Grace Gershuny on organoponics

http://www.organic-revolutionary.com/#!Organiponics-anyone/c1q8z/573a36e20cf290fabf5356a5

Organiponics anyone?

EXCERPT:

A couple of years ago I got a call from Dave Chapman, an excellent organic grower of greenhouse tomatoes here in Vermont. He wanted me to endorse his campaign to ban organic certification of hydroponics, figuring that the author of The Soul of Soil would be all about “keep the soil in organic.” I had to tell him, with due respect, that I couldn’t support this campaign, which has since become a rallying cry of Vermont’s organic farmers.

It’s not that I don’t sympathize, but it isn’t as clear-cut an issue as the soil crusaders try to suggest. Melody Meyer has done a fine job of outlining the complexities of the debate, as presented by the Hydroponics and Aquaponics Task Force at the most recent National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) meeting. Though she doesn’t take sides, Melody clearly admires the sophisticated aquaponic systems that use fish waste to fertilize the vegetables, and then use plants to clean the recirculating water and keep the fish healthy.

At Tampa Bay farm-to-table restaurants, you’re being fed fiction, by Laura Reiley

http://www.tampabay.com/projects/2016/food/farm-to-fable/restaurants/

This is a story we are all being fed. A story about overalls, rich soil and John Deere tractors scattering broods of busy chickens. A story about healthy animals living happy lives, heirloom tomatoes hanging heavy and earnest artisans rolling wheels of cheese into aging caves nearby. More often than not, those things are fairy tales.

Eva Perroni: Has ‘organic’ been stripped of its meaning?

http://foodfirst.org/has-organic-been-stripped-of-its-meaning/

As the organic sector rapidly expanded over recent decades, from local cooperative markets to a system of formally regulated global trade, an industrial organic sector has evolved which threatens to undermine the integrity and longstanding sustainable farm practices of the organic community. Prominent American food writer Michael Pollan highlights how the entry of giant supermarket chains like Walmart into the organic sector, for example, will likely result in simple input substitution of synthetic pesticides and fertilisers with their approved organic counterparts on large, monocultural farms, and the lengthening of the food supply chain, increasing food miles and energy use.

In an attempt to address this gap between traditional value-based organic agriculture and its globalised and industrialised form, the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movement (IFOAM) developed four key principles to inspire the organic movement in its full diversity: health, ecology, fairness and care. These four principles however, serve solely as a direction for the development of organic agriculture practices, and are only partially codified in national organic certification and regulatory systems.

Over the years, organic accreditation criteria have been consistently revised – and arguably diluted – so that organic standards become less prescriptive in an attempt to make them more accessible for producers. Whilst some organic certification schemes uphold fairly stringent standards such as biodynamic certification, an independent certification system managed worldwide by Demeter International, the broader organic movement has found itself caught within a paradox: the regulatory systems initially developed to protect its integrity are now reconfiguring and, indeed, threatening the core values on which it was originally founded.

New book on organic by Grace Gershuny

View high resolution 

http://gracegershuny.wix.com/organicrevolutionary?fb_ref=Default

RECLAIMING THE ‘O’ WORD: MEMOIR OF AN ORGANIC REVOLUTIONARY

"It has taken me fifteen years and endless soul searching to tell this story. In that time the ‘real food’ revolution that began with the advent of a government-approved, USDA-regulated organic label has rapidly gained momentum. Popular movements promoting local food, food sovereignty, and food justice, along with a host of eco-label schemes such as fair trade, animal welfare, and non-GMO, have exploded throughout the country and the world. However, despite the resounding success of the now $39 billion organic market, organic production still accounts for less than 1% of domestic land in agriculture in 2015 – 25 years after the Organic Foods Production Act (OFPA) was enacted and 15 years after the final rule for the National Organic Program was published."

A SMALL-SCALE ORGANIC FARMER WANTS YOU TO KNOW A FEW THINGS

http://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/a-small-scale-organic-farmer-wants-you-to-know-a-few-things

EXCERPT:

Yes, the fucking chickens are pasture raised. No, the fucking chickens aren’t grass-fed. Because they aren’t fucking ruminants, that’s why, not because I’m part of a secret rural conspiracy to disrupt the endocrine systems of America’s urban masses. Hens are omnivores; they eat grass, but they also need grain and may occasionally devour small rodents and snakes. Anyone that tells you different is lying, like that guy over there in the straw hat yelling “Everything picked fresh this morning!” That guy didn’t pick anything this morning. That guy spent his morning peeling UPC stickers off the peppers he bought from the produce wholesaler to resell to you.

That’s right. Farmers markets are the wild fucking west. There is no law here.

Clouds on the organic horizon

In light of the recent uproar over General Mills buying out Annie's Organic, I think it's a good moment to redistribute this article I wrote on the corporate takeover of organic back in 2004. Michael Pollan and I were talking about this trend ten years ago.

Clouds on the Organic Horizon

Is organic farming becoming the victim of its own success?
by Carmelo Ruiz-Marrero, Special to CorpWatch
November 25th, 2004

Until a decade ago, organic foods were available only through tiny farmers markets, health and natural food stores, but today their growing popularity means that more organic food is now sold by chain stores like Whole Foods. Often, the food itself is produced by companies ranging from General Mills to Nestle to Coca Cola , and grown on corporate-owned farms no longer synonymous with small farms, rural communities, social justice and humane treatment of animals.

Mercado orgánico este domingo

Asamblea Boricuá 2014

La cosecha de Daniella, relato de una nueva jíbara, reportaje en El Nuevo Día por Yaritza Rivas

PARA LEER EL ARTICULO ENTERO:
http://www.elnuevodia.com/lacosechadedaniellarelatodeunanuevajibara-1805681.html

2 de julio de 2014

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La cosecha de Daniella, relato de una nueva jíbara

Una joven sanjuanera se muda a una finca de Aibonito donde cosecha legumbres bien cotizadas en la capital y vive en sencillez con la tierra (Mira las fotos y vídeo)

Por Yaritza Rivas / yrivas@elnuevodia.com

Daniella Rodríguez Besosa y Cyán cosechando tomates del país en la finca Siembra Tres Vidas, en Aibonito. (VANESSA.SERRA@GFRMEDIA.COM)

Un lunes como de costumbre es día de cosecha en Siembra Tres Vidas. La finca de unas cuatro cuerdas está bien surtida con vistosas  lechugas, flores, limoncillo, tomates y otras hortalizas y vegetales a la falda de una elevada montaña en el Barrio Pasto de Aibonito.

Daniella Rodríguez Besosa, de 28 años,  carga a sus espaldas a Cyán, su nene , mientras se pesa y empaca en el rancho los productos que con amor siembra en la tierra que heredó al morir su mamá Silka Besosa. Aquí también vive un estilo de vida sencillo, alejado de las comodidades y lujos, que admite le rodearon de más chica. Es precisamente, su estilo de vida conectado con la tierra y sus frutos, un reflejo de la actual ola de jóvenes puertorriqueños a los que se les empieza a llamar los “nuevos jíbaros”.

Cara a cara dos modelos: el agroindustrial y el agroecológico, ¿cuál debe ser nuestra ruta?, por Nelson Alvarez

http://www.80grados.net/cara-a-cara-dos-modelos-el-agroindustrial-y-el-agroecologico-cual-debe-ser-nuestra-ruta/

Saludamos el 20 aniversario de la revista latinoamericana “Biodiversidad: sustento y culturas”.

Hace unas semanas la Cámara de Representantes de Puerto Rico llevó a cabo unas vistas públicas sobre la ley que pretende reglamentar la actividad agrícola en el Bosque Modelo en la zona central montañosa de la isla. En una ponencia del Departamento de Agricultura se argumentó en contra de las prácticas agrícolas sustentables, mientras se hacía una defensa a ultranza de la agricultura industrial de altos insumos externos y depredadora de los recursos naturales.1

La ponencia incluyó argumentos sin fundamentar que contradicen numerosos estudios y experiencias exitosas, que demuestran que las prácticas agrícolas ecológicas y sustentables tienen una enorme capacidad para producir alimentos en cantidad y calidad para aportar a la seguridad y soberanía alimentaria.2 La ponencia citada llama ‘usos agrícolas tradicionales’ a prácticas que se introdujeron a partir de los años cincuenta del siglo pasado. Esas prácticas surgen mayormente de modelos agrícolas industriales desarrollados para monocultivos en climas templados y suelos mayormente llanos, no necesariamente aptas para suelos inclinados en climas tropicales húmedos.

- See more at: http://www.80grados.net/cara-a-cara-dos-modelos-el-agroindustrial-y-el-agroecologico-cual-debe-ser-nuestra-ruta/#sthash.U9sGk4a9.dpuf

Yet another UN report calls for support to peasant farming and agroecology (This is from way back in Sept, but it's a fine message for the end of the year)

http://www.etcgroup.org/content/yet-another-un-report-calls-support-peasant-farming-and-agroecology

It's time for action

Submitted on 23 September 2013

GRAIN | La Vía Campesina | ETC Group

Media release
23 September 2013

La Via Campesina, GRAIN and ETC welcome a new UNCTAD report which states that farming in rich and poor nations alike should shift from monoculture towards greater varieties of crops, reduced use of fertilizers and other inputs, greater support for small-scale farmers, and more locally focused production and consumption of food. More than 60 international experts contributed to the report, launched last week.

UNCTAD's 2013 Trade and Environment Report ("Wake up before it is too late: make agriculture truly sustainable now for food security in a changing climate") states that monoculture and industrial farming methods are not providing sufficient affordable food where it is needed, while causing mounting and unsustainable environmental damage.

This is the line of argument that Via Campesina, GRAIN and the ETC group have been advocating for over twenty years. They contributed chapters to the UNCTAD report and have now created a joint partnership to advance agroecology and peasant farming as alternatives.

Over the past few years, we have seen a steady flow of high level reports from the UN system and development agencies arguing in favour of small farmers and agroecology. International recognition that this is the way to solve the food and climate crisis is clearly building, but this has not been translated into real action on the ground where peasant farmers increasingly face marginalisation and oppression.

“Long before the release of this report, small farmers around the world were already convinced that we absolutely need a diversified agriculture to guarantee a balanced local food production, the protection of people's livelihoods and the respect of nature. To achieve this goal, the protection of the huge variety of local seeds and farmers' rights to use them is paramount. As small farmers, we are struggling to preserve our own indigenous seeds and knowledge of farming systems,” said Elizabeth Mpofu, general coordinator of La Via Campesina.

Evidence is mounting that the industrial food system is not only failing to feed the world, but also responsible for some of the planet's most pressing social and environmental crises. “The industrial food system is directly responsible for around half of all global greenhouse gas emissions, as we showed in our contribution to the UNCTAD report,” says Henk Hobbelink of GRAIN. “We cannot solve the climate crisis without confronting the industrial food system and the corporations behind it. We should be turning to peasant based agroecology instead.”

Finca El Guajonal - www.agroecologiapr.org

Published on Aug 17, 2013
http://www.agroecologiapr.org

Desde lo alto de la finca El Guajonal en Yabucoa vemos dos de las pasiones de Armando "Nano" Feliciano: la siembra y las olas. Entre barreras de pacholí (vetiver) y bosque crecen los tubérculos de siempre -- yuca, yautía, malanga, batata, jengibre, cúrcuma -- vegetales y frutas. Nano lleva 7 años sembrando, aprendiendo en la universidad y los intercambios de trabajo autogestionados con agricultores ecológicos experimentados. En este video nos muestra la siembra y cosecha de algunos tubérculos básicos de la dieta caribeña fundamentales para la seguridad y la soberanía alimentaria. Sus productos están disponibles en el Mercado Agrícola Natural del Viejo San Juan y en el Mercado de la Cooperativa Orgánica Madre Tierra en la Placita Roosevel en San Juan.

Farming and knowledge monocultures are misconceived

TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE:
http://www.scidev.net/global/agriculture/opinion/farming-and-knowledge-monocultures-are-misconceived.html

Bringing science and development together through news and analysis

• Farming and knowledge monocultures are misconceived

Food needs can be met with a new vision for agriculture and science, say Brian Wynne and Georgina Catacora-Vargas.

In mainstream policy and corporate thinking, scientific knowledge and global markets are considered key for food security. This has resulted in the industrialisation and laboratory research-led intensification ofagricultural systems, inputs and food-supply chains.

But intensified systems do not meet global food needs — they mostly suit export markets and corporate interests. The result is severe physical, but also economic, disconnection between production and consumption, or need, as well as private control of the crucial knowledge base that shapes agriculture.

This is effectively an industrial monoculture model of production — of both food and knowledge — that avoids its ecological and social costs, while suppressing more effective sustainable alternatives, and underexploits science's potential versatility.

To generate more sustainable pathways to equitable and healthy food production and access, agricultural diversification is needed, with food-supply systems decentralised and a move towards more localised networks.

This includes the strategic reorientation of agricultural research and development towards varied local conditions and needs, and towards farmers' knowledge — a global science for the public good.

Video: Doctorado en Agroecología

Generar alternativas a la producción agrícola para hacerla más amigable con el medio ambiente es uno de los objetivos de este doctorado que reúne profesionales de todo el mundo. Los profesores imparten sus clases aquí en Colombia y también en la Universidad de California, Berkeley. Tercero en el mundo en abrirse y primero en Latinoamérica, hace de ésta, una iniciativa que pone a la Universidad de Antioquia en los ojos del mundo.

Tara Firma farms

From business executive to organic farmer

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/01/garden/life-on-the-farm-e-i-e-i-oh.html?smid=tw-share&_r=0

Life on the Farm: E-I-E-I ...Oh?

Boardroom to Barnyard: Tara Smith, a California business woman, traded in her plush city life for the hard work of starting a farm from scratch.

By SANDY KEENAN

Published: July 31, 2013   

Petaluma, Calif. — Tara Smith does not mind squealing on herself about the mistakes she has made since becoming a farmer at 47.

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Clockwise from top left, biodynamic pigs, chicks, laying hens and cattle raised on Tara Smith's 300-acre spread in Sonoma County, Calif. More Photos »

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Early on, she kept the runts of a litter of pigs, not realizing they could not survive beyond a few months, even with all her nurturing. And at day’s end, utterly spent, she would scramble around like a madwoman trying to catch the chickens to get them safely inside their hilltop shelters, a frantic dance that did not stop until a neighboring farmer patiently explained that they would go in on their own once the sun set.

Spend time on her 300-acre spread here in Sonoma County — an old dairy farm with an 1860s farmhouse — and the former marketing and sales executive will confide in her rambling but charming way that, yes, farming is hard, but it can be awe-inspiring, too.

Rio+20 - The scaling up of Agroecology: spreading the hope for food sovereignty and resiliency

Posted May 10th, 2012 by admin

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Mercado orgánico este domingo 2 de junio

Puerto Rico: La lucha Agroecológica se internacionaliza

boricuablog.jpgjgumxb.jpg, image/jpeg, 634x349

Comunicado de Prensa: Puerto Rico en el Plano Internacional: La Organización Boricuá de Agricultura Eco-Orgánica se une a la Vía Campesina-CLOC

Utuado, Puerto Rico-- El 17 de abril se conmemora internacionalmente La Lucha Campesina. Por primera vez, Puerto Rico, a través de la Organización Boricuá de Agricultura Eco-Orgánica se solidariza oficialmente a esta conmemoración.

Boricuá crea esta alianza con LVC/CLOC (La Vía Campesina/ Coordinadora Latinoamericana de Organizaciones de Campo) por ser esta una organización internacional que agrupa a millones de campesinos, indígenas, migrantes y trabajadores agrícolas de todo el mundo y de 150 organizaciones en 70 países de África, Asia, Europa y América. LVC/CLOC lucha por la agricultura sustentable como una manera de conseguir justicia social.

“Estamos dando un paso importante ya que con el aval de la Vía Campesina se abre camino a todas las organizaciones puertorriqueñas a tener participación en los foros internacionales, en debates alimentarios y agrícolas a nivel global. La Vía Campesina es escuchada por instituciones como la FAO y el Consejo de Derechos Humanos de las Naciones Unidas y la inclusión de Boricuá posibilita que voces puertorriqueñas sean escuchadas en estos foros”, según dice Pluma Barbara, secretaria de Boricuá.

Por tal razón este día de la lucha campesina marca el inicio de varias actividades en las que Boricuá está convocando a todas las organizaciones comunitarias, sociales y grupos afines para crear alianzas y unir esfuerzos en pro de la agro-ecología en Puerto Rico; marcando un precedente de movilizaciones de carácter nacional y mundial.

La primera de dichas movilizaciones será el 25 de mayo de 2013. Es un día en el que el pueblo convoca unirnos para expresar su indignación ante la presencia de Monsanto en nuestro país y en el mundo. Esta movilización fue reforzada por la reacción de organizaciones e individuos ante la nominación de Agro Monsanto del Caribe para el "Salón de la Fama de la Agricultura". Estas alianzas internacionales serán un frente a favor de la agricultura sustentable y en contra de las prácticas agrícolas destructivas de Monsanto y demás agro-corporaciones multinacionales produciendo semillas genéticamente modificadas. Estas prácticas ponen en peligro nuestra agricultura, nuestro ambiente y nuestra salud. Actualmente estamos coordinando una gira por los medios para hablar sobre los peligros que presentan los transgénicos en nuestros medicamentos, agricultura y alimentos, hablaremos sobre la tenencia de tierras y la importancia y beneficios de las alianzas con las organizaciones internacionales a través de LVC/CLOC.

Este año y todos los años La LVC/CLOC dedica el 17 de abril, Día Internacional de la Lucha Campesina, para conmemorar la masacre de 19 campesinos sin tierra que reclamaban el acceso a la tierra y justicia en 1996 en Brasil. Por esto Boricuá se une a la conmemoración de todas las personas que han arriesgado su vida por la justicia social, por la reforma agraria y la soberanía alimentaria, en la defensa y cuidado de la naturaleza, de las semillas, del agua y la tenencia de tierras. 

Charla sobre agroecología y soberanía alimentaria