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Jonathan Safran Foer's 'Eating Animals' Book Will Fundamentally Change the Way You Think About Food
Kathy Freston, alternet
If ever there was a book that could profoundly affect our lives at the most fundamental level, this one is it. I loved Jonathan Safran Foer's novels (Everything is Illuminated, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close); they were glorious to read and get lost in. But his new non-fiction kindles something more: it is somewhat of an awakening, and it just might tip us farther into what is being called the next great social movement of our time: eating consciously.

Eating Animals takes a bold and fresh approach to our most important relationship with the world around us -- our food. The originality of the thinking and depth of research establishes Foer as a major player in the national discussion of the ethics of eating. He is the Michael Pollan of a younger generation: grittier and more daring, more insightful and decisive. And as we would expect from Foer, the stories he tells explode off the page and into our hearts.

Foer takes us alongside him as he bungles through undercover investigations and into the hidden world of today's industrial farming. We find out that turkeys have been so genetically modified they are not capable of sexual reproduction. We learn that the chickens on American's plates have been bred to grow so large so fast that their mere genetics destines them to suffering. We learn that "free range" means next to nothing and why it's fish and chicken you want to most avoid.

The book is a case against factory farming, but we don't hear only the bad news about animal agriculture. Foer also takes us to the most humane and sustainable animal farms in the nation. We get to hear a dizzying variety of voices: factory farmers, slaughterhouse workers, animal activists, a turkey farmer who apologizes to his animals, a vegetarian cattle rancher, and a vegan helping to build a slaughterhouse.

Part of the appeal of the book is the real-life characters we meet and the new landscape of animal protection and food advocacy that Foer plugs us into. He has us meet the head of the nation's largest cooperative of family-owned pig farms, gives us a fresh perspective on the ever-controversial PETA as it approaches its 30th year and introduces us to exciting new groups like Farm Forward that are building unique coalitions with animal activists, small farmers, and sustainability advocates...
(4 Nov 2009)
The book's website

Back to the Land: The New Green Revolution
Michael Schuman, Time Magazine
Anyone walking through Prashant Thakare's freshly planted cotton field in the central Indian village of Takarakhede Shambhu could easily mistake a 65-ft.-wide (20 m) pool of murky water for, well, a pool of murky water. Yet that simple pond has transformed Thakare's 22-acre (9 hectare) farm and, indeed, his life.

Thakare, like nearly all the farmers in this arid region of Vidarbha in the state of Maharashtra, is dependent on India's annual monsoon to provide the water necessary to grow his cotton and soybeans. A failed monsoon meant disaster. Without the rain, the crops withered, and so did his primary source of income. Every year, all Thakare could do as the midyear planting season approached was wait and hope that the monsoon would deliver enough rain so he could support his family.

Then came the pond. The local government sent a construction team to Thakare's farm last year to dig the 10-ft.-deep (3 m) pond, financing the $600 investment with funds from a new program to support local agriculture. Strategically located in the path of runoff rainwater, the pond — a common feature of rural-resource management — collects water from the monsoon rains that would otherwise have just been wasted. By capturing and storing rainwater, the pond helps to fill the farm's wells. With a more reliable supply of water, Thakare's productivity soared. Not only did he plant his usual summer cotton crop last year, but he also had enough water to grow an entirely new crop of sunflowers during the winter. The pond, he says, helped double his usual output of lentils as well. The added sales put an extra $1,000 in his pocket, which he saved as a nest egg for his two children. "I feel that my life is secure," says Thakare, 36. "You don't worry about what will happen in the future."

With so much yield for so few bucks, it might seem surprising that Indian authorities hadn't dug Thakare a pond long before now. But small farmers likeThakare have been neglected for much of the past three decades — and not only in India. Throughout the developing world, agriculture was the also-ran of the global economy. Governments equated economic progress with steel mills and shoe factories. While urban centers thrived and city dwellers got rich, hundreds of millions of farmers remained mired in poverty. Agriculture in many developing nations stagnated.

Now the farm is back. Fears of food shortages, a rethinking of antipoverty priorities and the crushing recession are causing a dramatic shift in world economic policy in favor of greater support for agriculture. Farmers like Thakare are being showered with more aid and investment by governments and development agencies than they have in decades in a renewed global quest for food security and rural development. The effort is still in its early stages, and some promises made have yet to be translated into real results. Some programs already in place may prove to be flawed. But a new commitment to agriculture by the global community is clearly emerging. The latest G-8 summit of the world's largest economies, held in Italy in July, declared "there is an urgent need for decisive action to free humankind from hunger" and, citing the sector's perennial neglect, pledged $20 billion for agriculture. "Since 2007, we have seen greater attention from world leaders on food security, in developed and developing countries alike," says Kostas Stamoulis, director of agricultural-development economics at the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Rome. The resources being committed to farming "is putting-your-money-where-your-mouth-is kind of money."...
(26 Oct 2009)
Another good long article on the food crisis from Time. And related: Farming is Back.

thanks to kalpa for the following articles:

Farm Aid
Robin K. Cooper, portfolio.com
When escalating feed costs threatened its bottom line, Thomas Poultry Farm changed its chicken-feed formula.

The Saratoga County, New York, farm had to do something to reduce the cost of producing 56,000 pounds of feed each day for more than 200,000 chickens after the price of corn nearly tripled.

“When things tighten up, you’ve got to be creative and find ways to make feed at a cheaper cost,” said Jennifer Thomas, who runs the farm with her husband Brian Thomas and brother Ken Bean.

Now, the Thomases are facing a bigger problem that has gripped poultry, dairy, and crop farmers across the country—the recession.

Farmers are fighting to save their business in what economists are calling the worst agriculture downturn in 50 years.

The economy has caused consumers to scale back on their grocery bills, a move that has slashed egg and dairy prices and decimated farm income. U.S. farm income is forecast to fall 38 percent this year to $54 billion, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Farmers are being forced to borrow money just to pay their bills, and they’re burning through equity that took years to build up.

A growing number of farmers are in danger of losing their business with more upstate New York farmers filing for bankruptcy protection during the first nine months of 2009 than in the two previous years combined...
(29 Oct 2009)

So maybe we start thinking about selling "food", instead of "commodities", directly to the public...(and I am the daughter of an Iowa corn and soybeans farmer, so I am not imagining this is an easy thing to do by any means, nor I am slighting the effort and products of distressed dairy and livestock farmers, anyway, see below.... -KS

Georgia growers filling organic niche market
Sharon Dowdy, Southeast Farm Press
Onions are the largest single vegetable grown for the organic market in Georgia. Blueberries are No. 2.

Of the more than 170,000 acres of Georgia farmland devoted to growing vegetables, only 3,000 acres are dedicated to growing organic produce.

The numbers are small, but these producers are finding demand is high in their niche market.

Most organic growers sell their produce at farmers markets in metro areas or to upscale restaurants operators. Organic growers also sell to a growing number of consumers who prefer chemical-free food.

Becky Douville of Able 2 Farm in Fayette County learned to grow organically by taking classes from Georgia Organics, Inc. She also learned at the feet of Lester Bray, considered a gardening guru in Fayette County.

“Mr. Bray taught me things like how to plant enough tomatoes to share with the horn worms,” she said. “This way I don’t have to spray, and I still have enough for the markets I supply.”

Douville isn’t a certified organic grower but grows her crops in a sustainable way. She has developed her own style by meshing Bray’s methods with what she learned from University of Georgia Master Gardener classes and Georgia Organics classes.

She grows tomatoes, watermelons, cantaloupe and cucumbers and sells them to markets in Fayetteville and Fairburn, as well as Atlanta’s Emory University Farmers Market and Trinity Community Ministries.

“I feel like a stockbroker,” she said. “I have all my cantaloupes sold before they even leave the field. And that’s about 300 melons.”...
(29 Oct 2009)

Discussing the future of urban agriculture in KC
Jonathan Bende, The Pitch
First, a disclosure, my wife and I are one of the four community supported agriculture (CSA) members at Bad Seed Farm. As such, we have a vested interest in seeing Bad Seed succeed.

Urban farmers, community leaders and city officials gathered before a crowd of close to 100 people at Bad Seed Farm's downtown market space on Tuesday night to discuss the process for potentially changing the development code in Kansas City.

"We need to look at urban agriculture as a potential solution to problems in the city, whether it's the use of vacant lots, the greening effort, or health issues," said Daniel Heryer, who runs Bad Seed Farm with his wife, Brooke Salvaggio.

Katherine Kelly, the director of the Kansas City Center for Urban Agriculture, acted as moderator at the community meeting, which was designed to seek input and find community advocates willing to serve on an urban agriculture steering committee tasked with drafting an amendment to the current ordinance that governs zoning and development.

"Ideally we'll come up with templates that will serve as a model for other municipalities," said Kelly of the committee, which will have a separate subcommittee on raising livestock in an urban or suburban setting.
City officials candidly discussed the reasons why Bad Seed Farm was issued citations for violating the current development code, while also recognizing that this issue requires the code to be updated...
(22 Oct 2009)