Farming and sustainable agriculture are very close to my heart. I’ve spent a lot of my life gardening and homesteading and a good chunk of my career helping city dwellers develop community gardens, farmettes, and rooftop planting systems. So this week, I was really happy to find so many exciting links about the importance of organic farms and local food systems. I hope after reading these articles, you become as committed to your local farmers as we have…
1. Are you sure that slaves didn’t pick the produce that fills your fridge? According to an Alternet article this week, sexual harassment and abuse, non-payment, being forced to drink water from irrigation ditches, having no access to the fresh food harvested for others consumption, constant pesticide exposure, heat-related deaths, 12 to 14 hour work days and child labor are all routine in our agricultural system. And unfortunately, if you think buying organic, locally-raised food from the farmers’ market means that the workers who harvested your food were treated fairly, it’s not necessarily a given. Read more about what you can do for this important social justice issue.
2. If ever there were an argument for buying local, pasture-raised meat from family farms, here’s one: According to ABC News, last Thursday, the Centers for Disease Control and Protection named poultry the No. 1 source of food-borne outbreaks. And the sector doesn’t exactly have a stellar record when it comes to employee care, either. Seventy-one percent of U.S. contract poultry farmers earn subpoverty-level wages, according to a 2005 report from the United Food and Commercial Workers. So what happened? And why is the chicken industry floundering on all fronts? Read more about industrial, grocery-store chicken.
3. According to Sandor Katz, author of The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved
4. Scientists are in agreement that climate change and its effects are well under way, affecting everything from severe weather to sea levels to agriculture. Happily, new research shows that organic farming methods (not using chemical fertilizers or pesticides, hybrid or genetically engineered seeds, etc.) help crops and soil become more resistant and resilient to systemic shocks like drought, pests and disease. Organic farming is a win-win. Read more at Chelsea Green.
5. September was Local Food Month, and one of my favorite bloggers, Rob Smart over at Every Kitchen Table just finished a family experiment of eating completely locally for a whole week. He had some ups and downs in finding local purveyors for things like flour, and some struggles with his kids, but overall he found many satisfying things about eating local and the impact it can potentially have on the economy and health of one’s community. He chronicled each day and included his menu plans too! Read about his experiment on his blog.
6. One of my heroes, Will Allen of the acclaimed urban agriculture program in Detroit called Growing Power, has committed to “strengthen food security for school children and their care givers in South Africa and Zimbabwe.” Growing Power will help build a new model of local food systems by bringing its community-based, low-input style of agriculture to Africa, where it is sure to have greater impact on food security and local self-reliance than any top-down, Big Ag program ever could. Read more about the innovative project at Grist.org.
7. As a wildcard this week, I stumbled across this funny video at Farmfed about the popular Facebook game Farmville.
The video is called “Facebook versus real life: The questions Farmville doesn’t ask” It’s very cute and I hope it makes you smile…
