UPDATE!

The proclamation was presented in front of Denver City Council on Monday, September 21st. Check out the video here. Footage of the proclamation begins at 23:52. Mickki Langston, Executive Director of the Mile High Business Alliance can be found at 40:30.

Additionally, scroll down to the bottom of the document to see the full list of local businesses and organizations that signed the proclamation.

Celebrating Denver’s Grow Local Campaign and Culture

WHEREAS, Denver strives to be a Green City that promotes ecological sustainability through growing local food as evidenced by its support for nearly seventy urban gardens around the City, numerous farmers’ markets, a vegetable garden in Civic Center Park, a community-supported agricultural plot at Chatfield Arboretum, a plethora of private gardens, and Mayor John Hickenlooper’s spring declaration of a Grow Local Day; and WHEREAS, hunger, food insecurity, and poor nutrition are pressing health issues, and access to safe, nutritious, and culturally acceptable food is essential to both human health and ecological sustainability; and WHEREAS, there are communities in Denver that are considered “food deserts,” with a lack of fresh, affordable, accessible, and healthy food, when access to healthy food reduces diet-related illnesses, such as diabetes, obesity and heart disease; and WHEREAS, currently less than .2% of Metropolitan Denver’s food needs are produced within the state of Colorado, and the strengthening of the local food shed is paramount to the health, security and sustainability of the community; and WHEREAS, conventional food and farming operations use pesticides and other chemicals that research indicates have environmental and health concerns and current systems of mass producing and transporting food use large amounts of finite natural resources, including water, oil and natural gas; and WHEREAS, developing a local food system has the potential to build health, wealth and resiliency in our communities and cultivating local farm and food businesses creates new green industry jobs, reduces health care costs, and contributes to long-term economic prosperity by keeping wealth circulating within the Denver community.

NOW THEREFORE,

BE IT RESOLVED BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY AND COUNTY OF DENVER:

Section 1. That Denverites, civic associations, businesses, community-based organizations and neighborhoods are encouraged to support locally-produced healthy food including community gardens, greenhouses for food production and aquaculture, farmers’ markets, urban farms, orchards, home gardens, Community and Neighborhood Supported Agriculture (CSAs and NSAs), edible landscaping, agricultural incubator projects, and rooftop and school gardens.

Section 2. That the Clerk of the City and County of Denver shall attest and affix the seal of the City and County of Denver to this proclamation and that a copy be transmitted to ______.

PASSED BY THE COUNCIL_____________________2009

______________________________________PRESIDENT

Alliance for Sustainable Colorado

Audubon Society of Greater Denver

Bands for Lands

Beet Box Catering

Blue and Yellow Logic

Cafe Colore

City O City

Colorado Local Sustainability

Denver Green School

Denver Urban Gardens

Denver Urban Homesteading

DINR Denver Independent Network of Restaurants

duo Restaurant

Earthlinks

EndoTrend Festival

Event gallery 910 Arts

Farm Yard

Feed Denver

First Universalist Church

Flobots.org

Front Range Sustainable Landscaping Coalition

FrontRange Earth Force

Fruition

Green Spaces

Grow West – Green Roofs of the West

Hazel Rah Farm

Heirloom Gardens

Hot Ticket Cafe @ The Denver Center for Performing Arts

Jay's Parkside Cafe at Riverfront Park

Jay's Patio Cafe in LoHi

Living Earth Center

Legacy Economy

Mercury Cafe

Mile High Business Alliance

Olivéa Restaurant

Operation Frontline Colorado

Pan African Arts Society

Platte Park Neighborhood Assoc.

Platte Park Green Team

Produce Denver

Queen Anne Bed and Breakfast

ReDirect Guide

Revision International

Root Down

SAME Café

Slow Food Denver

Snooze

Spector and Associates

Steuben’s

Sustain3010

Rocky Mt. Grower’s Guide

Transition Colorado

Transition Denver

Transition Evergreen

Transition Louisville

Transition Manitou Springs

Urban Organics

Vesta Dipping Grill

Virginia Village Green Team

Vital Food Farms

Vital Yogat

WaterCourse Bakery

WaterCourse Foods

Wild Green Yonder

Woodbine Ecology Center