Chelsea Green Publishing - The Lean Farm. Choosing locally grown organic food is a sustainable living trend that’s taken hold throughout North America.
Celebrated farming expert Eliot Coleman helped start this movement with The New Organic Grower published 20 years ago. He continues to lead the way, pushing the limits of the harvest season while working his world-renowned organic farm in Harborside, Maine. Now, with his long-awaited new book, The Winter Harvest Handbook, anyone can have access to his hard-won experience. Wall Street investors buying up farmland. WASHINGTON – For farmers gearing up to harvest millions of acres of land this fall in the face of low commodity prices, the rows of corn, soybeans and other crops have long been viewed as key to their survival.
But increasingly those same acres are drawing the attention of Wall Street investors looking to tap into those fields for profit. Investors have turned to farmland as part of a sweeping push into physical assets — everything from lumber, hotels and apartments to parking meters, bridges and highways. Farmland is becoming particularly attractive as the global population increases, the middle class expands and the rate of new farmland available worldwide dwindles. All this, proponents say, bodes well for gradually higher commodity prices that will trickle down to the farm, increasing the value of the land.
“You can build new office buildings. Alternative Farming Systems Information Center. The Urban Food Revolution: Changing the Way We Feed Cities - Peter Ladner. Urban Agriculture: Ideas and Designs for the New Food Revolution - David Tracey. Transforming Your Urban Backyard. Many people living in the suburbs and cities would like to ‘have a go’ at living a more sustainable and satisfying life and yet are daunted by what they view as lack of space and appropriate surroundings.
It is easy to say “I just don’t have the space here!” Or “Oh, my soil is terrible – I couldn’t grow a thing!” One of the enjoyable aspects of permaculture design is the challenge of recognising ‘problems’ and turning them into solutions. Hudson Valley Harvest: Transparency is Key to Scaling Local Food. The Hudson Valley of New York has a long, rich history of agriculture, and currently boasts more than 5,000 farms that generate upwards of US$500 million in annual revenue.
However, despite the regional growth of direct-to-consumer models such as Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) and farmers markets, small farmers may still struggle to bring their products to larger buyers, such as restaurants, schools, and other institutions. Hudson Valley Harvest, the leading local food company in the tristate area (New York, Connecticut, and New Jersey), has grown to fill this niche.
Paul Alward, a farmer of 10 years, co-founded the company in 2011 with three friends who met at farmers markets in New York. According to Alward, now the chief executive officer of Hudson Valley Harvest, the company “grew organically from the market system.” How to Make Money With Organic Gardening. Former county extension agent Clifton Slade has been raising commercial vegetables for years.
But it wasn’t until he attended a Sustainable Agriculture Working Group workshop a couple of years ago that he started learning how to do more with less—less land, that is. At the workshop, Slade spoke with farmers who were grossing $1 per square foot in greenhouses. “I thought if it could be done inside, why not outside?” So Slade went back home to Surry County, Virginia, and started intensively farming a quarter acre with the goal of raising a pound, a bunch, or a head of produce in every square foot. “It worked so well that first year, I thought, ‘Oh, I can make a fortune.’” Slade began calling area CSAs (community supported agriculture) to see what types of produce their customers wanted that the CSA was not providing.
The secret is in the soil. Green Mountain College: Masters in Sustainable Food Systems. Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems. You bring your gardening background and interest and hopes for your own market garden or small vegetable farm.
We expose you to what you need to know and plan for as you set seeds and grow. January 9-11, 2015. Eat Wild. BDA Adopts Shared Leadership and Evolutionary Approach to Work. Thea Maria Carlson Named Co-Director Amidst the dominant agricultural paradigm of farms as inanimate factories, churning out commodity crops and animal products, biodynamics offers a radically different perspective: the farm is a living organism with its own inherent integrity, intelligence and health.
The Biodynamic Association (BDA) is now working to embody a similar approach to how it operates as an organization, moving away from a traditional hierarchical and mechanistic organizational model to an agile, living approach to organizing its work. As a first step in this transformation, the BDA is pleased to announce that Thea Maria Carlson has been named Co-Director of the Association.
Frederic Laloux video sharing key insights from his research. Video on the cultural model referenced in Reinventing Organizations and the emergence of teal. The Opportunity to Unite "Local Food"! - Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund. FarmMatch.com has become the world’s fastest growing local foods search engine.
Raw milk activist, Max Kane, and software firm owner David King launched the website in the fall of 2012 to strengthen the local food movement and build community. In this article, Kane writes about the benefits FarmMatch has to offer farmers and consumers and the potential to help growing and protecting local food systems. A City Where Everyone Works, There Is No Police, And The Salary Is 1200 Euros. With virtually no police, crime or unemployment, meet the Spanish town described as a democratic, socialist utopia.
Unemployment is non-existent in Marinaleda, an Andalusian village in southern Spain that is prosperous thanks to its farming cooperative. GARD Pro Not Registered On the face of it, the Spanish town of Marinaleda is indistinguishable from any other in its region. Nestled in the picturesque Campiña valley, the surrounding countryside is made up of rolling green hills, miles of olive plantations and golden fields of wheat stretching as far as the eye can see. Webinar: What is a Worker Self-Directed Nonprofit? - Sustainable Economies Law Center. Question: What do you get when you cross a worker cooperative with a 501(c)(3) nonprofit?
National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service. Joel Salatin, Daniel & Sheri Salatin bring Fields of Farmers to Oceania {Feb-Mar 2014} Earn a Good Living Without a Tractor: A Market Gardener Tells You How. According to Jean-Martin Fortier, it isn’t a farmer’s job to feed the world. And he finds it absurd that many U.S. -based food and agriculture companies tell farmers they should do so. “Feeding the world? People in Africa don’t need the U.S. to feed them.” What we need, the Canadian farmer argues, is small farms feeding their communities, and that task is difficult enough. Learn How This Family Grows 6,000 Lbs Of Food on Just 1/10th Acre. Ever thought of growing your own food but didn’t think it was possible? It’s more that possible! It might even be the way of the future. If the Dervaes family can do it while living in Los Angeles, I think you can to. We're bringin' farming back. What does is take to be a game changer in the 21st century?
We set out on a mission to find out. All of these people possess the same qualities. While you may or may not agree with them, you can't deny that they all push every single day to change the status quo. They have changed both the conversation around food and the way with which we do it. The Tao of Innovation: Nine Questions Every Innovator Must Answer by Teng-Kee Tan. Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project's Local Food Guide. 10 Steps to a Healthier Community through Social Marketing. Community-based social marketing (CBSM) encourages individuals to make life changes that are good for them and their community. Rather than trying to get people to buy cereal or a car, social marketers encourage them to do things like share more, reduce food waste, or stop smoking. Recently, the West Coast Climate and Materials Management Forum hosted a webinar on social marketing featuring Amanda Godwin from Colehour + Cohen who explained how to implement CBSM techniques to achieve lasting behavior change within communities.
Building a More Effective Core Team. Date: Wednesday, April 8, 2015 - 11:00am - 12:15pm Join Chris Corrigan, Art of Hosting trainer and facilitator extraordinaire, for an important conversation around the art of Working With Core Teams. How do we build structures to steward engagement and create spaces for strategic and inclusive work without the "tyranny of inclusion" stopping us from moving? You will learn about principles and structures for planning inviting and working with core teams who oversee and host larger engagement projects.
The Profitable Hobby Farm, How to Build a Sustainable Local Foods Business by Sarah Aubrey. 7 Places to Learn to Be A Farmer. March 24, 2015 | AJ Hughes. We're bringin' farming back. Women Over 65 Own Nearly a Third of Iowa’s Farmland—Can They Prevent the Next Dust Bowl? Women farmer image via shutterstock. Reproduced on Resilience.org by permission. Home. FEDN is an initiative of the Urban Economic Development Association of WI. How to Find a Trustworthy Farm Sitter. Local Food With a Big Twist: Oregon Super-Cooperative Takes Aim at the Corporate Food System by Mary Hansen and Liz Pleasant. Narendra Varma loves chocolate. We help new farmers find land, reach buyers, and get the training they need to succeed. Campaign.r20.constantcontact. Events - Elsewhere Farm. Permaculture Main Crops of Special Importance - Salad Mallow - The Permaculture Research Institute.
Only Agroecology Can Tackle the Global Food and Health Crisis. The current global food crisis is simple and complex at the same time. The Drought Fighter - Craftsmanship Magazine. Topics: Climate Change, Drought, Farming, Fertility, Food, Organic Agriculture, Science, Soil Health, Urban Farming Locations: California, Sebastopol Materials: Bugs, Carbon, Compost, Plants, Soil Masters: Paul Kaiser: Drought Fighter. A Cookbook: More Than 100 Recipes Collected from the Best Street Food Vendors Coast to Coast by Kim Pham. 11 Rules for Beginning Farmers to Live By. Sowing and Distributing Centuries-Old Seeds. How to Design a Shared Backyard. Stone Barns Center - It All Adds Up: The True Costs of Farming. Caring Across Generations. 9 Ways to Make Money on the Homestead - One Ash Plantation Homestead Blog.
7 Good Business Habits for Young Farmers. Northeast Beginning Farmer Project. 9 Rules for Starting Your Own Farm. 5 Technology Tools for Localizing the Food System. Profitable Urban Farming. A realistic view with farmer Curtis Stone. Working your ass off and making $50,000 on a quarter acre. (PVP083) Stony broke - the hard side of the good life. Beetcoin. Barnraiser Aims to Be 'Kickstarter' for Sustainable Food. The Practical Beekeeper, Beekeeping Naturally, Bush Bees, by Michael Bush. How to Glean for Good. 12 Artful Displays of Vegetables. Community Based Sustainable Food Systems. How a Community Food System Works. UW Cooperative Extension Farming. 23 Food Sharing Projects That Are Disrupting Hunger. Meet Your New Favorite Exotic Meat: Yak. Small Farm Today Magazine - Home. Cultivating Community through Healthy Food. Sell What You Sow!: The Grower's Guide to Successful Produce Marketing by Eric Gibson.
WI FARM TO SCHOOL producer toolkit. How to Start & Manage a Micro Dairy, Step 7: Budgeting and Finance - Homesteading and Livestock. Mastodon Valley Farm. Heritage Dairy - Business Plan worksheet. Farm Commons. Growing Good Permaculture Business Video Series - Part 1: Success. Allison Perrett - Beyond Efficiency - Local Food Systems critique. FRESH FOOD FOR ALL. What Is a Business Trust? Beyond Local Foods, land trusts, JessicaBeckettThesis2011. Alternative Farming Systems Information Center.
Software Review – AgSquared for Organic Farmers. Farm Dreams Workshops, Viroqua- Land Stewardship Project. Farmscale Permaculture. Bob-White Systems. Land Stewardship Project MN- Fostering an ethic of stewardship for farmland, promoting sustainable agriculture and developing sustainable communities. Home Page. Savory Institute Holistic Management. Learning Materials - Holistic Management International. Direct Marketing to Schools — ASI. Farm promotion and support ideas and tools for economic development and tourism development authorities.
FoodProject RuralAgManual 0. The Food Project. Valley Stewardship Network. 'Groceryships' Could Set a Course for Healthy Eating. Michael Fields Agricultural Institute. Starting A New Farm: Planning Guides & Resources for Success. Food truck with a difference: Converted bus brings fresh produce to low-income neighbourhoods. The County Line » Commercial space available in Viroqua’s Food Enterprise Center. VEDA: Food Enterprise Center Vernon Economic Development Association. VEDA: Vernon Economic Development Association Susan Noble. Valley Stewardship Network -Nicole Penick. University of Wisconsin-Extension. You Can Farm by Joel Salatin.