By Will Collette
On Thursday, DEM and the Rhode Island Food Policy Council announced the winners of competitive grants under the federal Local Agriculture and Seafood Act (LASA) for proposals that will promote the development, growth and marketing of local food.
Of the 15 grants and $210,000 awarded statewide, two grants totaling $27,134 go to Charlestown recipients. One of them is going to make the anti-aquaculture NIMBY faction within the Charlestown Citizens Alliance very unhappy.
The two Charlestown grant winners are:
$13,406 to Brian Pinsky, Matt Behan, Jim Arnoux, Jules Opton-Himmel, and Dr. Michael Rice in Charlestown to study seasonal and tidal variation in food levels and observe the growth and condition index of oysters being cultivated by six oyster farmers in Ninigret Pond and
$13,728 to the Local Catch in Charlestown to establish a fish-smoking operation specifically utilizing RI-landed seafood, with an emphasis on increasing sales of underutilized species which are landed in high volume at the Point Judith port but have had weak consumer demand.
Congratulations to the two winners and my hope that it helps you to continue to build Charlestown's ability to profit, despite CCA Party resistance, from the growing locavore movement.
To see all of this year's grant recipients, click here.
