tagged w/ Community Supported Agriculture
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The team from Terreform1 suggests ways in which vehicles and urban homes can be deigned to maximize energy efficiency and minimize environmental impact. Access to local food is another major concern for urban communities as transportation raises food costs. To combat these rising costs urban communities are growing their own produce and livestock in a new sustainable living revolution.
Community gardens are a green oasis in a concrete landscape. They provide locally grown produce and, as many community gardens are organic or pesticide free, they limit the amount of toxins and free radicals released into the environment. If a community garden isn't your thing you can still plant your own urban garden on a rooftop, windowsill or on your front stoop. Check out Urban Gardens for ideas on building your own sustainable urban garden complete with birdhouse designs and links to websites by other urban gardeners.
(Photo credit: Getty Images)
Do you belong to a community garden or have your own urban windowsill garden? If so, what do you grow?
The team from Terreform1 suggests ways in which vehicles and urban homes can be... more
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Tractors, farm equipment, built at around one eighth the cost. Industrial equipment too. Superior design. Handmade quality. Problem? Investment. Solve it, and Jakubowski becomes a household word. That might just happen anywayTractors, farm equipment, built at around one eighth the cost. Industrial equipment... more
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I grew up in Vermont, so I will forever have the image of an old white man in blue overalls and a John Deer tractor imprinted in my mind every time I think about farming. So when I met a young, fresh, and fashionably dressed farmer (oh, and did I mention female?) during my adventures with Sukkot on the farm, it made my head spin. The very fact that I was there camping out on farm should tell you right away that something was...well...different.
This is a different breed of farmers, many of them are first generation farmers, and see farming as a political statement rather than a family business. It’s not about dairy farms and tractors and big barns anymore. We’ve all read the headlines that farming is hard business and impossible with out government subsidies. The subsidy for this new brand of farmer is unexpected and includes yoga studios, art shows, hosting camping trips, using vending machines to distribute their produce, and renting studio apartments as a way to support their career/life style choice of farming. And just to clarify, in case you’re thinking what I’m thinking: these aren’t yuppies trying their hand at farming, these are people who have been farming for a living for ten years.
Steph and Paul of Green Oaks farm, explained the principles that guided their decision process around deciding if they should expand their farm:
They also explained that given that they share a well with another farm and neighbor, and that California is in a drought, they needed to start preparing for the future. So they demolished the old barn that was falling down, and rather than build another they took the wood and used it to make a community center where they plan to host yoga classes and community events.
Want to know and support your local farmer? Joining your local CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) is a great place to start:
A stone’s throw from this farm (literally) is Pie Ranch. Once again, there are tell tale signs that something is different. For starters, the farm has a website, a blog, videos on YouTube and sends it’s goods to Mission Pie.
Mission Pie: you know the one, the pie shop in San Francisco @ev from Twitter loves to RT.
Dorothy, I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore.
Along with being a bonified farm Pie Ranch has a mission:
to inspire and connect rural and urban people to know the source of their food, and to work together to bring greater health to the food system from seed to table. They also host youth from regional high schools to participate in farm-based programs and activities. Pie Ranch also works with educators and community collaborators in diverse urban, suburban and rural settings to help students apply what they’ve learned at Pie Ranch in their daily lives. An integral piece of Pie Ranch’s vision is to partner with youth around food & farming. Our main focus is on providing the opportunity for repeat visits rather than one-time experiences on the farm. We believe that repeat visits build upon themselves; youth connect to the land, to the staff, and to each other. Trust and respect grow as youth experience the cycle of days, weeks, months, seasons, and years.
Check out Farmer John talking about a day in the life Pie Ranch (you may now him from the documentary “The Real Dirt on Farmer John.”)
Craving a hay ride? Or perhaps you are craving fashion tips from your local farmer... joining your local Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program is a great place to start!
Related links:
Farmers Use Vending Machines to sell produce: Mother Nature Network
Hot Organic Farmers (photos): Huffington Post
Farm Girls (video)I grew up in Vermont, so I will forever have the image of an old white man in blue... more
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To hear Terra Bella farm manager Joe Sunderland tell it, what's happening on their farm is the most natural thing in the world. "People are naturally drawn to want to have community," he says. "You give them the opportunity to meet on common ground and the rest is not brainwork -- it's natural." At Terra Bella, located in San Francisco's East Bay town of Pleasanton, all the members come to the farm to pack and pick up their produce. People tend to come around the same time each week, so they run into the same people time and again. At some point they begin get to know one another. Some people bring their kids, and many people linger on the farm, chatting with other members. A farm play group is being established this year, where several parents will look after the kids while other parents (including the farmers) work on the farm.
The farm also has a bulletin board where members are welcome to post notices of community events or information about their businesses. "There's lots of great referrals. These are all like-minded people," says farmer Shawn Seufert. Members barter, too, with each other - massage for daycare, for example, and with the farm - like graphic design for produce. Terra Bella also barters with others in the community: vet services for tomatoes, and produce for baked goods.
Shawn and Joe attribute the growing community among their members to the particular structure of this CSA. Members bump elbows over boxes of cauliflower and salad greens. "It's easy to start a conversation when you're talking about food," Sunderland says. "Our members already have something in common. The food brings people together, but the CSA is just the starting point."
Across the country at A Place on Earth CSA in Turners Station, KY, farmers Carden and Courtney Willis are part of a similarly synergetic community. Here, the growth point for the community seems to be an attachment to the farm itself, and its care. Volunteers fill a few key roles, and a small group of working members each contribute a half-day of labor per week. Carden says they all look forward to their mornings on the farm, where they work and then share a meal together, week after week through the seasons. They are an unlikely group - including a retired Navy man, an interior designer and a nurse - brought together by their love for this farm, their willingness to participate in the labor food requires, and the fondness that has grown between them over time. Carden wrote about the group in a recent farm newsletter.
"Our relationship is entirely forged over this food at this place. Food is not yet a fact on the table but a work in progress. We all know the sometimes excruciating lengths we go to, and we all know the primal, pure triumph and joy of the exquisite specimen. Tuesday morning we work, and Tuesday mid-day we banquet. And just so much as the work can be anciently agonizing, the dining can be Epicurean. It is only right to love the eating of the food and the gathering at the table to the same degree that you lavish love on the food as it is growing. Courtney makes the vegetables sing the sweet story of their life with delectable dishes, Stan brings his trusty, tasty loaf of bread and someone may furnish a delightful dessert. Good honest work, delicious eating, laughter and companionship accompanying and easing digestion—the ritual is complete."
Carden sees that CSA may provide the footings on which alternative economies will be built. Their farm, too, barters. But perhaps more significantly, they have story after story of people offering their labor simply to help each other out. Last year, for example, the farm needed an eight foot deer fence installed around three acres. Picture two hundred 12 foot posts, each sunk three to four feet deep, strung with 2400 feet of 8 foot tall woven wire fence. Hard, heavy, awkward work, and pretty near impossible had their neighbors and members not turned out to help. Carden's description of the project made me think of the days when neighbors worked to bring in each others' harvest, bring up the kids, raise the barns. People's relationship to labor was different in those days. The sharing of work was an economic necessity, and lending a hand was what being part of the community meant. Nowadays most of us are more accustomed to exchanging our time and skill for money. Perhaps what CSA offers us - besides great produce -- is a chance to experience what it is like, as Carden puts it, to be "part of something that's not based on being on the clock."To hear Terra Bella farm manager Joe Sunderland tell it, what's happening on... more
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Farm Sanctuary, the nation’s leading farm animal protection organization, today thanked the City of Chicago for passing the nation’s first ever Green Food Resolution, urging that sustainable plant-based food be made readily available to all the city’s residents, and signaling a milestone first victory in Farm Sanctuary’s campaign to introduce Green Food Resolutions in cities across the U.S.
The precedent-setting vote took place Tuesday after Alderman Margaret Laurino of the 39th Ward, presented the groundbreaking resolution before the City Council’s Committee on Energy, Environmental Protection and Public Utilities. After testimony in favor of the proposal from Liz Mills, the Executive Director of Irving Park Carlson Ministries, a local ministries group that provides food for low-income residents, the committee unanimously voted to pass the resolution.
“We applaud Alderman Laurino and the City of Chicago for being the first city in the nation to address head on the impact our food choices have on the numerous health and environmental problems plaguing our nation,” said Gene Baur, president and co-founder of Farm Sanctuary. “By promoting access to healthy, plant-based food, Chicago has proven they are second to none in protecting the health of their citizens, the environment and the billions of animals raised for food in deplorable conditions on factory farms each year.”
In light of increased public interest in eating more local and sustainable plant-based foods, Farm Sanctuary has launched a campaign to introduce similar Green Food Resolutions in cities throughout the U.S. Through Farm Sanctuary’s Advocacy Campaign Team (ACT), advocates are reaching out to their local city governments to introduce resolutions similar to the one passed in Chicago, and seeking wide support for the expansion of farmers markets, community supported agriculture (CSA) programs, community gardens and other venues that provide healthful plant-based foods.
On June 30, New York City Council Member Bill de Blasio introduced a similar groundbreaking resolution for New York City calling for a citywide FoodprintNYC initiative to reduce the city’s climate foodprint, which is a more significant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions than all transportation systems combined, and create greater access to local, fresh, healthy plant-based food, especially in low-income communities, as well as city-run institutions. So far, 11 City Council members have signed on as co-sponsors.Farm Sanctuary, the nation’s leading farm animal protection organization, today... more
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We visited Thorpe Family Organic Farm in East Aurora, New York where Gail Thorpe shared how her farm is sustained through support from her local community. She also showed us how to plant tomatoes using a transplanting machine!
For more videos visit: http://www.organicnation.tvWe visited Thorpe Family Organic Farm in East Aurora, New York where Gail Thorpe... more
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From the article --
"The first generation of community supported agriculture (CSA) programs invited consumers to buy shares of local farm harvests in advance and then reap the benefits in the form of fresh produce every week. These programs have grown significantly in recent years as thousands of independent small and midsize farms across the United States realized the potential opportunity in marketing their fresh fruits and vegetables directly to consumers at a fair price. "
If you want a say in how your farming is done, and where your money is spent, CSA may be the way. So find a local CSA, join it and vote with your dollars to insure your food supply.From the article --
"The first generation of community supported agriculture... more
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Discussed: Disconnect/Phobia of Nature, Community Supported Agriculture, Federal Trade Commission, Industry Supported Lies, Center for Global Food Issues, Chemical Farming, Monsanto, Against the Grain, Permaculture and Ancient Agriculture
There are a few voices that speak with resonant clarity through the noise of the “too much information generation.” They are the conscientious mavericks whose passion and diligence in finding the truth of things have elevated them beyond mere mortal thoughtless drones but as hyper-human change makers, or as we like to call them, superheroes.
One such individual is Anna Lappe, co-autohor of Grub and Hope’s Edge, founding principal for the Small Planet Institute and the Small Planet Fund. Her literary work brandishes a samurai blade in the face of the chemically tainted, spurious battle against the evils of the commercial agriculture and biotech industries. Her ambitious work with the Small Planet Institute prods and ignites the basic human tendency toward social mimicry by generating a broad spectrum of “entry points” through media to understand, accept, and impart democratic social change.
Follow the link to the full audio interview and transcript. Discussed: Disconnect/Phobia of Nature, Community Supported Agriculture, Federal Trade... more
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