Organic and Sustainable Agriculture News

If nothing else, save farming The Guardian [UK] - 11/16/2009. By George Monbiot – I don’t know when global oil supplies will start to decline. I do know that another resource has already peaked and gone into freefall: the credibility of the body that’s meant to assess them. Last week two whistleblowers from the International Energy Agency alleged that it has deliberately upgraded its estimate of the world’s oil supplies in order not to frighten the markets. Wind turbines dwarf Vinalhaven landscape Kennebec Journal - 11/16/2009. By Matt Wickenheiser – Vinalhaven: In the distance, the dark, low expanse of the island is punctuated by three white lines jutting through the horizon. Three giant wind turbines rise from the interior of the island, visible from miles away, above pines, above homes, above Vinalhaven's granite bones. And on Tuesday, the $14.5 million Fox Islands Wind project officially goes on line with a ribbon-cutting event, marking the completion of Maine's first island wind project. It's also the largest community-owned wind project on East Coast. The new farm owners Common Dreams - 11/15/2009. By GRAIN – With all the talk about "food security," and distorted media statements like "South Korea leases half of Madagascar's land," it may not be evident to a lot of people that the lead actors in today's global land grab for overseas food production are not countries or governments but corporations. The new wave of urban farming (and fresh food from small spaces) Grist - 11/12/2009. By Makenna Goodman – Do you dream of an organic garden, but don’t have a yard? A flock of chicks, perhaps, but don’t have a yard? Home-grown food, and lower grocery bills (but, alas, no yard!)? Dream no more, because you can have it, and without quitting your job, trading your bus pass for a pickup, or moving to the rural north. A new wave of farming is happening in a city near you. Grain trader calls food self sufficiency efforts “Nonsense” TreeHugger - 11/12/2009. By John Laumer – No way a transnational company like Cargill feels its markets are threatened by the US locavore movement. How, though, do we explain a top executive at the Maryland-based grain trader stating that the notion that countries "can be self-sufficient in every single food is a nonsense". (so quoted in Financial Times) That's more of a food hyperbole than a logical argument against self sufficiency efforts. New solutions needed for food and farming Soil Association UK - 11/12/2009. Global food shortages will be an inevitable consequence of climate change and resource depletion unless we make fundamental changes to the way we farm, process, distribute and eat our food over the next 20 years. That’s the stark message behind a new report from the Soil Association, Food Futures: Strategies for resilient food and farming. How the government should support local farms Newsweek - 11/11/2009. By Tom Philpott – Five years ago, I gave up a career as a business writer in New York City to take over a small farm in the Blue Ridge Mountains of western North Carolina with several friends. From the start, our goal was to help rebuild an ecologically sane local-food economy accessible to everyone in our community, from the second-home owners and vacationers who flock in every summer, to year-round residents with deep historical ties to the area. Current  Archive     Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7