Food & agriculture – Dec 24
– NYT: African Farmers Displaced as Investors Move In
– US revolutionized agriculture to advance its foreign policy (review of “This Hungry World”)
– Idea #4: Create a Local Food Bill
– Food Swaps
Food & Water
The dust bowl: Lessons from the greatest U.S. environmental disaster (podcast)
NASA research scientist Benjamin Cook explains how the Dust Bowl years of the American Midwest were not entirely a “natural disaster” and how lessons learned then prevented a sequel.
Building up the ‘grain chain’
Produce has been the low-hanging fruit for many people wishing to eat local. But local dry goods including wheat, the staff of life, is much more difficult to source in British Columbia. As demand grows, however, more farmers are experimenting with wheat production. What’s lacking, they say, is ready infrastructure to process that wheat — which is why clunkers like the Clipper are forced out of retirement.
Twilight of the chicken tenders
The current American food system can be expected to unravel as the limits to growth begin closing in. Somewhere between the gourmet notions that dominate too much of today’s “slow food” and the mass-produced product that passes for fast food, a new incarnation of traditional working class cuisine is waiting to be born.
Ingredients of Transition: Community supported farms, bakeries and breweries
The Community Supported Agriculture model is providing very successful around the world in various manifestations. It can involve communities owning a share in a local farm, setting up their own farm, paying an annual subscription to a farmer they support, and many other variations on the theme. The model is also being applied to other enterprises, such as pig clubs or community supported bakeries. Where possible, use the community buy-in generated by your Transition initiative to support community supported initiatives.
Bee havens
How do we “save the bees?” It seems like giving the EPA a swift kick in the behind might be a good start, but for all you non-political types (like myself), you can also do something at home.
It does my heart good
Brock McLeod and Heather Walker operate Makaria Farm in Duncan, British Columbia (www.makariafarm.com) and what they have been doing the past two years is just eye-poppingly, unbelievably, overwhelmingly, audaciously amazing. They decided to take small scale grain raising to the very high level of accomplishment— beyond the wildest dreams I had when I wrote my book by that name.
Growing Your Own
4,000 sq. ft of yard in Pasadena. 6,000 lbs of fruits and vegetables. Chickens, goats and bees. Urban homesteading done right.
Beyond drip irrigation to water fields in dry land areas: An interview with David Bainbridge
One of the most vital things is a closer look at traditional systems around the world – traditional knowledge is better suited to local conditions. And because we continue to ignore this, lots of valuable things are being lost.
Food & agriculture – Dec 17
– The Accidental Orchardists
– Gene Logsdon: Fertilizer prices putting manure in the limelight
– Rosie Boycott: The crucial role cities can play in protecting the honeybee
– Australia: Renewing our focus on food
– Wild Permaculture Forest Gardening on the BBC (Video)
Ingredients of Transition: Strategic local infrastructure
The infrastructure required for a more localised and resilient future, the energy systems, the mills, the food systems and the abbatoirs, has been largely ripped out over the past 50 years as oil made it cheaper to work on an ever-increasingly large scale, and their reinstallation will not arise by accident. They will need to be economically viable, supported by their local communities, owned and operated by people with the appropriate skills, and linked together.
Better than a food bank
While The Stop is rooted in providing food to those who can’t afford it, it works on the premise that without food infrastructure, viable farms, civic engagement and personal empowerment, food banks are simply a stop-gap measure in the fight to eradicate hunger. The organization’s ability to harness a growing interest in local food has allowed them to not only boost their own programming, but also build local food infrastructure. The model is the envy of foodies and social activists alike, and a case study for municipalities in Ontario and beyond.
