muckraker: Al Rueb, the Godfather of Wheat
On Tour With the Godfather of Wheat
Daily Yonder, August 5, 2009
By Julianne Couch
...Up Highway 27 to see this quarter section. Over onto a county road to see that quarter section. A quick scamper across Highway 24 over into eastern Colorado to see another quarter section. Al has made enough money from the wheat harvest over the years that he’s been able to buy a little farmland for his two kids. Now the kids have made enough money selling their wheat that they can help their own kids with college. more...
muckraker: challenging the status quo
[photo by ANDREA MELENDEZ/THE REIGSTER]
Iowan creates nonprofit for food politics
Des Moines Register
By GUNNAR OLSON • golson@dmreg.com • May 25, 2009
Iowan Dave Murphy quickly has become a national voice for the sustainable food movement since he petitioned the Obama transition team on appointments to the USDA.
Not a so-called "foodie," the 40-year-old is a history buff with a master's in creative writing from Columbia University in New York City. He was paying off student loans working as a consultant for the U.S. Department of Labor in 2006 when he returned home to Iowa to help his sister successfully fend off a Minnesota company's attempt to build a hog confinement next to the family farm. He thought he would stay a few months.
muckraker: challenging the status quo
[photo by Denny Gainer, USA TODAY]
'Natural patterns' of farming touted in documentary
By Joshua Hatch, USA TODAY
April 21, 2009
SWOOPE, Va. — The white metal sign over the desk at Polyface Farm reads, "Joel Salatin: Lunatic Farmer."
Salatin is proud of that label. "I'm a third-generation lunatic," he boasts while standing in his lush, green central Virginia fields. Brown chickens strut and peck around his feet. "I don't do anything like average farmers do," he says
muckraker: wes jackson
This issue we nominate WES JACKSON of THE LAND INSTITUTE, who takes on the "fossil-fueled lifestyle" --Life Changes by Duane Schrag, Salina Journal
Petri dish economics is what Jackson calls it -- hypergrowth that occurs when lower life forms meet surplus energy. It's just that Jackson expects a more considered response from humans. "I don't call it progress to be moving toward the edge of the petri dish," Jackson says. "This idea of growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell."
Petri dish economics is what Jackson calls it -- hypergrowth that occurs when lower life forms meet surplus energy. It's just that Jackson expects a more considered response from humans. "I don't call it progress to be moving toward the edge of the petri dish," Jackson says. "This idea of growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell."
muckraker: creating sustainable envy
To all those naysayers out there who say it can't be done with sustainable agriculture alone, I say "nuh-uh"! I know it can be done with people like this at the helm. The theme of the SARE 20th anniversary conference is "how sustainable farming is rapidly changing the face of American agriculture." 800 people convened from all across the country to see what's going on. Here are just some of the highlights:
Karl Kupers of Shepherd's Grain, an alliance of progressive grain growers in and around Reardon, Washington, clearly has marketing in his blood and knows it. "Create sustainable envy," he said during his speech. Back in 2002 he saw a way to connect directly with the end user of his product: bakers. Once a traditional grain farmer, today Karl says that his farming methods are "a complete reversal of conventional farming." And the surprise - it's profitable. "Sustainable to me equals covering the true cost of production," says Karl. "Commodity markets don't look at the true cost of production."
Bryant Terry got the crowd riled up and actually had them chanting "Eat Grub" or healthy, local, sustainable food for all. An eco-chef and food activist, Terry is now aFood & Society Policy Fellow and working currently on the Southern Organic Kitchen Project, to educate primarily African-Americans living in the Southern United States about the connections between diet and health. He is also ambassador for the People's Grocery in West Oakland, California, a town that he says has 53 liquor stores and no grocery stores. He announced their soon-to-be-open brick and mortar store in 2009.
LaRhea Pepper was there to accept her 2008 Patrick Madden Award for Sustainable Agriculture. In 1991, she and her husband Terry took a risk and planted their first organic cotton, contracting with a single buyer to take all of their crop that year. They never looked back. They co-founded the Texas Organic Cotton Marketing Cooperative, which established Texas as an international leader in organic cotton production and then launched their own product line, Organic Essentials. Sadly, her husband recently passed away due to cancer. But today she is on the move to promote organic cotton production worldwide. "It's important today to be the catalyst."
Karl Kupers of Shepherd's Grain, an alliance of progressive grain growers in and around Reardon, Washington, clearly has marketing in his blood and knows it. "Create sustainable envy," he said during his speech. Back in 2002 he saw a way to connect directly with the end user of his product: bakers. Once a traditional grain farmer, today Karl says that his farming methods are "a complete reversal of conventional farming." And the surprise - it's profitable. "Sustainable to me equals covering the true cost of production," says Karl. "Commodity markets don't look at the true cost of production."
Bryant Terry got the crowd riled up and actually had them chanting "Eat Grub" or healthy, local, sustainable food for all. An eco-chef and food activist, Terry is now aFood & Society Policy Fellow and working currently on the Southern Organic Kitchen Project, to educate primarily African-Americans living in the Southern United States about the connections between diet and health. He is also ambassador for the People's Grocery in West Oakland, California, a town that he says has 53 liquor stores and no grocery stores. He announced their soon-to-be-open brick and mortar store in 2009.
LaRhea Pepper was there to accept her 2008 Patrick Madden Award for Sustainable Agriculture. In 1991, she and her husband Terry took a risk and planted their first organic cotton, contracting with a single buyer to take all of their crop that year. They never looked back. They co-founded the Texas Organic Cotton Marketing Cooperative, which established Texas as an international leader in organic cotton production and then launched their own product line, Organic Essentials. Sadly, her husband recently passed away due to cancer. But today she is on the move to promote organic cotton production worldwide. "It's important today to be the catalyst."