 |
|||
|
.
Regional Farm & Food Project September 2006 News If you are looking for alternatives to the status quo, these news stories should interest you! 12 news stories...
* * * REGIONAL EVENTS CALENDAR * * * 1. High Tunnels Farm Tour of Two Farms in Massachusetts Innovative Farmers Educate Agency Personnel and Other Farmers About the Design and Management of High Tunnels High tunnels are greenhouse-like structures that offer farmers an inexpensive means to extend growing and marketing seasons, intensify production, and reduce weather-related risk. Learn how a handful of experienced farmers use these cost-effective structures to grow early tomatoes, cucumbers, salad greens, cut flowers and a wide range of fall and winter salad crops. For the past year and a half, our Northeast SARE project has been documenting how innovative farmers in four states are using high tunnels to enhance their enterprises. On Wednesday, November 8, 2006, from 12:00 noon until 3:30 PM, a free tour is offered to educate extension educators, researchers, agricultural marketers, farmers’ market managers, and other agricultural service providers, as well as farmers, about the real world uses and designs of high tunnels. The tour will visit two farms in Massachusetts' Pioneer Valley — Red Fire Farm in Southern Hampshire County, and the Hampshire College Farm located on the Hampshire College campus in Amherst. There is a half hour drive between the two stops. This tour, sponsored by the Regional Farm & Food Project, is made possible by a grant from the Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education program. A DVD video featuring case studies of high tunnels on six farms, and a high tunnel decision-making manual will be released by the Regional Farm & Food Project at the end of November. Reservations are strongly encouraged. Please contact Billie Best at 518-271-0744 or billie@farmandfood.org. Please bring a bag lunch or eat prior to the tour. Dress for the outdoors as part of the presentation at our first stop will be in an unheated barn. Directions are below. Tour Itinerary 12:00 Noon Red Fire Farm Ryan Voiland grows 25 acres of certified organic vegetables on the 50-acre farm he purchased in Granby, Massachusetts, in 2001. The harvest supplies the farm's 400 share CSA and its two farmstands. Red Fire Farm also sells to local wholesale accounts and at a weekly farmers' market. Ryan has been using high tunnels of one sort or another for over ten years. He has experimented with a variety of structures, crops and growing systems. Current high tunnel production at Red Fire Farm includes summer tomatoes, early spring carrots, and winter salad greens, baby bok choy, and spinach. This fall Ryan will be moving and reconfiguring some of the farm's tunnels. Some are low tech, inexpensive "walk-in" tunnels. These are 10 feet wide and 150 to 200 feet long, quickly assembled with PVC pipes skinned with polyethylene film. The farm has several more permanent hoop houses with metal greenhouse frames: The 35’ x 120’ Harnois has a ridge vent and ground heat. There are two Ledgewood frames: 25’ x 120’ and 20’ x 30’, and the farm will be constructing a third – 25’ x 120’ structure this fall. All of the larger tunnels have propane heat, although heat is not used in all cropping sequences. Attendees will learn about Red Fire Farm's high tunnel operations in all seasons by visiting the structures, watching a PowerPoint presentation, and talking to the farmer. 1:30 pm Depart from Red Fire Farm 2:00 pm Hampshire College Farm Nancy Hanson farms on the Hampshire College campus for students, faculty, and other staff as a salaried employee of the college. She operates a 200 member CSA from late August to Thanksgiving. She also sells wildly popular bagged winter salad greens directly to members of the college community from late December until the first week of May, with a several week break in January. She seeds the greens from October to mid December. Nancy says people line up to buy these out of season greens. "I know I could sell as much as we could grow." Nancy first embarked on winter growing when a student constructed a small PVC-rebar tunnel for a research project. Two years ago, with a grant from the Vervane Foundation, she was able to purchase and erect a 30’ x 96’ Griffin gothic greenhouse for her winter growing enterprise. As she commutes a distance to the farm, she opted for automatic systems, such as a ridge vent, so the tunnel "doesn't need to be babysat." This year, she will use propane heat for the first time in order to maintain the tunnel just above 32 degrees. In the past, she paid students to apply and remove row cover to protect the crops from freezing. At the tour, Nancy will provide a primer on winter growing. She will share her data on planting dates, yields, and varieties, and will explain how she adapted Eliot Coleman's growing techniques to her operation. 3:30 pm Adjourn Directions to Red Fire Farm From Route 116 take Amherst Street to Route 202. Turn left onto Route 202 North. From Route 202 North go through Granby Center and take a right onto Taylor Street. Turn left at the first stop sign onto what continues to be Taylor Street. Turn left again at the next stop sign onto Carver Street. Red Fire Farm will be on your left. From Route 202 South turn left onto School Street. Follow School Street, which becomes Chicopee Street, until it merges with Carver Street. Bear right onto Carver and the farm will soon be on the right. From the Mass Pike take Exit 6 and turn right at the light after exiting the toll booth. This is Burnett Road, which will become Holyoke Street. Stay on this for about 2 miles. Take a left onto West Street. (It's the second light you come to, there is a Mobil on your left). Follow West Street for about 3 miles. Turn right onto Brook Street. This becomes Taylor Street. At the stop sign go right onto Carver Street and look for the farm on your left Directions from Red Fire Farm to Hampshire College Farm Take a right onto Carver Street, which becomes Taylor Street. At next intersection, take a right to continue on Taylor Street. Take a left on Route 202. Take a right on Porter Street (there should be a sign for Route 116). Bear left on Aldrich Street. Take a right on Amherst Street. Take a right on Route 116. Continue past Atkins Farm Market. Turn left into the main entrance to Hampshire College. At the stop sign take a right. Turn into the second parking lot on the right. The greenhouse will be on your right. 2. Growing Health: A Forum on Local Food and the Opportunity to Nourish Self, Families & Communities Wednesday, October 18, 2006 from 5:00-7:30 pm Hosted by the Rural Health Network of South Central New York, Growing Health will be of interest to those from all walks of life who want to learn more about the dynamic relationships between health, food and community. Those attending will learn how locally produced food can contribute to a broad range of individual and community health benefits. Growing Health will feature an expert and diverse speaker panel of leaders in the local food movement. Speakers include Jennifer Wilkins, Ph.D., Food and Society Policy Fellow in the Division of Nutritional Sciences at Cornell University; Billie Best, Executive Director, Regional Farm & Food Project; Raymond Denniston, Food Service Director, Johnson City School District & Co-Chair of the New York State Farm to Schools Steering Committee; and Dr. Richard H. Wu, Pediatric Endocrinologist at Lourdes Hospital in Binghamton. A bountiful local food and beverage buffet will be featured from 5:00-6:00 pm, including New York State wines and other beverages. Attendees will have the opportunity to meet and talk with speakers, sample delicious, locally grown and prepared food, and learn more about local food availability from area producers and local organizations. Growing Health registration and forum information is available at www.ruralhealthnetwork.org or call the Rural Health Network at (607) 692-7669, or e-mail your request to jmurray@ruralhealthnetwork.org. 3. VEGETABLE PRODUCTION: From Greenhouse to Market A Three-Day Farmer-to-Farmer Workshop for Vegetable Farmers You are invited to join us for three days of presentations and group discussions by three highly experienced and successful vegetable farmers. The workshop will focus on all aspects of greenhouse production, crop varieties, field production (including soil management, tillage, and rotations), insect and disease management, record keeping for profitability, harvesting techniques, post-harvest handling/storage, and marketing. The presentations will consist of detailed, valuable information with PowerPoint pictures. Come and enjoy great food prepared with lots of local organic products, the company of friends old and new, and a lively and engaging learning environment. This workshop is designed for all levels of farmers with any size farm and any type system (conventional, organic, sustainable, etc.). This workshop will also offer special 20 minute “Earn Your Meal” presentations by other successful farmers attending the workshop, and there will be extensive networking/group discussion time. Presenters Dan Kaplan, Brookfield Farm Paul Bucciaglia, Fort Hill Farm Jim Crawford, New Morning Farm Registration Participants MUST pre-register. Please register early – space is limited. Registration costs $175 per person, and includes an informative conference binder, morning refreshments, and lunches & dinners during the conference. Early registration (postmarked by November 15th) is $150. A second additional person from the same farm will receive a $25 discount. For anyone chosen to do an “Earn Your Meal” presentation, they will receive $25 back at the workshop. To register send check and the registration form to Sustainable Farmers Network, c/o Sandy Arnold, 118 South Valley Road, Argyle, NY 12809. Please make checks payable to “Sustainable Farmers Network”. For more information or to receive a registration form, call 518-638-6501, or (preferably) send an email to arnold3@capital.net. A Stopgap for the Spinach Lover If you crave spinach salad despite government warnings about possible contamination of spinach from California, buying local might do the trick. The chances of buying uncooked spinach containing the deadly bacterium that has been making headlines for several days are significantly reduced if you know the farmer and how he farms, and if you wash the spinach thoroughly before eating it, a government official acknowledged. The Food and Drug Administration has advised people not to eat any fresh spinach at all, not even cooked, although sufficient cooking (160 degrees for 15 seconds) kills E. coli O157:H7, the bacterium that has sickened scores of people around the country, including at least 18 who are critically ill, and killed at least one. The agency is concerned that even if the spinach is cooked, bacteria may have been left behind on a countertop or a knife, which could then contaminate another food being served raw. Dr. David Acheson, chief medical officer of the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition at the FDA, said the agency “wants to maintain a simple consumer message’’ and not confuse people by saying which circumstances are appropriate for eating uncooked spinach. But in a telephone conversation he acknowledged that it is less risky to eat locally grown spinach. “Clearly the risk is significantly reduced if you know the farmer and know his farm,” he said, “particularly if you are on the East Coast,’’ far from the suspected source of the contamination. FOOD SAFETY INFO: For more information on good agricultural practices go to: For NYS Ag & Markets information for food safety: 5. New York Cheese Has a New Home The New York State Farmstead & Artisan Cheese Makers Guild website has a new address (old address was nycheese.org): Bookmark it! Dairy plant producing milk with a longer shelf life A century-old Roxbury milk-processing plant is using technology to produce ultrapure milk that has an extended shelf life, according to Cyrus Schwartz, president of Mountainside Farms. Schwartz said the Mountainside Farms factory, on state Route 30 between Roxbury and Grand Gorge, is more than 100 years old, but to survive in a time when most small, privately owned milk plants have been sold and consolidated into big concerns, it was necessary to develop value-added products. Demand has grown for organic milk, Schwartz said, but a lot of people don’t want to have to pay the premium price, so Mountainside Farms is using technology developed in Canada to produce milk that is free of hormones and antibiotics. "Our customers have been telling us that they want access to many of the qualities that organic milk provides, but didn’t want to pay the $4 to $5 charge per half gallon," Schwartz said. "UltraPure gives them many of the same health benefits at a cost that’s closer to that of conventional milk." Mountainside Farms tests all of its milk for the presence of the six antibiotics most commonly used on dairy cows, surpassing the mandatory testing required by state and federal regulations by 20 percent, Schwartz said. Schwartz said all of the milk processed at Mountainside Farms is produced by 120 family-owned farms located throughout the upstate area from the Catskills to the foothills of the Adirondacks. He added that 50 of the farms are located in Delaware, Schoharie, Otsego and Chenango counties. The company requires certifications from all of its dairy farmers to ensure no growth hormones are used. Roger Smith, who has a dairy farm in Bloomville, said he ships about 325 gallons of milk a day to the Roxbury plant. It’s his understanding that some of the BST-free milk he ships goes into the product, he said, referring to the synthetic growth hormone. Marketing the milk under the "UltraPure" concept is "a good idea," he said. "I hope it works for them." In his business, Smith said, "anything that will help the dairy farmer’s bottom line is a plus." To produce the milk, an advanced, unique bacterial centrifuge and filtration system is used to purify the product, Schwartz said. He added that the system allows Mountainside Farms to remove 90 to 95 percent of bacteria normally present in the milk prior to pasteurization. "Milk has a very neutral taste," Schwartz said recently. "By using very, very fine filters and clarifiers, we remove bacteria and anything else that shouldn’t be in the milk, which gives the milk a fresh, clean taste." Schwartz said that an unopened container of conventional milk maintains a refrigerator shelf life of eight to 10 days, but Mountainside Farms UltraPure milk contains fewer bacteria and has a shelf life of 16 to 17 days. The milk was introduced in grocery stores in New York City, but Schwartz said that starting last week, it would be available in Red Barrel and Good Neighbor stores and will soon be appearing in more supermarkets. Mountainside Farms UltraPure milk is available in whole, 2 percent reduced fat, 1 percent low fat and fat-free varieties. Schwartz said there are 80 employees at the Mountainside Farms plant, and the staff size will continue to increase. "We are one of the bigger employers in Delaware County," Schwartz said. "And we are located at the headwaters of the East Branch of the Delaware River, so we have had to meet stricter wastewater restrictions than any other milk-processing plant in the country." Schwartz said other products produced at the Roxbury plant include Horizon organic milk and specialty kosher milk called Golden Flow. Mountainside Farms is part of the Elmhurst Dairy’s family of companies that also includes Steuben Foods and Dora’s Naturals. For more information about Mountainside Farms visit http://www.mountainsidefarms.com. http://www.thedailystar.com/news/stories/2006/09/11/sl5.html 7. Ribbon Cutting for New Food Co-op in Downtown Troy Mayor Tutunjian to Announce Community-based Reuse of Former Pioneer Market On Wednesday, September 27 at 10:00 am, an announcement will be made at 77-81 Congress Street in Troy about the formation of the Capital Region's newest food cooperative, in the former Pioneer Market. Mayor Harry Tutunjian will cut the ribbon to launch this community movement to establish a full-service grocery store in a multi-cultural urban community. Emphasizing fresh and local produce, the market will carry 70% natural and organic products and 30% conventional grocery items. A variety of freshly prepared take-out foods, cheeses and a salad bar will be available. A group of seven individuals, working with Cooperative Development Services in Minneapolis, has been planning the food co-op since September 2006, when a series of community meetings was held to assess interest among Troy's residents. An influx of new residents and the absence of a full-service grocery store in the downtown area led to this initiative. Future developments like the 8th Street Corridor Development Plan were factored into the planning. The Troy Community Food Co-op will be owned by its members, who will purchase an investor share in return for discounts and special shopping promotions and an opportunity to serve on a democratically elected board of directors. Customers need not be members to shop at the co-op. The membership drive, "OWN IT!" will be kicked off at the September 27th event, with music by Shaker Creek, refreshments and a drawing for fresh produce. The goal is to have 500 members by the scheduled opening in October 27. Based on figures from Cooperative Development Services, it is estimated that the 7,500 sq.ft. Pioneer Market will cost $1.4 million to open. For more information email troycommunitymarket@gmail.com. 8. Monsanto's Dreams Come True CROP ROTATION IN THE GRAIN BELT GARDEN CITY, Kansas - Once the driving force behind transforming the United States into the “breadbasket of the world,” wheat is being steadily replaced by corn as the crop of choice for American farmers. Genetic modifications to corn seeds, the growing demand for corn-based ethanol as a fuel blend and more favorable farm subsidies are leading farmers to plant corn in places where wheat long dominated. In Kansas, known for a century as the Wheat State, corn production quietly pulled ahead of wheat in 2000, with Kansas producing 23% more corn than wheat last year. This year’s drought-ravaged crop is expected to be the second-smallest harvest for American farmers since 1978. It follows a year in which American farmers planted the fewest acres of wheat since 1972. And while corn acreage nationwide passed wheat about a decade ago, its footprint and that of soybeans are spreading across a greater swath of the Midwest, farther north and west into the Dakotas and central Minnesota — traditional wheat country, where growing corn and soybeans was once almost unthinkable. “It is getting harder and harder for American farmers to say they feed the world,” said Ken Cook, president of the Environmental Working Group, an environmental research group based in Washington. “Instead, they feed S.U.V.’s.” The decline of wheat and the broad relandscaping of America’s farmland have come about for several reasons. Better seed technology has given corn and soybeans a widening edge over wheat, and more favorable subsidies have encouraged farmers to abandon wheat. Changing consumer tastes and food packaging advancements have slowed American wheat demand. But the growing biofuels industry is creating the strongest drag on wheat lately, as corn and soybeans are increasingly favored for their use in ethanol and biodiesel. The spread of corn and soybeans at the expense of wheat, while not expected to significantly affect food prices, could nevertheless put more pressure on scarce water supplies, since both crops are more water- and energy-intensive than wheat. But the water scarcity has not deterred John Lightner, a 58-year-old farmer in Garden City, Kansas, in the heart of the Wheat Belt that stretches through the arid, wind-swept Plains states. Mr. Lightner, who is planting more corn these days, said he was lured by the promise of earning higher profits and lately, a chance to ride the corn-fueled ethanol wave that is sweeping across the Midwest. “The return on wheat is just not that great, and with corn, well, there is more potential,” Mr. Lightner said as he surveyed his 650 acres of cornfields just weeks before harvest. He began shifting from wheat to corn 15 years ago. Then, this year he rededicated his farmland to corn by investing in a 55-million-gallon ethanol plant being built in town, which, he said, will need all the corn it can get. Wheat has long been associated with the United States’ standing as the breadbasket of the world for its ability to feed the world through food shipments. American presidents used wheat to support Allied troops in both world wars and tried to wield it as a diplomatic weapon against the Soviet Union. Huge wheat surpluses regularly helped the United States balance its trade deficits. In the early 1970’s American farmers controlled half of the world’s wheat exports, but this year the United States will account for just 22%, according to U.S. Wheat Associates, an export trade group. Driving the shift away from wheat have been advances in hybrid and genetically modified seeds for other crops. Major companies like Monsanto have been spending millions of dollars developing improved forms of corn, soybeans and cotton -- not wheat -- and those investments are paying off handsomely. Seeds engineered to resist drought and insects have yielded huge gains and have helped produce record corn harvests the last three years. The more-resistant seeds have made it possible for farmers in colder climates with shorter growing seasons to produce successful corn harvests. North Dakota, which for decades was the second-biggest producer of wheat after Kansas, has lost 1.69 million wheat acres since 2000, a 16% decline. Corn acres in the state, meanwhile, have shot up by 670,000, or 62%. In Kansas, wheat acreage is down 20% from 1980, though it has been fairly stable statewide the last four years. But without genetic modification, wheat is lagging behind. American corn yields rose by 30% from 1995 to 2005, while wheat yields grew by only 17%. In recent years corn has pulled further ahead, with an annual growth rate in yield that is four times that of wheat. So far, public resistance to genetically engineered wheat has been strong. Buyers in Europe and Japan said they would refuse American wheat if it was genetically modified. American farmers are divided on the issue. Monsanto dropped an effort to produce the world’s first genetically engineered wheat two years ago, yielding to the concerns of farmers that the crop would endanger exports. The wheat was genetically modified to be resistant to Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide, which would have allowed farmers to spray their fields to kill weeds while not damaging the crop. The company has said it is not giving up on wheat research. But the genetic engineering of corn, cotton and soybean crops is less controversial because those crops are used primarily in animal feed, clothing and food oils, while wheat is more likely to be used directly in food. Syngenta, a Monsanto competitor, said it was continuing to develop a genetically engineered wheat that was resistant to fusarium, a fungus that damages crops and produces dangerous toxins. The crop could be ready for the market by early next decade but the company has not decided whether to put it on a commercial path, said Anne Burt, a Syngenta spokeswoman. To a lesser extent, the structure of the federal farm program has also signaled to farmers that growing corn and soybeans is a better economic bet than wheat. The federal government rewards high corn production by guaranteeing growers the repayment of loans that become deficient when prices fall below the government loan rate of $1.95 a bushel. Corn prices that fell below $2 a bushel in recent years led to record payments to farmers: $4.6 billion last year and $2.9 billion in 2004. Wheat prices have generally averaged $3 a bushel, staying above the $2.75-a-bushel government floor. Corn’s higher yields and better subsidy support have meant that it is much more economically attractive to grow an acre of corn than wheat on average, government statistics show. But wheat subsidies have not been adjusted much to account for the larger yields farmers obtain with corn through better seed technology. Tighter wheat supplies could further lift wheat prices, which have hovered above $4 a bushel in recent months, but most experts do not expect food prices to rise much as a result of the switch to biofuels crops. The cost of wheat is less than ten percent of the total cost of products like bread and cereal. The rub is in the trade-off over resources. While it takes more energy to produce a bushel of wheat than corn, an acre of corn uses a far larger overall basket of resources: energy, fertilizer and water. Recent high prices for wheat, driven by drought in some of the world’s prime wheat-growing regions, may prompt some American farmers to plant more wheat acres this fall. But that is not likely to reverse wheat’s decline, analysts say. Neither will diplomacy. For decades, America’s dominance of grains, especially wheat, was viewed as a potential diplomatic weapon, from the time President Gerald Ford tried to trade grain for discounted oil from the Soviet Union to President Jimmy Carter’s grain embargo against Moscow in 1980. And other countries are picking up the slack. Major competitors -- including Europe, Australia, Argentina and Black Sea countries like Ukraine -- have increased their wheat output. America’s traditional customers like China are also growing more wheat for their own consumption, limiting the need for imports. The high-protein Atkins diet that symbolized the low-carbohydrates fad helped reduce per-person flour consumption by nine percent from 1997 to 2004, said Marcia Scheideman, president of the Wheat Foods Council in Washington. Over all, the incentives to grow corn and soybeans have led farmers to try to grow corn against all odds, even as the economics have gotten tougher with higher costs of fertilizer and fuel for irrigation. Stung by high costs to pump water, Larry Kepley, a farmer in Ulysses, west of Garden City, decided a few years ago to go back to dry-land farming, similar to what his great-grandfather did in 1888 when he first arrived in the area. The family had been irrigating since 1941. Dry-land farming meant sticking with wheat. Still, wanting to experiment with corn, he planted 50 acres of dry-land corn last fall, figuring he needed 60 bushels an acre to break even. He got 17 bushels an acre. “It was an utter failure,” he said. Mr. Lightner, the Garden City farmer, said he was more fortunate to have shallower water wells that made irrigation less costly than on Mr. Kepley’s farmland. But the plastic tubes that line his rows of corn, delivering water into the soil every 60 inches, are the real key, he said. The water is pumped by natural gas and costs Mr. Lightner $50 to $120 an acre. With higher fuel costs making his corn crop prohibitively more expensive last year, he planted 300 more acres of wheat, which he grudgingly admires as a crop with “nine lives.” But this time, the wheat failed him. “The drought got it and then the hail came through, so I don’t have to worry about it anymore,” Mr. Lightner said. “For now, I’ll stick with corn.” 9. On India’s Farms, a Plague of Suicide On India’s Farms, a Plague of Suicide BHADUMARI, India — Here in the center of India, on a gray Wednesday morning, a cotton farmer swallowed a bottle of pesticide and fell dead at the threshold of his small mud house. The farmer, Anil Kondba Shende, 31, left behind a wife and two small sons, debts that his family knew about only vaguely and a soggy, ruined 3.5-acre patch of cotton plants that had been his only source of income. Whether it was debt, shame or some other privation that drove Mr. Shende to kill himself rests with him alone. But his death was by no means an isolated one, and in it lay an alarming reminder of the crisis facing the Indian farmer. Across the country in desperate pockets like this one, 17,107 farmers committed suicide in 2003, the most recent year for which government figures are available. Anecdotal reports suggest that the high rates are continuing. Though the crisis has been building for years, it presents an increasingly thorny political challenge for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. High suicide rates and rural despair helped topple the previous government two years ago and put Mr. Singh in power. Changes brought on by 15 years of economic reforms have opened Indian farmers to global competition and given them access to expensive and promising biotechnology, but not necessarily opened the way to higher prices, bank loans, irrigation or insurance against pests and rain. Mr. Singh’s government, which has otherwise emerged as a strong ally of America, has become one of the loudest critics in the developing world of Washington’s $18 billion a year in subsidies to its own farmers, which have helped drive down the price of cotton for farmers like Mr. Shende. At the same time, frustration is building in India with American multinational companies peddling costly, genetically modified seeds. They have made deep inroads in rural India — a vast and alluring market — bringing new opportunities but also new risks as Indian farmers pile up debt. In this central Indian cotton-growing area, known as Vidarbha, the unofficial death toll from suicides, compiled by a local advocacy group and impossible to verify, was 767 in a 14-month period that ended in late August. “The suicides are an extreme manifestation of some deep-seated problems which are now plaguing our agriculture,” said M. S. Swaminathan, the geneticist who was the scientific leader of India’s Green Revolution 40 years ago and is now chairman of the National Commission on Farmers. “They are climatic. They are economic. They are social.” India’s economy may be soaring, but agriculture remains its Achilles’ heel, the source of livelihood for hundreds of millions of people but a fraction of the nation’s total economy and a symbol of its abiding difficulties. In what some see as an ominous trend, food production, once India’s great pride, has failed to keep pace with the nation’s population growth in the last decade. The cries of Indian farmers — or what Prime Minister Singh recently described as their “acute distress” — can hardly be neglected by the leaders of a country where two-thirds of people still live in the countryside. Mr. Singh’s government has responded to the current crisis by promptly expanding rural credit and promising investments in rural infrastructure. It has also offered several quick fixes, including a $156 million package to rescue “suicide prone” districts across the country and a promise to expand rural credit, waive interest on existing bank loans and curb usurious informal moneylenders. But pressure is building to do more. Many, including Mr. Swaminathan, the agricultural scientist, would like to see the government help farmers survive during crop failures or years of low world prices. Subsidies, once a linchpin of Indian economic policy, have dried up for virtually everyone but the producers of staple food grains. Indian farmers now must compete or go under. To compete, many have turned to high-cost seeds, fertilizers and pesticides, which now line the shelves of even the tiniest village shops. Monsanto, for instance, invented the genetically modified seeds that Mr. Shende planted, known as Bt cotton, which are resistant to bollworm infestation, the cotton farmer’s prime enemy. It says the seeds can reduce the use of pesticides by 25 percent. The company has more than doubled its sales of Bt cotton here in the last year, but the expansion has been contentious. This year, a legal challenge from the government of the state of Andhra Pradesh forced Monsanto to slash the royalty it collected from the sale of its patented seeds in India. The company has appealed to the Indian Supreme Court. The modified seeds can cost nearly twice as much as ordinary ones, and they have nudged many farmers toward taking on ever larger loans, often from moneylenders charging exorbitant interest rates. Virtually every cotton farmer in these parts, for instance, needs the assistance of someone like Chandrakant Agarwal, a veteran moneylender who charges 5 percent interest a month. He collects his dues at harvest time, but exacts an extra premium, compelling farmers to sell their cotton to him at a price lower than it fetches on the market, pocketing the profit. His collateral policy is nothing if not inventive. The borrower signs a blank official document that gives Mr. Agarwal the right to collect the farmer’s property at any time. Business has boomed with the arrival of high-cost seeds and pesticides. “Many moneylenders have made a whole lot of money,” Mr. Agarwal said. “Farmers, many of them, are ruined.” Indeed, one or two crop failures, an unexpected health expense or the marriage of a daughter have become that much more perilous in a livelihood where the risks are already high. A government survey released last year found that 40 percent of farmers said they would abandon agriculture if they could. The study also found that farming represented less than half the income of farmer households. Barely 4 percent of all farmers insure their crops. Nearly 60 percent of Indian agriculture still depends entirely on the rains, as in Mr. Shende’s case. This year, waiting for a tardy monsoon, Mr. Shende sowed his fields three times with the genetically modified seeds made by Monsanto. Two batches of seed went to waste because the monsoon was late. When the rains finally arrived, they came down so hard that they flooded Mr. Shende’s low-lying field and destroyed his third and final batch. Mr. Shende shouldered at least four debts at the time of his death: one from a bank, two procured on his behalf by his sisters and one from a local moneylender. The night before his suicide, he borrowed one last time. From a fellow villager, he took the equivalent of $9, roughly the cost of a one-liter bottle of pesticide, which he used to take his life. Those like him with small holdings are particularly vulnerable. A study by Srijit Mishra, a professor at the Mumbai-based Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, found that more than half of the suicides in this part of the country were among farmers with less than five acres of land. But even those who are prosperous by local standards are not immune. Manoj Chandurkar, 36, has 72 acres of cotton with genetically modified seeds and sorghum in a neighboring village called Waifad. Every year is a gamble, he said. Each time, he takes out a loan, then another and then prays that the bollworms will stay away and the rains will be good. On his shoulders today sit three loans, bringing his total debt to $10,000, a vast sum here. The study by Mr. Mishra found that 86.5 percent of farmers who took their own lives were indebted — their average debt was about $835 — and 40 percent had suffered a crop failure. The news of Mr. Shende’s death brought his wife, Vandana, back home to Bhadumari. Relatives said she had gone to tend to her sick brother in a nearby village. By the time she arrived, her husband’s body was covered by a thin checkered cloth. A policeman had recorded the death — the eighth in six months for the officer. Ms. Shende, squatting in the narrow village lane, shrouded her face in her cheap blue sari and wailed at the top of her lungs. “Your father is dead,” she screamed at her small son, who stood before her, dazed. 10. Northeast Regional Agriculture Policy Summit Commitment to Place: A Northeast Regional Policy Summit The Northeast Regional Policy Summit will be a gathering to exchange ideas and coordinate a Farm Bill policy agenda for our region (twelve states from Maine to West Virginia). The Summit will provide an opportunity to:
This conference is for Northeast policy makers, advocates and educators. It is hosted by the Northeast Ag Works! Project and the Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Working Group. Come and share your organization's Farm Bill priorities and recommendations, and your current and planned organizing activities. Summary Agenda Thursday, November 9, 2006 11:00 Registration 12:00 Luncheon with guest speaker: Regionalism and regional solidarity 1:00 Group presentations and discussion: Key Farm Bill issues, priorities and proposals 3:15 Synthesis Panel: Toward broad areas of agreement on our core issues and priorities 5:30 Reception followed by dinner 8:00 NESAWG member meeting (all welcome) Friday, November 10, 2006 8:30 Panel and discussion: Setting the stage, goals and strategies, what’s going on in DC 10:30 Topical breakout sessions: Strategies and mechanisms for coordinated action 12:00 Luncheon 1:00 Advancing our agenda 2:30 Adjourn Registration: Early bird registration deadline is September 30, 2006. Final registration deadline is October 20th. Please download, complete and return the Registration Form at http://www.northeastagworks.org Lodging: A block of rooms has been reserved at the BWI Airport Marriott for the Summit. A single or double room at the conference rate is $139 per night. For details see the Registration Form. If the conference block of rooms is sold out, you may reserve a room at the BWI Airport Marriott at the standard rate, or make a reservation at the nearby Fairfield or Courtyard. All meals, reception and breaks will feature great local food and beverages!!! For more information: Contact Kathy Ruhf at kzruhf@verizon.net or 413-323-9878. This event is funded in part by the Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation, the Lawson Valentine Foundation and the W. K. Kellogg Foundation 11. Cool Communities, Living Economies HUDSON VALLEY SUSTAINABILITY CONFERENCE The challenge: The global climate crisis is finally penetrating the awareness of citizens and policymakers alike. Big changes are needed in the ways we live and work. We need to save energy and shift to more renewable sources of power. We also need to address deeper aspects of the economy that are shaped by fossil fuel dependency:
Leadership is emerging. Coming to grips with the need to protect our earth’s climate actually opens the door to an entirely new approach to economic development. The benefits include reduced commutes, cleaner air, healthier homes, and more quality jobs, as well as revitalizing our small cities as focal points for innovation and community. The opportunities are enormous. What is needed is a spark to ignite the Hudson Valley’s creative engine. The Gathering: This special conference will bring together Hudson Valley leaders and citizens who are concerned about climate change and the state of our communities. We’ll gather with experts on sustainable economic development, and with Hudson Valley industry spokespeople who are leading the way. We’ll reframe the global environmental crisis as an opportunity to innovate and revitalize our cities, towns and villages, creating good jobs in key industries like clean, renewable energy, local food and agroforestry, recycling-based industries, transportation alternatives, and environmental restoration. We will support the creation of an alliance to build effective local demonstration projects, policy initiatives and a regional vision. This is not “another conference” but a focused gathering of do-ers to exchange essential information, inspire each other and create a partnership for action. AGENDA 8:15 Registration, coffee & light breakfast buffet 8:45 Welcoming remarks – SHV AND NY PLANNING FEDERATION 9:00 Morning keynote, L. Hunter Lovins, coauthor, Natural Capitalism 10:00 Kim Lundgren, Local Governments for Sustainability “Climate Protection and the Municipality: A New Urban Vision” 10:45 Small groups: an eco-nomic vision for Hudson Valley communities 11:15 Break – exhibits and poster sessions 11:30 Community Development Strategies, with co-authors of the LASER (Local Action for Sustainable Economic Renewal) guidebook (Gwen Hallsmith, Wayne Fawbush) and others 12:30 Lunch with innovation panel, Presentation of the Jane Jacobs Urban Vision Award 2:00 Industry breakout groups
3:30 Action discussion: a collaborative way forward - facilitated by David Church, Orange County Planning Commissioner Visit http://www.sustainhv.org for program updates. L. HUNTER LOVINS is President of Natural Capitalism Inc. (www.natcapinc.com). She holds a JD and several honorary doctorates. Co-founder of California Conservation Project (an innovative forestry group) she has extensive hands-on experience with economic development, forestry, sustainable agriculture, renewable energy and construction of sustainable buildings. She subsequently founded Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), which she served for 20 years as CEO. She created the RMI Economic Renewal Project and helped write many of its manuals on sustainable community economic development. She was a founding director of RMI’s second for-profit spin-off, E source, until its 1999 sale to the Financial Times group. Ms. Lovins has lectured extensively in over 15 countries, including at the World Economic Forum at Davos, The International Symposium on Sustainable Development in Shanghai, the Annual General Meeting of UNIDO, the Global Economic Forum, and the World Summit on Sustainable Development. She has consulted for industries and governments worldwide, from multinational companies such as Shell Oil as well as many community groups, local economic development agencies and municipal governments. She has taught at numerous universities and has several honorary doctorates. Currently a professor of business at Presidio World College, she has founded and grown several businesses, including E-Source, which ultimately sold for $18 million. She has served on the governing boards of one government, several businesses, and a dozen non-profits. She served on the State of the World Forum’s Commission on Globalization. With broad expertise in sustainable community development, she has co-authored nine books, including the 1999 book Natural Capitalism, and hundreds of papers, including briefings for Presidents Clinton and Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Lovins has shared a 1982 Mitchell Prize for an essay on reallocating utility capital, a 1983 Right Livelihood Award, a 1993 Nissan Award, and the 1999 Lindbergh Award for Environment and Technology. In 2000 she was named a “Hero for the Planet” by Time Magazine. In 2001 she received the Leadership in Business Award and shared the Shingo Prize for Manufacturing Research. GWENDOLYN HALLSMITH, the founder and Executive Director of Global Community Initiatives (GCI), has over 25 years of experience working with municipal, regional, and state government in the United States and internationally. She is author of The Key to Sustainable Cities (New Society Publishers 2003), lead author of the workbook Taking Action for Sustainability and coauthor of LASER (Local Action for Sustainable Economic Renewal). She is working with the City of Newburgh and with Calgary, in Canada, on long-range plans for sustainable development. Gwen has served as a City Manager, a Regional Planning Director, Senior Planner for the Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy Resources, the Deputy Secretary of the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources, and as an international specialist on sustainable community development. Her international experience has included work with the United Nations Environmental Program, the United Nations Development Program, the Institute for Sustainable Communities, the International City/County Management Association, the Academy for Educational Development, and Earth Charter International. In addition to her academic training in public policy (M.A. Brown University), she has done Ph.D. work in international environmental policy at the University of British Columbia, and theological studies at the Andover Newton Theological School. She currently serves on the Board of Vermont Earth Institute, and was on the founding board of the Vermont Peace Academy and the Twinfield Learning Center. WAYNE FAWBUSH served for 16 years as a state legislator from rural Oregon. During that time he owned and operated a commercial pear and blueberry farm. He was an early advocate of using networks within industry clusters as efficient development tools, especially when applied to the natural resource base in a region. He created the Oregon Wood Product Competitiveness Association that enabled secondary wood producers throughout Oregon to pool their resources. He led the effort to pass the first comprehensive home energy efficiency legislation in the country. Wayne served as the Deputy for Operations for the Farmers Home Administration Washington, D.C., where he managed the Northwest Timber Mitigation Act. He coordinated the Federal response that resulted in seven Federal agencies and the three western states agreeing to implement a program valued at $10-14 billion. For nine years, Wayne served as the Director of the Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund, which was dedicated to helping rural communities and business prosper through collaborative pooling of resources. The Jobs Fund created several successful rural clusters in the forest products, food production, and rural service industries, and initiated several buy-local campaigns. He is working with Regional Technology Strategies on cluster development practices in rural Pennsylvania, Newfoundland, and Oregon. Please work with Sustainable Hudson Valley and our collaborative of communities and industries, to launch a hopeful economic initiative. Teams from communities, industries and interest groups are the basis for a day of knowledge exchange and generation of ideas for followup with SHV support. The conference fee structure is:
Visit http://www.sustainhv.org for details. 12. Regional Farm & Food Project Call to Arms In the good old days, people joined the Regional Farm & Food Project to receive our newsletter in the mail, or to get a discount on admission to an event, or to be listed in one of our directories. Today, we have stopped producing paper newsletters and directories in the interest of saving trees, postage and fuel, our email newsletter is free, our events are less expensive to attend, and we do not charge farm and food businesses to be listed in the directories on our website. So why bother paying money to join the Regional Farm & Food Project? Because we represent solutions to our region's social, environmental and economic problems, and we work to implement them. The Regional Farm & Food Project is a member-supported organization. Our members give us our voice, and their support gives us our independence. This summer we sent out one thousand letters to lapsed and current members asking for donations to sustain our programs through the remainder of the year. Many of you have yet to reply. If you value this newsletter, our website, our point of view, our support services, our educational programs, our voice, kindly support us with your cash. Mail your check payable to Regional Farm & Food Project to PO Box 339, Chatham, NY 12037. Or donate via PayPal at http://www.farmandfood.org/donate.html Thank you. * * * REGIONAL EVENTS CALENDAR * * * September 24 September 30 October 2 & October 9 October 5 OCTOBER 7 & 8 October 10 & 11 October 13-14 October 14 |
||
|
|
|||
 |
|||
