Food & Water

What works: community

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At some point, we simply lost track of the importance of communities, human and otherwise. Along the way to becoming a nation of multitasking, Twittering, Facebook “friends” we abandoned the ability to connect meaningfully, viscerally, individually. … I know you hate those stories that start with, “When I was a kid, ….” But here goes, regardless. I grew up in a tiny, backwoods, red-neck logging town. By the time I was 18 years old, I’d seen more bar fights than first-run movies.

Riddles in the Dark

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One aspect of the predicament of industrial society too rarely grasped is the impact of the end of the age of cheap abundant energy on labor costs, wages, and standards of living. In a world where everything is scarce but people, many of the most deeply rooted economic assumptions bid fair to be stood on their heads, with results few of us are prepared to face.

Pitching Manure

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As a boy and younger man, I rejoiced when tractor front end loaders and skid loaders came into vogue to lift the manure and relieve us of long hours of manual labor. But there is something to be said for forking manure by hand. For some reason, it inspires philosophical meditation if you are alone, and philosophical conversation if you have company.

Deconstructing Dinner: Bill C-474 (Protecting Farmers From Economic Harm of GE Crops)

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Deconstructing Dinner has long been at the forefront of covering anything and everything to do with the presence of genetically engineered (GE) foods…On today’s episode we’ll listen to Members of Parliament debate the issue in the House of Commons. Deconstructing Dinner also followed up with Liberal MP Francis Valeriote who supports the bill being sent to committee, but nevertheless shared many critical remarks in the House that are requiring some… deconstructing.

Yemen’s Insoluble Problems

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Beyond dwindling oil production leading to an economic nose-dive, Yemen faces a plethora of other problems; overpopulation, unemployment, poverty, malnourishment, violence etc. A significant part of its scarce water resources are used for cultivating the mildly narcotic and widely popular plant qat. Yemen is a country heading for collapse.

Web & media – Mar 30

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-Joel Salatin And Polyface Farm: Stewards of Creation
-Brian Kimmel looks to shine a light on the importance of eating locally with Ingredients at the CIFF
-The Best Film About a Plastic Bag You’ll Ever See
-Green advertising rules are made to be broken
-Watching the green screens at the Environmental Film Festival in D.C.
-Greenpeace Takes Aim at Koch Industries

Mushrooms

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Mushrooms add minerals to the diet and flavour to meals, and can be roasted, boiled in soups, sautéed, pickled or dried. We are not experienced in harvesting wild mushrooms and will not do so without being certain of their safety, but there are many other ways to get them without buying the individual plastic packages at the supermarket. For example, you can order packets of mycelium – the fungi that yields mushrooms –to grow your own mushroom logs. (photos)

A Perspective on Ag 2.0 Silicon Valley

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I attended the Agriculture 2.0 Silicon Valley conference co-hosted by New Seed Advisors, U.S. Venture Partners and Spin Farming…The agenda was much larger and diverse than in New York, and given the level of interest I expect more events are being planned. The following are some notes and thoughts that reflect the highlights of the day for me.

Organic Farming Opens a Way for Farmers to Return to their Proper Role as Innovators and Stewards of the Land

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The twenty-first century’s uncertainty about the future abounds with predicaments like climate change, depletion of our water resources, and the end of cheap energy. And farmers are being called upon to assume a new role as innovators and stewards of the land because they know how to produce food.

The New Agriculture-A Revolution

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It is hardly possible to read the news these days without tripping over another story about scrappy city folk turning wasted space into lush gardens that produce astonishing amounts of nutritious food—vegetables, honey, eggs, goat cheese—you name it. Every day, greater numbers of ordinary people appear to be answering Sharon Astyk’s call for an army of new farmers to return to the land, wherever they can find it.

In other words, this is no passing novelty.

What works: food

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When we started this endeavor, about two years ago, I could barely distinguish between a hammer and a zucchini. And that tells you all you need to know about my construction skills as well as my gardening skills. As I’ve pointed out many times before, if I can do this, I can hardly imagine somebody who can’t. But you’d better get cracking. The time to plant a garden is not when you’re hungry.