Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
The Speedy Vegetable Garden by Mark Diacono and Lia Leendertz is a quick read (that’s a joke). Actually this wonderful book by Timber Press arrived just in time to stave off the mid-winter crazies. Too soon to plant outside but full on garden growing in my brain. I had been looking for a book on sprouting – not necessarily because I crave speed, but I certainly crave that special taste – and pride – you only receive from growing your own food.
Austerity? I want to eat well, with a clean conscience, on a low budget. But is that possible? Surely a cheap ethical diet condemns me to a grim regime of porridge and cabbage soup? Where will I source that essential nutrient pleasure?
Writing in National Geographic in December 2012 about “small-scale irrigation techniques with simple buckets, affordable pumps, drip lines, and other equipment” that “are enabling farm families to weather dry seasons, raise yields, diversify their crops, and lift themselves out of poverty” water expert Sandra Postel of the Global Water Policy Project cautioned against reckless land and water-related investments in Africa. “[U]nless African governments and foreign interests lend support to these farmer-driven initiatives, rather than undermine them through land and water deals that benefit large-scale, commercial schemes, the best opportunity in decades for societal advancement in the region will be squandered.”
There’s nothing more American than apple pie—or its boozy cousin, apple cider. Thanks in large part to some enterprising apple farmers, hard cider is making a comeback, but it’s not the cloyingly sweet mass-market beverage you might recall from your college days. Call it a fruity offshoot of the modern craft beer movement: hard cider is going back to its roots.
The world is in transition from an era of food abundance to one of scarcity. Over the last decade, world grain reserves have fallen by one third. World food prices have more than doubled, triggering a worldwide land rush and ushering in a new geopolitics of food. Food is the new oil. Land is the new gold.
At the farmers market, you can meet the farmer who grew your carrots, talk to them about their growing practices, and feel confident that your food dollars are going directly to the farm. But the path coffee travels from farm to cup is much more mysterious. How can you feel good about the businesses you’re supporting with your coffee dollars and ensure that farmers thousands of miles away are receiving their fair share?
Urban agriculture has captured the imagination of many San Franciscans in recent years. Two dozen gardens and farms have sprouted across the city since 2008, and in 2011 the city changed its zoning code to permit urban agriculture in all neighborhoods. Interest in urban agriculture stems from its numerous benefits. City farming and gardening provides San Franciscans with vibrant greenspaces and recreation, education about fresh food and the effort it takes to produce it, cost savings and ecological benefits for the city, sites that help build community, and a potential source of modest economic development. But the city will not fully capture these benefits unless it takes advantage of the growing interest and energy behind the issue.
•Solar development absorbing Calif. farmland
•A Free, Pick-Your-Own Orchard Takes Root in Los Angeles
•New Report Shows Inextricable Link Between Food, Water and Energy
•’Progaganda Gardening’ at Incredible Edible Todmorden
•Dairy Farms Suffer in US Shale Gas Fracking Boom
Join the kids at Farm Camp! You’ll watch them care for turkeys and rabbits, listen to a harvest season story, and cook up applesauce. Campers have fun growing and preparing food and, best of all, eating the results. They raise veggies from seed to harvest and take field trips, like the Camp Pizza kids who visit a cheese maker. It all started because founder Laura Plaut wanted her son to have joyful food experiences. “We do [this] because it feels good. It makes us happy, takes care of the planet, [and] takes care of communities.”
This past weekend I made a trek out to central Wisconsin to speak at the state’s annual grazing conference, which typically draws farmers from all over the Midwest. This was the second time I’d been invited to join these folks, and I remembered it fondly from back in 2009, when the conference center was packed, the trade show was hopping with farmers talking about livestock genetics, raw milk, grazing plans, and fencing systems, and the sessions were filled with optimistic faces, eager to bring sustainable changes to their land and good food to their communities.
An imaginative and exciting scheme was launched to provide would-be smallholders with affordable land and low-impact dwellings. But then it was blocked by a local council, and has now gone to appeal. The story highlights how our planning process can frustrate so many ‘good life’ dreams.
We may be able to agree that much of our food system is broken, but how we begin to fix it is much harder to understand. Wenonah Hauter, director of Food and Water Watch, takes on this challenge in her new book, Foodopoly: The Battle Over the Future of Food and Farming in America.
