Do you ever feel like things are just moving too fast??
With trillions of dollars zooming around the planet, we should not be surprised to end up with cheapened, low-nutritional food, millions of acres of GMO corn and soy, billions of food miles, dying Main streets, kids who think food comes from supermarkets and obesity epidemics side by side with persistent hunger.
There is a better way. It is a new movement that is bringing money back down to earth, appreciating the energy of small food entrepreneurs who are forging new, healthy relationships in our communities. I'm helping them to build a new kind of investing, a new kind of investor, a new kind of economy. Want to join in too?
Google slowmoneyalliance.org and sign their principles to get involved.
Also check out www.acresusa.com - ACRES (The Voice of Eco-Agriculture), Nov. 2009, Vol. 39, ##11 - "Bringing Money Back to the Earth - Slow Money: 'Nuture Capital' for Communities and the Environment."
- What would the world be like if we invested 50% of our assets within 50 miles of where we live?
Showing posts with label food costs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label food costs. Show all posts
Shopper's Guide to Pesticides
The Environmental Working Group has compiled a recent list of 47 Fruits & Veggies from "worst to least" pesticide load. Adjusting eating habits can lower our intake of pesticides -- sometimes dramatically so. Substitute organic for conventional produce that is consistently contaminated with pesticides. (Better yet, grow your own!) When organic produce is not available, or combining it with non-organic due to budget concerns, the shoppers guide below will help in making healthier choices.
Print out this list for grocery shopping planning. For more information on how to reduce your exposure to pesticides, or to download a wallet size guide, visit http://www.foodnews.org/.
RANK (worst to least) - FRUIT or VEGETABLE - SCORE (highest to lowest)
1. (worst) Peach 100 (highest pesticide load)
2. Apple 93
3. Sweet Bell Pepper 83
4. Celery 82
5. Nectarine 81
6. Strawberries 80
7. Cherries 73
8. Kale 69
9. Lettuce 67
10. Grapes (Imported) 66
11. Carrot 63
12. Pear 63
13. Collard Greens 60
14. Spinach 58
15. Potato 56
16. Green Beans 53
17. Summer Squash 53
18. Pepper 51
19. Cucumber 50
20. Raspberries 46
21. Grapes (Domestic) 44
22. Plum 44
23. Orange 44
24. Cauliflower 39
25. Tangerine 37
26. Mushrooms 36
27. Bananas 34
28. Winter Squash 34
29. Cantaloupe 33
30. Cranberries 33
31. Honeydew Melon 30
32. Grapefruit 29
33. Sweet Potato 29
34. Tomato 29
35. Broccoli 28
36 Watermelon 26
37. Papaya 20
38. Eggplant 20
39. Cabbage 17
40. Kiwi 13
41. Sweet Peas (Frozen) 10
42. Asparagus 10
43. Mango 9
44. Pineapple 7
45. Sweet Corn (Frozen) 2
46. (best) Avocado 1 (lowest pesticide load)
47. (best) Onion 1 (lowest pesticide load)
Investing in a Winter Garden is Profitable
Enumclaw residents are fortunate to have some---to a lot---of land around their homes on which to grow a modern day "victory garden" for delicious, healthy eating especially in these tough economic times. Victory gardens have also proven to be very effective on porches and roof tops! Watch the video below and see how to continue saving money throughout the year on home grown food, and feeling good about it.
The White House staff have been busy all year with the development, planting, and harvesting of the White House Garden (our "resource links" has the garden's opening video). The first three plantings of the kitchen garden were bountiful---harvesting more than 1007 lbs. of produce!
The Winter Garden soil has been prepared, and with the help of high tunnels or hoop houses spinach, lettuce, carrots, mustard greens, chard and cabbage will be planted now. Here is the latest video showing the White House Garden's hoop houses and discussing the USDA's new hoop house project for small farms.
The White House staff have been busy all year with the development, planting, and harvesting of the White House Garden (our "resource links" has the garden's opening video). The first three plantings of the kitchen garden were bountiful---harvesting more than 1007 lbs. of produce!
The Winter Garden soil has been prepared, and with the help of high tunnels or hoop houses spinach, lettuce, carrots, mustard greens, chard and cabbage will be planted now. Here is the latest video showing the White House Garden's hoop houses and discussing the USDA's new hoop house project for small farms.
Consumers Still Buying Organic
Even during these tough economic times, consumers that buy natural and organic food are staying loyal to foods that are healthy. A recent survey from Mintel, a market research firm, shows that nearly 40% of consumers claim they haven't changed organic product purchasing habits because of the recession, and only a mere 3% have stopped buying organic products altogether.
December 30, 2009 ATTR Weekly Harvest Newsletter, maryt@ncat.org
December 30, 2009 ATTR Weekly Harvest Newsletter, maryt@ncat.org
Backyard Sustainably Grown and Fed Chickens
"Bob Cannard, of Green String Farm, has farmed sustainably for 30 years. His father Bob Cannard Sr. was an avid advocate of backyard chickens, particularly in Sonoma, CA. We asked Bob Cannard how he would feed chickens locally. He provided the following chicken meal plan.
Free range:
Within a fenced backyard, periodically rotate chickens in your garden. They will scratch the fence up a bit, but will keep the grass mowed.
With larger property, chickens can free range on a rotational pasture.
Orchards are a great place to let chickens run around.
A good Winter ground cover for chicken runs is crimson clover.
Greens:
For egg laying hens provide 60-70% greens.
Too many greens aren't good for growth or egg laying.
They like greens that are soft, leafy and palatable.
Some good greens are: kale, Swiss chard, beet tops, amaranth, and some comfrey (not a lot).
Kale is a source of protein.
Avoid less sweet greens like mustard.
Pick, chop up, drop in.
Greens are great as long as the chickens are not de-beaked.
Phytochemicals come from greens.
Grow an old fashioned crop of corn as a protein source.
Flint or semi-flint type corn is best--never hybrids or GMO's.
Good choice are Semi-Flint, Semi-Sweet, Country Gentleman.
Feed whole corn kernels---just shell off from the cob.
Corn dried on plants will keep for feeding later.
For 20 chicken you need 1/8 acre of corn.
Alternates to Corn are Millet and Milo and are sources of protein easier to grow than corn. Their yield can be lower depending on how it grows on your property.
All kitchen scraps. Everything from the kitchen including cheese and meat.
Garden Waste:
Weeds - a wheal barrow load each day for 20 chickens.
Anything no longer edible for humans (but nothing rotten or moldy)
Melons, squash, etc.
Pumpkins in the winter are a source of protein. Grow pumpkins around the corn. Chop up the pumpkins and feed all winter long. Get full sized pumpkins: i.e. New England Pie or, slightly bigger, Howden.
A couple of dozen plants are needed for 20 chickens.
20 tons of pumpkin can be gotten from one acre.
Any Squash is a source of protein.
In the Winter: Winter Squash and Butternut Squash
In the Summer: Zucchini, which is high in protein
Other helpful information:
You probably won’t be able to grow all the food you need for your chickens, but you can definitely grow most of it. To feed a flock of 20 chickens once a day, it should take on average 10 minutes. (Some days it will be longer and other days just a few minutes.)
Chickens are extremely efficient animals - converting 7lbs of feed to 1 lb of body.
General Sustainability:
Keep the pen clean.
Conserve manure for compost, and put it back on what you are growing for their food. "
Interview by Deborah Grace Craft at http://www.sustainablechicken.com/.
Learn more from an additional interview by Deborah---"Introduction to Robert Plamondon", (Oregon farmer and writer of practical free-range poultry rearing).
Free range:
Within a fenced backyard, periodically rotate chickens in your garden. They will scratch the fence up a bit, but will keep the grass mowed.
With larger property, chickens can free range on a rotational pasture.
Orchards are a great place to let chickens run around.
A good Winter ground cover for chicken runs is crimson clover.
Greens:
For egg laying hens provide 60-70% greens.
Too many greens aren't good for growth or egg laying.
They like greens that are soft, leafy and palatable.
Some good greens are: kale, Swiss chard, beet tops, amaranth, and some comfrey (not a lot).
Kale is a source of protein.
Avoid less sweet greens like mustard.
Pick, chop up, drop in.
Greens are great as long as the chickens are not de-beaked.
Phytochemicals come from greens.
Grow an old fashioned crop of corn as a protein source.
Flint or semi-flint type corn is best--never hybrids or GMO's.
Good choice are Semi-Flint, Semi-Sweet, Country Gentleman.
Feed whole corn kernels---just shell off from the cob.
Corn dried on plants will keep for feeding later.
For 20 chicken you need 1/8 acre of corn.
Alternates to Corn are Millet and Milo and are sources of protein easier to grow than corn. Their yield can be lower depending on how it grows on your property.
All kitchen scraps. Everything from the kitchen including cheese and meat.
Garden Waste:
Weeds - a wheal barrow load each day for 20 chickens.
Anything no longer edible for humans (but nothing rotten or moldy)
Melons, squash, etc.
Pumpkins in the winter are a source of protein. Grow pumpkins around the corn. Chop up the pumpkins and feed all winter long. Get full sized pumpkins: i.e. New England Pie or, slightly bigger, Howden.
A couple of dozen plants are needed for 20 chickens.
20 tons of pumpkin can be gotten from one acre.
Any Squash is a source of protein.
In the Winter: Winter Squash and Butternut Squash
In the Summer: Zucchini, which is high in protein
Other helpful information:
You probably won’t be able to grow all the food you need for your chickens, but you can definitely grow most of it. To feed a flock of 20 chickens once a day, it should take on average 10 minutes. (Some days it will be longer and other days just a few minutes.)
Chickens are extremely efficient animals - converting 7lbs of feed to 1 lb of body.
General Sustainability:
Keep the pen clean.
Conserve manure for compost, and put it back on what you are growing for their food. "
Interview by Deborah Grace Craft at http://www.sustainablechicken.com/.
Learn more from an additional interview by Deborah---"Introduction to Robert Plamondon", (Oregon farmer and writer of practical free-range poultry rearing).
What's IN the Beef for Dinner?
You may have heard that it takes eight pounds of corn to grow a pound of beef—and that the corn would be better eaten in its “pre-beef” form. That’s definitely true, and the poor cow would probably rather not eat that corn either.
Cows are ruminants: animals with multiple stomachs that allow them to convert grass (which most animals can’t digest) into high-quality proteins. The organ which makes this possible is the cow’s rumen, where the grass is fermented by specialized bacteria and then used by the cow. In return, the cow spreads and “plants” the grass seed, then fertilizes it with his manure. Grasses and ruminants form a sustainable, symbiotic system for converting sunlight into protein.
So why don’t we let the system work?
Unfortunately, cows raised on grass take longer to gain weight than cows raised on corn. In the name of “efficiency,” cattle are fed what to them is an unnatural diet so they can be full-grown in about half the time it would take naturally. Of course, cows can’t eat corn by themselves (as they do grass), so it has to be fed to them. Thus feedlots (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations or “CAFO’s”) were invented to house the cattle in small areas, making the process more efficient still.
These days, feedlot cattle are actually being bred to be able to eat large quantities of corn without getting too sick. Still, though, they are susceptible to bloat, acidosis, and a host of other diseases—which is why they are fed antibiotics with their corn in order to live long enough to make it to the slaughterhouse. It doesn’t sound like much of a life.
So, while corn is apparently cheap and efficient, it’s not a good value. There are the public health costs (antibiotic-resistant supergerms and E.coli poisoning from sick cows), the taxpayer-supported farm subsidies to keep the corn cheap, the environmental costs of pesticides and fertilizers for growing the corn, and the cost of the petroleum needed to make it all happen. Ironically, the system that developed to make meat production more efficient has done just the opposite.
It seems like common sense to abandon the feedlots and raise beef in pastures, but it takes a lot to turn around half a century of “progress.” There are fewer pastures than 50 years ago and fewer farmers who know how to replace high-maintenance feeding with grazing. Joel Huesby of Thundering Hooves Pasture Finished Meats (here in Washington) is one of these farmers. He says, “Cattle as part of a holistic system can harvest crop aftermaths such as straw or unharvested vegetables. They can harvest forage on land too dry or steep for farming. The key is good management. Four-fifths of what goes in the front end of a cow goes out the back, enriching the soil for the next cycle of crops….The waste of one is the food of the other.” (Quite a contrast to the feedlots where energy pours in while pollution pours out.)
In nature, herds of ruminants graze in tight groups to ward off predators, and they frequently move to fresh grazing areas where the grass is new and not spoiled by their own manure. Joel Salatin—another farmer raising grass-fed beef--calls this “the mob and move routine,” and he strives to replicate it for his cattle on Polyface Farm.
Of course, grass feeding affects the nutritional composition of beef. Grass-fed beef has less fat than grain-fed, and it has more of the good omega-3 fats. Cattle fed on grass also have twice as many CLA’s (conjugated lineoleic acids) as cattle fed on corn, because their rumens have bacteria that convert grass to CLA’s. CLA’s provide cancer-fighting benefits, prevent weight gain, reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, and help fight inflammation.
Joel Huesby muses, “I don't kid myself by thinking these broken energy systems can be fixed overnight. We'll need time to restore the grass-based genetics in cattle, time to train people to move cattle in high-intensity, short-duration grazing schedules like wild herds, and time to educate the public and lawmakers who only now are beginning to understand there's a difference.” (“Harvesting Sunlight” in PCC Newsletter, August, 2009)
We’ll also need motivation—incentive for meat producers to go back to a system that’s sustainable. That incentive can come from customers who insist on grass-fed beef for dinner.
Cows are ruminants: animals with multiple stomachs that allow them to convert grass (which most animals can’t digest) into high-quality proteins. The organ which makes this possible is the cow’s rumen, where the grass is fermented by specialized bacteria and then used by the cow. In return, the cow spreads and “plants” the grass seed, then fertilizes it with his manure. Grasses and ruminants form a sustainable, symbiotic system for converting sunlight into protein.
So why don’t we let the system work?
Unfortunately, cows raised on grass take longer to gain weight than cows raised on corn. In the name of “efficiency,” cattle are fed what to them is an unnatural diet so they can be full-grown in about half the time it would take naturally. Of course, cows can’t eat corn by themselves (as they do grass), so it has to be fed to them. Thus feedlots (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations or “CAFO’s”) were invented to house the cattle in small areas, making the process more efficient still.
These days, feedlot cattle are actually being bred to be able to eat large quantities of corn without getting too sick. Still, though, they are susceptible to bloat, acidosis, and a host of other diseases—which is why they are fed antibiotics with their corn in order to live long enough to make it to the slaughterhouse. It doesn’t sound like much of a life.
So, while corn is apparently cheap and efficient, it’s not a good value. There are the public health costs (antibiotic-resistant supergerms and E.coli poisoning from sick cows), the taxpayer-supported farm subsidies to keep the corn cheap, the environmental costs of pesticides and fertilizers for growing the corn, and the cost of the petroleum needed to make it all happen. Ironically, the system that developed to make meat production more efficient has done just the opposite.
It seems like common sense to abandon the feedlots and raise beef in pastures, but it takes a lot to turn around half a century of “progress.” There are fewer pastures than 50 years ago and fewer farmers who know how to replace high-maintenance feeding with grazing. Joel Huesby of Thundering Hooves Pasture Finished Meats (here in Washington) is one of these farmers. He says, “Cattle as part of a holistic system can harvest crop aftermaths such as straw or unharvested vegetables. They can harvest forage on land too dry or steep for farming. The key is good management. Four-fifths of what goes in the front end of a cow goes out the back, enriching the soil for the next cycle of crops….The waste of one is the food of the other.” (Quite a contrast to the feedlots where energy pours in while pollution pours out.)
In nature, herds of ruminants graze in tight groups to ward off predators, and they frequently move to fresh grazing areas where the grass is new and not spoiled by their own manure. Joel Salatin—another farmer raising grass-fed beef--calls this “the mob and move routine,” and he strives to replicate it for his cattle on Polyface Farm.
Of course, grass feeding affects the nutritional composition of beef. Grass-fed beef has less fat than grain-fed, and it has more of the good omega-3 fats. Cattle fed on grass also have twice as many CLA’s (conjugated lineoleic acids) as cattle fed on corn, because their rumens have bacteria that convert grass to CLA’s. CLA’s provide cancer-fighting benefits, prevent weight gain, reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, and help fight inflammation.
Joel Huesby muses, “I don't kid myself by thinking these broken energy systems can be fixed overnight. We'll need time to restore the grass-based genetics in cattle, time to train people to move cattle in high-intensity, short-duration grazing schedules like wild herds, and time to educate the public and lawmakers who only now are beginning to understand there's a difference.” (“Harvesting Sunlight” in PCC Newsletter, August, 2009)
We’ll also need motivation—incentive for meat producers to go back to a system that’s sustainable. That incentive can come from customers who insist on grass-fed beef for dinner.
Barcode Food
“When you think about it, it is odd that something as important to our health and general well-being as food is so often sold strictly on the basis of price. The value of relationship marketing [people buying directly from farmers they know] is that it allows many kinds of information besides price to travel up and down the food chain: stories as well as numbers, qualities as well as quantities, values rather than ‘value.’ And as soon as that happens, people begin to make different kinds of buying decisions, motivated by criteria other than price. But instead of stories about how it was produced accompanying our food, we get bar codes—as inscrutable as the industrial food chain itself, and a fair symbol of its almost total opacity.
"...Our food system depends on consumers' not knowing much about it beyond the price disclosed by the checkout scanner. Cheapness and ignorance are mutually reinforcing. And it's a short way from not knowing who's at the other end of your food chain to not caring--to the carelessness of both producers and consumers."
from The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan
Click here to order this book from Amazon.com
"...Our food system depends on consumers' not knowing much about it beyond the price disclosed by the checkout scanner. Cheapness and ignorance are mutually reinforcing. And it's a short way from not knowing who's at the other end of your food chain to not caring--to the carelessness of both producers and consumers."
from The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan
Click here to order this book from Amazon.com
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