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Family farms

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In keeping with its original purpose to help preserve family farms and rural communities, Pet Promise only obtains its meat from U.S. farmers and ranchers who are committed to eco-friendly, natural, and sustainable practices and who practice the humane treatment of animals. Their pasture-fed beef and free-range chicken come from certified natural producers, such as Coleman Natural Beef and Petaluma Poultry, and your purchase of their quality products helps support family farms that are committed to natural growing methods and a healthy environment that we all can share. www.petpromise.
Support small sustainable farms, organic farms, family farms, your local food co-ops and your local farmer's market. Another, huge step you can take is to have your own garden. Grow heirloom plants, not hybrid plants, so you can save your seeds and use them generation after generation. The very act of saving and using seeds is, in its own way, a respectful ritual for nature. Who knows? Someday you may have to depend on those seeds, because all the other corporate seeds out there have terminated themselves and can't be counted on anymore. So keep saving them, and keep them alive.
A few miles in from the forest edge, family farms and small villages gave way to cattle ranches. As subsistence farmers pushed farther into the forest, ranchers took over abandoned farms. Cows can graze land with soil too poor to grow crops, but it takes a lot of ground to support them. Large-scale cattle grazing prevents the forest from regrowing, causing further erosion and sending frontier communities farther and farther into the jungle in an endless push for fresh land. The vicious cycle is plainly laid out for all to see.
Hilgard thought that a permanent agriculture required small family farms rather than large commercial plantations or tenant farmers seeking to maximize each year's profits. With a view of the soil forged in the Deep South, Hilgard moved to Berkeley in his early forties to take a professorship at the new University of California. He arrived just as Californians began shaking off gold rush fever to worry about how to farm rhe Central Valley's alkali soils—salty ground unlike anything back East. Newspapers were full of accounts of crops that withered mysteriously or produced marginal yields.
As recently as the early 1990s, the United States had lost more than twenty-five thousand family farms a year. On average, more than two hundred American farms have gone under every day for the past fifty years. In the second half of the twentieth century, the average farm size more than doubled, from under one hundred to almost two hundred hectares. Less than 20 percent of U.S. farms now produce almost 90 percent of the food grown in America.
Just as in Rome two thousand years before, and in the Amazon almost three centuries later, abandoned family farms ended up in the hands of plantation owners. In New England, some colonists began experimenting with soil improvement. Connecticut minister, doctor, and farmer Jared Eliot published the first of his Essays Upon Field Husbandry in 1748 reporting the results of experiments on how to prevent or reverse soil degradation. Riding on horseback to call on his parishioners and patients, Eliot noticed that the muddy water running off bare hillsides carried away fertile soil.
Once individual family farms coalesced into slave-worked tobacco plantations, the region became trapped in an insatiable socioeconomic system that fed on fresh land. Historian Avery Craven saw colonial soil degradation as part of an inevitable cycle of frontiet colonization. "Men may, because of ignorance or habit, ruin their soils, but more often economic or social conditions, entitely outside their control lead or force them to a treatment of their lands that can end only in ruin.
The new rules requiring all California almonds to be pasteurized would also place a heavy financial burden on small growers and family farms, ultimately putting many of them out of business, further concentrating control of the food supply in the hands of a few powerful corporations. The Cornucopia Institute is concerned about the general trend towards the secretive processing of foods with chemicals or radiation, without honest labeling.
Good public policy would use public funds ro encourage soil stewardship—and family farms, they argue—instead of encouraging large-scale monoculture. Organic agriculture is starting to lose its status as a fringe movement as farmers relearn rhat maintaining soil health is essential for sustaining high crop yields. A growing shift away from agrochemical methods coincides with the renewed popularity of methods to improve the soil.
Lundberg family farms Organic Long Grain Brown Rice ¦ Lundberg family farms Organic Short Grain Brown Rice • Lundberg family farms Organic Wild Rice Blend www.lundberg.com ¦ Tumaro's Gourmet Tortillas Honey Wheat—uses organic flour www.tumaros.com ¦ Lightlife Smart Dogs 1-800-769-3279 www.lightlife.com ¦ Health Valley Low Fat Granola—Tropical Fruit ¦ Health Valley Low Fat Granola—Date Almond Flavor ¦ Health Valley Low Fat Granola—Raisin Cinnamon ¦ Kashi Go Lean Crunch ¦ Texmati Long Grain American Basmati Brown Rice 1-800-232-RICE www.riceselect.
Horizon produced about 20 percent of its milk from a fairly large four thousand-cow organic dairy in Paul, Idaho, as well as some 305 family farms. Although the Paul, Idaho, farm was small in comparison with other super factory dairy farms, it was still large, and its animal husbandry practices appeared to blur the line between factory farms and ideally humane organic farms—at least according to its critics.
There is really no need going around starting wars over oil," said Willie Nelson, the country singer who organized Farm Aid two decades ago to focus on the plight of American agriculture and traditional family farms. Not when we have Bio Willie, a biodiesel fuel made from vegetable oils that is ready to go into your tank without any modifications. Bio Willie is the name of the biodiesel product that is named for the redheaded stranger. Nelson found out about biodiesel in Hawaii, where he has a home, after his wife bought a biodiesel-burning car.
Their pasture-fed beef and free-range chicken come from certified natural producers, such as Coleman Natural Beef and Petaluma Poultry, and your purchase of their quality products helps support family farms that are committed to natural growing methods and a healthy environment that we all can share. www.petpromise.com Renewable Energy BP BP's stance on renewable energy sources and cleaner air is this: They are working toward a world powered by clean renewable energy, but they accept that hydrocarbons (i.e., coal, oil, and gas) are here to stay for the foreseeable future.
Lily Morgan, the company founder, is a sixth-generation farmer, and she says Lily Organics sustains family farms in a profitable economic model that also curtails our dependency on oil. www. lilyorganics .com MyChelle Dermaceuticals Myra Eby Michelle was a sales representative in the natural products industry who desired to raise the bar for everyone. She created a very environmentally conscious and natural line of dermaceuticals that combines science and technology with freedom from petrochemicals in favor of food-based, herbal, and other natural ingredients. www.mychelleusa.
Lundberg family farms Organic Long Grain Brown Rice ¦ Lundberg family farms Organic Short Grain Brown Rice • Lundberg family farms Organic Wild Rice Blend www.lundberg.com ¦ Tumaro's Gourmet Tortillas Honey Wheat—uses organic flour www.tumaros.com ¦ Lightlife Smart Dogs 1-800-769-3279 www.lightlife.com ¦ Health Valley Low Fat Granola—Tropical Fruit ¦ Health Valley Low Fat Granola—Date Almond Flavor ¦ Health Valley Low Fat Granola—Raisin Cinnamon ¦ Kashi Go Lean Crunch ¦ Texmati Long Grain American Basmati Brown Rice 1-800-232-RICE www.riceselect.
Soybeans grown for export have replaced indigenous crops in many countries around the world, causing serious local food shortages and the loss of small family farms to corporate agribusinesses. High-tech soy processing plants have supplanted local cottage industries, causing loss of dietary and cultural diversity as well as fewer jobs for locals.
Lundberg family farms www.lundberg.com (530) 882-4551 Applegate Farms www.applegatefarms.com (866) 587-5858 Diestel Family Turkey Ranch www.diestelturkey.com (209) 532-4950 NorthStar Bison www.northstarbison.com (888) 295-6332 Earthbound Farm www.earthboundfarm.com (800) 690-3200 Newman's Own Organics www.newmansownorganics.com Eden Foods www.edenfoods.com (888) 424-3336 SunOrganic Farm www.sunorganic.com (888) 269-9888 Grain and Salt Society www.celticseasalt.com (800) 867-7258 Gold Mine Natural Food Co. www.goldminenaturalfood.com (800) 475-3663 South River Miso Company www.
In these tough times for family farms in the Northeast, Blue Hill has risen up as a pillar of support, inspiring diners to care about the food they eat, as well as the local systems that make this kind of eating possible. At the other end of the spectrum you'll find Chipotle Mexican Grill, a McDonald's-owned franchise that has begun offering natural pork, chicken, and beef—including meat from the well-known Niman Ranch—on its menu of Mexican basics like tacos and burritos.
The simplicity of it belies the fact that this is one of the oldest family farms in America. Only upon closer inspection does it become apparent that there is something unusual about this place. Hanging on the wall is a framed certificate from New York State given to the Esselstyn family in recognition of their family farm, a farm that has now seen parts of five different centuries. Nearby an oar hangs on the wall. It is the oar Ess used in 1955 as an oarsman at Yale, when Yale beat Harvard by five seconds.
Because of the harm to cows and family farms, Ben & Jerry's has taken a strong stand against the use of rBGH. The family farmers of the St. Albans Cooperative, from whom Ben & Jerry's continues to get its milk and cream, have pledged not to use rBGH on their cows. The company gives the highest priority to educating its customers on rBGH issues, and informing them that its suppliers don't use it. That has not sat too well with the proponents of the drug, and Ben & Jerry's has been forbidden by three states from making these consumer-right-to-know statements.
They can give you a slab of meat, a box of cookies or a bag of breakfast cereal more cheaply than organic farmers or small family farms can ever do, and they can probably have a prettier box and make it taste a little better with artificial flavors and more visually appealing with artificial colors.
Since, without labeling, it's impossible to tell whether any milk product comes from rBGH-treated cows or not, my family and I are drinking only Organic Cow and Vermont family farms brand milk. I've also joined Food & Water, Inc.'s national campaign to make supermarkets more aware of their customers' concerns about the pesticide residues in and on our food. Instead if reading the tabloids to while away time in long supermarket check-out lines, I talk to the manager.
You're saving the small family farms, sustainable farming methods, your own health and the rivers, streams and oceans; you're saving a whole system of honoring Mother Nature. So, the best savings at a grocery store can only be experienced if you're buying organic because, if you buy non-organic, corporate food or processed foods, you're not only getting ripped off yourself; you're ripping off the community and the planet, and you're ripping yourself off at every level -- physical, chemical and energetic.
It is a battle being waged by small family farms. They are networking together to form a community of food producers who want to produce high-quality food and make a decent living doing so. It is a battle to maintain financial dignity, a rural way of life, and provide something of true health value to the American people. It is part of our culture. It is a battle of David versus Goliath, and they need our help. Helping is easy—buy their food. Get to know your local farmers who support the cause of raising and growing food in harmony with nature.
Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy Promotes family farms and sustainable agriculture through research and advocacy; authors of the excellent 2006 report, "Food without Thought: How U.S. Farm Policy Contributes to Obesity." www.iatp.org www. agobser vatory. org National Farm to School Program A project of the Center for Food and Justice at Occidental College (California); more than four hundred farm-to-school programs in twenty-two states connect local farms with school cafeterias; a similar program is called farm-to-college, www. farmtoschool. org www.farmtocollege .
But if you can find organic bacon, processed without nitrates and grown on small family farms, that's far healthier than commercially-produced bacon. The information I present here, though, is talking about mass-produced bacon - the kind produced in non-organic environments and laced with a variety of chemical toxins. Point #2: I'm not going to talk about saturated fats in bacon. I believe the scientific literature clearly shows a link between excess saturated animal fat consumption and a variety of health problems, most notably cardiovascular disease.
If you choose small organic family farms, then that's what you create. If you choose mega-corporations who sell food only because it's something that makes money, just the same as drugs make money or cigarettes make money, that's what you choose to support, as well. In fact, Phillip Morris owns Kraft, a food company that makes thousands and thousands of processed food products. A cigarette company owns a food company that sells you all those processed foods, and I think that's bad for the environment.
As a food company reliant on Vermont's family farms, Ben & Jerry's has strong views on these agricultural and consumer concerns. The company has followed the regulatory review of rBGH across the border in Canada, where concerns about veterinary and human health impacts have been raised. The Canadians said no to rBGH. With this new book, my friend Dr. Epstein details the unarguable scientific evidence of the serious, but undisclosed threats, posed by the reckless indifference of Monsanto and the FDA, to human health by rBGH—yet another chilling aspect of this genetically engineered food.
This is a type of rice that was developed and is grown at California's Lundberg family farms. It has a rust-colored bran that turns mahogany when cooked. The flavor is buttery and nutty. Rye Rye has been cultivated for nearly 2,000 years. It thrives in Eastern Europe and Scandinavia where climates are too wet and cold for other grains. Low in gluten, rye needs to be supplemented with other high-gluten flours. It is used in breads and crackers. Whole rye, which can be cooked as a cereal, comes cracked and in flakes and berries.