Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
“The chosen story for people of color in agriculture seems to play out on repeat, reducing our agrarian identity to slavery or farm labor and summing up our communities as deserts in need of water and food. But I know our story is so much richer than that.”
If the new notion of local farming and food production is to endure, it must start with determined individuals willing to go through the hellfire of unpleasant physical work and low financial returns.
Is today’s public market a place to buy food, to sit and eat a meal, or to have a unique educational or culinary experience? Can it be all of these things?
Drought is becoming more prevalent and causing havoc for food producers around the globe.
Nook and cranny gardens optimize micro-climates — water catchment for perennial plants, rocks that retain warmth to extend the growing period, and trees providing fuel, food and shade.
You can plant just about anything in your hugel beds and they will do well, but there are certain plants that tend to do very well in a hugel bed.
Farm commentators are remarking somewhat in surprise that the new move towards local food production and backyard farming are much more in evidence in and around cities than out where the big tractors lumber over the landscape.
When asked what a good food system looks like, Alward says, “I think it’s one filled with information. The most effective tool is information. Let the consumers decide.” To this end, the company emphasizes transparent labeling that not only identifies both product and producer, but also includes information on proximity and processing.
With honeybee populations on the decline, scientists, lawyers, and even artists have set out to save humanity’s most important pollinators.
“Even if every teenager doesn’t end up farming for a living, they hopefully become responsible participants in our food system,” says Gold. “The aim is to give them the tools they need to make their own healthy decisions…
A tour of Gord and Ann Baird’s edible landscape starts at the off-grid chicken house and yard, containing fruit trees that provide a protective canopy against flying predators.
“Agroecology applies the principles of ecology to the design and management of sustainable food systems.”
