Food & Water

Peak Moment 226: Inspiration Farm – Cultivating Nourishing Food and Creativity

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“Changing times calls for changing lifestyles.” says Brian Kerkvliet. “So [we’ve] put more energy into the land… The more you get your fingers in the soil, the more endorphins rush through your head. You get excited by all of that.” Using permaculture and biodynamic practices, Brian’s family is endlessly experimenting and innovating to find what works. His wife Alexandra and daughter Rosalie introduce us to the goats, pigs, and cows who are essential players in their farm’s web of life. Don’t miss the outdoor shower with water heated by microbes in the compost pile! (Episode 226).

The Transition Ipswich 30-Mile Food Challenge, September 2012

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Like most Transition projects, it started with a ‘Why don’t we … ?’ conversation. This one during a tea break at The Oak Tree Low Carbon Farm, the CSA on the edge of Ipswich, which itself grew from a similar conversation.  Inspired by the efforts of Greener Fram[lingham] another Suffolk Transition group who had organised a Local Food Challenge the year before, and others such as in Fife, Tweed Green and the New Forest, a small group of us started planning in the autumn of 2011. Almost immediately we were joined by Transition Woodbridge, our nearest neighbours. Both realised the benefits of working together – especially as numbers in our original organising group shrank as the months went by.

A personal forest

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I guess you could say trees are as family to me. They remain a part of my life wherever I go. When I was 17 I learned to work horses on the long line, and later, when I arrived at the Farm in Tennessee, fresh out of grad school, I put those skills to use snaking logs from the forest with a team of Belgian mares. I built a tent home for my bride on a platform of hand hewn oak logs acquired that way.

Food & agriculture – Jan 21

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•How Google Earth Revealed Chicago’s Hidden Farms
•Cash for Hay Driving Thieves to Move Bundles
•A people’s buy-out of Britain’s farmland
•Enviro Crusader Turns Pro-GMO, Anti-Organic—And Anti-Logic
•The U.S. Will Again Produce More of the Nitrogen Fertilizer it Uses for Agriculture

Breaking up the Foodopoly

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While many of us hope our farmers market purchases are helping repair a broken food system, let’s face it: all the locally grown organic broccoli in the world will only get us so far. Our dollars are valuable to the farmers at the market, but the domination of the American foodscape by a few powerful corporate players continues to limit consumer choices while squeezing out small and sustainable farmers and food producers.

How millions of farmers are advancing agriculture for themselves

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The world record yield for paddy rice production is not held by an agricultural research station or by a large-scale farmer from the United States, but by a farmer in the state of Bihar in northern India. Sumant Kumar, who has a farm of just two hectares in Darveshpura village, holds a record yield of 22.4 tons per hectare, from a one-acre plot. This feat was achieved with what is known as the System of Rice Intensification (SRI).

Keepers of the Craft

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For many of us, the word “guild” might conjure up images of medieval metal workers, Gothic guildhalls, and secret societies. Today, the guild is getting a modern makeover as lost arts like craft brewing, food preservation, and butchery make their way into the mainstream. In an increasingly industrialized food system, guilds give individual artisans a forum to share tricks of the trade, pool resources, and advance their crafts.

My woodpile is bigger than your woodpile

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I tried to pull a sneaky little brag on all of you a few weeks ago when I used a photo of my woodpile on a post. The post wasn’t even about woodpiles exactly and I was, like, you know, uh, well, oh-by-the-way, pretending that I just happened to have this photo lying around and so I might as well use it.

Q&A: Lester Brown, Author – Full Planet, Empty Plates

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In his newest book, Full Planet, Empty Plates, Lester Brown writes…"The U.S. Great Drought of 2012 has raised corn prices to the highest level in history. The world price of food, which has already doubled over the last decade, is slated to climb higher, ushering in a new wave of food unrest…."

The Local Food Shift: Getting There

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Across the nation, a robust and inspiring local food movement is gaining momentum but faces critical challenges of overwhelming demand, limited production capacity, lack of infrastructure, and limited access to capital. Meanwhile, as the unsustainability of the industrialized corporate food system becomes increasingly evident, a global food crisis threatens to land on our own shores. Our communities are food insecure.