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Huge farm bill offers more of same for agribusiness
Draft before House fails to limit big crop subsidies
Carolyn Lochhead, San Francisco Chronicle
A prominent San Francisco patron of the arts, Constance Bowles — heiress of an early California cattle baron, widow of a former director of UC Berkeley’s Bancroft library and a resident of Pacific Heights — was the largest recipient of federal cotton subsidies in the state of California between 2003 and 2005, collecting more than $1.2 million, according to the latest available data.
That is the way U.S. farm programs are designed to work. Five crops — cotton, corn, wheat, rice and soybeans — received 92 percent of the $21 billion in federal farm payments last year. The biggest payments go to the biggest farms.
That also is pretty much the way farm programs will continue to work for the next five years under mammoth legislation scheduled today for a House vote.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco has endorsed the new farm bill, produced by the House Agriculture Committee to run programs for the next five years, as a major reform because it limits annual payments to farmers who earn $1 million a year.
(26 July 2007)
Related editorial from the Chron.
Mid-valley farmers’ markets: High failure rate? Not here
Kyle Odegard, Corvallis Gazette-Times (Oregon)
…In a seven-year study, 62 markets in Oregon opened, but 32 closed, including one briefly held at the Alpine Community Center in South Benton County.
“The increasing popularity of the markets is in direct contrast with their surprisingly high failure rate,” read an OSU news release.
Garry Stephenson, an OSU small farms specialist, said he believes Oregon, which has 80 farmers’ markets, is the first state to study why many farmers’ markets closed, and what can help them succeed.
The markets are important because they bring more dollars for growers by eliminating the middleman, and consumers benefit with fresh, secure produce, Stevenson added.
Factors that contribute to their failure include a small number of vendors, a low-paid or volunteer manager, high manager turnover, and a need for greater variety of farm products.
The markets that closed were generally smaller, though they could be in urban or rural settings, said OSU marketing economist Larry Lev. Half of those that closed did so within their first year or shortly afterward.
(25 July 2007)
Rooted in local fresh taste (Community Supporte Agriculture)
Amy Brittain, Christian Science Monitor
Members of community supported farms reap the rewards of fresh and tasty produce.
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Waltham, Mass. – Open the salad bag, add dressing, and eat – it’s become a regular routine in the hustle-and-bustle lives of many Americans. The prewashed, pretorn lettuce sealed in plastic bags is common in grocery stores around the world.
But a modestly growing group of shoppers are forgoing this convenience to shake the dirt from lettuce leaves themselves. As “organically grown” and “produced locally” become appealing consumer labels, more people seem to be satisfying a need to connect with the land by making a financial commitment to area farms. Known as community supported agriculture (CSA), shareholders pay local farm owners up front before each growing season and agree to ride the waves of possible drought and crop shortages. In return, the shareholders arrive at designated pickup spots each week to fill bags with freshly harvested produce.
It’s a fixed price that more environmentally conscious consumers are willing to pay, even if it means coming up with creative uses for an abundance of say, bok choy.
… The CSA movement originated in the 1960s in Kobe, Japan, where a group of women desired a closer connection with farmers and the food they were consuming. They called this partnership “teikei,” which loosely means “food with the farmer’s face on it.” The trend spread to Europe and then to the United States in the mid-1980s, when Robyn Van En, a New England farmer, founded the American CSA system in western Massachusetts. The Robyn Van En Center at Wilson College in Chambersburg, Pa., now serves as a hub for CSA research and development in the US.
…Today there are about 1,300 CSA farms in the US, a 260 percent increase since 1995, according to statistics from the Robyn Van En Center. Most can be found in the Northeast and all along the West Coast, with Massachusetts and Rhode Island having the highest density of CSA farms.
A typical CSA “share” feeds two adults and two children during the growing season. Prices vary across the country, depending on the location, length of growing season, and variety of crops.
(25 July 2007)
Gardening for Change in the City
Sophie Johnson, The Nation
…Local agriculture projects like East New York Farms! have become increasingly popular in the last few years as the effects of global warming grow more obvious. The fuel needed to transport foods across the country–or around the world–is a major contributor to America’s enormous tally of carbon emissions, and buying locally means an automatically more energy-efficient way to eat. Farmers’ markets and local food choices at grocery stores are popping up all over the place as a result: New York alone has upwards of 400 farmers’ markets statewide this year–about fifty more than last year.
…Local agriculture is making more and more sense as a means for social change–especially as demand for local produce increases. Although popularity of the local foods movement continues to swell, corporate agriculture remains a major threat to farmers. “A lot of the farmers that are small-scale are going out of business because there aren’t enough people supporting them,” said Braverman. “It’s important to connect low-income neighborhoods and urban communities with people who are struggling to create a sustainable and just food system.”
(23 July 2007)
Fermenting Revolution / Soil Matters CSA I (Audio)
Deconstructing Dinner, Global Public Media
Fermenting Revolution
How many people out there would love to hear that drinking beer could save the world?
One might ask, to save the world from what, and author Christopher O’Brien would suggest from climate change, from pollution, from corporate control of our lives, from declining levels of happiness, from increasing levels of stress, from gender inequality, and from communities that have lost their sense of community. Fermenting Revolution” is the title of the book released just last year by British Columbia’s New Society Publishers.
As we often critically examine individual foods or agricultural commodities here on Deconstructing Dinner, beer is of course no different from any other food. It’s principle ingredients consist of water, barley (or another grain), hops and yeast, all of which are extracted and produced in ways that can either respect or disrespect the earth. We learn of beer and its role in leading a revolution in small breweries around the world.
Soil Matters CSA I
One of the greatest threats facing farmers today and hence facing our own food supply is the financial rewards found in the field of farming, rewards that are seemingly more often then not, in the negative digits. Many argue that food and agriculture should be removed from global trade regimes. One of the reasons for such an idea comes from a belief that farmers themselves should not have to bear the financial risks associated with such a volatile industry, and all people should equally share such risks as food is a need and not a desire. One alternative to the dominant food system is the model of Community Supported Agriculture, whereby a set number of people within a city or town become a member of a farm, and in doing so pay the farmers at the beginning of the season when farmers need the money most. Members who join are then guaranteed what is most often a weekly box of fresh produce. As many farmers know all too well how easily an entire crop can be lost due to weather, pests or unforseen circumstances, members of a CSA share this risk with the farmer and on the other side can also share in the abundance. Just outside of Nelson, British Columbia, two intrepid farmers who only began farming a few years ago, have launched a CSA this year. Host Jon Steinman chose to become a member and document the process of creating a CSA and the potential for such a model to reconnect people with their food and provide farmers with a more secure source of income.
(26 July 2007)
