a few, simple ingredients(1), reflecting a popular desire to get back to the simple joys in life.
"At Triscuit, simple authentic goodness is found on the farms, where the soft white wheat in Triscuit crackers is grown, and carried through to every cracker we make," said Jim Low, director of marketing for Triscuit at Kraft Foods. "That is why we're excited to invite Americans to join our 'Home Farming' movement, whether it's in a backyard, on a windowsill, or in a plot shared among neighbors. Everyone can get involved."
Triscuit Helping Home Farmers in the Community
Triscuit and Urban Farming will collaborate to create 50 community-based home farms across the U.S., launching with a groundbreaking ceremony in Los Angeles on March 11th at St. Stephen's and the Jubilee Consortium. Following the groundbreaking event, 49 additional farms will be planted from coast to coast in such cities as Dallas, Detroit, Philadelphia, Phoenix and Tampa, to name just a few. The farms will provide local residents and community groups with the opportunity to volunteer to maintain the farm and enjoy the local produce grown in their neighborhood. Led by Urban Farming Executive Director and Founder Taja Sevelle, these community-based home farms will bring much needed sustenance to deserving communities around the country.
"The mission of Urban Farming is to create an abundance of food on unused land and space and help uplift communities. Partnering with Triscuit to create the 'Home Farming' movement was a natural fit," said Ms. Sevelle. "By providing communities the opportunity to grow their own food, we're helping them get back to basics and enjoy something as simple as nurturing the vegetables and herbs they will eat from planting to harvest."
Triscuit Helping Home Farmers at Home
Two of the biggest obstacles people face in starting a home farm are time and space. In fact, over half of Americans (56%) who did not grow food last year said it was because of lack of time and/or space. "The Gardener Guy" Paul James has been enlisted to help people have a fun, easy and successful journey. James provides tips that appear on www.triscuit.com/homefarming and will be on-site at select groundbreaking events to help educate families and individuals about growing and planting in home farms and community-based home farms.
"A lot goes into growing your own food at home, but Triscuit has made it easy to have a green thumb," said Paul James, Master Gardener and host of the HGTV show Gardening by the Yard. "With seed cards and instructions on Triscuit packages, families can get a little head start on how to plant and enjoy foods right in their own backyard or windowsill."