Farming
Victory! The EPA was urged by public health advocates, environmental groups, and organic farmers alike to deny an ’emergency’ request to use propazine on superweeds invading 3 million crops of GM cotton in Texas.
The 21st century has seen rapid urbanisation and the global population is now expected to grow to more than 8.3 billion by 2050. Currently, 800m hectares – 38% of the earth’s land surface – is farmed and we’ll soon need to give over another 100m hectares if we continue to use current agricultural methods. That’s not additional fertile land that actually exists though, so some are investigating the potential of vertical farming.
Congresswoman Chellie Pingree (Maine-D) has a lot to say about local alternative farming, small farms, farmers markets and restaurants serving local produce. She has a lot to say and a lot to do with its resurgence. She believes the answer to current top-heavy industrialized problems lies in reviving local agriculture.
With no national standards, raw milk producers have taken to an independent certification standard, similar to the Non-GMO project for verification. This is a way for raw dairy farms to have openness, testing and transparency – consumers know exactly what they are getting.
A new report suggests that families near agricultural fields being sprayed get their children out of town. The study also found that pregnant women after the first trimester had an increased risk of their infant becoming autistic with the exposure closer to the due date being the most harmful to the fetus.
If their plan works, Oregon will be the first state to successfully map GMO fields, putting preventative measures into place to protect organic crops.
Agriculture trade groups have developed programs, including training and financial incentives, aimed at attracting young people. The National Young Farmers Coalition through member surveys has found that the bulk of new operators are going the organic route.
Pesticides can get onto organic produce through contamination of water or soil through pesticide spray drift from neighboring farms, and through contact with non-organic produce after harvest. Larger residue measurements suggest an organic producer deliberately used a pesticide that is not allowed.
World-renowned permaculture teacher Geoff Lawton’s techniques, if used widely enough, can literally save the planet from itself. In a video introducing his techniques, Lawton says he’s taught more than 6,000 people in more than 30 countries “permaculture design science.” His techniques, he says, allows people “to provide for all their needs in a way that’s beneficial to the environment and so that they can survive in a really abundant and meaningful way.”
On the eve of the second annual March Against Monsanto, farmers and activists are celebrating recent GMO labeling and planting ban victories in Vermont.
So you’ve realized that most of what your grocery store sells is not even food. Fortunately you don’t have to stay in this relationship forever.
Vandana Shiva: If we have to survive as a species, we need to reclaim our commons — of seed, of climate, of knowledge and resist the privatization of every aspect of life.
It took three years, but finally the new farm bill (Agricultural Act of 2014) was passed and is being touted as a “historic win” for the organic industry. The bill replaces the 2008 farm bill extension that had defunded valuable programs, such as marketing, research, certification, data-collection and cost-share that helped organic farmers become more productive and develop better marketing techniques. Thanks to the new bill, those programs will be reinstated and additional new ones implemented.
Make no mistake, the world is coming into major transition and change. Economies are inflating like helium filled balloons, debt is escalating like runaway trains and it’s unlikely to be long before big shifts happen. That’s why growing your own food is important, especially as GMO, chemtrails and pesticides continue to decimate topsoils and contaminate the food chain. You don’t need much, a window sill will do, or a balcony that gets some sun. But if you have some spare space in your garden, what about this amazing idea – the ‘underground greenhouse’ – for all year round growing…
According to a new publication from the U.N. Commission on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), small scale, organic farming can create strong local food systems – the only viable, sustainable way to feed the word. Sixty experts from around the world weighed in on the problem in Trade and Environment Review 2013: Wake Up Before it is Too Late, which includes a commentary from IATP. The report calls for ‘ecological intensification,’ or a shift from conventional mono-culture planting to independent, small-scale production and permaculture, which can create a mosaic of sustainable regenerative systems which can feed all of us.
