Health

A farming model to sustain the world

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Ten years from now, in 2020, when we try to look back, Indian agriculture can be transformed into a healthy and vibrant system where farmer suicides have been relegated to history, where distress and despondency has been replaced by the lost pride in farming, where agriculture becomes sustainable in the long run, and does not add on to global warming.

Agroinnovations #73: Felder School Farm

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This episode we welcome Ragan Sutterfeld of Felder School Farm, a school farm located in Little Rock Arkansas that is pioneering the way to get agriculture into our country’s schools. Topics of discussion include barriers to adoption, the agricultural calendar vs. the educational calendar, and agriculture in education. This idea can be summarized in five words: Turn the Schools into Farms. Now, let’s go out there and make it a reality.

Secret Handshakes

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Very little seems to connect the quest for community in today’s declining industrial societies with the mostly empty and mostly forgotten lodge halls that still dot America’s older cities and towns. Appearances deceive, though, for the old fraternal lodges — themselves the product of an earlier quest for community — offer some useful pointers for the present, as well as a cautionary lesson of no small importance.

Food, agriculture, and a new economy? – Jan 18

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-Emissions from UK food industry far higher than believed
-Poachers Arrive at Egg Farms
-Striking a bargain: With supply limited, state targets water demand
-Will Anyone Stand Up For American Industry?
-The Key to Local Food Systems’ Survival: Strong Community Support

Haiti’s Overshoot of Habitat Capacity, Energy Constraints and Preceding Environmental Disasters Amplifies Nature’s Fury

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As others have pointed out, many of Haiti’s problems have been related to its population density, associated environmental degradation and its need for cheap energy. Now, with the worst earthquake shaking the Caribbean in 200 years, we must sadly add another chapter to the Haitian book chronicling the linkage between its human and ecological disasters.

Review: The American West at Risk by Howard G. Wilshire, Jane E. Nielson and Richard W. Hazlett

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The American West at Risk’s 13 chapters examine some of the major human-caused environmental problems now threatening the 11 contiguous Western states…Citing trustworthy, peer-reviewed studies in support of its arguments, and written by three trained scientists, this book has every claim for credibility—and is an enlightening and gripping read for scientists and laypeople alike.

Food & agriculture – Dec 22

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-Seed behemoth Monsanto stumbles into antitrust trouble
-Weather no obstacle for Pittsburg garden
-How a Hoop House Can Extend the Growing Season
-Copenhagen: peasant farmers can save the planet
-Getting at the roots of unsustainable U.S. ag policy
-Copenhagen could lead to increase in intensive farming
-Meet the Milk
-Where Industry Once Hummed, Urban Garden Finds Success

Food & agriculture – Dec 16

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Why Britain faces a bleak future of food shortages
-Sinking Feelings About Storing Carbon Emissions on the Farm
-California’s Troubled Waters
-L.A. cooperative provides communities with produce
-Farmers Reclaim Power!
-Free lunches handed out to highlight food waste
-Setting the Table (report)

Peak Moment 156: High on Permaculture in the Rocky Mountains

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Kris Holstrom’s off-grid permaculture farm at 9000 feet high is living proof that food can be grown nearly anywhere. Managing with a very short growing season and water constraints, she and her interns have created magic. Tour the sun-warmed, insulated greenhouse where greens are grown year-round.