Go straight to the original article by Tom Philpott on Mother Jones.

The farm bill—that vast, byzantine, twice-a-decade plan for federal food, ag, and hunger policy—expires on Sept. 30, just weeks before what promises to be an epically contested presidential election.

Under normal circumstances, getting Congress to agree on such complex and expensive legislation at a politically charged juncture would be daunting. This year, with both parties touting fiscal austerity and with the GOP-dominated House having recently approved a draconian budget proposal, getting a farm bill through the legislative process will be nearly impossible.

But none of that will likely stop Big Agribusiness from getting what it wants, which is programs that underwrite environmentally ruinous, nutritionally vapid corn/soy agriculture. Take Big Ag’s lobbying power and add a big pinch of fiscal hysteria and what you get is thin gruel for everything else in the farm bill, which could could choke off the USDA’s progressive-ag programs and even result in sharp cuts to hunger programs at a time of high un- and underemployment.

That’s the assessment I recently got from Ferd Hoefner, the policy director of the Washington-based National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition and a veteran of farm bill fights starting in the ’70s. Hoefner added that, despite the uncertainty on when the bill will actually be passed, we’ll likely see its broad outlines take shape in the near future.

• Progressive food and ag programs on the chopping block. For decades, groups like Hoefner’s have worked hard to create a set of programs designed to at least partially offset US farm policy’s tendency to bolster Big Ag. The programs, which the Obama Administration in 2009 grouped under the banner of Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food, include initiatives designed to assist new farmers to get loans help communities roll out farmers markets, and reduce  costs for farms to transition to organic.

Continue reading the full article on Mother Jones.

Home producers of value-added food products such as canned, baked or dry goods, have either had to use their home kitchen under the radar, or spend money renting commercial kitchens. Most states require that food products be made in commercial approve kitchens, but this added expense many home-based food businesses from even getting off the ground.

As jobs in this economy are still elusive for many, it doesn’t make sense for local and state authorities to put more roadblocks in the way of starting a home business. And with the growing interest in local foods, the cottage food industry offers a chance to improve the local economy.

As a producer of home-made spice blends and herbal tea blends (with no budget to rent a commercial kitchen), I was happy to learn that Colorado has adopted the Local Foods, Local Jobs Act. The act eases impediments to local markets by exempting home kitchens from certain health inspections that are generally aimed at larger retailers. Food producers using home kitchens will be trained on safe food handling and processing procedures, and will be required to properly label their products as coming from a home kitchen.

Senator Gail Schwartz, sponsor of the Local Foods, Local Jobs Act, said: “I am pleased to see that this jobs bill passed with bipartisan support as it will directly benefit many hard-working Coloradans. By empowering Colorado’s small farms and small-business entrepreneurs, this bill will create jobs, strengthen the economy, and promote tourism in our local communities.”

Small producers who sell directly to their customers are now exempt from having to use commercial kitchens or pay for health department inspections, or special permits. The act covers producers who sell less than $100,000 worth of products each year, a limit design to keep these small businesses from running in direct competition with larger local businesses.

This is a great step forward for local food economies, and will help small farms and other home-based food producers create a stronger income base, and a stronger overall economy. More than 30 states have adopted some form of a cottage food law, with others following their lead. Check your with your county extension office to learn more about what the laws are in your own state.

Kathleen Masterson/Harvest Public Media

Go to the original article by Kathleen Masterson on NPR.

The old farmer stereotype of a white guy in overalls has at least one truth to it: The majority of farmers in the U.S. are white males. Yet a growing number of women are joining their ranks.

Women now run about 14 percent of the nation’s farms, up from only 5 percent in the 1980s. Most female-run farms tend to be smaller and more diverse, and many are part of the burgeoning organic and local foods movement.

Women have long been involved in agriculture, but even just a generation ago, it was harder for women to take leadership roles on the farm.

“Girls could grow up to be farmers’ wives, but for a woman to actually consider herself to be farmer or grow up to be farmer, that wasn’t in the script,” says Helen Gunderson, who grew up in a farming family in northern Iowa. Now Gunderson lives in a one-story white ranch house in a quiet neighborhood in Ames, and she has turned her half-acre yard into a garden and chicken run.

Gunderson always wanted to be a farmer. She grew up in Rolfe, Iowa, where her family farmed large tracts of corn and soybeans. As a kid she resented that her brother, Charles, the only boy in the family, was trained to take over the family business.

“He was the one groomed to make decisions about farming. He had more significant farm projects. I had chickens; he had cattle. He had a 40-acre field project,” says Gunderson.

Go to the original article by Joel Salatin on Flavor Magazine Virginia

How Should We Respond When We’re Called Elitists Because We Buy More Expensive, Local Food?

Because high-quality local food often carries a higher price tag than food generated by the industrial system, the charge of elitism coming from industrial foodists is often vitriolic, and embarrassed foodies agonize over the label. For all their positive energy surrounding food, I’ve found latent guilt among this group – guilt for paying more for local food when others are starving, guilt for caring about taste when others would happily eat anything. Instead of cowering in self-guilt, let’s confront the issue of prices head on.

Why It’s Worth It

First, it’s better food. It tastes better. It handles better. And it’s safer: Anyone buying chemicalized, drug-infused food is engaging in risky behavior.

It’s also nutritionally superior. For those willing to see, scientific data shows fresh foods’ conjugated linoleic acid, vitamins, minerals, brix readings, omega 3–omega 6 ratios, and polyunsaturated fat profiles are empirically superior.

Better stuff is worth more.

Second, economies of scale will continue to progress as more people patronize local food, which will bring prices down. The collaborative aggregation and distribution networks that have been fine-tuned by mega-food companies can and will be duplicated locally as volume increases and regional food systems get more creative.

Third, eating unprocessed foods is the best way to bring down your grocery bill, regardless of where the food originated. A 10-pound bag of potatoes costs the same as a 1-pound bag of potato chips. Cultivating domestic culinary arts and actually re-inhabiting our kitchens—which we’ve remodeled and gadgetized at great cost—can wean all of us away from expensive processed food. A whole pound of our farm’s grass-finished ground beef, which can feed four adults, costs about the same as a Happy Meal. (And guess which one is more healthful?)

Fourth, non-scalable government regulations—which are designed to protect eaters from the dangers inherent in the industrial food complex but are not relevant in a transparent, regional food system—inordinately discriminate against smaller processing businesses like abattoirs, kitchens, and canneries, because the costs of complying with the (inappropriate) paperwork and infrastructure requirements cannot be spread out over a large volume of product. These regulations lead to price prejudice at the community-based scale: Small processors are at a disadvantage because they must pass those costs on to consumers, making their products more expensive than the mass-produced ones. These burdensome regulations also discourage entrepreneurs from entering local food commerce.

Continue reading the full article on Flavor Magazine Virginia.

While urban farms are located within easy reach of consumers, they tend to be confined on small plots that create challenges with achieving financially sustainable “micro-farming” operations. This research trial primarily examines the question of how much of the cultivatable space used during the main season in an urban micro-farming operation also needs to be dedicated to fall and winter production in unheated high tunnels to make the entire operation sustainable.

Results of this trial indicate that winter production using a high tunnel is possible, albeit with region-specific challenges. In assessing how to coordinate winter production with main season production, envisioning one extended season was fount to be most practical for planning purposes. In addition, an assessment of how much space is necessary to dedicate to winter production to make the entire farming operation sustainable revealed that a 1⁄4 acre of cultivation space, with half under tunnel production, and the use of intensive intercropping, are all factors required for a micro-farming operation to be financially sustainable.

Subjects for future research include an examination of intercropping yields to assess the effectiveness of the technique. Also, if intercropping is not used how much additional cultivatable space would be necessary and how would the financials of the operation need to change in order to accommodate the increased space while maintaining financial sustainability.

Go to LandShare Colorado to read complete report on the Small Farm Financial Sustainability Study .

Hospitals in Texas are offering fruits and vegetables to poorer patrons at a subsidized price to encourage healthy habits.

Original article by Christopher Wanjek, on Mother Nature Network.

After years of treating their clientele for the ravages of poor nutrition — obesity, Type 2diabetes, heart disease and stroke — some doctors finally are catching on to the idea that prescribing carrots instead of pharmaceutical drugs might be a better option. It’spreventive medicine 101.

Original article by Shannon Hayes on Yes! Magazine.

Shannon Hayes: Why are my prices higher than those at the super market? Glad you asked.

Every week during the growing season, my husband and I cart our family’s grassfed meats to market. We sell pork chops for $11 a pound; ground beef goes for $7.50.

Every week, we meet someone who tells us the prices are too high.

In fact, at those prices, the average net income for our family members has maxed out at $10 per hour. But part of our job is to hold our chins up and accept weekly admonishment for our inability to produce food as cheaply as it can be found in the grocery store.

The truth is, food in the grocery store is not cheap. We pay for it in advance with our tax dollars, which support farm subsidies that go to support an ecologically problematic industrialized food system. We pay for it with the lives of our soldiers and with the unfathomable military expenditures that support our national reliance on fossil fuels, upon which the industrial farming model is completely dependent. The prices only look cheap because we are paying for them someplace else: through our taxes, and via the destruction of our soil, water, and natural resources through irresponsible farming practices.

Continue reading the complete article on Yes! Magazine.

The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map is the standard by which gardeners and growers can determine which plants are most likely to thrive at a location. The map is based on the average annual minimum winter temperature, divided into 10-degree F zones.

While most gardeners and farmers have been aware of their specific growing zone, they may not be aware that the USDA have updated the  plant hardiness zone map to reflect changes in zones due to climate change.

For instance, our zone here in the Denver area was 5a, and is now considered a 6a–one full zone change. Be sure to check your zone before planning your garden or farm this season!

Photo by Law Keven - Creative Commons

Original article by John Kinsman on Common Dreams.

On Wednesday January, 11 Wisconsin dairy farmer Vernon Herschberger must appear before a county judge in Baraboo, WI. His crime? Providing unpasteurized dairy products from his small herd of about twenty pastured cows to members of his own buying club.  Half way across the continent in Maine, Daniel Brown, another family farmer with a small livestock herd was notified last November that he was being sued by the state for selling food and milk without a license.   At the time he was milking one Jersey cow.

In Valencio County, New Mexico, the Hispano Chamber of Commerce was forced to cancel its popular Matanza Festival set for Jan. 28th under pressure from the USDA which said the centuries old tradition of processing and serving pigs on site could no longer be done outside of a federally certified slaughter facility.   Last July in Oak Park, Minnesota bureaucrats threatened Julie Bass with up to three months in jail for daring to grow vegetables in her own front yard.  In September,  Adam Guerroro was ordered to remove his kitchen garden because it was deemed a “public nuisance” by Memphis, Tennessee officials.  Apparently, Michelle Obama’s victory garden at the White House falls under a different jurisdiction.

This government crackdown on family farmers is absurd given the current sordid state of our food/farm system and the urgent need to relocalize agriculture for the sake of our health, as well as that of the planet.   Study after study has shown that the most dangerous food is usually that which has endured the most processing and traveled the furthest.

“With millions of Americans contracting food borne illnesses each year, the USDA is committed to supporting research that improves the safety of our nation’s food system,” wrote USDA Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan in the December 2011 issue of Agriview.  In the same issue, it was also revealed that U.S. meat and milk exports had failed to pass the European Union’s standard for drug residues.   Deborah Cera, leader of the drug compliance team at the FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine, admitted there were many violations involving scores of drugs in U.S. livestock.  In a November 2011 article in the Wisconsin State Farmer, Kim Brown-Pokorny of the WI Veterinary Medical Association,warned that Wisconsin was the worst violator nationwide in terms of illegal drug residues in the meat of culled dairy cows.  Yet, there was no mention in either article of prosecuting or penalizing these drug users or even informing U.S. consumers of this obvious food safety threat.

Continue reading the complete article on Common Dreams.