--> Sweeping his daughter back into his arms, he adds, "Most of the old family farms are gone. They were bought out by agribusiness." He nods to Barb and Dave. "These community-supported farmers. They're the new family farm."
Pleasure is Not Merely in Our Tastebuds
The next day, we drive further out of Madison. The green is so green and the farmsteads so picturesque that it takes real effort to keep in mind the heartache of a way of life under threat here. | | The very fact that family farms are folding is proof that they'te inefficient, goes the standard line—and many farmers swallow it. Bearing the loss is hard enough; blaming yourself makes it even worse. But he'd bought the myth, too—the myth that the big, industrial farming model is most efficient, even though studies measuring input against output now prove that the most efficient farms are actually medium-sized family operations.3
I can identify with the young man, and with these farmers. I've had difficulty, too, in fighting the myth that survival proves efficiency. | | The Europe of small, quaint villages surrounded by family farms is vanishing. During the 1990s, a quartet of a million European farms disappeared from the land.
In France, a single-minded production focus has placed this relatively small country among the world's top agricultural exporters. At the same time, food, always a source of national pride for the French—as for many Europeans—has become a cause of anxiety. Scares about mad cow disease, unsafe poultry, and contaminated drinking watet have shattered many Europeans' faith in the people entrusted to secure their food. | | Here at home, farming resembles ever more closely what Americans have always associated with the "third world"—not family farms but increasingly big estates using hired labor. Every year, we rely on roughly a million farmworkers planting and harvesting our food, and, depending on the season, several million more undocumented migrant workers.7
The lives of these laborers hardly differ from the Brazilian landless "cold meals." Often, migrant farmworkers live in quarters little better than the black plastic shacks we visited in Brazil. | | National Family Farm Coalition
Thirty-three grassroots farm, resource, conservation, and rural advocacy groups from thirty-three states working to strengthen family farms. 110 Maryland Avenue, NE #307 Washington, DC 20002 Tel: (202) 543 5675 www. nffc. net
Via Campesina/International Farmers Movement
An international movement that coordinates peasant organizations of small- and middle-scale producers, agricultural workers, rural women, and indigenous communities from Asia, Africa, America, and Europe. |  The death of family farms became an all-American saga. In the United States the number of farms has been cut by two-thirds since World War II, and the average farm size has more than doubled.
This spiral of technological advance and social disruption of the farming community could also be found when the Green Revolution programs took effect in Latin America and Asia. In Mexico the technology only worked for certain farmers who could afford the inputs of chemical fertilizer and pesticides. The disparities between rich and poor farmers were also found in India and other parts of Asia. |  By 1989, when Monsanto was testing rBGH on commercial farms in nearly every important dairy state, the drug was already under attack by groups concerned about family farms as well as by those suspicious of any kind of genetic engineering. Several supermarket chains refused to carry milk from rBGH-treated cows, and the owners of Ben & Jerry's announced that they would label ice cream packages with a statement opposing use of the hormone. Before the drug had even been approved for commercial use, the state legislatures of Wisconsin and Minnesota temporarily banned sales of rBGH. | | This advertisement, which much resembles those for the cigarette-selling Marlboro Man, is clearly meant to suggest that genetically engineered crops will save family farms.
As with all issues related to food biotechnology, its benefit to farmers is subject to debate. Also like the other issues, this one is complicated and lacks a firm research base on which to resolve outstanding questions. By 2001, most observers agreed that transgenic cotton required less use of pesticides than conventional cotton, but only in certain areas. | | Lundberg Sweet Dream Brown Rice Syrup (Lundberg family farms). Lundberg family farms.
Mountain Ark Trading Company. Maple syrup.
Organic Foods Express. Brown rice and maple syrup.
Rising Sun Organic Produce. Maple syrup from trees grown by organic or biody-namic methods.
Shelburne Farms. Maple syrup produced without additives.
Shiloh Farms. Honey.
Smoot Honey Company. Variety of honeys from some of the most pollution-free areas remaining in this country.
Sucanat Organic Sugar (Pronatec International). |  In their mailing to voters, they repeated the inflated $550 figure and claimed that Measure 27 would add a whopping 32 to 63 percent to the cost of family farms and food processing plants. The letter said, "Measure 27 is another example of narrow special interests trying to use Oregon's ballot measure process to push their extreme political agenda. |  Coconuts are used fresh (within 24 hours of harvest) from small family farms on Mt. Banahaw in Quezon province, the coconut capital of the Philippines. The volcanic soil of Mt. Banahaw makes these organic coconuts some of the most nutritionally rich coconuts in the world! | | The government reports that in the mid-'90s an average of almost 20,000 family farms folded each year—organizations working with farmers say even that estimate may be low.21 With farm income down by almost one-fifth this year, John could be losing many more neighbors.22
John has survived, he tells us, because he chose to farm differently from his neighbors: organically. But he didn't start out that way.
"I started with the chemical fix like everybody else," John says. "But in a couple of years, I ended up in the University hospital. My legs were numb. | | Lundberg Creamy Rice Cereal (Lund-berg family farms). Oven-roasted, stone -ground brown rice. Krystal Wharf Farms, Lundberg family farms, Simply Delicious.
Mountain Ark Trading Company. Brown-rice cream, white corn grits, rolled oats, Belgian muesli.
Natural Way Mills Cereals (Natural Way Mills). Certified cracked wheat, cream of wheat, Scotch batley, millet, tye grits, flax meal, com and barley grits, and wheat bran.
Nu-World Amaranth. Puffed amaranth and toasted amaranth btan.
Organic Foods Express. |  Lundberg family farms, which produces rice in Richvale, California. A half-cup of brown rice contains about 2 grams of fiber, she says.
The fiber in brown rice is the insoluble kind that acts like a sponge in the intestine, soaking up large amounts of water, says Dr. Hegsted. This causes stools to get larger and wetter, so they pass more easily. In addition, latger stools move more quickly through the colon. This means that any harmful substances that they contain have less time to damage cells in the colon wall, which can reduce the risk of cancer. |  For example, participants in the Navajo family farms Project, based near Leupp, Arizona, are raising blue corn for consumption first at local schools and elderly programs, planning to sell only their surplus corn off the reservation. Similarly, the Ikwe Marketing Collective of the Anishinabey Indians in Minnesota encourages its members to reserve as much of their hand-harvested wild rice as they want for themselves before selling their harvest to health-food stores. As Winona LaDuke explains, "By consuming our resources, we get a 'use value. |  Agribusiness emphasizes agriculture as a big business rather than as the work of small family farms.
American Stock Exchange The second largest stock exchange in the United States, after the New York Stock Exchange. The American Stock Exchange is in New York City. amortization (am-uhr-teye-ZAY-shuhn, uh-mawr-tuh-ZAY-shuhn) A term that refers either to the gradual paying off of a debt in regular installments over a period of time or to the depreciation of the "book value" (that is, the standard assessed value) of an asset over a period of time. |  Rural Advancement Foundation International (RAFI)
Works to promote sustainable agriculture, strengthen family farms and rural communities, protect diversity of plants, animals, and people in agriculture, and ensure responsible use of new technologies. P. O. Box 640, Pittsboro, NC 27312; 919-542-1396; www.rafiusa.org
Organic Foods
Community Alliance with Family Farmers
Promotes community agriculture through campaigns, farm tours, and publications, including the National Organic Directory. P. O. Box 363, Davis, CA 95617; 916-756-8518; www.caff. | | The process of rearing farm animals in the United States has changed dramatically from the family farms of yesteryear. This reality, coupled with the exemption of farm animals from laws that forbid cruelty to animals, has produced a heartbreaking situation. More animals are being subjected to more torturous conditions in the United States today than has ever occurred anywhere in world history.
This is painful. It can be shattering to see that in our ignorance we have, perhaps for many years, unknowingly eaten the products of such a system. But this pain may serve a healing purpose. | | Ben & Jerry's, for example, seeks to be environmentally aware and to use milk from family farms. The company's promotional literature and Web site states that "dioxin is known to cause cancer, genetic and reproductive defects and learning disabilities. . . . The only safe level of dioxin exposure is no exposure at all."
Yet so pervasive is dioxin in dairy, meat, and fish products today that in November 1999, a level of dioxin 200 times greater than the "virtually safe (daily) dose" determined by the EPA was found in Ben & Jerry's Vanilla Ice Cream.2 |  This supports small or family farms. Also, the food sold at such markets is probably fresher, less expensive, and less chemically treated.
Refrigerate or store food appropriately as soon as possible to prevent spoilage.
Drink clean water. Use a water filter, buy purified water, or drink well water that has been analyzed and shown to be free of chemicals and germs. Avoid tap water!
Avoid red meats—beef, pork, and lamb. Raising livestock on a vast scale is destructive to any natural environment. Overconsumption of these products is unhealthy.
Especially avoid chemically treated red meats. |  Lundberg family farms P.O. Box 369 Richvale, CA 95974 Telephone: 530-882-4551 Fax: 530-882-4500 Internet: www.lundberg.com A wide assortment of rice and rice products.
Promez LLC P.O. Box 77658 Tucson, AZ 85703-7658 Telephone: 520-887-1188 Mesquite meal available with a membership.
Quinoa Corporation Box 1039
Torrence, CA 90505
Telephone: 310-530-8666
Fax: 310-530-8764
Internet: www.quinoa.com Imported quinoa, quinoa flour, and quinoa pasta.
Teff Company
P.O. Box A
Caldwell, ID 83606
Telephone and Fax: 208-455-0375
E-mail: teffco. | | Lundberg family farms.
Mountain Ark Trading Company. Maple syrup.
Organic Foods Express. Brown rice and maple syrup.
Rising Sun Organic Produce. Maple syrup from trees grown by organic or biody-namic methods.
Shelburne Farms. Maple syrup produced without additives.
Shiloh Farms. Honey.
Smoot Honey Company. Variety of honeys from some of the most pollution-free areas remaining in this country.
Sucanat Organic Sugar (Pronatec International). Evaporated cane juice contains up to three percent mineral salts and can be used cup for cup as sugar substitute. | | Lundberg Family Farms' Black Japonica is a combination of two varieties, black japonica and a brown mahogany rice, which grow together in the same field. Black rice varieties have a black or dark brown bran layer that covers a white endosperm. Black sticky rice is an exception. See Rice.
Black Salsify See Scorzonera.
BLACK SESAME SEED
(Sesamum indicum)
The most common sesame seed is buff colored, but the black variety is more richly flavored. Available in natural food and Asian food stores, black sesame seeds are usually pretoasted. | | Lundberg family farms.
Maskal Teff Flour (Maskal Forages). Teff is an ancient grain of Ethiopia. Specify that you want organically grown teff flour. Maskal Forages.
Mountain Ark Trading Company. Whole-wheat and unbleached white flours, plus yellow cornmeal.
Natural Way Mills Flours (Natural Way Mills). Whole-wheat, rye, whole-wheat pastry, millet, barley, buckwheat, amaranth, corn, soy, gluten, graham, and brown-rice flours, plus cornmeal. Certified.
Nu-World Amaranth. | | The tragic loss of mixed crops and livestock breeds during the twentieth century has been amply documented in economic and sociological analyses but perhaps never so poignantly conveyed as in Leaving the Land, a novel by Douglas Unger. family farms with a mixture of crops, livestock, and poultry varieties were driven out of business by dovetailing economic and political forces that favored production zones focused on one commodity. | | Agribusiness emphasizes agriculture as a big business rather than as the work of small family farms.
American Stock Exchange The second latgest stock exchange in the United States, after the New York Stock Exchange. The American Stock Exchange is in New York City. amortization (am-uhr-tuh-zay-shuhn, uh-mawr-tuh-zay-shuhn) A term that refers either to the gradual paying off of a debt in regular installments over a period of time or to the depreciation of the "book value" (that is, the standard assessed value) of an asset over a period of time. | | Once the health question is resolved, we still face the other question: Is whatever benefit BGH/BST might offer more important than the survival of hundreds or thousands of family farms?
BATTLING BUGS IN MILK AND CHEESE
Another safety concern with dairy products is bacterial contamination—with the greatest risk posed by unpasteurized (raw) milk and raw-milk products. (The FDA has banned the interstate sale of raw milk.) Pasteurization kills most bacteria in milk, but pasteurized milk or milk products can also become contaminated. Pasteurization does not destroy nutrients. | | Shopping at farmers' markets has the added benefit of helping support small, family farms and organic farmers. It also gives you the chance to talk to farmers directly about how they grow food and to try varieties that may not be available at the grocery store. And because there are no intermediaries and transportation costs are low, prices may be lower than at supermarkets.
þ Buy certified organic produce if you can—it is grown without synthetic chemical fertilizers or pesticides, and doesn't contain post-harvest fungicides. | | Lundberg family farms, Simply Delicious.
Maskal Teff (Maskal Forages). Specify that you want organically grown grain. Maskal Forages.
Natural Lifestyle Supplies. Barley, buckwheat, millet, oats, popcorn, sweet rice, and wheat.
Natural Way Mills Whole Grains (Natural Way Mills). Wheat, rye, amaranth, corn, brown rice, barley berries. Certified.
Nu-World Amaranth. Whole-seed amaranth.
Ohsawa Brown Rice (Ohsawa America). Gold Mine Natural Food Company.
Organic Foods Express. Barley, kasha, millet, popcorn, wheat berries, white and brown basmati rice, and long- and short-grain brown rice. | | Krystal Wharf Farms, Lundberg family farms, Simply Delicious.
Mountain Ark Trading Company. Brown-rice cream, white corn grits, rolled oats, Belgian muesli.
Natural Way Mills Cereals (Natural Way Mills). Certified cracked wheat, cream of wheat, Scotch batley, millet, tye grits, flax meal, com and barley grits, and wheat bran.
Nu-World Amaranth. Puffed amaranth and toasted amaranth btan.
Organic Foods Express. Rolled oats and quick oats, oat bran, muesli, granola, creamy rice and rye, and twelve-grain.
Paul's Grains. | |
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