After the cuttings were planted, we started a few of the spring veggies in flats that Mitchell and I had picked up at Webster Brothers last week — celeriac, arugula, lacinato kale, and tres fine endive. We’ll see these go — with temps still going down to freezing and below at night, germination maybe be tricky even with warmer temps in the greenhouse during the day. Maybe some blankets for our babies?

Causing no end of difficulties in our national discourse is the steadfast belief held by both the right and the left that everything is either right or left: bad or good, strong or weak, despotic or patriotic.  You’re either with us or you’re against us.  President Obama addressed this very effectively before both House Republicans and Senate Democrats in recent days.  It is media driven to a large extent because the media need controversy to sell papers, or bytes or views or whatever it is they’re selling these days.

The most common form this takes is the old build’em-up-then-tear’em-down routine.  Perhaps the only thing many Americans enjoy more than the uplifting emotion of a success story is the schadenfreude of watching that success come tumbling down.  So when an idea comes to the fore, the critics ooze from the woodwork and their primary tactic is divide and conquer.  Label it, frame the debate, and the fight is won or lost before the story is even told.

For a long time in the circles I travel in this was not a problem because the ideas embodied in what some have come to call SOLE food (Sustainable, Organic, Local, & Ethical) were not perceived as a threat to the established paradigm.  Recent successes such as Michael Pollan’s work have, however, shined a very bright spotlight on advocates of real food.  As a result, people who have been toiling at these ideas for decades are becoming targets of powerful interests in the Big Food lobby.  Such is the case this week at WeeklyStandard.com, where Missouri Farm Bureau vice president Blake Hurst has found his most recent audience.

Mr. Hurst was among the earliest vocal detractors of Mr. Pollan’s work, as well as that of anyone who might find flaw in agroindustrial model.  His essay last summer, titled The Omnivore’s Delusion, did an excellent job of exploiting Pollan’s success to rally the big corporate agriculture interests against the perceived threat of critics both in the media and in the field.  It’s natural: he felt attacked and he responded, and has now done so again.  Unfortunately Mr. Hurst’s vitriol, then as now, only serves to fan the flames of a fire that needn’t be burning.  Individuals on neither side of the debate are inherently evil, in fact both want the same thing: healthy food for all.  Since our ideas for how to accomplish this differ, we are immediately cast into the right and left corners and told to come out fighting when the bell rings.

Of course this is not a new phenomenon.  City and country folk have mistrusted each other since the beginnings of civilization (which, it bears pointing out, came into being because of agriculture).  Nonetheless our society has changed enormously in the last 100 years.  Where once nearly everyone lived on a farm or had an immediate relative who did, today only 2% of the population lives in rural America.  It’s not a surprise that when the 2% senses criticism emanating from within the other 98% they’re going to feel a bit nervous.  Some of the critiques in fact even come from within the 2% (witness cattleman Will Harris in Georgia).  In his most recent essay though Mr. Hurst’s fears are misplaced, and he remains little more than a tool for moneyed interests.

The essay suffers from many errors of presumption as well as fact.  He contends that Kathleen Merrigan’s Know your Farmer initiative results from the idea that “America, it seems, has been operating at a knowledge deficit when it comes to farmers, and farmers lack the social skills to close the gap between eaters and producers of food.”  He is partially correct in that people in this country and throughout the Western world have become increasingly distanced from their sources of food, and we have become so to our detriment.  The second part of his statement though, a backhanded swipe at critics of industrial agriculture disguised as self-deprecation and designed to raise the ire of his fellow Farm Bureau members, is uninformed to say the least.  Not only are the farmers I know perfectly capable in the “social skills” department, both they and the rest of my friends in the movement to improve our food are working hard to close that gap.  Ms. Merrigan’s program is one of many tools.

While he correctly points out that the average age of farmers in America is 58, he misses the point that this means we are running out of farmers.  We actually now have more prisoners in America than farmers.  He goes on to put words in foodies’ mouths by claiming that we seem to think farmers are not sustainable.  Quite far from it, but many of the inputs many farmers use are not. These include the GMOs and chemical fertilizers that Farm Bureau and the Property and Environment Research Center he cites both adamantly advocate.  It’s not the farmers or even the farms that are unsustainable; it is the methods they have been railroaded into using by large corporate interests seeking markets for their chemicals since even before the early 70’s when Earl Butz and his “Get Big or Get Out” mantra took hold of American food.

The point is missed yet again when Mr. Hurst says:

In December, strawberries from California can be shipped to market in Canada with less total energy use than the locally grown crop. The food miles are greater, but the carbon footprint is smaller. True believers in the local food movement, of course, simply stop eating strawberries in winter. Their devotion is admirable, but a winter diet of freshly dug turnips and stored potatoes is hardly interesting.

I choose not to eat strawberries in the winter not because they come from far away but because they taste awful.  In my own restaurant, we stock everything feasible from local sources.  This does not mean, as Mr. Hurst would have it, that we have nothing but turnips and potatoes in winter, nor does it mean we forego oranges or olives because they don’t grow in Iowa.  Despite what he and his corporate-activist-supported friends at PERC might have you believe, the “SOLE” food movement is not a bunch of lefty Luddites, and that’s my main point (besides that I like turnips).  Not only does food I trust from people I know taste better for those reasons, it also keeps my dollars in my community.

Consider this: there are about 50,000 households in Johnson County Iowa, where I live.  If each of those households redirected just $10 of their existing weekly food budget toward buying something local, whether from the farmers market or a CSA or eggs from the farmer down the road, it would keep $26M in the local economy rather than it being siphoned off to China via Bentonville.  Now imagine the same thing in larger communities.  That’s not a left or right issue, that’s a hometown issue.

I must also point out Mr. Hurst’s use of the phrase “alleged global warming.”  It carries with it all the intellectual honesty of “alleged cancer from smoking.”

Agendas like those of Mr. Hurst, the Farm Bureau and PERC serve only the interests of the large corporations that fund them, not of the farmers whose toil fills their coffers.  Better to look to the like of the Practical Farmers of Iowa, who are truly concerned with the well-being of the food, the farms and the people on them.

This is not about rich v. poor, city v. country or smart v. dumb.  It’s not even I’m right and he’s wrong nor the reverse.  It’s that these issues are only important to those of us who eat, live and breathe on this planet.  It matters to those of us who have to pay for health care, and raise our children, and get and keep a job.  And the positions that the organization I work for, and many others take are not ones designed to attack farmers but rather to support them and all the people who are making food where it should be made: on farms and dairies, in breweries and wineries and vineyards and not in factories.

The Southern Sustainable Agriculture Working Group met in Chattanooga, TN last month, and Eric and I went to represent WSMF. Joining us was our friend Natalie, an experienced young farmer with a plan to farm here in W-S. It was a cold rainy weekend, but the energy at the conference was pretty amazing. Lots of people, young and old, inexperienced and veteran, black and white — and everyone dedicated to gathering and sharing information about every possible aspect of sustainable farming.

The highlights of the trip for me were re-connecting with my good friend Walker Hancock from KY, Chuck Talbott’s gourmet ham session (with country ham tasting!), a dialogue on locally-produced foods and locally-owned groceries, Intensive fruit and vegetable production (Rashid Nuri from Atlanta is amazing!), and “The Barefoot Farmer” Jeff Poppen on Biodynamics.

The Biodynamics was especially inspiring to me, reminding me of the occult power of compost. Jeff also shared with us a vision of a simple CSA with folks taking what they want every week rather than taking home a bunch of stuff that ends up rotting in the fridge. Not sure of all the details on this model, but it was working for the farmer, and I guess that’s a good gauge. He was growing 150,000 lbs of food a year for a 200-share CSA and earning $75,000 from that. That’s $375 a share for 750 lbs of fresh vegetables. It’s good to know that it’s not impossible to do.

Since the conference I’ve spent quite a bit of time looking into the nuts and bolts of growing food for market. I feel like it comes to a point where you have to have to just do it — start small and then expand from there — increasing the size and complexity of your project over time, even building with this growth in mind through a business plan. Sometimes I wish I had started on this stuff when I first felt the urge 10 years ago! Well, no time like the present.

http://civileats.com/2010/02/05/sprouts-cooking-club-growing-the-next-generation-of-chefs/

thanks again to Civil Eats!

Now is the time to plan and build an organic spring garden at your home. What is the first step?

Determine the best place for your garden. The garden should be located in an area that is fully exposed to the sun. You will pay more attention to your garden the nearer it is to the house. Make sure that water is readily available.

The single most important factor in creating a successful garden is soil preparation. I call it dirt making. Get the soil right.  If you create good healthy soil, the plants which grow in that soil will also be healthy. Healthy plants are disease resistant.

Begin soil preparation by gently turning the soil. If this is the first time the land is being used to grow food, a tiller may prove helpful. Too much tillage destroys soil structure. Subsequent soil preparation can be done with a spade or garden fork.

After opening the soil add copious amounts of organic material such as compost, leaf mold, well rotted sawdust or decomposed animal manure. You can make your own compost or purchase it from most garden supply stores.

Compost is the key to successful gardening. Compost added to gardens improves soil structure, texture, aeration, and water retention. When mixed with compost, clay soils are lightened, and sandy soils retain water better. Mixing compost with soil also contributes to erosion control, soil fertility, proper pH balance, and healthy root development in plants.

Make beds in the garden that are separated by walkways. You do not want to walk in the area that you plant with vegetables. Walking on a vegetable bed compacts the soil and retards plant growth.

Utilize the garden space wisely. Select crops you will eat and enjoy. You must like what you plant or the garden space and the food will both be wasted. Decide what you want to plant and where you will plant it. Know what you will plant after the spring season crop is finished. Southern exposure has the most light. Tall crops should be planted on the north and west side of the garden to prevent shading of smaller plants.

Plant cool season crops at this time of year. Broccoli, cauliflower, mustards, collards, lettuce, spinach, kale and other leafy vegetables as well as beets, turnips and carrots  These crops require shorter days and cooler soil to thrive. Many varieties survive cold and frost, which is the reason we can grow greens throughout the winter in the south.

Use known or recommended cultivars for your main planting. Always buy good quality open- pollinated or heirloom seed from a reputable company. In my opinion, you will be better off not buying hybrid or genetically modified seed. Many nurseries have transplant seedlings available that save time.

The dates below are for early season crops planted in metropolitan Atlanta, which is located in USDA plant hardiness Zone 7 or, arguably, Zone 8.  Check with your local extension agent or garden nursery for planting dates where you live.

You can plant these cool season crops over the next few months. Then it will be time to begin planting summer crops. Watch the moon and learn its phases. My own experience demonstrates that things grown above the ground should be planted during the waxing moon, and things that grow below the ground on the waning moon.

Water the garden as often as needed to maintain a uniform moisture supply. In the absence of rain, an inch of water once a week will probably be adequate for heavier soils. Light sandy soils might require water more often.  It is best to water early in the morning so foliage will dry quickly. This helps prevent diseases.

Good luck with your garden! Growing food can be a most rewarding and very spiritual experience. Not only will you benefit from consuming the healthful food you produce, but you will also bring yourself closer to the ultimate realities of creation.

But the storm brought me back again — back to the basics of shredding cardboard, shoveling coffee rounds and raking chicken bedding and making compost piles and mending fences and inoculating substrate — the work to stave off entropy, build networks, and defend this unclaimed, neglected autonomous zone.

winter chicks

Whether your raising chickens or veggies or both or taking on any other variety of agrarian tasks at the home(stead), you are definitely doing some microfarming; but we’d like to raise the question of how can we do microfarming so that there is a synergistic relationship between all the different inputs and outputs? Moreover, how can we create a closed system of food production that not only provides for the food needs of the farmer, but also re-generates the soil and other natural resources of the microfarm –  how can we simulate and experiment with a regenerative system on the small-scale in order to create  useful applications for other small-scale operations and for large-scale food production?

In this way, microfarming is a design process of building a system (an ecosystem) of interrelated processes and organisms, and working with that system to coax a yield while building biodiversity and the health of that ecosystem.

One immediate lesson of microfarming is that such a closed system is very difficult to create. Even though we divert a variety of useful waste streams and design to capture and store energy, new challenges constantly reveal themselves and energies from outside our little world bring the ever-present spectres of entropy to our doorstep.

But, again, it is a process, and through the process we learn to meet new challenges, incorporate new strategies, and introduce new pieces into the whole to bring us closer to the cyclical, regenerative universe that would make any permaculturalist proud.

http://civileats.com/2010/01/04/tools-for-a-sustainable-food-system/

Means and Ways to Build a Sustainable Food System

I spent a day volunteering at the SF Food Bank over the holidays and spending hours sorting through canned goods really got me thinking. What will it will take to stop hunger and what it will take to transform our current food system so that it’s good clean and fair?

In order to build a meaningful and sustainable food system, we need resources, ideas, learned lessons and creativity. So, as a kick-off to 2010, I’ve compiled a list of some studies, documents, interesting projects, and other ideas I hope will inspire next steps in the evolution and transformation of our current food landscape.

Lessons learned Food Policy Councils:

Thanks to a collaboration between Oakland’s Food First and the Community Food Security Coalition, Alethea Harper, Annie Shattuck, Eric Holt-Giménez, Alison Alkon and Frances Lambrick wrote Food Policy Councils: Lessons Learned, which you can download, for free, here.

The first Food Policy Council was established in Knoxville, TN in 1982 and since then councils have had their victories and defeats. The authors asked, “What lessons can be taken from North America’s nearly three-decade experiments with Food Policy Councils?” They based their assessment on “an extensive literature review of Food Policy Councils, and testimony from 48 interviews with the people most involved” with them.

They also answer some basic questions like: “What do they do? How do they work? How are they organized and funded? How effective are they? What have been their successes, and what challenges do they face?”

Some snippets of their findings include: “Food policy councils have the potential to democratize the food system.” Most councils “spend first 3-4 years getting to know the local food system” and most have “worked towards getting electronic benefits transfer machines (food stamps) into farmers markets, expanding the number of city or local farmers markets, changing the regulations for school food purchasing and piloting farm to school programs.”

Wondering why some have failed, they discovered the following “red flags” to watch out for:
• Dependence on one strong personality, organization, or political figure
• Lack of funding
• “Single-issue” focus
• Over-commitment to specific programs

Community Organizing: I discovered another helpful resource on the Small Planet Institute’s website.

Citizen Power 101—Lessons of Community Organizing is an excerpt from Frances Moore Lappé’s Democracy’s Edge “that outlines empowering practices and concepts of community organizing.”

The document lists a handful of useful tips like “never do for others what they can do for themselves.” And the following actions:
• Listening. Building relationships starts with “one-on-ones” in which members sit with neighbors and really listen.
• Disciplined preparation. Members research carefully and rehearse before any public encounter.
• Negotiation. The goal is less “getting your way” than it is negotiating self-interests.
• Mentoring. Leaders and staff coach members and each other.

And, for $35 you can purchase Ecotrust’s:
Building Local Food Networks: A Toolkit for Organizers

Moving onto another powerful action and tool …

Creative Public Expression. I attended an interesting community talk about urban farming at San Francisco’s Studio for Urban Projects and heard Amy Franceschini talk about some inspiring projects she’s seen as the result of the Canadian Center for Architecture’s Actions exhibit.

The concept behind the exhibit is “show us what you can do with the city” and while all of the ideas I saw on their Web version of the exhibit were incredibly inspiring, I think the following illustrate some creative ways folks have expressed their political and cultural will.

Vertical farms in a city.

Megapicnics!

And, we can find inspiration in non-food related demonstrations, in this case a protest to the amount of city space is devoted to automobiles. (I get goose bumps from this one. See article photo for the full effect.) The story is that in 1975 Austrian civil engineer, Hermann Knoflacher, developed what he called the “Gehzeug” (translated as walkmobile). When worn, it gives pedestrians the approximate amount of space used by a motorist. According to the exhibit website “Knoflacher’s experiment has been repeated in cities from Austria to Thailand, illustrating the spatial possibilities of urban areas without automobiles.”

Another inspiring story is of the international walk to school movement which is an effort to not only save petrol but reduce the instances of obesity and chronic health issues in school children. Amy told us of a town in Italy that didn’t want to fire their bus drivers so each driver was asked to pick up kids at the regular bus stop, on foot. Each child from each neighborhood wears coordinated colored vests to identify them and remind drivers they are on their way to and from school.

And, finally, shepherds outside of a large Spanish city were losing respectability as citizens began to forget the importance of their profession. A few shepherds decided to remind people of their role in the community by talking an enormous herd through a busy thoroughfare that was once their traditional route across the city (back when it was a valley between hilly regions). Traffic came to a standstill and citizens watched as thousands of sheep crowded the streets and walked to their new grazing grounds. What started as an act of civil disobedience is now an annual event.

Technology. It’s the wave of the now. And, one example was inspired by a recent “Taking Action” talk SF’s Carbon Collaborative hosted as a part of their Copenhagen Café event, another positive tool in and of itself. I heard Peter Leyden speak about his new organization Next Agenda which he bills as “A New Way to Solve America’s Biggest Problems.” Their current agenda? The Clean Energy Challenge: How can America get all its electricity from clean energy as fast as possible?

One of the technologies Next Agenda uses is Google Wave. It helps them coordinate real-time communication and collaboration. Watch the hour and 20 minute long video to see how it works. Who knows, maybe it’s the sort of technology we need to coordinate efforts and increase efficiency. Peter did mention that food is one of their agenda items for the future … but let’s not wait for him, okay?

And, of course, we can’t forget the increasing power of social networking like Twitter, YouTube and Facebook as a means for reaching the average consumer, our neighbors and strangers.

Cooperation as a tool for efficiency. Pretty simple concept here. As there are so many organizations and efforts in our country aimed at solving the same problems, how can we most effectively cooperate and mobilize for maximum benefit? This includes cooperating with folks on every side of the fence. I attended a small “un-conference” for Kashi cereals last August. It was a gathering of about 20 folks in the food community, from policy analysts to activists to natural foods gurus and professors. What we all agreed on, as we discussed the many issues that relate to a more sustainable food system, was that we needed more transparency and cooperation from the big food giants – from Dole to Monsanto – because they aren’t going away and any future food system will have to include them. So what does that look like?

Talking and doing. I had the wonderful opportunity to chat with a mother, father, and two teenage girls as we bagged brown rice across a table from one another at the food bank (they were also volunteers). We shared, quite organically, what we knew about the hungry people in our city, what we knew of the food system and it’s impacts on the environment, people, fair wages, nutrition. It’s these sorts of conversations that should happen every day, amongst everyone, across every table.

http://www.westonaprice.org/Old-Fashioned-Healthy-Lacto-Fermented-Soft-Drinks-The-Real-Real-Thing.html