From Dave Smith

Farms depend on pollinators
“More than 100,000 different animal species–and perhaps as many as 200,000–play roles in pollinating the 250,000 kinds of wild flowering plants on this planet. In addition to countless bees (there are an estimated 40,000 species of bees), wasps, moths, butterflies, flies, beetles and other invertebrates–perhaps 1,500 species of vertebrates such as birds and mammals–serve as pollinators. Cherish our pollinators–they mean the world to us. Click here to learn more.” (article and photo from FarmGirlFare.com)

Nell Newman: Organics For the Masses
“It is hard to change people’s minds, because we pay a low price for food in the U.S. Organics are much closer to the actual cost of food because it reflects a clean environment and they are not subsidized.” (Culinate.com)

Holistic Management of desertified lands
By healing the earth’s desertified lands, and by managing healthy land in concert with natural processes, we can repair our malfunctioning ecosystem while achieving a “triple bottom line” of economic, environmental and social sustainability.

A new zest for the updated art of pickle-making
Indeed, part of the fun of making pickles at home is experimenting with flavors and ingredients and drawing from the rich traditions of pickling around the globe. Mexican jalapeños, Indian eggplant and Lebanese turnips provide a welcome change from bread and butter slices and a colorful addition to pantry shelves.

How to grow a tea garden
For planting, Camellia sinensis likes well-drained and sandy soil that is on the acidic side. If you are going to grow your tea in a container, add some sphagnum moss to the potting mix. You’ll need some patience, too. Your plant should be around 3 years old before you start harvesting leaves. (GroovyGreen.com)

Local food networks reflect progress and potential
…the local-food movement requires more young people who are able and willing to start farming, as well as mid-sized farmers who are willing to convert some of their acres to vegetable and fruit production. The local-food movement also needs a full-scale program that provides the technical expertise young farm families need to survive… (TheNewFarm.com)

The nation’s first certified organic cooking school
James says that “organic foods have been a big part of my life for years, and helping people remove toxins from their diet is a big part of my life’s mission.” Her classes offer a way to help people ease into organic cooking and eating, and all of her consulting and nutritional counseling projects – be them online, in class, or off-site – focus on using organic ingredients for optimum health.

The Reality of Feed at Animal Factories
Many people are surprised to find that most of the food animals in the United States are no longer raised on farms at all. Instead they come from crowded animal factories, also known as large confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs).

A large-scale shift to organic agriculture…
could help fight world hunger and bring environmental improvements, researchers said at “Organic Agriculture and Food Security,” a United Nations’ Food and Agricultural Organization conference in Rome in May.

What hugging a farmer means
“In the meantime, stop whining about the price of healthy food. When you’ve stopped spending billions if not trillions of dollars a year, America, on soda, candy bars, cakes, cookies, muffins, cigarettes, do-nuts, snack foods, and other non-nutritious junk that is very expensive per unit of nutrition and per pound then you can complain about the fair price of a head of broccoli grown by a well respected farm worker making a living wage, with healthy care, reasonable housing, and good food available for her/( or him) self, her children and her community. That’s what hugging a farmer means to me.” (Karen Kisslinger, The Huffington Post)
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Dave Smith is author of To Be Of Use – The Seven Seeds of Meaningful Work and lives in Mendocino County, California.
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