MAGAZINE
Farmer Campaigns for Nutrient Dense Food Production
Beginning in the 1950s, America’s farmers were told to get big, or get out. It wasn’t just a slogan, it was USDA policy, a mantra recited by several secretaries of agriculture.
That mindset, combined with a post-WWII explosion in chemical fertilizer use, made our farms larger and more productive than ever — but at a high price, with many small farmers vanishing and the introduction of new kinds of environmental challenges.
Today, growing numbers of Americans believe there is another casualty: The quality of food produced by modern farming methods. Perhaps the most dissatisfied are farmers who got neither big, nor out, and who turned to traditional methods of producing crops.
Among the more vocal critics of conventional (modern) agriculture is Dan Kittredge, an organic farmer and director of the Real Food Campaign (RFC).
Read more: Farmer Campaigns for Nutrient Dense Food Production
John Todd- Ecology From 40,000 Feet
-By Bruce Boyer
“When we’re flying at 40,000 feet and we look down, we see a marvelous amount of innovation in agriculture, environmental restoration, green architecture, in systems design and in renewable energy development,” Dr. John Todd tells Organic Connections. “The news on the ground has never been richer, more diverse or in some respects more global. There probably isn’t a continent on which we don’t have something happening, and that just wasn’t the case 20 years ago.”
Transforming Barren Land Into Fertile Ground
-By Bruce Boyer
If you were to choose a place to plant your dream vegetable garden, it would probably not be in the foothills of the Grampian Mountains in Strathardle, Perthshire, Scotland. The upland site is infertile, acidic and exposed to severe weather. Around 85 percent of Scotland is classified by the European Union as a “less-favoured area” for farming, and this region, plagued by lifeless, silty soil and boulders, falls right into that category.
Yet it was exactly here that Cameron and Moira Thomson settled and decided to become self-sufficient by creating their own garden, growing their very own fruits and vegetables. “Our dream was to grow and use our own food, and to live as much from the local environment as possible and as little from the shops as possible,” Moira Thomson told Organic Connections. “So we dedicated our lives to that—but it was hard work with such poor soils.”
Maximizing Nutrition in Backyard Gardens
by Ben Grosscup
(forthcoming) Massachusetts Organic Food Guide, 2009-10
Is it possible to grow food with exquisite flavor, beautiful shine, extraordinary nutrition, and extended shelf-life? According to growers who have done it, not only can farm-sized growing operations do it, but with the right tools and knowledge, people can do it in their own backyards. Practitioners of this kind of growing say their goal is to maximize crop nutrient density - the amount of nutrition per volume of crop - and that this can be done in a manner entirely consistent with certified organic growing practices.
American Chestnut Revival
THURSDAY AUGUST 7, LOUIS MAY, an elder environmentalist in the upper Hudson Valley, drove me 70 miles to see a tree he has watched and measured for 35 years. Lou’s tree is in dense forest on a steep slope at the south end of Schoharie Valley. Its 18-inch dbh trunk isn’t impressive for that forest. Actually, it’s a midget compared to its mighty ancestors—but these days, any American Chestnut is rare. This one is a giant and an elder.
More Articles...
Page 6 of 31