Cooking Up a Story

Virginia Farm Bureau: Farmland Preservation Update

Cooking Up A Story — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 19:30:57 +0000

February 08, 2010 Virginia has recently spearheaded efforts to preserve working farmland. One key method to preserve farmland is to pass the farm to the next generation. In order to help current farmers through this transition, the State has created agriculture license plates to raise money for workshops – thus keeping the small farm active, viable, and in the family.

h/t @susancato

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Seed Catalogs: A Gardener’s Muse

Cooking Up A Story — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 18:31:48 +0000

February 08, 2010 If you are a food grower, it’s that time of year, again! Either you’re anxiously awaiting your seed order delivery, or you’re still pondering what will I grow this year. It doesn’t really matter if you only have a few pots on the patio or several beds in the backyard…planning and planting is imperative. And so goes it for this journalist, Sara Lipka. With a love of seed catalogs and a keen urge to grow food, she (and her boyfriend) find some ground via his alma mater, and begin the process – to not only grow food for themselves, but primarily for the school kids!

“We paged through the catalogs again and again. Carwile’s Virginia Peanuts, it turned out, had been given by a traveler to an eight-year-old boy around 1910. St. Valery carrots, sweet and tender, dated back to 1880s France. Black Mexican corn was derived from an Iroquois variety. And the tomatoes—oh, the tomatoes. The pages of delicious descriptions were so tempting that in order to keep from getting overwhelmed or carried away, I had to stop. Close the catalog. Take a deep breath.”

What a great idea! Maybe this will catch on for other farmers-without-land and schools-without-farmers.

via @Atlantic_Food

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Farmer Don-In His Own Words

Cooking Up A Story — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 12:00:58 +0000

Carnival Squash

Part of the reason pesticides are widely used in agriculture comes down to the general preferences of the average American consumer. Farmer Don, a local Portland farmer who grows and sells a variety of fresh foods explains the fussiness some people exhibit toward fruits and vegetables—they won’t buy if something is blemished or has any insect holes. As he tries to explain, imperfection is a part of nature, and an insect boring into (say) an apple causes only a cosmetic harm. Using less pesticides reduces the risks of contamination to the surrounding environment, and also less exposure to farm workers, and ultimately to eaters.

Check out this related video about farmer Don: Sunflower Seeds Forever

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Temple Grandin: Humane Treatment of Farm Animals

Cooking Up A Story — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 17:50:41 +0000

Dr. Temple Grandin, Associate Professor of Animal Science at Colorado State University talks about her approach to helping livestock handling facilities provide more humane treatment of farm animals. This is an excerpt from her talk delivered at the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Sustainable Foods Institute in Monterey, California, in May of 2009. Her understanding of farm animals has led to a revolution in their care and handling, and has helped the entire industry improve their handling facilities, and provide more consistent humane treatment to livestock.

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Nutri-Grain legal challenge has ‘no merit’, says Kellogg

Cooking Up A Story — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 18:14:38 +0000

February 4, 2010 A class action lawsuit has been brought against The Kellogg Company for allegedly engaging in deceptive advertising practices regarding its Nutra-Grain Bars it claims are healthier to eat because of their ingredients.

The company is being sued in the US District Court of Southern California for violations of the Lanham Act, Unfair Competition Law, Common law of Unfair Competition, False Advertising Law, and the Consumer Legal Remedies Act. In their adverts, the company suggests that Nutri-Grain bars allow you to ‘Eat Better All Day’ because they contain calcium and whole-grains, but the plaintiffs insist that those claims are invalidated by the presence of trans-fats, which contribute to diabetes and heart disease.

This is part of an ongoing industry-wide practice of adding supplements (in the form of vitamins, minerals and other nutrients), often accompanied by high levels of sugar, and promoting these products and juice drinks as being healthy food choices. Michael Pollan speaks directly to this marketing practice in his book, In Defense of Food, and also in this short video for CUpS: Food News before a live audience.

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As We Sow: The Corporate Farm

Cooking Up A Story — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 12:00:05 +0000

A Protest Sign In Iowa

What are the results and realities of the continued concentration of agricultural production, marketing, and retail? “What kind of a society are we going to leave for our children,” asks a farmer turned activist, “if we allow the continued consolidation—not only in agriculture—but in every aspect of the American economy where all of the wealth and power are being concentrated into the hands of a very few?”

Jan’s career in television and film production spans some 35 years. Over that time she has produced, directed, and written commercials, corporate programs, network pilots, and co-produced two feature films. Through her marketing and communications consulting company, JW Creative Solutions, Ltd., she works with a myriad of corporate clients to plan, develop, and execute communications, marketing, and corporate education programs. As We Sow was Jan’s first documentary, (and not the last) and she continues to document food and farm from her no-so-rural perch in Brooklyn, NY. For additional information about her film, or to purchase the DVD, she can be contacted at janweber(AT)aswesow.com and at her As We Sow website.

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Raj Patel: The Value of Nothing-an Overview (video)

Cooking Up A Story — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 12:00:56 +0000

CUpS: Food News

Part 1: Raj Patel, food activist, scholar, and author of two important books: Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System and his new book (now on the New York Times Best Seller list), The Value of Nothing: How to Reshape Market Society and Redefine Democracy shares his views about our market driven economy, and what he sees as a necessary direction forward for civilization to survive, and people and communities to flourish.

In his previous book, Stuffed and Starved, Patel examined the global food system, and the transnational corporations that ultimately control the price and availability of the food we buy in the supermarket. From giant food processors to goliath food distribution and transportation companies to global agrichemical and seed companies, the bigger the corporation, the greater their potential competitive advantage by managing costs through economies of scale, and through the ability to exercise monopolistic might and political power. In key sectors of the global food system, the cost of entry demands a substantial degree of largesse—money. Do these advantages result in substantial benefits to the farmer, to the eater, to local communities, to the environment?

To Patel, the answer sadly, is a resounding, no! We have created a system that delivers cheap calories, but cheap we discover contains only the illusion of being cheap. The price we pay for this market driven, industrial agriculture system exacts a deferred subsidy from the planet (in the form of increased atmospheric greenhouse gas accumulations, and other forms of environmental degradation), and according to Patel, also, a disproportionate subsidy from poorer nations (the global south), and from women whose work is undervalued and often unpaid. Economists refer to these costs as externalities. These are largely hidden costs that are not incorporated into the price of the final product, nonetheless they represent real costs that eventually come due.

In Patel’s new book, The Value of Nothing, he hones in on what it means to have corporate monopolies that can manipulate both price and supply, coupled with a “free market” philosophy that hijacks government oversight and public protection, where the price of something bears little relation with its true value.

Patel argues that corporations, driven only to achieve profits, do not try to satisfy real human needs. For example, Patel presents us with the true cost of a hamburger, not a $10 hamburger (that would be considered to many, pricey enough) but a $200 hamburger! How can that be? When you factor in all the externalities, including the loss of biodiversity, the clear cutting of vast areas of rainforests to raise cattle to supply ample meat to the fast food industry, the fertilizer and fossil fuel needed to grow and transport corn for animal feed used to feed cattle, and other costs—it adds up to being a real whopper.

Of course, this isn’t just about hamburgers, or the cattle industry in general—Patel explains further, it’s the global south that subsidize the price of food in our industrial food system. The full bill will be presented over time in the form of greater weather variability, increased drought, reduced agriculture production zones, increased food and energy prices, increased poverty and greater food insecurity, and increasing levels of diet related illness: diabetes; heart disease, cancer, and other chronic afflictions. These maladies are not mere future predictions, many of these problems already exist, and have increased in severity over the last several decades, attributed in part, to our global food system.

One of the fascinating elements in The Value of Nothing, how we hold to our ideologies (despite recent, clear, and almost incontrovertible evidence) that the “free market” approach is no substitute for strong government regulation and oversight over industry, and no justification in the belief that markets, left to their own devices, will self-gravitate toward greater economic order and efficiency. Indeed, within the Newtonian world in which our planet is a residing member, where the natural forces of gravity do still apply, the evidence supports the contrary view of unregulated (and nontransparent) markets leading to economic bubbles, disorder and without—just in time—massive government intervention, societal collapse.

The false beauty of unfettered markets, and laissez-faire government policies toward industry—reinforces the decidedly dangerous and misguided belief that corporations will act responsibly within the larger context of achieving their goals and advancing their economic interests; and (voila!) the public good will be served. More realistic a view (at least from the public interest perspective), Patel writes of the Weendigo, a mythical race that consumes everything in its path; never satiated, all consuming, until finally, it devours its own life support systems. Patel argues, the transnational corporation (the artificial man) is the modern day Weendigo, built from the ground up to accomplish one thing: deliver profits, without cease.

There is a unique role for government to play—to set the rules of the game, and enforce those rules vigorously and fairly. To moderate the rapacious nature of the “artificial man”— the corporation. To insure a balance between the pursuit of profit and preserving the equality of opportunity; between overseeing the engine of commerce and work, and the protection of our fragile ecosystems upon which all of life, including our own, depends for survival.

Patel refers to a World Bank study, Agriculture at a Crossroads (PDF) that addressed the principal question posed by Robert Watson, its chief scientist about how to feed the world in 2050 with a projected population of 9 billion people (today we are at 6 billion)? The study concluded, according to Patel, “…a need to shift away from the current industrial system of agriculture because it doesn’t adequately value natural resources.” The point Patel clearly makes thoughout his book, within the larger framework that includes our present day food system, but also the wider economy at large, we need to reexamine how we value our national resources, our communities, the work that women do throughout the world, and in general, how we address the needs of the most vulnerable in society.

This interview was filmed at Powell’s Books, in Portland, Oregon.

Next time: Part 2 Food Sovereignty

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KQED’s Quest: the Great White Shark

Cooking Up A Story — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 21:55:41 +0000

[Update: Since posting this video, KQEDondemand's YouTube channel has made it for 'private' viewing only. I am hoping they will make it public, as it once was, for it is very informative. Sorry for any inconvenience.]
February 01, 2010 KQED just posted a video on YouTube from their program Quest. This episode looks at the great White Shark that lives in the Pacific Ocean between the California coast and Hawaii. It is considered to be the largest predator in the ocean, with up to 300 sharp teeth and keen eyesight. But they aren’t fast swimmers, says John McCosker, of the California Academy of Sciences. To compensate, they mug their victim (often sealions) by coming up from behind and taking a big bite before they have a chance to escape.

Many of the 400 species of shark are facing extinction, much due to human over-fishing. One example given was due to the popularity of a particular Chinese dish, Fish Fin Soup. Fishermen capture the sharks, slice off their fins, and push them back into the ocean. Without the ability to swim, they slowly sink down to the bottom of the ocean floor and drown.

Are sharks the toughest, meanest predator in the ocean? No, humans are, according to McCosker.

For more information on White Sharks.

Go to Original Post… [editor's note: this will be updated upon the re-release of the video onto their YouTube channel.]

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A look into the Edible future

Cooking Up A Story — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 19:51:46 +0000

February 01, 2010 Washington Post journalist Jane Black, from her recent trip to the yearly Edible Institute conference in Santa Fe, NM, writes about the food trends seen for the upcoming year. Five are mentioned, including one about CSA’s evolving:

“I’ve always loved the idea of community-supported agriculture, but the structure has always been too rigid for my frenetic lifestyle. Apparently, farmers across the country are hearing the same feedback from their customers and changing the model to accommodate them.”

Great to see many different communities embracing how they can improve their local food system.

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USDA Grant to Create Healthy Urban Food Enterprise Development Center in Arkansas

Cooking Up A Story — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 02:46:40 +0000

January 31, 2010 Good news for the Wallace Center in Little Rock, AR. They have been awarded a $900,000 grant by the USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture to help run the Healthy Urban Food Enterprise Development Center (HUFED).

“The purpose of the HUFED Center grant program is to establish and support a Healthy Urban Food Enterprise Development Center to increase access to healthy affordable foods, including locally produced agricultural products, to underserved communities. The HUFED Center will provide training and technical assistance for food enterprises and award sub-grants to eligible entities for healthy food enterprise development.”

h/t @SeasLife

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5,000 Megawatts and 8 Million Clams: FLUPSY is Cool

Cooking Up A Story — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 19:51:46 +0000

January 29, 2010 Ron Masters, a Conservation & Waterways Commissioner (Point Lookout, NY), gives a tour of a solar powered FLUPSY (Floating Upweller System). This clam nursery ‘boat’ helps the community environmentally and economically.

“When the baby clams grow big enough to leave the nursery, they are deposited in local beds to support both recreational and commercial shell fishing. As an added benefit, as they feed, the clams act as environmental filters, playing a critical role in maintaining water quality and the ecological health of the Bay.”

Video courtesy of Network for New Energy Choices.

Additional thanks to @MB_Aquarium

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World’s Greenest Homes: Hong Kong Space Saver

Cooking Up A Story — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 19:19:13 +0000

January 29, 2010 With a population topping 7 million people within a 426 mile square area, living space in Hong Kong is at a premium. Architect Gary Chang, who grew up in a small apartment in Hong Kong, devised an ingenious model he calls ‘domestic transformer’. The living space he transformed was the 330 square foot apartment he grew up in. See what he created in the video. Amazing.

Another article and slideshow from NYTimes.

h/t @kmcdade

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South Australia alone on GM canola ban

Cooking Up A Story — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 19:35:51 +0000

January 28, 2010 Western Australia recently decided to allow genetically modified (GM) canola to be planted in their fields. A statewide ban on GM food and crops was adopted in 2003. This from GeneEthics.org:

“State governments agreed with widespread warnings that GM canola would adversely impact markets and trade in Australian food products. They used their reserve powers under national laws to protect the economy by banning commercial GM canola for five years and keeping their states GM-free.”

The one standing GM-free zone is South Australia. Many wonder if it’s just a matter of time before they drop the ban also.

Watch video of Minister for Agriculture and Food, Terry Redman, at First GM canola from 2009 trials delivered.

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As We Sow: Part 2 (video)

Cooking Up A Story — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 12:00:44 +0000

Farming for Wages

What happens when independent farmers decide to go under contract to corporate producers and forever change the relationship between farmer and farm?

Julie & Rolin Eberline, Iowan Contract Hog Producers

Contract farming has led to a change in the rural economic landscape, for better or, as farmers and a host of rural analysts and academics say, worse, much worse: “They control you and the market and they squeeze you until you’re working for nothing…they’re forcing you out.”

Next time: As We Sow- The Corporate Farm: Part 3

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Special Offer on Food, Inc.

Cooking Up A Story — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 23:42:06 +0000

January 27, 2010 Posted on Oprah’s website page, dedicated to today’s show: Food 101 with Michael Pollan, there were several ‘extras’ available. The one that caught my eye was the opportunity to purchase Food, Inc. for just $9.99… at least until 11:59pm PST on January 29th (Friday), thru Amazon. A savings of $16.99. Not bad for a terrific documentary.

h/t @cfra

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Dairy Farmers Are There For Their Cows….24/7!

Cooking Up A Story — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 21:10:47 +0000

January 27, 2010 Telling it like it is: it’s Sunday, coffee in hand, but a worker isn’t able to show up. Calves need feeding, cows need tending, so a dairy goddess has to do what a dairy goddess has to do, 24/7!… Get going and tend those cows!

h/t @FarmerHaley

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Farmers, conservation groups join to preserve farmland near Portland’s suburbs

Cooking Up A Story — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 18:34:58 +0000

January 27, 2010 As the time for public comments draw to a close, a look at a local hazelnut orchard and tree farm in Clackamas County – one of the counties in the Portland metro area deciding where to place urban and rural Reserves for future populations and possible development. Peter McDonald is concerned farms like his will disappear if the boundary is not carefully placed.

For a better perspective on this important issue, Jim Johnson, Land Use Planner for the Oregon Department of Agriculture, shares his views on two CUpS Food News videos: Urban Growth Boundary: Oregon Agriculture, Economy and Managed Growth and Urban Growth Boundaries: The Reserves Process.

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For Cave Women, Farmers Had Extra Sex Appeal

Cooking Up A Story — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 17:27:24 +0000

January 27, 2010 It wasn’t just the big stone axes they were wielding, it was the ability to cultivate food themselves that was attractive to hunter-gathering women 10k+ years ago. Apparently the farming tools were not just practical and handy, but “revolutionary”.

“It was the foundation of modern civilization and so there’s a big scientific push to understand just how agriculture spread from where it originated, which was in present-day Turkey and Iraq.”

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Making Gourmet Mac and Cheese

Cooking Up A Story — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 12:00:26 +0000

Jack Campbell In his Portland, Oregon Kitchen

Jack Campbell, aka Chef Jacques, demonstrates how to transform the ordinary Mac and Cheese dish into a savory delicacy. Check out his related recipe from the show: Gourmet Mac and Cheese Recipe.

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Obama Nominates New Undersecretary for Food Safety

Cooking Up A Story — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 01:25:09 +0000

January 25, 2010 From the Obama Foodorama blog: “President Obama today announced his intent to nominate Dr. Elisabeth Hagen as the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Under Secretary for Food Safety. Hagen will serve with Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.”

h/t @obamafoodorama

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Agriculture Secretary Vilsack announces $310 million in Recovery Act funds for rural broadband projects

Cooking Up A Story — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 21:44:05 +0000

January 25, 2010

“Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced the selection of fourteen Recovery Act Broadband Infrastructure projects that will receive $309,923,352 through funding made available by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. An additional $3,551,887 in private investment brings the total to $313,475,239. Altogether, Congress awarded USDA $2.5 billion in Recovery Act funding to help bring broadband services to rural un-served and underserved communities.”

Check original post for which States get what amount of money and for which project.

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Sustainable Energy: Thermal Banking Greenhouse Design

Cooking Up A Story — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 12:00:09 +0000

This is the second in a series of “how-to” videos showcasing the knowledge and creativity of farmers who are have worked with the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education program (SARE)—either as grant recipients, cooperators or leaders. In the first video, Jeanne Carver (Imperial Stock Ranch, Eastern Oregon) described her ranch’s approach to value-added marketing. Now we turn to the Midwest where Steven Schwen of Earthen Path Organic Farm (Lake City, Minnesota) has built an innovative greenhouse that allows him to extend his growing season while reducing energy costs. SARE’s Farmer-Rancher Grants program provided critical assistance for Schwen in the beginning phases of his project.

At Minnesota’s latitude, farmers who can extend their growing season have a distinct advantage in the marketplace: By offering a product outside the “normal” growing season, they can receive a higher price. That’s what Schwen has done with his greenhouse vegetable production, starting earlier in the year with seedlings of warm-season vegetables (tomatoes, cucumbers, basil and peppers), and continuing production into the fall and even the winter months when he grows cold-tolerant crops such as salad mix, cilantro, scallions and carrots. Season extension is a common enough practice, but what makes Schwen’s operation so unique is the added innovation of thermal banking, which significantly reduces the energy costs of running a greenhouse for cold-season production. Schwen’s simple description of thermal banking is that it’s like a savings account: Instead of money, you save (or store) energy for future use. In this case we are talking about the heat that accumulates in a greenhouse during the daytime, especially on sunny days.

Steven Schwen of Earthen Path Organic Farm—former SARE farmer grant recipient.

As you watch the video, you’ll appreciate the level of detail Schwen provides about the greenhouse’s design and construction. In addition, he has made the design drawings available for reference (PDF), and viewers are encouraged to download those and follow along as Schwen talks about the construction process. Design drawings. Note that in this set-up, it’s more about what you don’t see underground, than the greenhouse structure itself!

Schwen views this technology as a key component of his farming operation, particularly in this time of global climate change and energy insecurity. He feels this project moves him closer to his ultimate goals of energy independence and self-sufficiency.

The Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program’s mission is to advance—to the whole of American agriculture—innovations that improve profitability, stewardship and quality of life by investing in groundbreaking research and education. SARE is proud of its connections to farming communities across the country and encourages those who wish to learn more to visit SARE. SARE is funded by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, USDA.

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How Cows (Grass-Fed Only) Could Save the Planet

Cooking Up A Story — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 23:26:27 +0000

January 22, 2010 Raising grass-fed cattle to save the planet – Eliot Coleman and Barbara Damrosch are building a barn and plan on adding livestock to their Four Season Farm…because they care.

“Once he[Coleman] and Damrosch have brought in their livestock, they’ll “be able to use the manure to feed the plants, and the plant waste to feed the animals,” he says. “And even though we can’t eat the grass, we’ll be turning it into something we can.”

Grass-fed beef mirrors nature as it was intended: the cattle feed on the grasses in the fields and leave their droppings; the hungry micro-organisms living beneath the surface feed on the manure, and in turn they enrich soil; as the cattle turn to ‘greener’ pastures, the nibbled plants, living in naturally healthy soils, grow strong (again) – thus providing a new meal to eventually returning cattle.

h/t @FRESH via @TIME

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“Wait, Does This Go in the Recycling Bin?”

Cooking Up A Story — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 15:50:00 +0000

January 22, 2010 Ever have any angst over what is to be recycled? Should I, shouldn’t I? The Green Lantern column at Slate gives some tips and considerations before throwing out that plastic container. In addition, check out this handy post that explains the recycling symbols found on plastic containers.

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Is the California Farm Bureau Federation Creating Another Detroit of the Automotive Industry for Farming?

Cooking Up A Story — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 17:05:08 +0000

January 20, 2010 For decades the Detroit automakers have largely ignored the environmental collision course their vehicle designs (ever increasing sizes of cars and trucks along with minimal gains in fuel economy) have ultimately led to their (almost) industry-wide demise. Year after year, car manufacturers fought tooth and nail the government’s imposing higher mileage standards on new vehicles. Clearly in retrospect, the government didn’t do enough to prod the industry forward, but the automotive industry mainly has itself to blame for the disastrous consequences.

Today, we have the California Farm Bureau Federation arguing for more domestic oil production, criticizing the Obama administration for re-tightening the onshore oil and gas leasing programs on public land. One may pose the question, when does the industrial farm industry begin to recognize that the days of cheap oil (the economic underpinning of industrial farming), those days are numbered. Instead of standing firmly on the side of the Petroleum industry—would they be better serving their farmers to aggressively promote and pursue alternative energy policies toward a sustainable future? How might Detroit’s automotive industry look today had they looked squarely into the eye of their energy future, and recognized in 1973 (during the first energy crisis), a new direction was needed?

Of course, hindsight makes it much easier to witness mistakes, but more valuably, it can also serve as a guide to the future for others.

Here’s an excerpt from the Farm Bureau says new energy policy will harm farmers, regarding this matter:

Actions announced by the Obama administration will slow the federal oil and gas leasing process considerably, and analysts say that means farmers and ranchers will face more expensive fuel and less stable prices.

“The announcement by Secretary Salazar seems counterproductive to our needs as a nation at this point,” said CFBF First Vice President Kenny Watkins, who farms in San Joaquin County. “Our largest cost in agriculture is energy, whether it is fuel, fertilizer or electricity. Many of the products that we use on our farms are petroleum-based, so oil has a huge impact on our bottom line.” …

“It used to be, years ago, they’d deliver 600 gallons to the field and the price tag was $600. When it was $2,400-$2,600 for the same delivery a few years later, that was dramatic,” Ellis said. “I almost hated to call and order fuel because it was so dramatically different. It is difficult to wring that out of your operation.”

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As We Sow (Video)

Cooking Up A Story — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 12:00:47 +0000

[ Editor's note: Before there was "Food Inc.", before there was "FRESH", "King Corn" and a host of other fine films about our food system, there was "As We Sow", a hauntingly beautiful short film by director Jan Weber. To purchase this DVD, please refer to details at the bottom of her post. Run-time: 23 minutes; 2005]

Jan Weber In Farmers Field

I was born and raised in a small rural town in Wisconsin, but I’ve lived in Brooklyn, New York, so many years I have to count myself as a New Yorker, in all but accent. Still, as the saying goes, you can take the girl out of the country, but you can’t take the country out of the girl.

I started “documenting” in 2001, not “making a documentary” exactly, because I really didn’t know what it was going to end up being. The New York Times had run a series of articles about the disappearance of small towns across the Midwest, about communities drying up and farmers forced off the land. I wanted to understand what was happening, and I wanted to hear it from the farmers themselves. Armed with a new digital camera and equipment (that I had to teach myself how to use) and a book by a rural anthropologist, Kendall Thu, I traveled alone to Iowa where hogs are king and vastly more plentiful than people—and where small and midsized family farmers were losing their farms and leaving the land in droves.

Protest Sign

According to the farmers in Kendall’s case studies, the hog industry and the market forces of consolidation, corporate control and agribusiness were turning once proudly independent farmers, those who could survive at all, into “serfs on the land” and “wage-earning hog janitors.” I didn’t know what that meant at first, but I did begin to see that not only had farming changed from what I remembered some 30 years back, but so had the very lay of the land. Where animals once grazed and hay, oats, and alfalfa were grown and harvested stood ramshackle barns—empty and useless in the middle of acres of soybeans and corn planted as far as the eye could see; no fences required. The hogs, like chickens before them, were confined in gleaming CAFOs, the new, ultra-efficient “barns” of industrialized farming, and surrounded by “lagoons” of liquefied manure. And while some towns flourished, most small communities had first lost their grocery store, then the hardware store, the school, and the families to go to the churches on Sunday. This is where I set up my camera and those farmers, and townspeople, and families who lost everything gave me an ear-full.

I named my film in honor of anthropologist Walter Goldschmidt, who, in the early 1940’s, was hired by the USDA to do a study on the effects on communities and people of large-scale farming versus small scale farming in the Central Valley of California. Agribusiness hated this study and it was summarily suppressed, only to be revived two decades later by Wisconsin’s Gaylord Nelson, who established As You Sow as the seminal sociological work on the effects of industrialized farming. I made one simple change: I named my documentary As We Sow, because I feel that we—consumers, farmers, advocates, activists, citizens rural and urban—are all part of what is sown, and what is reaped. Food revolutionary, Alice Waters, quoting a food revolutionary of the early 19th century, Brillat Savarin, says: “’The destiny of nations depends on the manner in which they are fed,’ and I would add that the destiny of nations depends on the way in which we raise our food.” What I discovered in Iowa, and in documenting farms and farmers and rural communities in Missouri, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Colorado over the years since then, is that there has indeed been change—some good and some bad. While CAFOs spring like a cancer in Iowa, and the public largely ignores the full consequences—environmental, political, cultural, social and ethical—there is also a counter-revolution going on. Size indeed matters, and so do people’s choices about how they farm and what they eat. It’s about the choices communities make about what matters to them, about what they need to do for growth and economic development that sustains a community or a region or a state over the long run. I also learned that we are all connected, that what happens in Iowa, happens to all of us.

One of the challenges all of us who are concerned about food, farm, and farmers is getting the word out, creating awareness, and hopefully, helping people act on that knowledge. That’s what documentary films should do and I hope in some small way, As We Sow contributes something to that effort.

Where Are the Farmers?
Our tour begins in the heart of Iowa where deserted farms stand idle in the empty landscape. Our guide is a former grain farmer: “It’s all farms here, but you’re not going to see any farmers…they’ve just disappeared; the buildings are here, but the farmers aren’t….You wake up and wonder what happened. People need to know this!”

Next time; As We Sow- Farming for Wages: Part 2

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Environmental Group Gives First-Time Nod to Sustainable Salmon-Farming Method

Cooking Up A Story — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 16:14:42 +0000

January 19, 2010 New way to farm salmon has received endorsement from Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch. The company, AquaSeed Corp., raises the coho salmon from eggs in closed, fresh water pens, at a 1:1 per pound feed ratio. In the past it has been noted that it took upwards of 4 pounds of fish food to gain 1 pound of salmon.

“Traditionally raised farm salmon are grown in open-net ocean pens. This has led to problems such as nonnative species escaping into the wild and pollution as well as sea lice infestation and disease, because there is no barrier between captive salmon and the wild version in surrounding waters. Plus, traditionally raised farmed salmon require as much as five pounds (2.3 kilograms) of meal made from smaller fish caught in the wild for every pound (half kilogram) of salmon meat, a level that is considered unsustainable by environmental groups.”

Whole Foods will be carrying this approved farmed fish, which will be sold under the label of SweetSpring.

h/t @nature_org via @YaleE360

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Monsanto’s Adventures in Court

Cooking Up A Story — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 23:01:49 +0000

January 18, 2010 Battle ahead: the two largest seed companies, Monsanto and DuPont, have gone to court over their seeds. Apparently DuPont created a new line of genetically modified seed by adding one of their genes to an existing genetically engineered Roundup Ready seed, which was created by Monsanto. DuPont “is challenging Monsanto’s licensing agreement on antitrust grounds, saying that it represents anticompetitive behavior.” More is bound to come from these 2 giants.

h/t @LocavoreBlog

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Dr. John Boyd on Martin Luther King, Jr., Black Farmers, and President Obama

Cooking Up A Story — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 22:13:51 +0000

January 18, 2010 In 1961, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., wrote a letter to the newly elected president, John F. Kennedy, asking for changes in the USDA:

“The department could be of tremendous assistance to Negro farmers who are now denied credit simply because of their desire to exercise their citizenship rights. To wipe out this kind of discrimination would be to transform the lives of hundreds of thousands of Negroes on the land. A department zealous to implement democratic ideals might become a source of security and help to struggling farmers rather than a symbol of hostility and discrimination on the federal level.”

Thirty eight years later, in 1999, an attempt was made with the Pigford Suit – but many black farmers were left out due to the window of opportunity being open only a short time. Dr. John Boyd, president of the National Black Farmers Association, is planning several rallies throughout “the South to create awareness about the Black farmers continued struggle to settle their long-standing claims of discrimination against the United States Department of Agriculture (“USDA”).”

h/t @ObamaFoodorama

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Urban Growth Boundaries: The Reserves Process (Video)

Cooking Up A Story — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 12:00:53 +0000

Cooking Up a Story: Food News

January 18, 2010; Part 2: Over the next 30 years, the Portland Metro area is projected to increase in population size by 1 million people. Since the 1970’s, the state, and in particular the Portland metro area that occupies 3 counties (Multnomah; Clackamas; and Washington), have remarkably managed their urban growth efficiently (and wisely) through the use of the Urban Growth Boundary (UGB) process. Each city and county within the state as administered by the Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development (LDLC), are required to develop an UGB within their jurisdiction; urbanization is only allowed to occur (expand) inside of this boundary area, over a 20 year horizon of time. What makes this process unique, is the level of coordination involved from the local to the state level, coordination between cities, counties, and the state that oversees (and must approve) the final process for each locale. Further, within the Portland Metro area, where the largest population center of the state resides, there is great pressure for urbanization. It is here, unlike anywhere else in the country—the UGB is also coordinated by a super agency, Metro, that exercises land use jurisdiction over the 3 counties and 20 cities that comprise this region.

What are Urban and Rural Reserves: (from Oregon Metro)
“Urban Reserves will be designated by Metro on lands currently outside the urban growth boundary that are suitable for accommodating urban development over the next 40 to 50 years. Rural Reserves will be designated by each county on lands outside the current urban growth boundary that are high value working farms and forests or have important natural features like rivers, wetlands, buttes and floodplains. These areas will be protected from urbanization for the next 40 to 50 years.”

Portland Metropolitan Urban and Rural Reserves Map. Approximately 29,000 acres in Washington County has been proposed for Urban Reserves designation, 1/3 of its available open lands.

These land use designations will provide the basis for managing future urban growth, the degree to which the current UGB may expand over the next 40-50 years, and where that expansion will occur. Land use planning is often a balancing act of competing interests, needs, and desires of a community and a region. Agricultural lands are largely in competition with industrial uses, to the degree both require large tracts of open land to operate.

As Jim Johnson, land use planner for the Oregon Department of Agriculture explains in the video, the Urban Reserves designation carries risk in the form of long-term uncertainty to farmers whose land falls under this new designation. Regardless of whether their land, or areas near their land become absorbed inside an expanding UGB line, the speculative value of their property will increase with an Urban Reserves designation (as opposed to a Rural Reserves designation), and the economic pressures of approaching urbanization will likely promote the demise of farming along these urban fringe boundaries.

Agriculture is one of the most important economic engines of the state’s economy. The soils that occupy much of the open lands under consideration for Urban Reserves designation are also among the finest agricultural soils in the state, possibly in the world. Once these areas become open to urbanization, it becomes much harder for new farmland to be used for farming, and existing farms to thrive.

Our world is changing faster than our ability to comprehend the full impact of the changes that are underfoot. Changes to the environment from the threats of climate change, of increasing water scarcity, and of environmental degradation argue for caution in our future growth plans, and an emphasis on the efficient use of land inside an established UGB lines.

The growing importance of urban agriculture to the quality of local communities, and to its future economic well-being, are issues that will likely only increase in importance over time.

The results of this Reserves Process, and how it’s able to play out over the next several decades will determine in large measure whether the Portland area preserves its unique character of small urban farms, specialty seed and crop production zones, and farmer’s markets near its urban center. What’s at stake is the local food production and local food economy of this region; the ability to meet the local needs of an additional 1 million people for food, and help feed a world outside its borders— growing ever more hungry for quality food.

What Happens Next: (from Oregon Metro)
“The Core 4 [ editor's note: the Core 4 are the 3 counties plus Metro] completed their initial proposed regional reserves map on Dec. 16 and have released it for public consideration. In early 2010, you will have an opportunity to attend public open houses to view maps, learn about the rationale behind the boundary lines and read the intergovernmental agreements that will formally establish the reserves system. County and Metro staff and elected officials will be on hand to answer questions and you’ll have the opportunity to provide your perspective. Or you can attend a “virtual open house” on the Metro web site where you can view the same materials and answer survey questions.”

“Following this comment period, the Core 4, on behalf of their respective governments, will propose final maps and intergovernmental agreements for formal approval by the three commissions and Metro Council in February 2010. [ Editor's note: Final maps and agreements will be forwarded to the state's land use agency for review before final approval." [ Editor's note: The Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development will review the final maps and intergovernmental agreements to insure consistency with the state laws. ]

To find out more information about the Reserves Process, and how you can participate, visit the Oregon Metro site. Download current Reserves map (PDF).

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