Wise Living Journal » Cooperatives

Letter to the New Farmer in Chief

Aileen — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 18:19:53 +0000

There is a resurgence of hope across America in the wake of Tuesday’s election of Democrat Barack Obama as President, promising a new direction of change for the future of our nation. Those of us who have been paying attention to the global financial meltdown, increasingly severe food shortages in the wake of global warming, and the outrageous poisoning of our citizens and livestock/pets by corrupt Chinese producers (a glaring example of globalization’s failures), are hoping that a new dawn in America will bring with it the serious changes to our agricultural policies that have grown increasingly necessary through decades of decline.

Now, politicians don’t generally talk much about agricultural policies while they’re stumping for votes in big cities. And they’re often so ignorant of agricultural issues that even rural dwellers – actual farmers – get nothing but pablum and platitudes in response to their questions. Luckily, journalist Michael Pollan wrote a great ‘open letter’ in the New York Times in October entitled, Farmer in Chief. This is a must-read for all of us committed to self-sufficiency, locally grown foods, the viability of family farms and homesteads, and the future health of an environment we all depend upon for life.

Pollan begins his letter to “Dear Mr. President-Elect” with an honest caution -

It may surprise you to learn that among the issues that will occupy much of your time in the coming years is one you barely mentioned during the campaign: food. Food policy is not something American presidents have had to give much thought to, at least since the Nixon administration — the last time high food prices presented a serious political peril. Since then, federal policies to promote maximum production of the commodity crops (corn, soybeans, wheat and rice) from which most of our supermarket foods are derived have succeeded impressively in keeping prices low and food more or less off the national political agenda. But with a suddenness that has taken us all by surprise, the era of cheap and abundant food appears to be drawing to a close. What this means is that you, like so many other leaders through history, will find yourself confronting the fact — so easy to overlook these past few years — that the health of a nation’s food system is a critical issue of national security. Food is about to demand your attention.

Pollan goes on to explain issues like climate change, energy independence, health care and the general health of the economy in terms of our dependence on food depend crucially on sound agricultural policies. He explains very well what ‘went wrong’ with our food system over the past several decades, and how the antiquated, fossil fuel dependent system cannot be sustained. We no longer have cheap fuels and unlimited water supplies, our policies are haphazard, our subsidies unfair, our planning non-existent. Pollan then offers his particulars in this 9-page article, and the reasoning behind them is fascinating reading. He offers a complete rationale for organic farming many of us have been promoting and practicing for years, in three not at all ‘simple’ steps…

1. Resolarizing the American Farm
2. Reregionalizing the Food System
3. Rebuilding America’s Food Culture

I’ve added my voice to the growing calls for our leadership to pay serious attention to the many complex issues of our food supply – which IS our ‘national security’ – by sending this article as a link in a congratulatory email to President-Elect Obama. This is an immediate action issue, as Obama is right now choosing his cabinet and advisors. Agriculture and food policy issues must not fall to the back of the line. So add your voice to the calls for sane policy and firm leadership today!

You can also sign petitions and keep up to date on incoming news at the Organic Consumers Association. Don’t forget while you’re there to sign up for their email newsletter too!

Time to Buy Your CSA Memberships!

Aileen — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 14:39:29 +0000

CSA – Community Supported Agriculture. The CSA ‘movement’ in my state (North Carolina) organized, promoted and maintained per resources and educational materials by the state’s Cooperative Extension Service, the outreach arm of the state’s Department of Agriculture and land grant universities. It’s all about small farms, sustainable agriculture, natural and organic methods, and best marketing practices for what is produced.

CSA member farms offer fruit and vegetables, flowers and landscaping plants, eggs, milk (dairies specialize in cows or goats) and cheese, pasture-fed meat, and some even participate in the AgriTourism initiatives to bring urban families and tourists out to the farms for tours and work opportunities. Consumers can purchase from favored producers at local farmer’s markets, or do what we do – buy a “share” of the coming season’s crops in the spring when the farmer needs the funding to cover seeds and the costs of getting the crop in and going.

Different producers work differently for their shares, so choose a CSA close to home in case you are expected to come to the farm to pick up your boxes and bags of goodies. At some CSAs you’ll get to pick your own strawberries, peaches, apples, etc. when they’re ripe, the farm will let you know when that happens so you can make plans. Some have workshops that let you get some close-up training on bee keeping or cheese making, even learn how to milk a goat!

There’s nothing better than getting to know your food producer personally, and getting some important hands-on opportunities to learn how it’s done, maybe put that to work in your own garden. Even better, the ability to purchase good, natural or organic produce, meat, eggs, milk, cheese, etc. from local producers will cut your food budget significantly. Prices are rising fast at the supermarket, and supermarket produce isn’t very tasty anyway.

Joining a CSA or two every season allows the homesteader to focus on producing just what they can’t get easily or cheaply from other producers in their area. It also allows the homesteader to hook up with other homesteaders and old-timers who know everything about everything in your particular area. In my experience the old-timers love nothing better than to answer questions from committed newcomers, and will often offer practical advice and encyclopedic knowledge of what it takes to survive on the land.

I easily found the CSAs in my area by doing a Google search on “CSA NC” which returned the Extension Service’s useful website. The same should work for your state too, so make use of it! Now’s the time to buy your shares, or get the lowdown on what will be available through the farmer’s market in your area, where to find your favored growers. So get on it, gang!

25 Alternative Energy Strategies – 5

Aileen — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 21:01:10 +0000

In this, the last five items in the list of 25 strategies, a look at community efforts to become self-sufficient is in order. While an energy self-sufficient homestead can exist in any rural environment, the more neighbors (no matter how spread out) who catch the bug, the more resources are available to be developed for the good of all. It’s the natural ‘next step’ in extending the idea of energy self-sufficiency toward the broader society.

The real “trick” in items 21-25 are the collective will to work together and agree upon sustainable agricultural, building, energy production and distribution practices.

Part 5: Collective Strategies for Communities

When FDR was elected President in 1932 – in the midst of the Great Depression – he addressed the awful situation by means of the “New Deal.” Tucked away in the National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933 which established the huge public works programs, was the Subsistence Homestead Communities project. The plan was to relocate some of the idled workers from over-populated industrial areas into planned subsistence communities they would build for themselves with government money.

Read about the Cumberland Homesteads project for yourself, it gives a rough idea of the rewards community development can reap, even if the whole thing is privately financed by the motivated homesteaders themselves (as it must be today). Sure, there are many grants available for rural community development (such as state agri-tourism initiatives) when there is someone skilled in applying, from all sorts of government agencies federal and state. And some resources available from corporate largesse these days as well.

21. Community Commodity Cooperatives

One of the best collective strategies for any rural region – and all self-sufficient sub-communities in those regions – is to establish a production planning group that includes all willing members of the community who farm or produce any truck crops for sale/trade in-season.

Some rural communities already have cooperatives that share big equipment (combines, harvesters, etc.) and collectively purchase seed at discount, so those memberships are ready made for organization. Other rural areas don’t have such cooperatives, but in places where “everybody knows everybody” it’s not that hard to knock on doors, produce the literature and book the community center for meetings. Enlisting the aid of rural town chambers of commerce, local Lions and Ruritan clubs, etc. is also a good way to enlist members. Only a few meetings a year are required to present research and plans, those can be put together by volunteer committees.

Based on who produces what and what their usual markets are, it’s not that hard to figure what acreage is available for which crops, what local markets are available or could be developed, and what other local resources and talents can be put to use for the whole community – commodity storage, food preservation and processing, distribution and/or warehousing, etc. This way a community can be ensured access to staples not every acre-or-less gardener grows, while the small farmers who grow grain have access to the high-nutrient value foods the smaller producers grow.

22. Community Seed-Saver Cooperatives

No matter what the gardeners and small farmers in an area produce, it’s not that hard to encourage the use of heirloom and open-pollenated cultivar seeds, and institute a seed-saving bank right in the cooperative itself that all have ready access to. If the decision to avoid GMOs and hybrids can be made for the collective stores, there will be seed available year to year to all who wish to participate in the community commodity self-sufficiency program.

23. “Shares” and Agricultural Practices

Community cooperative members who raise livestock (preferably by agreement without factory-farm or chemical/illegal feed practices) can contribute to community composting efforts on a convenient lot, available for members to use on their collective-dedicated plots. Cattle, goats, chicken, horses and donkeys – any of these animals produce waste that composts into fine fertilizer. Rotting hay, grass clippings, leaves, wood chips, crop wastes – all these things can add to the pile, any member free to dump their trailer loads on whichever pile is freshest, any time. A community-owned backhoe can turn and manage the piles, help loading.

A community with lots of youngsters and teenagers can put ‘em to work during the summer pulling weeds, in-row cultivating and bug-picking if the community-dedicated plots don’t use chemical poisons by mutual agreement. And whoever’s dirt produces the hottest habaneros every year should get a break on everything by donating that crop to production of insect repellant sprays for the dedicated truck plots. The hot stuff works well on most pests (especially soft-bodied ones), and if vegetable oils are used for suspension they’ll last on the foliage through a couple of rains. Most pest infestations come in waves, so timing is everything.

24. Community Power Grid

If several (and more coming all the time) homesteads in the community produce electricity from their own resources, the coop can house and maintain the centralization of tie-ins, much as rural electric cooperatives did in the past. This can maintain the primary reverse metering to feed excess into the main grid as purchased production by the electric utility, and share production among members for regular load capacity (usage). Money earned by utility purchase (if it exceeds draw by individual members) can go into the cooperative maintenance fund.

It is also worth noting that there is government money available for such rural community cooperatives for developing community resources for electrical generation. These can help finance solar installations and/or wind generators on cooperatively owned land, as well as larger waterway (like the local river or through-town deep-creek) development for mini-hydro generation.

25. Community Fuel Production & Distribution

Instead of an in-barn homestead-size ethanol still (and/or oil press), why not build a larger, community-size still/press? If the farmers pledge to produce an acre or two of oil or dedicated grain crops per season (tractor, harvest and transport fuel supplied by the cooperative, processing collectively paid for, central storage, supplied seed) it wouldn’t be hard for a community to enlist a few workers to man the equipment. If the farm diesel equipment is geared to operate on SVO and the gasoline engines are set run on ethanol, this can be a closed system.

Localized food, energy crop and energy production are the wave of the future in sustainable and self-sustaining communities and regions. It’s a different way of life from the “crowded with strangers” culture of modern urban life, but it’s a way of life being deliberately chosen by more and more people. While rural areas are also full of people who never left the farm (so didn’t decide to leave the cities), those people tend to already know what it’s all worth.

In my 15 years’ worth of homesteading experience, the ‘old timers’ are quite amenable to getting to know their new neighbors and up for working collectively for the good of all. Most would rather sell their crop production locally than ship it halfway around the country or world for less than it cost them to grow the food. Farmers have been in trouble for awhile now, but they’re still the best living knowledge resource for any serious homesteader. To make best use of them and their knowledge, it’s best to include them in the plan!

These 25 strategies are mere outline of what’s out there or in development. Places to start planning for an individual and collectively sustainable and self-sufficient future. Diversify – everyone has skills, and most people can develop more than one! More people, more talents, knowledge and skills. The answers are simple! Making them work takes some work.

Posts to This Series:
Part 1: Electrical Generation
Part 2: Transportation and Motorized Equipment
Part 3: Building Technologies & Direct Alternatives
Part 4: Hybrid Energy Systems
Part 5: Collective Strategies for Communities