Please join us…
If you are interested in Landcare as an international movement, you may want to consider joining us tomorrow to greet Dr. Pal Singh, who has been involved with the expansion of Landcare through South Asia.
Dr. Virendra Pal Singh, South Asian representative for the International Centre for Research in Agroforestry (ICRAF) will be discussing the opportunities and benefits of integrating forestry and agricultural production for rural community development in his presentation “From the Ground Up: Innovative Approaches and Good Practices for Sustainable Livelihoods.”
The presentation will be held on Tuesday, July 20th from 11am to noon at the International Affairs Offices (526 Prices Fork Rd) in Meeting Room A. The presentation is open to the public at no cost.
After completing a PhD program in soil science at the University of the Philippines at Los Baños, Dr. Singh worked with the International Rice Research Institute until 2002 as an agronomist and handled a major rice research and development program in Eastern India. Beginning in 2003, he undertook the establishment of ICRAF’s Regional Office for South Asia, developing a research protocol for the South Asia Region. He has consulted on several agroforestry and agronomy projects for the World Bank, FAO, IFAD, and other regional, national, and international organizations.
We hope you will be able to join us for this fascinating discussion with Dr. Singh. Please direct any questions to Courtney Kimmel at cekimmel@vt.edu.
Showing posts with label Sustainable Lifestyle. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sustainable Lifestyle. Show all posts
Monday, July 19, 2010
Friday, March 27, 2009
Farmers Worry About Proposed Legislation
by Tom Wilemon
Published on Friday, March 27, 2009
Some Mid-South farmers who sell their products directly to consumers worry that a food safety bill in Congress could put them out of business if enacted into law.
Read the whole story by clicking here.
Published on Friday, March 27, 2009
Some Mid-South farmers who sell their products directly to consumers worry that a food safety bill in Congress could put them out of business if enacted into law.
Read the whole story by clicking here.
Friday, January 2, 2009
Here's a Thoughtful Article on Small Farms vs. Agribusiness
A Change We Can Believe In - Dumping Industrial Agriculture
by Jim Goodman
As 2009 approaches, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) notes nearly a billion people a day go hungry worldwide. While India supplies Switzerland with 80% of its wheat, 350 million Indians are food-insecure. Rice prices have nearly tripled since early 2007 because, according to The International Rice Research Institute, rice-growing land is being lost to industrialization, urbanization and shifts to grain crops for animal feed.
Yet, according to FAO statistics, world food supplies have kept pace with population growth. There is enough food to adequately feed everyone. Clearly, root causes of the food crisis lie in politics, problems with food distribution, poverty and a failure of the industrial food system to deliver its promises.
Dr. Bob Watson, chief scientist for the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in the UK, places the blame for the food price spikes on several factors; grain being shifted to animal feed, drought, increased use of grains for biofuels and speculation in food crops. While proponents assert that industrial agriculture is the only hope to end the food crisis, it appears that industrial agriculture is *causing* the food crisis.
See the rest of the article by clicking HERE.
by Jim Goodman
As 2009 approaches, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) notes nearly a billion people a day go hungry worldwide. While India supplies Switzerland with 80% of its wheat, 350 million Indians are food-insecure. Rice prices have nearly tripled since early 2007 because, according to The International Rice Research Institute, rice-growing land is being lost to industrialization, urbanization and shifts to grain crops for animal feed.
Yet, according to FAO statistics, world food supplies have kept pace with population growth. There is enough food to adequately feed everyone. Clearly, root causes of the food crisis lie in politics, problems with food distribution, poverty and a failure of the industrial food system to deliver its promises.
Dr. Bob Watson, chief scientist for the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in the UK, places the blame for the food price spikes on several factors; grain being shifted to animal feed, drought, increased use of grains for biofuels and speculation in food crops. While proponents assert that industrial agriculture is the only hope to end the food crisis, it appears that industrial agriculture is *causing* the food crisis.
See the rest of the article by clicking HERE.
Monday, December 15, 2008
Seminar on Traditional Foods and Healthy Communities
The Center for Rural Culture, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization located in Goochland County, Virginia, in conjunction with Ellwood Thompson’s Local Market, is hosting a seminar on Traditional Foods & Healthy Communities with keynote speaker Sally Fallon – author of Nourishing Traditions and President, The Weston A. Price Foundation, on Saturday, January 10th, 2009.
This daylong seminar will raise awareness and educate communities about their health, their food supply and sustainable farming practices for environmental preservation. There will be other experts who will speak, as well as Sally Fallon, on the important links between health and communities. A delicious lunch featuring locally sourced traditional foods will be provided by Ellwood Thompson’s Local Market.
The seminar will take place at the Montpelier Center for Arts and Education, 17205 Mountain Road at the western edge of Hanover on Route 33 in Hanover County (just west of Richmond) from 9:00am-6:00pm. The seminar will include the following lectures/lecturers:
“The Power of Food: a Virginia Dietitian's Perspective" (Lynda Fanning, MA, MPH, RD - Clinical Nutrition Manager, University of Virginia Health System)
“The Basics of Healthy Diets” (Sally Fallon)
“The Politics and Economics of Food” (Sally Fallon)
“Planning for a Healthy Environment” (Stewart Schwartz, Executive Director – Partnership for Smarter Growth)
”How Sustainable Farming can Promote Public Health” (Sally K. Norton, MPH - Scientific / Program Administrator, Department of Social and Behavioral Health, School of Medicine, Virginia Commonwealth University)
“How to Change Your Diet for the Better” (Sally Fallon)
Panel Discussion
Cost for the January 10th seminar is $65 in advance or $75 at the door. Pre-register on the Center for Rural Culture’s website (www.centerforruralculture.org). Center for Rural Culture and Weston A. Price members’ cost is only $50 (and also students), but those folks must register by mail. Call 804-314-9141 for a brochure.
The Center for Rural Culture will host two other book-signing and lecture events with Sally Fallon on the same weekend. Participants can meet and talk with Sally Fallon and bring or purchase their own copy of Sally’s Nourishing Traditions book to be signed.
Friday, January 9th 5:30-9:00pm Book signing and Meet & Greet starts at 5:30pm. Lecture - “The Oiling of America/The Cholesterol Myths” begins at 7:00pm. Delicious food and alcohol/non-alcohol beverages will be available for purchase before, during and after event! Cost: $10 suggested donation at the door or pre-register on the Center for Rural Culture’s website (www.centerforruralculture.org). Location: The Camel Restaurant & Bar, 1621 W Broad St. Richmond, VA 23220 (804) 353-4901.
Sunday, January 11th 11:00am-1:00pm Book signing and Meet & Greet starts at 11:00am. Lecture -“Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner: Having trouble getting started with a traditional diet?” starts at 11:30am. Sally will offer suggestions for no-fuss, economical meals based on traditional foods. Cost: Free, although seating is limited, so pre-registration is suggested. Go to the Center’s website to pre-register. Location: Ellwood’s Community Coffee, 10 S. Thompson St. Richmond, VA 23221 (804) 359-7525.
The mission of the Center for Rural Culture is to educate, promote and inspire members of our community to sustain a culture that supports agriculture and the local economy, protects natural and historic resources, and maintains our rural character and traditions. The Center founded and manages the Goochland Farmers Market and offers many educational programs and opportunities to learn about sustainable agriculture, conservation practices, local foods and local foods systems, smart growth, traditional rural arts, music and rural history.
The movement for a more sustainable local food system is in full swing in Central Virginia, and the opportunity to learn more about traditional foods and their relationship to the health of communities is an important and timely topic. Who should come? – Everyone…students, doctors, mothers, farmers, healthcare providers, teachers, or anyone who is interested in radically strengthening the very foundations of their health and their community.
For additional information, contact Lisa Dearden @ 804-314-9141 or admin@CenterForRuralCulture.org.
This daylong seminar will raise awareness and educate communities about their health, their food supply and sustainable farming practices for environmental preservation. There will be other experts who will speak, as well as Sally Fallon, on the important links between health and communities. A delicious lunch featuring locally sourced traditional foods will be provided by Ellwood Thompson’s Local Market.
The seminar will take place at the Montpelier Center for Arts and Education, 17205 Mountain Road at the western edge of Hanover on Route 33 in Hanover County (just west of Richmond) from 9:00am-6:00pm. The seminar will include the following lectures/lecturers:
“The Power of Food: a Virginia Dietitian's Perspective" (Lynda Fanning, MA, MPH, RD - Clinical Nutrition Manager, University of Virginia Health System)
“The Basics of Healthy Diets” (Sally Fallon)
“The Politics and Economics of Food” (Sally Fallon)
“Planning for a Healthy Environment” (Stewart Schwartz, Executive Director – Partnership for Smarter Growth)
”How Sustainable Farming can Promote Public Health” (Sally K. Norton, MPH - Scientific / Program Administrator, Department of Social and Behavioral Health, School of Medicine, Virginia Commonwealth University)
“How to Change Your Diet for the Better” (Sally Fallon)
Panel Discussion
Cost for the January 10th seminar is $65 in advance or $75 at the door. Pre-register on the Center for Rural Culture’s website (www.centerforruralculture.org). Center for Rural Culture and Weston A. Price members’ cost is only $50 (and also students), but those folks must register by mail. Call 804-314-9141 for a brochure.
The Center for Rural Culture will host two other book-signing and lecture events with Sally Fallon on the same weekend. Participants can meet and talk with Sally Fallon and bring or purchase their own copy of Sally’s Nourishing Traditions book to be signed.
Friday, January 9th 5:30-9:00pm Book signing and Meet & Greet starts at 5:30pm. Lecture - “The Oiling of America/The Cholesterol Myths” begins at 7:00pm. Delicious food and alcohol/non-alcohol beverages will be available for purchase before, during and after event! Cost: $10 suggested donation at the door or pre-register on the Center for Rural Culture’s website (www.centerforruralculture.org). Location: The Camel Restaurant & Bar, 1621 W Broad St. Richmond, VA 23220 (804) 353-4901.
Sunday, January 11th 11:00am-1:00pm Book signing and Meet & Greet starts at 11:00am. Lecture -“Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner: Having trouble getting started with a traditional diet?” starts at 11:30am. Sally will offer suggestions for no-fuss, economical meals based on traditional foods. Cost: Free, although seating is limited, so pre-registration is suggested. Go to the Center’s website to pre-register. Location: Ellwood’s Community Coffee, 10 S. Thompson St. Richmond, VA 23221 (804) 359-7525.
The mission of the Center for Rural Culture is to educate, promote and inspire members of our community to sustain a culture that supports agriculture and the local economy, protects natural and historic resources, and maintains our rural character and traditions. The Center founded and manages the Goochland Farmers Market and offers many educational programs and opportunities to learn about sustainable agriculture, conservation practices, local foods and local foods systems, smart growth, traditional rural arts, music and rural history.
The movement for a more sustainable local food system is in full swing in Central Virginia, and the opportunity to learn more about traditional foods and their relationship to the health of communities is an important and timely topic. Who should come? – Everyone…students, doctors, mothers, farmers, healthcare providers, teachers, or anyone who is interested in radically strengthening the very foundations of their health and their community.
For additional information, contact Lisa Dearden @ 804-314-9141 or admin@CenterForRuralCulture.org.
Monday, July 28, 2008
Small Farming Is the Future
by Jim Goodman
Napoleon wanted France to be bigger. He wanted more land. Nothing stopped him until Waterloo.
Have we, the human race, met our Waterloo? Have we finally hit the wall with our never-ending desire for “bigness”?
I decided years ago that I didn’t want my farming operation to get bigger. I liked milking 45 cows, raising their feed and doing a little direct marketing. I liked being small.
“Hopelessly behind the times,” I was told. Local cheese makers were giving up, local meat processing was a thing of the past. Small farming was dead. The developing world couldn’t feed itself and needed industrial farming systems.
Who could argue with the Green Revolution? Until the current food crisis. It’s not so much a shortage of food, but a shortage of cheap food. The poor can’t afford to eat and the middle class feels the pinch. Why wasn’t industrial agriculture, farming fence row to fence row, feeding the world?
There’s the rub — feeding the world was never the intention. Back in the ’70s well-meaning researchers and eager graduate students, myself included, were convinced we could eliminate hunger in our lifetime. We had good intentions, but the big picture was always about making a profit.
Farmers, using cheap fuel, fertilizer and plenty of chemicals, could plant more acres, produce enough volume and generally make a profit. This, of course, benefited the seed and chemical companies, which long ago figured out that small farmers saving their own seed and tending small acreages didn’t spend much money.
The big meat packers and dairy processors anticipated the end of local processing. Their market share increased and they grew larger. By breaking the labor unions, they could pay lower wages, bring in immigrant workers, increase profits and grow even larger.
It was a grand plan. Agribusiness corporations were increasing profit margins quarter after quarter. The bigger they grew, the better it worked. Prices paid for animals, milk and grain fell as farms grew larger and produced more. Small farmers couldn’t compete as per unit profit margins fell and only the larger producers could survive.
Oil prices went up and farmers were urged to grow more corn for ethanol. More land went into corn production, wheat acreage fell, speculation pushed prices up and food prices soared. The International Monetary Fund estimates that 50 percent of the increase in food price was due to ethanol production. Instead of feeding the world, industrial agriculture starves it.
While oil companies banked huge profits, people lost their homes, jobs and farms. We have become too dependent on globalization and the big corporations that control it.
Small is the future. We know indigenous farmers can produce more food using traditional farming methods. They have no need of genetically modified seed or chemicals. All they need is an end to wars and, as Frances Moore Lappe would say, “more democracy.” The World Bank and the G-8 need to let them make their own decisions and feed themselves.
Western countries need to take a step back. We cannot continue to feed grass-eating animals a diet of grain, nor can we continue to fill our fuel tanks with grain. We cannot continue to encourage and subsidize industrial agriculture at the expense of small local producers.
What we can do is return to local and regional food production. We can allow the rest of the world to feed themselves by reining in the influence of multinational grain and chemical companies. We can redevelop local communities and keep local dollars local, rather than filling the coffers of offshore corporate bank accounts.
Accepting the value of “smallness” and living more locally is the solution. Embracing small and local addresses the failure of systems — whether it is the failure of the globalized food system to embrace food sovereignty, the failure of capitalism and its penchant to move more wealth to those who already have more than enough, or the failure of an entire society that has based its existence on oil.
Waterloo is synonymous with defeat, but it was also a victory against empire. We need another victory against empire. We need to reclaim our sense of local and realize the necessity of being small and interdependent. We need to end thousands of years of thinking bigger is always better.
Jim Goodman is a dairy farmer in Wonewoc and a policy fellow for the Food and Society Fellows Program.
© 2008 Capital Newspapers
http://www.commondreams.org:80/archive/2008/07/28/10646/
Napoleon wanted France to be bigger. He wanted more land. Nothing stopped him until Waterloo.
Have we, the human race, met our Waterloo? Have we finally hit the wall with our never-ending desire for “bigness”?
I decided years ago that I didn’t want my farming operation to get bigger. I liked milking 45 cows, raising their feed and doing a little direct marketing. I liked being small.
“Hopelessly behind the times,” I was told. Local cheese makers were giving up, local meat processing was a thing of the past. Small farming was dead. The developing world couldn’t feed itself and needed industrial farming systems.
Who could argue with the Green Revolution? Until the current food crisis. It’s not so much a shortage of food, but a shortage of cheap food. The poor can’t afford to eat and the middle class feels the pinch. Why wasn’t industrial agriculture, farming fence row to fence row, feeding the world?
There’s the rub — feeding the world was never the intention. Back in the ’70s well-meaning researchers and eager graduate students, myself included, were convinced we could eliminate hunger in our lifetime. We had good intentions, but the big picture was always about making a profit.
Farmers, using cheap fuel, fertilizer and plenty of chemicals, could plant more acres, produce enough volume and generally make a profit. This, of course, benefited the seed and chemical companies, which long ago figured out that small farmers saving their own seed and tending small acreages didn’t spend much money.
The big meat packers and dairy processors anticipated the end of local processing. Their market share increased and they grew larger. By breaking the labor unions, they could pay lower wages, bring in immigrant workers, increase profits and grow even larger.
It was a grand plan. Agribusiness corporations were increasing profit margins quarter after quarter. The bigger they grew, the better it worked. Prices paid for animals, milk and grain fell as farms grew larger and produced more. Small farmers couldn’t compete as per unit profit margins fell and only the larger producers could survive.
Oil prices went up and farmers were urged to grow more corn for ethanol. More land went into corn production, wheat acreage fell, speculation pushed prices up and food prices soared. The International Monetary Fund estimates that 50 percent of the increase in food price was due to ethanol production. Instead of feeding the world, industrial agriculture starves it.
While oil companies banked huge profits, people lost their homes, jobs and farms. We have become too dependent on globalization and the big corporations that control it.
Small is the future. We know indigenous farmers can produce more food using traditional farming methods. They have no need of genetically modified seed or chemicals. All they need is an end to wars and, as Frances Moore Lappe would say, “more democracy.” The World Bank and the G-8 need to let them make their own decisions and feed themselves.
Western countries need to take a step back. We cannot continue to feed grass-eating animals a diet of grain, nor can we continue to fill our fuel tanks with grain. We cannot continue to encourage and subsidize industrial agriculture at the expense of small local producers.
What we can do is return to local and regional food production. We can allow the rest of the world to feed themselves by reining in the influence of multinational grain and chemical companies. We can redevelop local communities and keep local dollars local, rather than filling the coffers of offshore corporate bank accounts.
Accepting the value of “smallness” and living more locally is the solution. Embracing small and local addresses the failure of systems — whether it is the failure of the globalized food system to embrace food sovereignty, the failure of capitalism and its penchant to move more wealth to those who already have more than enough, or the failure of an entire society that has based its existence on oil.
Waterloo is synonymous with defeat, but it was also a victory against empire. We need another victory against empire. We need to reclaim our sense of local and realize the necessity of being small and interdependent. We need to end thousands of years of thinking bigger is always better.
Jim Goodman is a dairy farmer in Wonewoc and a policy fellow for the Food and Society Fellows Program.
© 2008 Capital Newspapers
http://www.commondreams.org:80/archive/2008/07/28/10646/
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Creating a Sustainable Lifestyle -- Talk
The public is invited to the Fincastle Library to hear Genevieve Goss, conservation steward for the Valley Conservation Council, on Thursday, May 15 when she will speak about creating a sustainable lifestyle. The talk will begin at 7 p.m.
The library is hosting the event.
Goss will offer information and suggestions on ways to reduce your family's carbon footprint while enhancing your quality of life.
Topics will include sustainability issues such as protecting water resources, energy conservation, local foods, recycling and making choices and changes for a more responsible life.
In addition, the Roanoke Valley Cool Cities Coalition will be handing out free light bulbs at the Fincastle Library on May 15. The light bulbs are compact fluorescent bulbs that are more energy efficient than incandescent bulbs.
The Fincastle Library is located at 11 Academy Street in Fincastle next to the Botetourt County Health Department. For directions, call the library at 473-8339.
The library is hosting the event.
Goss will offer information and suggestions on ways to reduce your family's carbon footprint while enhancing your quality of life.
Topics will include sustainability issues such as protecting water resources, energy conservation, local foods, recycling and making choices and changes for a more responsible life.
In addition, the Roanoke Valley Cool Cities Coalition will be handing out free light bulbs at the Fincastle Library on May 15. The light bulbs are compact fluorescent bulbs that are more energy efficient than incandescent bulbs.
The Fincastle Library is located at 11 Academy Street in Fincastle next to the Botetourt County Health Department. For directions, call the library at 473-8339.
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