Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
Nevada County locals Jim Wray and Loraine Webb demonstrate the how and why of packaging bulk foods with nitrogen. They’re using equipment available for community members to use at minimal cost. Jim demonstrates packaging: make plastic bags using a heat sealer, fill with foodstuffs, suck out the oxygen with a small vacuum, then replace the air with nitrogen and seal.
Everyone should listen to this BBC report on the “price of biofuels.” It digs into a key question: what does Europe’s appetite for biodiesel mean for people and ecosystems in the countries that produce the feedstocks?
The bottom line is that all of us trying to recreate a thriving pastoral garden society today are really carrying on an ancient tradition. That’s why the lonesome cowboy is central to American culture and the good shepherd is central to Christian religion. As hilarious as our escapades sometimes are, we are paying homage to an elemental activity of human survival.
Virginia farmer Joel Salatin has become one of the most well known names in the world of alternative farming…In February 2010, Joel was interviewed by Lauren Berlekamp of the Erie Wire. Joel spoke to Lauren about his unique and seemingly common-sense approach to farming…Also featured on the episode, a great talk delivered by Toronto’s Judy Rebick. Rebick is the Canadian Auto Workers-Sam Gindin Chair in Social Justice and Democracy at Ryerson University…In November 2008, Rebick spoke at the annual convention of Canada’s National Farmers Union and encouraged farmers there to take advantage of what she referred to as the ‘perfect storm’, whereby the dominant top-down social and economic models are collapsing – clearing the way, as she believes, for a bottom-up and community-centred approach to begin better serving our needs.
Tom Barefoot and Linda Wheatley explain the idea behind an upcoming conference in Vermont on how governments can measure the success of their policies using gross national happiness, not gross national product. And Ben Hewitt, author of the book about Hardwick called The Town That Food Saved, tells what he learned from the people of Hardwick about the difference between economic prosperity and quality of life.
Philosopher-farmers Wendell Berry, Wes Jackson and Gene Logsdon discuss the future of agriculture, the environment and changing our ideas about growth and progress.
-Food Preservation 101: Putting Canning In Perspective
-In Connecticut, Community-Supported Agriculture Gaining In Popularity
-Gardening by community growing in appeal
-A garden on every block
-Cuba’s urban-ag revival offers limited lessons
-The Triangle: The South’s Locavore Gem
-The AKG Sustainable Living Project podcast episode #4 transcript- Rain Water Harvesting
-Ancient orchards restored to save fruit and wildlife
-Community Land Sharing
-Global biofuel drive raises risk of eviction for African farmers
Phosphorus is one of the three elements critical for modern agriculture, and hence the survival of human beings.
In 2007, Energy Bulletin published the first report in which Hubbert analysis was applied to mined phosphorus supplies, highlighting the oncoming shortage. In recent months, articles on the subject have been published by Scientific American, Spiegel, Foreign Policy and Miller-McCune. Several institutes are beginning to look at the problem.
(Excerpts from these articles, plus prescient comments by Aldous Huxley, author of “Brave New World.”)
– Food aid shortfall threatens Yemen
– Food vs. fuel: growing grain for food is more energy efficient
– Colonizing cassava
– The coming famine: risks and solutions for global food security (book)
I am sometimes asked why I spend my time writing about farming and gardening when, it is suggested, there are more important topics to which to apply my talents. That, in one sentence, indicates one of the most troublesome cultural problems that modern society faces today: the notion that food-getting is not an important enough subject to merit the close attention of all of us.
We currently live within an integrated complex globalised economy. We have framed the process in which this occurs as a catastrophic bifurcation, driven by a series of reinforcing positive feedbacks. The final point will be a de-globalised (localised) economy of much reduced complexity.
The book “Is Eco Ok? On organic farming in Sweden” highlights the dividing lines between conventional and organic farming with an emphasis on 1) inorganic fertilizers and 2) chemical pesticides.
