Santogold

Totally in love with Santogold at the moment... I'm wondering if her song Creator is about the DIY movement and buying less stuff (as we all must consider doing if we are to recover from our global warming nosedive). I'm thinking more about how to make the seedling project a propaganda piece about living simply, and this song struck me as saying the same thing. Likely I'm on crack and seeing exactly what I want to see in this song!

Advertising for Andamarca

I still love my handmade hat from the knitters of Andamarca, Peru.

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.

Mysterious cities of gold

A somewhat dated documentary on the Andes. Brief and inaccurate information on Peru, and some very wonderful theme music.

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...

Naturally Raised

The USDA is considering a new label for meat: Naturally Raised. Sounds nice, but all it means is that the meat was raised without hormones or antibiotics: not exactly the grassy green pastures kind of a thing, plus it overlaps with the 'organic' label. The Ethicurean has more about this. "USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service had previously proposed the development of "no antibiotics used" and "no supplemental hormones used" labels, both of which would provide clear and reliable signals to consumers."

I just filled in the USDA's comment form, which was very quick, and my comment is pasted below if you'd rather have something semi-personal than the talking points provided by The Ethicurean. The USDA is accepting comments from the public until March 3.

Comment: The definition of 'raised naturally' seems meaningless and appears to overlap with the definition of 'organic'. I'm not sure why you would want to confuse consumers. It seems to me that a 'raised hormone and antibiotic free' label would be more to the point.

Farm Bill: The Senate

What a lot of hoopla! If you search farm bill in google today you'll wind up scrolling through a lot of seemingly disparate headlines, from "Deal reached," to "Maybe we'll see something by March." It appears that the Farm Bill might really make it through the Senate this time, since both Dems and Republicans have agreed to only tack 20 amendments each onto the Bill. That still seems like a lot to me, but they've pared it down from hundreds so they're on the right track. There are two amendments to watch for: the Lugar-Lautenberg amendment would eliminate crop subsidies entirely and replace them with free insurance for all farmers. The Dorgan-Grassley amendment would limit payments to $250,000 per farm but keep the subsidy structure intact.

I think the important thing is to just read the news so you know what's happening with the future of agriculture here in the U.S. I think we are due for change, but it's more a question of timing... If you want to get more involved, talk to your senators and keep your eye on Organic Farming Research Foundation to find out when they'll vote. Or there's always Google News!