THE TRANSITION MOVEMENT

Why Transition?

We are living in an age of unprecedented change, with a number of crises converging. Climate change, global economic instability, overpopulation, erosion of community, declining biodiversity, and resource wars, have all stemmed from the availability of cheap, non-renewable fossil fuels. Global oil, gas and coal production is predicted to irreversibly decline in the next 10 to 20 years, and severe climate changes are already taking effect around the world. The coming shocks are likely to be catastrophic if we do not prepare. As Richard Heinberg states:

Our central survival task for the decades ahead, as individuals and as a
species, must be to make a transition away from the use of fossil fuels –
and to do this as peacefully, equitably, and intelligently as possible”.

The Transition movement represents one of the most promising ways of engaging people and communities to take the far-reaching actions that are required to mitigate the effects of peak oil, climate change and the economic crisis. Furthermore, these relocalization efforts are designed to result in a life that is more fulfilling, more socially connected and more equitable than the one we have today.

The Transition model is based on a loose set of real world principles and practices that have been built up over time through experimentation and observation of communities as they drive forward to reduce carbon emissions and build community resilience. Underpinning the model is a recognition of the following:

• Peak Oil, Climate Change and the Economic Crisis require urgent action
• Adaptation to a world with less oil is inevitable
• It is better to plan and be prepared, than be taken by surprise
• Industrial society has lost the resilience to be able to cope with shocks to its systems
• We have to act together and we have to act now
• We must negotiate our way down from the “peak” using all our skill, ingenuity and intelligence
• Using our creativity and cooperation to unleash the collective genius within our local communities will lead to a more abundant, connected and healthier future for all.

The Transition Movement believes that is up to us in our local communities to step into a leadership position on this situation. We need to start working now to mitigate the interrelated effects of peak oil, climate change, and the economic crisis, before it is too late. Together we can make a difference.

Check out this video put together by Ben Zolno on ‘Why Transition?

THE FIRST SHEAF

THE FIRST SHEAF

Ever since primitive man learned to cultivate his own crops, harvest festivals — thanksgiving ceremonies and celebrations for a successful and abundant harvest — have been carried out throughout the world.

The celebration of harvest in Britain dates back to pre-Christian times, when the success of crops governed the lives of the people. Saxon farmers offered the first cut sheaf of corn to one of their gods of fertility to ensure a good harvest the following year. Corn dollies (symbolizing the goddess of the grain) were traditionally made from the last ears of wheat to be cut.  (Referral link)

Today we cut the first sheaf of the harvest, and in fact – it is the first grain to be harvested in Mendocino County in any great amount in almost 60 years!  As the Chaplain of our Grange, I carried a sickle into the field & cut this first sheaf with prayers & thanks for abundance, and with hope that it will continue on into the future cycles – as we sow the seeds of the harvested sheaf once again in the sacred circle of life.

We of the Grange honor this time of the yearly cycle as the bountiful harvest of CERES.  The Roman Cereal Goddess Ceres is the giver of life.

I wrote a play using the initiation liturgy of the Grange (Refer to the Manual of Subordinate Granges), and some of it follows here…

We filmed some film footage today in the vineyard- with the intention that a short film about Grange, the reverence for grain & the cycles of agriculture will be made.

~~~~~~

Ceres: Grass is the basis of agriculture.  Without it the Earth would be arid, barren waste.  It is emblematic of man’s transitory state upon the earth, and of a brighter and more glorious truth. (page 21)

Lecturer: Ceres offers the grain that holds all of humankind in our agricultural ways – from the first ancient wild grasses that were cultivated into bold and heavy grains that can feed many from one field.  Ceres lives in the sheaf of wheat, the bundle of corn, the drying rice on the roofs of dwellings.  Her gift offers our lives stability – thusly have humans settled in one place with no need to roam nomadically, looking for foods in the wilderness.  Ceres represents the first harvests of late summer – as our life cycle turns to Adulthood, both symbolized by the Sickle and the Ripened Grain.  We are both Harvester and Gleaner.  Secure in our abundance we can begin to practice CHARITY.

Ceres: I am the giver of life, the seed becomes the sheaf, becomes the bread and the feast, from which the seed is saved for planting again.  I am all of the cycle in one.

From The Grange Manual: To live in the country and enjoy all its pleasures, we should love rural life.  To love the country is to take interest in all that belongs to it – its occupations, its culture, its improvement.  To gather the flocks around us and feed them from our hands, to make the birds our friends and too call them by their names, to rove the verdant  fields with a higher pleasure than we could have in regal courts and high towers, to inhale the air of the morning  as if it were the sweet breath of infancy, to brush the dew from the glittering fields as if our paths were strewn with diamonds, to perceive this glorious temple all distinct with the presence of Divinity, and to feel, amid all this – the heart swelling with and adoration and a holy joy absolutely incapable of utterance. This it is to love the country, and to make it not the home of the body only, but of the soul.  These teachings would make any home the brightest and happiest on Earth.

Ceres: Be as a grain of wheat.  Begin in innocence in the darkness of your inner thoughts; allow the cultivation of knowledge and then the ripening of wisdom to guide your harvest.  Share these grains of wisdom with all you meet.  Teach this to the next generation of seeds that they may continue the cycle of diligent labor and reward.

Master: The SICKLE is an ancient and honorable tool.  It speaks of peace and prosperity, and is the harbinger of joy.  It is used not merely to reap the golden grain of the sheaf, but – in the field of mind and heart and soul – to gather every precious stalk, every opening flower, and every desirable fruit.  Thus it is a reminder of honest employment, diligent labor – teaching the present lesson of prosperity and peace, and a prophecy of future plenty and rejoicing. (Grange Manual – page 44, paraphrased)

Lecturer: As we begin the harvest of grains – the rustling corn is waving as ripe and ready for the reapers and gleaners – may we feel as well the attendant lessons.  We must reap for the mind as well as for the body, and from the abundance of our harvest, in good deeds and kind words, dispense CHARITY.  The grain is ripe and ready for the harvest.  It is, however, important that the best of intelligent and skillful labors be employed.  Gather only the good seed, both for feasting and for planting in the next cycle.  Our associations in life are the fields in which we reap.  Use judgment, and while you glean let your example be such that others may profit by it.  Cultivate an observing mind; perceive the beauty that everywhere abounds.

Pomona: The harvest time of your life consists not only of that which you take from the seeds planted for your own use – the ripe grains that fall into your hands, but also is a time of CHARITY – sharing the harvest with those in need around you.  As flowers and vines have covered the rough paces in nature, so I charge you, cover the faults and failings of others with the mantle of CHARITY.  Speak well of others, rather than dwell on their shortcomings.  Gather up the sheaves of their virtues, and pass by their faults, just as you gather the good seed, and leave the rest.  Such are the great aims, labors and rewards of the planting, the cultivation and the harvest of life. (Paraphrased from page 43)

~~~~~

Note:  This wheat is being grown in between the rows of grapes in the Vineyards of the Frey Family Winery. 

The standard 8 feet of row space is most of the land use in a vineyard ,and by planting down the center of this space with vegetables & grains, they hope to see a fuller overall usage of acreage, and a reduction of pests & weeds.  I wish them the best of success with this innovation and with luck – the future will see many more California vineyards growing grains!

Harvest festivals in ancient cultures

• The ancient Egyptians celebrated their harvest festival in honour of Min, the god of vegetation and fertility. The festival of Min was held in the spring, the Egyptians’ harvest season. After a grand parade, a great feast was held with music, dancing and sports.
• The ancient Chinese celebrated their harvest festival on the 15th day of the eighth month. The day was believed to be the birthday of the Moon and special Moon cakes stamped with the face of a rabbit (perceived to be the face of the moon) were baked.
• The ancient Greeks worshiped Demeter as their goddess of all grains. Demeter’s daughter Persephone was abducted by Hades, the god of the underworld. Demeter, the source of all growth and life, withdrew her powers from the Earth during her time of grief. Demeter’s refusal to eat or feed the world until the other gods resolved her conflict with Hades over Persephone brought on winter, and no plants or grains could grow. Because Persephone had eaten pomegranate seeds given to her by Hades, she was condemned by the gods to spend half of the year in the underworld and half of the year on earth with Demeter. Every year, when Persephone is in the underworld there is winter, and when she is on the Earth, there is spring and summer.
• The Romans celebrated the Cerelia festival, where offerings of the first fruit of the harvest were dedicated to Ceres (Demeter in Greek). Some believe the festival was held in October, others say that it took place in April, to coincide with the arrival of spring.

P.S.  I also hope to obtain some grain for baking into loaves of bread for our annual Harvest Dinner at the Little Lake Grange.

Waste = Food, Homes, Future

Waste = Food

An inspiring documentary on the Cradle to Cradle design concept of the chemist Michael Braungart and the architect William McDonough. Winner of the Silver Dragon at the Beijing International Science Film Festival 2006. OUTLINE: Man is the only creature that produces landfills. Natural resources are being depleted on a rapid scale while production and consumption are rising in na­tions like China and India. The waste production world wide is enormous and if we do not do anything we will soon have turned all our resources into one big messy landfill. But there is hope. The German chemist, Michael Braungart, and the American designer-architect William McDonough are fundamentally changing the way we produce and build. If waste would become food for the biosphere or the technosphere (all the technical products we make), produc­tion and consumption could become beneficial for the planet. A design and production concept that they call Cradle to Cradle. A concept that is seen as the next industrial revolution. • Design every product in such a way that at the end of its lifecycle the component materials become a new resource.

• Design buildings in such a way that they produce energy and become a friend to the environment.

Large companies like Ford and Nike are working with McDonough and Braun­gart to change their production facilities and their products. They realize that economically seen waste is destruction of capital. You make something with no value. Based on their ideas the Chinese government is working towards a circular economy where Waste = Food. An amazing story that will definitely change your way of thinking about production and consumption.

Director Rob van Hattum Research Gijs Meijer Swantee

Production Karin Spiegel en Madeleine Somer

Editors in Chief Doke Romeijn en Frank Wiering

© VPRO 2006

Cork: reusable & sustainable

I inherited 3 cork trees with my little house, they are so beautiful … I love them! I also do not like plastics, the Gulf Oil Hemorrage would not be happening if we were not addicted to petroleum & most of its toxic uses.

Cork – One of the most renewable and ecologically friendly materials found anywhere in the world

CORK
Cork is the bark of the cork oak tree (Quercus suber). After the cork bark is harvested from the tree, the bark immediately begins to renew itself. Not a single tree is cut down during harvest. Generally, after nine years of growth the bark is two inches thick. It is often at this point when the tree is re-harvested. Cork trees live 200-500 years.

MORE THAN RENEWABLE
Cork not only begins to renew its bark immediately after harvest but during the trees entire lifespan it is filtering carbon dioxide thereby reducing greenhouse gases. Furthermore, according to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) “cork oak forests support one of the highest levels of biodiversity among forest habitats, as well as the highest diversity of plants found anywhere in the world”.

NOT GOING EXTINCT
Despite rumours, cork is not going extinct. However, some winemakers are causing the cork habitat to be threatened by converting from real wine corks to synthetic and screw caps. Because of the decrease in use of real wine cork, the value of cork as a raw material has gone down. This may cause cork forest owners to sell their land, which in turn may be converted to alternative use (such as real estate development).

BY USING CORK YOU ARE HELPING OUR PLANET
The more cork that is used, the more value the farmers who own the forests get out of their land, making it less likely they will sell their land for development. By using cork you are helping to preserve the forest habitat and thereby reducing greenhouse gases and contributing to biodiversity among plant and animal life. There are many other benefits, including poverty alleviation (many cork forests are in rural North Africa and are critical to their local economy) and employment.

The construction industry has been quick to embrace cork as an acoustic underlayment in multilevel units and for flooring. The interior design industry is also on the cutting edge with unique uses of cork. Both industries also recognize that cork contributes favorably to the LEED rating system. Please encourage your favorite winemaker to support the natural solution and think how you can integrate cork into your home or office.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Please visit this cork website or this link to the World Wildlife Fund:
http://www.jelinek.com/wwf

Here are some facts I’d like to offer:Less than 1% of all plastic closures in the US are recycled. Plastic closures are not bio-degradable; they are made from petrochemicals, which are neither renewable nor sustainably sourced. Solvents cause leaching in petrochemicals, wine is a solvent. There is an island of plastic …garbage, twice the size of Texas, floating in the Pacific.Screw caps are not recycled in the US, the mechanism used to sort metals eliminates them, and they end up in landfills. Bauxite mining, from which aluminum is made, remains one of the most toxic and environmentally hazardous mining practices.Harvesting of cork is the most environmental and sustainable forestry practice on earth. Natural cork can and is being recycled here in the US; it is not being reused in for wine closures. Opting for screw caps and plastic closures directly causes the loss of sustainable livelihoods as the cork forests are a vital source of income for thousands of family farmers.

So – support the cork forests, buy only wine using real corks. I understand the argument for using synthetic corks since I avhe some 50 year ports where the corks have deteriorated, however the cork forests provide greenery and help our environment. An occasional spoiled bottle of wine due to a bad cork is still better than the plastic world of technology.

Straw Bale Planters get covered for Winter

Today we worked the straw bale planting beds some more… Experimental straw bale bed # 1 – which was dragged together, cut  & planted several  weeks ago continues to be much warmer than the surrounding soil.  The rest of the garden soil has dropped to about 40 degrees at about 6 inches deep, but the bales continue to hold a temp of 65degrees, even in the upper 4″ soil portion of the planter cuts, as well as deep internally in the bales.  The bale at the west end, getting full sun along its high side, has a higher temp that fluctuates throughout the day up to 80 degrees!  Today we built a simple cloche or hoop cover for it.  Rebar, PVC, and quality greenhouse fabric will keep the temp inside above the rest of the air during the night, giving my winter greens a better opportunity for growth & water retention.   The arugula has sprouted prolifically & densely & so I moved the babies around by small bunches – to open areas for hopeful growth.  I am such a lazy gardener, saving time with these casual approaches to planting.

Bed #2 was planted with tomatoes last summer & did not retain water or do very well at all, for whatever reason.  I am hoping that the straw bales address the issue of water as well as amending with organic substance to the soil as it breaks down.  This experimental bed is in early stages – has had a few inches of rain, and got a late start overall.   The straw is still fairly dry inside the compressed bales, and does not register any temp variability from ambient surrounding soil.  I hope it is not too later in the year to get some temp increases as the straw fully wets & decomposes internally.  Does this bale planter need the sun’s heat to bring the temp up inside?  We will see.  We are cutting out the straw planters now, a time consuming job.  RJ is bringing his chain saw tomorrow to rip it up faster- he calls it “hogging it out”.  Once that is done, we will plant spinach starts & my ‘saved seed’ broccoli rab.  Then we must wait for more good soaking rains. One it is wet & filled with rainwater, we will cover it with the fabric.  If there is a great temp increase inside, we could have the makings of a warm greenhouse effect! Very excited to see how this works out over the winter.

The handsome coco lined hanging basket that was used as an “upside down” tomato garden last summer never did well either.  Seemed too dry always…only a few cherry tomatoes dared the hot dry conditions to actually redden up.  The salad greens appear to be much happier in their small but moist winter home.  Ambient air temps will be a factor in this little garden’s success, but…So far – so good!

Hawaii Island & Sustainable Localization

On Wed, October 28th, I gave a presentation on Sustainability & Localization at Angel Farms in Pahoa, Hawaii. It was a handpicked group of local sustainability & permaculture groups of the Big Island. I made a similar presentation 3 years ago at La’Akea Permaculture Community nearby in the Puna area, and am excited to see how interest & area projects relating to food & energy Localization & emergency preparedness have seemed to increase since then!

There was lots of thoughtful & experienced input & the lively discussion continued out into the parking lot & hopefully will accelerate now as the local alternative news – Big Island Weekly – covered the event, and several present were very pleased to have made contact for the first time.

More networking is required as there is so much wild food available, & there are so many people living simply & sustainably already, and any number of organic farmers, skill sets & best practices available to share.

Some Local PUNA projects represented –

Aloha Mahalo Apono
Papaya Field Restoration & Canoe Projects

*AMA’s mission is to foster stability in our community by creating programs that help to connect people with nature, and enhance their ability to live in harmony with others.

La’akea Community

La’akea is a local example of integrating modern permaculture with the natural

rain forest on this island

Greenwill Conservancy

Working with at-risk youth & mentoring to pass on skill sets that will offer jobs in the areas of Green Construction & sustainability

Keana Okuda

www.iftheboatsstop.wordpress.com

*Keana is making a difference in her lifestyle in 2010 & will be blogging her year of living locally on what is already on the Island. She is asking us to consider -What if the boats really stopped?  What if we weren’t able to ship the countless amounts of stuff we use here every week?  Would we survive?  Could we thrive?  The boats have stopped before.  What is our sustain-ability?

The Hilo County Government is currently funding a project – The Kohala Center is doing an inventory of food sources & also is asking for citizen input on the future of island agriculture, and so it is a good time to put localization of residential food supply on the table.

On the subject of energy, every new housing development is now required to have a solar hot water installation. Residential water collection is becoming more common, thus saving lots of energy to move district water supplies around. Transport is rural & so is a challenge, but a FREE bus system was recently instated by the county, which connects many rural roads into the towns.

A further note, there are about 200k residents now, and before the advent of imported food, the island supported a population of 300k! A potentially do-able local food transition…so – dig that Taro!!

Aloha,

Annie “NOjeans” SurfWaters

Edible Landscapes

Edible Landscape…

With the prices of food, the uncertainties of the economics – it is certainly time

to plant some food no matter what way we live.

Edible Landscape…

I love this term!  Exactly what we need in this year of focus on

“Local Food and Gardens”…

fresh, juicy and delicious surroundings – the most local  of  all

foods – on our own lawns!

As spring arrives – I am looking at my yard with its different problems and opportunities.

I believe there is an edible or herbal plant for every situation – climbing, low, shade or sun,

dry or moist – in my garden patch… with some research, you can find plants for every situation in your location too! So – why plant just any old plant in your landscaping when you can plant something edible and make food and fun for your family & the future?

Read more: “Edible Landscaping for Beginners | beingfrugal.net”

I was also recently very inspired by the film “The Power of Community” – about how Cuba survived their

“power down” and loss of  imported food in  the ‘90’s…they planted food everywhere – on the balconies of

tall buildings, in old tubs on benches outside of Office buildings; it seemed that everyone helped to get more

calories and nutrition by planting small or large Organic “Victory Gardens” all over the place.

On that note – Let’s help promote a National Victory Garden Movement to support the transition of backyard,

front yard, window boxes, rooftops, and unused land into organic food production areas.

Starting with a White House Food Patch, we can all get started by taking action in our own communities.

Edible Landscape…

Back to your own food production – What do you like to eat?  Plant some! If you already have an established

flower garden or border, it is easy to interplant some delicious looking veggies like peppers or basil and maybe

strawberries as edible ground cover in areas you are already planting and watering.  Instead of putting in that neat

edging row of annual pansies, make it a row of low growing herbs such as Thyme. They will offer you cooking

condiments, tea, small flowers and as an added bonus – you won’t have to replant them every year!

While you are at it – offer your soil some compost or mulch, some soil enhancers like manure or bone meal to give

your veggies more oomph!

There are all kinds of great resources on planting properly with soil additives, and must at least add in nutrients that

the plants use up.  The benefits of permaculture and no-dig methods take you even a bit further into the realm of super great gardens and less work!

I’m all for that – so my winter reading included a number of books –

The #1 A+  book to get is this one -

Gaia’s Garden, A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture by Toby Hemenway

– as well as recommending the following:

* The Complete Book of Edible Landscaping by Rosalind Creasy;
* Designing and Maintaining Your Edible Landscape Naturally by Robert Kourik;
* Perennial Vegetables: From Artichoke to Zuiki Taro – A Gardener’s Guide to Over 100 Delicious Easy-to-Grow Edibles by Eric Toensmeier;
* Self-Sufficiency Gardening; Financial, Physical, and Emotional Security from Your Own Backyard by Martin P. Waterman;
* The Self-Sufficient Life and How to Live It by John Seymour
* How to Grow More Vegetables… – by John Jeavons
* The Ruth Stout No-Work Garden Book, Gardening Without Work for the Aging, the Busy and the Indolent, & How to Have a Green Thumb Without an Aching Back – all by Ruth Stout ( and out of print, I think)

Edible Landscape…

This spring I am replanting the borders of my yard with goji berries,olive trees, rugosa roses, elderberries, a fig,

medicinal herbs and even rhubarb – so pretty with its red and green colors…

I love rhubarb pie.

I am also excited about Polyculture planting…intermixing selected plants together by

broadcast seeding – such that

you end  up with a very diverse mix in your garden, a blend of varieties that defies pests

and ripens over time to

offer months of food – perhaps even self-mulches the area over the season.

If all you have is a balcony and an old plastic 1 gal pot filled with dried soil and a dead houseplant you are in luck!

Coffee grounds, tea bags, crushed egg shells can be added to that soil using an old spoon, and then planted with a

few things. Just shred up that dead plant and place in the bottom to help drainage and  over time it will nourish the

soil as well. Occasionally use the rinse water from your spaghetti or even leftover beer to water your garden and

you will be saving water and nourishing the plants too! Frugal measures are

fun and adventurous…

Here are some Container combinations – pretty and practical ideas:

* Curly parsley and yellow pansies (Violas)
* Red leaf lettuce with yellow and orange calendulas
* Red chard and New Zealand spinach
* Dwarf curly kale with dusty miller, pink nemesia, and dianthus
* Curly parsley with trailing blue lobelia
* Oregano with red chard and trailing white lobelia
* Curly parsley and strawberries

Edible Landscape…

Whatever you have time and room for – it  will be a bonus in  your life –

super nutrition & better quality food at a

lower price, a feeling of genuine happiness each day that your hands are in the soil,

and a sense of security that you

can provide for yourself, no matter what comes to pass in this uncertain time.

Try organizing  some community gardens -

I think there are grants out there just for this!

Edible Landscape…sounds a bit like the Garden of Eden, now doesn’t it?

Excuse me while I go munch some groundcover mint…

Honey – divine nectar , edible bee love and sacred food

I fell in love with the taste of honey as a young girl, and especially loved creamed honey on toast – or comb honey eaten right off of the spoon. Chewing the beeswax for an hour longer was a bonus from this special treat. Taking a moment to savor the vision of golden syrup as it dripped from the hexagonal cells was another aspect of my wonderful memories of comb honey.

And…

I still go off of my “let’s eat carefully of this precious nectar diet” when there is a chance to eat biscuits dripping with golden nectar!

The wonderful & best-selling novel by Sue Monk Kidd, “The Secret Life of Bees” unfolds in a sentimental, honey-glazed land that vaguely resembles South Carolina in 1964. The movie is almost as good as the book – for describing the inner life of its complex characters…I cried all the way through!

There is a scene in the movie – “The Secret Life of Bees” – when Lily smashes several jars of honey in her anger at her lack of mother-love. This abundance of wasted honey really brings home how powerful that loss must have been – for her to destroy the life work of her beloved bees. (One worker bee actually makes

only 1/12 of a teaspoon of honey in her lifetime.)

But – that is not the point of this brief post…I merely wanted to remind my readers that honey is precious – so precious that it takes a honey bee (Apis mellifera) 154 trips, carrying tiny amounts of nectar from the flower to the hive, just to make one teaspoon of honey. The days of cooking with an entire cup of honey are long gone in my life…as a natural food devotee in the 1970’s I ate more than my share of this divine nectar. So I hope that we all begin to offer greater respect for the trials of the honey bee in these times of CCD – let’s eat honey wisely, offer our blessings to the bee, and begin to keep hives locally! That will develop better genetic strains of bee that may weather this time of collapse, which I believe mirrors the overall environmental stress of our current Planet -wide crisis.

Honey has been used as a medicine and a sacred food since before the ancient Egyptians began to keep hives.

So – hey – Let’s get back to a sense of the sacred with all of our foods, and especially those which are truly precious and rare, hard to get and involve the sacrifices of our fellow species.

Blessed Bee.

Oh, oh, its gonna be a wild ride!

What is going on!???? I am probably the “average” person when it comes to understanding the economy…but, when does Wall Street get to be bailed out using MY money????

Upset – yes I am… some rich corporate guys make a big big mistake, and WE, the People have to pay for it? Not fair – I remember a Movie where Chevy Chase’s wife spends the entire family savings in a casino – Chevy tries to convince the owners to give back her money – “It was a mistake”…well, Vegas doesn’t give back lost wages and neither should the stock market be bailed out by the American Taxpayers…those fat guys were gambling, and they lost…

700Billion – that would buy a whole bunch of great houses for the folks who are out sitting on sidewalks after their foreclosures…

Do the math!!

Meanwhile, I feel we are on a roller coaster toward the great crash…I am planting my garden & buying cans of salmon with my savings – how about you?

SMALL FARMS ARE MORE PRODUCTIVE AND PROFITABLE

Let’s take another look at small farms. The localization of our food supply will offer many positive opportunities to our youth, to our sense of place & community, and also to the quality of health and well being we each take from our daily meals.

American agriculture is mired in a mind-set that relies on capital, chemistry and machines. Food production is dependent on oil, in the form of fertilizers and pesticides, in the distances produce travels from farm to plate and in the energy it takes to process it.

For decades, environmentalists and small farmers have claimed that this is several kinds of madness. But industrial agriculture has simply responded that if we’re feeding more people more cheaply using less land, how terrible can our food system be?

Now that argument no longer holds true. With the price of oil at more than $120 a barrel (up from less than $30 for most of the last 50 years), small and midsize nonpolluting farms, the ones growing the healthiest and best-tasting food, are gaining a competitive advantage. They aren’t as reliant on oil, because they use fewer large machines and less pesticide and fertilizer.

• A 1,000 acre U.S. corporate farm growing genetically engineered crops nets an average of $39 an acre.
• In contrast, a four-acre family farm nets, on average, $1,400 per acre.
• Small organic farms are proving to be even more profitable. With oil prices on the rise, growing food without petroleum-based pesticides/fertilizers, and delivering that food to local markets will quickly prove to be the most affordable food available.

I love eating the fresh greens that come in my weekly CSA basket, everything was just picked, and is organic and as fresh as possible. Why not look online for your local Farmer’s Market or CSA ( Community Supported Agriculture) and start getting the best food for your family and for your money right now!

Source: Solving the Food, Health, & Energy Crisis: Local & Organic Production on Smaller Farms

* Change We Can Stomach
By DAN BARBER
The New York Times, May 11, 2008
http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_12216.cfm

Next Page »