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Who Are The Young Farmers Of ?Generation Organic??

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 23:43:31 +0000

Dan Charles reports for National Public Radio’s program All Things Considered,

For decades, as young people have been leaving farms behind, the average age of the American farmer has been rising. The last time the government counted farmers, in 2002, the average farmer was 55-years-old.
But there’s a new surge of youthful vigor into American agriculture ? at least in the corner of it devoted to organic, local food. Thousands of young people who’ve never farmed before are trying it out.
Some 250 of them gathered recently at a gorgeous estate in the Hudson River valley of New York: the Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture in Tarrytown.
Some of these young farmers already have their own farms. Some are apprentices, working on more established farms for a year or two. And others are still just thinking about it. But the overwhelming majority of farmers here at this conference want to farm without chemical fertilizers or pesticides.
They were there to learn skills ? from seminars on soil fertility, handling sheep, and how to find affordable land ? and just as importantly, to meet each other. In the evening, they played music and danced.
They represent a new breed of farmer. Very few of them grew up on farms. Most of them went to college. And now, they want to grow vegetables, or feed pigs.
I had to ask them: “Why?”

Click to read the rest of the Who Are The Young Farmers Of ‘Generation Organic’? story.

The Canadian Farmer Who Beat Monsanto In Court

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 23:31:25 +0000

Even though the GMO companies have rigged all parts of the government regulatory system to get their toxic seeds into the marketplace and seem to be winning all the battles, one guy fought them in court, and WON! Canadian farmer Percy Schmeiser tells his story of how the biggest genetically modified seed corporation, Monsanto, tried to take his farm, his land and his life away.

Under Industry Pressure, USDA Works to Speed Approval of Monsanto?s Genetically Engineered Crops

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 19:21:09 +0000

Forget the revolving door of employees shuffling and working between government regulatory agencies and corporations. Now the government regulatory agencies are in the back pocket of the same corporations they are supposed to be regulating.
Anyone who thinks the US Department of Agriculture has the consumers’ best interest in mind instead of the agricultural corporations regarding genetically modified crops must be consuming too much of the GMOs themselves and it is altering their thinking because the facts speak for themselves.
In this disturbing story, Mike Ludwig, reports for Truthout web site,

For years, biotech agriculture opponents have accused regulators of working too closely with big biotech firms when deregulating genetically engineered (GE) crops. Now, their worst fears could be coming true: under a new two-year pilot program at the USDA, regulators are training the world’s biggest biotech firms, including Monsanto, BASF and Syngenta, to conduct environmental reviews of their own transgenic seed products as part of the government’s deregulation process.
This would eliminate a critical level of oversight for the production of GE crops. Regulators are also testing new cost-sharing agreements that allow biotech firms to help pay private contractors to prepare mandatory environmental statements on GE plants the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is considering deregulating.
The USDA launched the pilot project in April and, in November, the USDA announced vague plans to “streamline” the deregulation petition process for GE organisms. A USDA spokesperson said the streamlining effort is not part of the pilot project, but both efforts appear to address a backlog of pending GE crop deregulation petitions that has angered big biotech firms seeking to rollout new products.
Documents obtained by Truthout under a Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA) request reveal that biotech companies, lawmakers and industry groups have put mounting pressure on the USDA in recent years to speed up the petition process, limit environmental impact assessments and approve more GE crops. One group went as far as sending USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack a timeline of GE soybean development that reads like a deregulation wish list.

Click to read the rest of the Under Industry Pressure, USDA Works to Speed Approval of Monsanto’s Genetically Engineered Crops story.

The Hidden GMO Epidemic Destroying Your Gut Flora

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 19:03:25 +0000

Dr. Don Huber is an expert in an area of science that relates to the toxicity of genetically engineered (GE) foods.
(Alternative terms for GE foods include genetically modified (GM), or “GMO” for genetically modified organism.)
His specific areas of training include soil-borne diseases, microbial ecology, and host-parasite relationships.
Dr. Huber also taught plant pathology, soil microbiology, and micro-ecological interactions as they relate to plant disease as a staff Professor at Purdue University for 35 years.
Agriculture is a complete ’system’ based on inter-related factors, and in order to maintain ecological balance and health, you must understand how that system works as a whole.
Any time you change one part of that system, you change the interaction of all the other components, because they work together.
It is simply impossible to change just one minor aspect without altering the entire system?
Dr. Huber’s research, which spans over 55 years, has been devoted to looking at how the agricultural system can be managed for more effective crop production, better disease control, improved nutrition, and safety. The introduction of genetically engineered crops has dramatically affected and changed all agricultural components.

Click to read the rest of the The Hidden GMO Epidemic Destroying Your Gut Flora story.

Thanks to Jeff Lowenfels for the heads up on this story.

Federal Judge Backs Rules That Limit Pesticide Use Near West Coast Salmon Habitat

Mon, 28 Nov 2011 01:39:01 +0000

Scott Learn reports on OregonLive.com,

A federal judge upheld new rules designed to protect West Coast salmon and steelhead from three widely used farm pesticides.
Pesticide manufacturers sought to overturn a 2008 decision by the
National Marine Fisheries Service that limited where three
organophosphate pesticides — chlorpyrifos, diazinon, and malathion –
could be sprayed in Oregon, Washington, Idaho and California.
Among other restrictions, NMFS’ opinion requires the Environmental
Protection Agency to prohibit ground application of chemicals within 500
feet of salmon habitat and aerial application within 1,000 feet.
The manufacturers, including Dow AgroSciences, said the buffers are too
large and inflexible, and questioned the scientific basis for concluding
that the pesticides’ harm to fish.

Click to read the rest of the Federal Judge Backs Rules That Limit Pesticide Use Near West Coast Salmon Habitat story.

A hat tip to Jeff L. for sending me this story.

Freight Farms Grows Organic, Local Produce in Recycled Shipping Containers

Sun, 27 Nov 2011 23:17:44 +0000

Marijuana growers have been utilizing shipping containers to grow their crop for years, so this idea is not new except for growing legal vegetables in them. The MJ growers have shown it can be done but now some enterprising entrepreneurs are seeking by the end of 2011, $26,000 in funding through Kickstarter.com to get the innovative idea off the ground… Maybe some generous MJ grower that just cashed in from his or her crop grown in a shipping container will donate…
From the Freight Farms pitch on Kickstarter:

Freight Farms are modular, expandable, portable crop production units that can quickly and easily grow food ANYWHERE. They have the ability to quickly expand critical access to high volumes of fresh food and create local economies that can empower communities to reduce the global footprint of food in a sustainable and profitable manner.
Freight Farms are easy to use systems that increase local fresh food access, create a local food economy, keep money in the community and decrease the carbon footprint of food production. The system is designed to be largely self sustained with rainwater reclamation and a full filtration system to supply the necessary water. The electrical use is minimized by the system design and high efficiency components and will be powered by electricity from solar panels attached to the top of the freight container. Solar energy will provide the majority of electricity that is needed while a traditional connection will allow the unit to be plugged in when/if necessary.
The continued operation of this unit will act as a catalyst for sustainable urban food supply. Once in production, we will then be able to manufacture the same results for anyone who requests a Freight Farm of their own!

Watch Freight Farms video below pitching their idea…

Aquaponics and the Changing Face of American Agriculture

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 20:14:31 +0000

By any account, American agriculture is a tremendous success story.  The problem is that this success is precariously balanced on a set of three crumbling ?pillars? whose degradation could reverse this course and put us on the path to less, rather than more food production and security.

Much has changed about American agriculture ? and enabled vast increases in productivity and profitability – since the Great Dustbowl that inspired the iconic American Gothic painting.  In fact, according to Cornell University, in the 25-year period between 1950 and 1975, while ?? the acreage in farming dropped by 6 percent and the hours of farm labor decreased by 60 percent, farm production per hour of on-farm labor practically tripled, and total farm output increased by more than half.?  New forms of farm mechanization drove less need for labor and greater existing farm hand productivity.   The discovery of DDT and other effective pesticides increased the amount of saleable crops per harvest.  The use of chemical fertilizers doubled between 1940 and 1944.

Sounds great, so what is the problem?   Unfortunately, our impressive agricultural success has been built on three pillars, and those pillars are in trouble.
Cheap oil ? Farmers and our food distribution system use oil in every aspect of modern agriculture, from powering the tillers and seeding machines that plow the earth and plant the seeds, to petroleum based fertilizers and pesticides that feed and protect the crops, to fueling the trucks that transport the harvest over hundreds and thousands of miles to the grocery store.   As our oil supplies dwindle and the price of oil increases, these oil-dependent inputs will be increasingly seen as economically impractical.

Unlimited, pure water ? Currently in the United States, 80% of the water we use goes to irrigate our crops, and in some Western states that number reaches 90%.  The problem is that this water is becoming dangerously scarcer, as well as more polluted by the very agriculture that it seeks to nurture.  In early 2009, then California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger declared that California, arguably the most productive farming state in the country, was facing an unprecedented water crisis.  ?No matter what we might want, it is very likely that there will continue to be serious constraints on the volume of water available to all California users, including agriculture.? This is not a problem that is going to go away.??Groundwater reserves, such as the massive Ogallala Aquifer, supply 40% of the water we use to irrigate our crops.  But according to a recent GeoJournal issue titled ?Water and Agriculture? , ?The accelerated use of agricultural chemicals over the past 20 to 30 years has profitably increased production but has also had an adverse impact on ground water quality in many of the major agricultural areas. The pollution of ground water, related to nitrogen fertilizers and pesticides, from widespread, routine land application, as well as point sources has become a serious concern?  Such widespread pollution is of real concern because of the potential for long-term and widespread exposure to the public of toxic substances through drinking water. While there are many uncertainties, agriculture must move forward toward solutions through better management.?

Fertile soil ? We are simply wearing out the fertility of our soil.  Soil compaction from mechanized equipment has caused a loss of as much as 25 ? 50% of yield and 74% of the agricultural land in North America has been defined as ?degraded.  Pesticide use on U.S. farms has risen ten-fold over the past 40 years as agriculture has intensified. These pesticides are killing not only plant-harming insects (although increasingly less effectively) but also critical, living elements of the soil ecology that help it to naturally regenerate, i.e. bacteria, fungi, worms, and beneficial insects.

The good news is that we have a proven agricultural system in use today that provides the solution to all of these issues?and more.  It is a called aquaponics.

Aquaponics is a technique that grows freshwater fish and plants in a symbiotic, nearly closed loop system.  Aquaponic systems come in many varieties but in all of them, fish live in tanks that are interconnected with beds that house the plants.  The fish create waste that is largely comprised of ammonia, which is highly toxic to them and needs to be filtered from their water.  The water containing this waste flows to the soil-less plant-growing beds where the ammonia is converted by naturally occurring bacteria into nitrates.  The nitrate compounds are excellent plant food and provide nearly all the nutrients the plants require.  The mineralized solid waste provides the rest.  The extraordinary beauty of this system is that the plant beds with their beneficial bacteria populations become the bio-filters for the fish, transforming the toxic fish waste into plant food which the plants then extract from the water.  The cleansed water returns to the fish free of their own waste.    It is beautiful.  The fish feed the plants and the beneficial bacteria and plants provide clean water to the fish, just like nature does in any healthy pond.  The net result is a bountiful source of both plant produce and fish available for harvest.

So, how can aquaponics solve the three problems noted above?

Cheap oil ? Growers can construct Aquaponic systems entirely out of recycled materials. Further, the operating systems require no oil-based inputs.  They run entirely on a small amount of electricity which can be generated through currently available renewable energy methods.  Further, because there is no need for weeding, watering or fertilizing; aquaponic farms can be run by a single person without the need for gas-powered equipment.  Because an aquaponics system does not come in contact with the ground, there are far fewer insect problems and thus far less need for pesticides.  As an added incentive, the system must remain free of petroleum based pesticides to avoid harming the fish.  Finally, there is obviously no need for petroleum-based fertilizers since the bacteria-converted fish waste feeds the plants with organic, natural plant food.

Unlimited, pure water ? Because aquaponic systems are recirculating, the only water they use is either within the plants themselves, transpires through their leaves, or evaporates from the top of the fish tank.  These minimal ?loss? points are the reason that aquaponics is generally thought to use less than one tenth of the water of traditional agriculture for the same crop output. Plus, because aquaponic water is never exposed to fertilizers or pesticides, there is no chance of polluting the groundwater systems with chemicals.

Fertile soil ? While aquaponics can?t restore the results of past agricultural practices, it can side-step the problem.  Because aquaponic systems use no soil themselves and because they can be built on any surface, they can be erected anywhere there is level ground and a source of sunlight or artificial grow lights.  This includes land that is poisoned beyond repair, urban settings like parking lots and warehouses, and home environments like patios, decks, basements, and garages.

In addition to these potent benefits for American food production, I would like to highlight one more ?

Fish are a healthy, efficient, and safe alternative to meat ? It seems that every week we see a news item about an E coli outbreak or a story about the harm that the Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) are doing to the animals, the environment and the safety of the resulting meat products.  By contrast, fish, are cold-blooded animals and therefore cannot harbor E coli (unless, of course, they are contaminated with the pathogen from an external source during processing).  In addition, one must remember that an aquaponic system is an eco-system in which all the living inhabitants depend on each other.  Thus, aquaponic growers never add antibiotics, growth stimulants, and other medicines because such additives would reach not just the fish but also the plants, bacteria and worms that live in the system (growers add worms to the plant grow beds to help convert solid fish waste into plant food);  thereby threatening the health of the entire system.   Plus, in the U.S. livestock is responsible for an estimated 55% of erosion and sediment, 33% of pesticide use, and 50% of antibiotic use.  Finally, it only takes one and a half pounds of feed to produce one pound of fish, vs. eight to ten pounds of feed to produce one pound of beef.   Fish farming is a far more efficient use of our feed crops than growing meat.

Aquaponics is not the answer to all of America?s future food supply and environmental issues.  Grains and root crops, for example, will probably always be most efficiently grown in the soil.  But for above ground, vegetative crops and animal protein, there simply isn?t a better growing technique for our country?s future food security.

For more information please contact:

Sylvia Bernstein, President, The Aquaponic Source, Inc., Email: Sylvia@theaquaponicsource.com

Website – http://theaquaponicsource.com/

The Book – http://aquaponicgardening.com/

Bio
Sylvia Bernstein is the author of ?Aquaponic Gardening: A Step by Step Guide to Growing Fish and Vegetables Together? and the President and Founder of The Aquaponic Source, the leading U.S. based company focused entirely on the home aquaponic gardener.  She also runs the Aquaponic Gardening Community, the largest online community site dedicated to aquaponic gardening in North America, and the U.S. Chapter Chairman of the Aquaponics Association.  She writes the Aquaponic Gardening Blog and teaches and speaks extensively about aquaponics and its exciting potential.

Resources
http://psep.cce.cornell.edu/facts-slides-self/facts/mod-ag-grw85.aspx
http://www.ers.usda.gov/Briefing/WaterUse/
http://www.springerlink.com/content/g426q75740542vr2/
http://soils.usda.gov/use/worldsoils/papers/land-degradation-overview.html
http://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/EB9/eb9.pdf
http://eatdrinkbetter.com/2008/03/28/livestocks-long-shadow-by-david-shawla/
http://www.pacinst.org/reports/california_agriculture/final.pdf

Hydroponics 101

Mon, 31 Oct 2011 15:35:00 +0000