Farmworkers Fair Labor Practices Act

The New York Times has an interesting editorial out about farm worker's rights and what happened to them in the New Deal Era. What happened is that they were left out, with lasting consequences for the way our food system functions. Keep your eyes out for news about the Farmworkers Fair Labor Practices Act.

The photo is mine, taken in Ccenta near Pampachiri, Peru. One heck of a gorgeous corn on the cob.

Have I mentioned?

...my new favorite social network. The San Francisco garden registry. It's a Futurefarmers project and I have just posted that I have an extra asparagus crown in case anyone nearby would like it. I really hope someone does want it because I hate adopting plants just to fail them right away.

Global food crisis and subsistence farming

Two days running I've read articles about people reverting to traditional methods of farming because of the tough food/ oil price situation. The New York Times has a wonderful article about Mexican farmers reclaiming barren land with traditional methods (including terracing!!). And Treehugger had an article about farmers in India trading tractors for camels which is in turn improving the breeding stock of animals that used to be used to transport royalty.

While neither of these things solve the global problem, they do secure the food supply of each person who is now farming in a sustainable way. This is something I like hearing about when most of the news is about how the people in Myanmar have no access to food or fresh water, and many thousands in China are trapped beneath rubble. I can't think that traditional farming methods shouldn't comprise at least a little bit of a solution to our global environmental emergency.

One thing that might help everyone is to put a price premium on hand-grown food. It's hard for anyone to compete with subsidized American corn.

Trying to raise local

Interesting article by a Minnesota farmer about his dilemma with the FSA and trying to meet demand for local produce. It turns out that because of the way subsidies are regulated he owes his landlords nearly 9K for growing watermelon and tomato instead of corn...