a bi-weekly zine investigating the sustainability of sustainable agriculture
Monday, July 21, 2008
sowing seeds: news of inspiration
Despite the tomato/salmonella scare, these locally grown tomatoes at The Garlic Farm in West Granby, CT are disappearing like snow in sunshine. [photo by Melissa Waldron Lehner]
weeds
trouble patches
from the huffington post, july 18:
Produce manager Richard Yantis sorts through Roma tomatoes at Compton's market in Sacramento, Calif., Friday, July 18, 2008. In Virginia is there is a bumper crop of tomatoes, but there is a lingering consumer concern about the safety of tomatoes.(AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)
more...
And what has the FDA been doing? Not much. Incompetence reigns king. Take Action with Food & Water Watch and tell the FDA to shape up.
the baddest seed: blunders in biotechnology
This week Fertile Ground USA nominates The European Commission as The Baddest Seed. See why:
"The European Commission has said that it believes biotech crops can alleviate the current crisis in food supply, although it added in June that expediency should not overrule strict scientific scrutiny of the use of the technology involved.
The chairman of Nestlé, the world’s biggest food group, has said it is impossible to feed the world without genetically modified organisms."
International Herald Tribune
By Sam Cage Reuters Published: July 8, 2008
pioneer: the urban agrarian
Ben Reynolds, Network Director of Sustain: the alliance for better food and farming, and one of the four members from the US Embassy-sponsored London delegation sent to visit urban agrarian projects around the U.S., tells us his impression of the trip.
action alert:
EAT THE VIEW's Roger Doiron hands out your edible "first lawn" 5 minute homework assignment...
announcements
Glynwood Center's 6th Annual Harvest Awards nomination deadline has been extended till Monday, August 4th....Registration now remains open until July 28 for the Kerr Center's popular "Future Farms 2008: Planning for Change" conference...Growing Food and Justice for All Initiative (GFJI) has their First Annual Gathering in Milwaukee September 18-21, 2008...Farm Aid offers a Family Farm Disaster Fund..
more announcements...
breaking ground: musings from a novice farmer
Farming and Space
Says Sara: "What I’ve come to love is farming’s ability to give you space. Space to think, space to breathe, space to move and be restless and be restful. Space."
a philosopher's garden: moral and ethical questions on how and why we grow our food
Why are farmers an endangered species? Read what Andy Sarjahani's says in his blog, Living the Intense Dream:
"Well, the people standing behind that booth at the Farmer’s Market aren’t exactly growing younger. The average age of farmers in the United States is 60 and only 1-1.5% (depending on the source) of the United States has chosen the agrarian livelihood." Read more...
[photo from Living the Intense Dream]
dig it:
farmer2.0
Social networking sites for foodies and farmers are popping up everywhere, just like spring onions. Find out why they might change the future of local foods.
bumper crop: the next generation
New London ranks 154 of 169 Connecticut towns and cities in food security. FRESH New London is trying to change that! Listen to the July 18th WNPR report to find out how. [photo by Harriet Jones]
First Issue of Fertile Ground USA
april 2008
in this issue: the launch of Fertile Ground USA! & SARE's 20th Anniversary!
Photo taken by Heidi Rader, West-Grand Prize Winner [Communities and Markets] of SARE's 2008 Photo Competition.)
What better way to launch a zine about sustainable farming than to devote the first issue to the folks at SARE, the Sustainable Agriculture Reseach and Education non-profit in Washington DC that has been helping advance environmentally sound, community-oriented and profitable farming systems nationwide. I had the pleasure of attending their 20th anniversary New American Farm Conference in Kansas City, Missouri recently and was greatly inspired. This issue represents a small fraction of the stories that I would like to tell. Small in number perhaps, but big in heart. I hope they inspire you too. Enjoy.
melissa waldron
editor & publisher, fertile ground usa
muckraker
challenging the status quo
Meet the movers and shakers at this 20th anniversary SARE conference. "We must create sustainable envy," says Karl Kupers of Shepherd's Grain in Reardon, Washington. These guys are doing it.
immigrant nation
people from far away lands, here to do it for themselves
"I'm the laziest farmer you will ever meet," says Pov Huns of Huns Garden in Kansas City, Kansas. And I believe him.
a philosopher's garden
moral and ethical questions on how and why we grow our food
The Kansas City Center for Urban Agriculture: no cheating allowed.
herd the news?
sustainable livestock = profit
It's a sheer thing, say Jeanne and Dan Carver of Imperial Stock in Maupin, Oregon.
pioneer
Our inner cities are the new frontier
Troostwood Youth Garden, Kansas City, Missouri: the little engine that could, did and is.
MOO-ney
hitting the jackpot in sustainable ag
You just can’t bring a good Haemonchus contortus worm down. Unless you have really good weed.