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agriculture 
Tue Dec 22, 2009 at 13:33:16 PM PST
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Fifth in a series of interviews with farmers affiliated with La Via Campesina, an alliance of international peasant farmer organizations. This interview was conducted with the assistance of an LVC translator. Also, even if farming isn't your usual interest, I encourage you to read this, on account of how we in the US might soon need to learn a thing or two from the world's peasant farmer and landless peasant movements.
Renaldo Chingore João works a 5-7 acre farm with his family. There, they grow maize, beans and vegetables, keeping 15 cows for meat and milk, as well as draft labor. Though it's a small farm, João and his family don't face the world alone.
They're part of a community that's organized itself for advocacy and mutual support, both within Mozambique and the larger global community of peasant farmers.
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Sun Dec 13, 2009 at 07:42:43 AM PST
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Under legislation introduced this week in the D.C. Council, the District of Columbia would become one of the few jurisdictions in the country to place a bounty on school meals that rely on locally grown foods. The bill mandates an extra five cents for school lunch meals containing fruits and vegetables that are locally grown and minimally processed, to be paid by the Office of State Superintendent of Education.
The proposed payment, supplementing funds provided by the federal government to subsidize school meals, would represent a rare instance of a local government kicking in to raise the quality of school food, especially around the idea of locally produced ingredients.
The provision makes a further distinction that would set the District apart from most jurisdictions that have embraced local foods in school meals: it would require that those fruits and vegetables come from farmers engaged in "sustainable practices."
This last requirement is sure to raise some eyebrows on Capitol Hil, where industrial agriculture-an industry heavily reliant on fertilizers and pesticides derived from fossil fuels-enjoys huge support and puts a giant lobbying effort into play. The D.C. "Healthy Schools" proposal, which must ultimately be approved by Congress, defines "sustainable practices" as those that "minimize carbon emissions and other environmental degradation, regenerate soil nutrients through crop rotation or other methods that minimize environmental impact, avoid the use of chemical fertilizers, sythetic pesticides and herbicides,.."
And, in a move that could significantly shift some thinking about how D.C. schools source the meats and dairy products they serve to children-as well as bringing the city more into line with good food advocates-the bill includes under its sustainability umbrella agricultural techniques that "avoid non-therapeutic antibiotics and hormones." Antibiotics and hormones are routinely used to increase production in industrial-scale dairies and feedlot operations, raising concerns and a fierce debate over possible impacts on human health as well as animal treatment.
Introduced jointly by Councilmember Mary Cheh (D-Ward 3) and Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray, the proposal (read more here and here) could have some immediate impact on the way food service providers source their products for D.C. schools. It states that "public schools shall not enter into food service contracts that prohibit the purchase" of locally and sustainably grown farm products. It also requires food service providers to "identify, disclose, and certify the location where fruits and vegetables are grown and processed and whether growers are engaged in sustainable practices."
The proposed legislation represents a huge gift to advocates of locally and sustainably grown farm products. But it may be more carrot than stick. The bill says that public schools-including charter schools-must serve foods grown locally and sustainably "whenever possible," with a preference for foods "grown or processed" in Maryland or Virginia. Tight food budgets as well as a food distribution network not necessarily geared to locally and sustainably grown products could sorely test the meaning of "whenever possible."
The bill contains other suggestions for increasing the use of local products, and boosting the local farm economy. It calls on schools to "collaborate" with the Office of the State Superintendent of Education, community organizations and food service providers "in teaching students and food service staff about the economic, environmental, and nutritional benefits of purchasing and eating" local foods.
The bill would require the state superintendent of education to issue grants toward developing programs that advance a farm-to-school program, but only "when funds are appropriated." It also calls on schools to adopt programs such as a "local flavor week" or a "harvest of the month" that promote local foods.
In the last year, a D.C. Farm to School Network, organized by the Capitol Area Food Bank, has emerged to encourage farm-to-school practices. It's largest event to date was a highly successful "Local Flavor Week" in September that resulted in cooking demonstrations and other food-related activities in dozens of D.C. schools.
Full disclosure: I am a member of the D.C. Farm to School Network's advisory board and had a hand in writing some of the sustainability language that appears in the "Healthy Schools" legislation.
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Sun Oct 04, 2009 at 10:59:49 AM PDT
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A New York Times article revealing disturbing practices at beef processors reminds us never to let down our guard when handling ground beef, lest a virulent strain of Escherichia coli, O157:H7, lead to crippling illness or death. Food scientists warn that even "a few stray cells" of this E.coli strain can cause illness. Forget about cleaning the cutting board with soap or scrubbing. You'll need bleach to remove the threat. Better yet, think of your kitchen as a biosafety lab.
The likelihood of being exposed to a food toxin is heightened by a food safety system with holes that beef processors regularly exploit. For example, meat processors are not required to check for bacteria in meat received from multiple domestic and international suppliers, and "many big slaughterhouses will sell only to grinders who agree not to test their shipments for E. coli, according to officials at two large grinding companies [NY Times]." Other problems, like filthy equipment and handling, have been around since Upton Sinclair's 1906 expose, "The Jungle.'
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Mon Aug 03, 2009 at 09:07:30 AM PDT
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A fantastic must-read feature from Matt Jenkins at High Country News takes us into the last few decades of the crab fishing industry, and the catch-share programs that are now being put in place seeking to prevent those fisheries from collapsing.
With too many boats chasing too few crab, fishermen started going broke. They also -- literally -- started going under. In the scramble to catch as much of the quota as possible, boats frequently sailed into fierce Bering Sea storms, and some never returned. Between 1989 and 2005, 10 crab boats sank in the Sea, taking 51 men with them. Another 34 men were lost overboard or killed.
Let's talk about this below the fold...
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Wed Jun 17, 2009 at 10:53:29 AM PDT
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- At the Ethicurean, Janet takes us on a tour of Missouri's Heartland Harvest Garden, 12 acres of edible landscaping which officials claim is the biggest such garden in the country.
- A couple of years ago, New Jersey attempted to eliminate its State Department of Agriculture in a shortsighted cost-cutting move. Terrible idea, and fortunately protests and public opposition ensured that it never happened. Although New Jersey did eventually lose a great advocate in the process. Now, California is considering eliminating their Department of Food and Agriculture. Rose Hayden-Smith believes it's a bad idea.
- A federal prosecutor in Brazil is seeking to ban fast-food toy promotions in the country.
- Since taking office in 2006, Governor Jon Corzine's (D-NJ) Hunger Initiative has meant millions of dollars for state food banks, and fresh healthy local produce for New Jersey's poor. The program requires food banks receiving funds to prioritize local growers and producers. The governor was at the Food Bank of South Jersey yesterday, continuing to promote partnerships between food banks and local farmers.
- Despite being sued by two coal companies over municipal ordinances banning coal mining and requiring corporations to disclose their activities to local officials, a tiny Pennsylvania town is refusing to back down. Its lawyer is predicting this case will eventually make it up to the US Supreme Court in a challenge to corporate "personhood". In 2006 the town passed an ordinance that reads, in part: "This illegitimate bestowal of civil and political rights upon corporations prevents the administration of laws within Blaine Township and usurps basic human and constitutional rights guaranteed to the people of Blaine Township". Go Blaine! (h/t to Anonymous Bosch)
- Here's another great piece on the growing trend of bringing better food to hospitals. The article goes on to mention that one hospital cafeteria in Burlington, Vermont, which focuses on local seasonal organic produce, has even become a destination for downtown lunch crowds!
- As the old saying goes, denial ain't just a river in Egypt. Hard to deny these days, though, the drastic changes occurring in the Pacific, much sooner than researchers had expected.
Update: Check this out - seed industry structure charts and graphics
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Sat May 30, 2009 at 01:08:16 AM PDT
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Let's start at the beginning, Credit Default Swaps are effectively insurance taken out that pays off if a derivative defaults. The trouble we got into with Credit Default Swaps (CDSs) is that the CDSs were not regulated. The other problem was that people were buying CDSs that didn't own the underlying derivative. This is called a naked CDS which I've heard was about 90% of the total market. Basically this was just gambling, unregulated gambling. Which is rare, because whether it's Vegas, a riverboat, a lottery or online cards, gambling in this country is always regulated and either taxed or made illegal. If it were anyone other than Wall Street betting on these CDSs it would have been shut down or taxed.
What does this have to do with agriculture? The CFTC is one of two regulatory bodies competing for the role of CDS regulator. The CFTC, Commodities Futures Trading Commission is overseen by the House Agriculture Committee.
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Sat Apr 25, 2009 at 16:30:00 PM PDT
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- From The Ethicurean, a great piece on community-food partnerships in downtowns throughout Ohio.
- A North Carolina-based group, the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy, is gathering a list and seeking to save from extinction heritage chicken breeds, 19 of which are already listed as "critically threatened" (fewer than 500 left in the world). This quote really makes you think -
Since the arrival of industrialized agriculture, more than 95 percent of vegetables that had been grown in the world have disappeared, according to the Center for Urban Education about Sustainable Agriculture.
- I gotta go on one of these! Local Portland foraging expert John Kallas is doing especially well with his wild food tours these days...
- Whither the days of syrup-drenched styrofoam-containered pre-sliced peaches in hospitals? More and more U.S. hospitals are taking the common sense measure of serving patients more fresh, healthy whole foods.
- At Civil Eats, Nina Fallenbaum writes about her experiences participating in a recent sustainable agriculture-experience program in Japan; and Jerusha Klemperer reviews the new book "Righteous Porkchop".
- From The Nation, a piece on increasing racial diversity in the environmental movement reminds us of this important point -
For decades ordinary citizens of color have become environmental activists when they organized to resist the siting of toxic waste dumps in their neighborhoods, to force regulation of polluting industries in fence-line communities, and to bring attention to the negative health impact of particulate emissions near their homes. But these largely decentralized, locally led movements were rarely understood as central to the conservation and climate change environmentalism that dominated federal policy and the national imagination. So despite their efforts, the contributions of black, brown, and poor communities have often been ignored in the story of a greening America.
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Fri Apr 17, 2009 at 00:47:45 AM PDT
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( - promoted by JayinPortland)
Joshua Segall may be the first ever Farmers' Market Candidate for Congress. He runs a program called Homegrown Alabama that focuses on getting schools to buy their food from farmers.
Joshua was defeated in his first attempt to unseat Bush-Republican Representative Mike Rogers last fall. But this week the rematch was announced.
"It's time for a new direction. I am a fiscal conservative who will work to create and attract 21st Century jobs to east Alabama so that hardworking people can get ahead," said Segall.
"Alabama is suffering under irresponsible policies that bail out greedy executives who created this mess and leave hardworking Alabama families holding the bag. Rogers supported the Wall Street bailout, but did nothing for Main Street Alabama. He voted to send Alabama jobs overseas, when what we needed was a plan to create good jobs at home. It's time to stand up to special interest politics and put Alabama families first once again," said Segall.
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Sun Apr 05, 2009 at 15:43:38 PM PDT
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I received an e-mail alert from Food Democracy Now today, informing me that the public comment period for a proposed U.S. Department of Agriculture rule on farm payment limits ends at the close of business on Monday, April 6.
President Barack Obama promised during his budget speech to a joint session of Congress in February to "end direct payments to large agribusinesses that don't need them." Food Democracy Now's action alert noted,
Today's current subsidy system allows large corporate farms to take advantage of subsidy loopholes that place independent family farmers at a serious competitive disadvantage.
Because of loosely written management and labor requirements in the Farm Bill, corporate farmers are allowed to use multiple partnerships, passive investors and sham "paper" farms to funnel huge multimillion dollar annual subsidy payments to corporate entities that don't do any real work on the farm, but use the ownership as an entitlement to bilk payments from the government.
As a result, giant corporate millionaire "farmers" are driving independent family farmers off the land, using their ill-gotten gains, supplied courtesy of taxpayers, to outbid small, midsized and new farmers who want to buy or rent new crop ground.
Food Democracy Now provided a sample e-mail that you can cope and paste into your own message. I've posted it after the jump, and you can also find it here. If you can put the message in your own words, that's wonderful, but any comment you can send by the close of business on Monday is better than nothing.
However you write the main text of your message, put this in the subject line:
Comment on Farm Program Payment Limitation Rule, Federal Register, Vol. 74, No. 23, February 5, 2009
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Wed Apr 01, 2009 at 13:09:21 PM PDT
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(Soooo cool! - promoted by Jill Richardson)
Yesterday I traveled fifty miles down Highway Seventeen and spent part of my day with Joe Morris and his grass fed cows in Watsonville, California. It was gorgeous, and such a refreshing experience! In golf we have a saying, Keep It Simple Stupid. Joe Morris and Morris Grassfed Beef keep it simple.
Though that doesn't seem novel on first glance, in today's industrial-fed America, it is. But, don't confuse simple with easy. Corn-fed beef is easy, profit is their only concern.
Simple is raising cows the way it's sustainably been done for centuries. Morris uses a holistic approach that considers more than profit. They're focused on what's best for: the cows, the environment, community, the health of the consumer, and the grass.
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Sat Mar 28, 2009 at 03:59:25 AM PDT
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There is a full out brouhaha going in the comment section of this story in the Huffington Post- Vegan Pet Food: Vegan Pet Food: Is It OK To Raise A Cat Vegan?
Vegan pet food -- and the decision to force one's pet to go vegan -- is suddenly very buzzy. ABC News reports that it's a bit easier for a dog to go vegetarian than it is for a cat, and one person they interviewed said she suspects that "vegan" cats are supplementing their diets by hunting.
What would a vegan do in a situation where their vegan cat was caught with a mouse, or a fly, or whatever it is kitty attempts to dine on? Would you scold it? Or attempt to stop him/her from the action?
Warning this is a long blog!
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Wed Mar 11, 2009 at 13:21:26 PM PDT
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(Awesome diary! - promoted by Jill Richardson)
Our First Lady has been in my favor since I first heard her speak last February at San Jose State. Forget favor, she's now won my heart. In a New York Times article this week she let it be known that local sustainable agriculture and nutrition were going to be a big part of her ambitious agenda.
Michelle Obama's Agenda Includes Healthful Eating
THE television cameras were rolling, the journalists were scribbling and the first lady, Michelle Obama, was standing in a soup kitchen rhapsodizing about steamed broccoli. And homemade mushroom risotto. And freshly baked apple-carrot muffins.
Mrs. Obama was praising the menu last week at Miriam's Kitchen, a nonprofit drop-in center serving this city's homeless. And she seized the moment to urge Americans to provide fresh, unprocessed and locally grown foods to their families and to the neediest in their communities.
"You know, we want to make sure our guests here and across the nation are eating nutritious items," said Mrs. Obama, who served lunch to several homeless men and women and delivered eight cases of fresh fruit to the soup kitchen, all donated by White House employees.
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Tue Feb 10, 2009 at 11:53:39 AM PST
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The New Jersey Board of Agriculture, the eight-member policy-making board that controls the New Jersey State Department of Agriculture, has just chosen South Jersey State Assemblyman Douglas H. Fisher (D-Thorofare), current Chair of the State Assembly's Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee, to serve as New Jersey's next Agriculture Secretary -
South Jersey Assemblyman Douglas H. Fisher was chosen yesterday by the New Jersey Board of Agriculture to be state agriculture secretary, a job that comes with a bumper crop of problems as the Garden State faces continued budget cuts.
The nomination will now be submitted to Governor Jon Corzine (D-Hoboken), who is expected to give the nod to Fisher.
In addition to serving in the New Jersey General Assembly (the Lower House of the NJ State Legislature) from the Salem County-centered Third District since 2002, Mr. Fisher is a real estate agent and former supermarket owner.
He also apparently couldn't resist taking a shot at now-retired former NJ Agriculture Secretary Charles Kuperus, who stepped down in December and was one of the best that New Jersey ever had -
"I can bring something to the department that's really needed: the ability to interact better with the Legislature and governor," Fisher told board members and others after his selection.
"New Jersey has the best farmers in the nation and world. I can bring opportunities for a collective voice that weren't there before."
More below the fold...
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Thu Feb 05, 2009 at 19:28:33 PM PST
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La Vida Locavore user Farmboy recently posted about his plans to start a community-supported agriculture (CSA) farm on land he is leasing in Iowa.
Turns out he has plenty of company:
The U.S. Agriculture Department counted 92,856 farms in Iowa in 2007, up from 90,655 in 2002, the largest number since 1992. USDA conducts the census every five years.
The numbers suggest there could be a revival in small-scale agriculture. The number of farms reporting sales of $10,000 or less was up sharply in 2007.
Sally Worley, a spokeswoman for Practical Farmers of Iowa, said the increase reflects the growing demand for locally produced foods.
"Farmers are trying to start operations to meet that demand. We really have seen a change in the Iowa landscape of farming" with the comeback of small-scale operations, she said.
But Mike Duffy, an economist at Iowa State University, noted that the biggest increase is in very small operations, with less than $1,000 in annual sales.
There were 23,698 of those in 2007, up from 19,668. The USDA census takers may be finding small farms that were already there but not counted previously, he said.
The news is not all good. Medium-sized farms continue to disappear, and large farms with more than $1 million in sales account for a growing share of Iowa's total agricultural production.
Still, I'm happy to see that small-scale farming is on the increase. Iowans love to buy locally-grown food; we have more farmers' markets per capita than any other state.
For those who are interested in getting into small farming (not necessarily in Iowa), here's a long list of educational opportunities in sustainable and organic agriculture.
Women should definitely check out the Women, Food and Agriculture Network (founded by Denise O'Brien).
My fellow Iowans may want to get involved in the Iowa Network for Community Agriculture and Practical Farmers of Iowa.
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