Healthy soil and sustainable growing

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 Hello Paul: The variant flu strain that has hit Mexico so hard has yet to
be linked definitively to a source. But the community of Perote, in the
state of Vera Cruz, where the outbreak originated, had been complaining for
some time about unsanitary conditions at a local confinement hog farm with
half ownership by Smithfield Foods. Off-shoring CAFO meat production is no
more sustainable a way for us to obtain too-cheap pork than having the
problematic installations in the US. It’s one more entry into the stack
of evidence showing how dysfunctional our industrialized farming and food
approaches really are.

Happy pigs helping to preserve the health of soil, purity of water and
integrity of farm communities.

I talked last week at a regional food summit in western New York about the
huge task of “rebooting” our expectations of what constitutes a
sustainable food system. Carbon, connections and culture are all part of
what it will take to jump-start a transformation to farming that preserves
the health of soil, purity of water and integrity of farm communities that
our cities need for their food security. Read more >>

This time of economic chaos is actually a time to shape as much of our New
Normal as possible. We must dream no small food dreams, not when:
The Innovation Center for US Dairy, an organization composed of farmers,
cooperatives, processors and manufacturers, and the nonprofit Dairy
Management Inc., announced recently that the dairy industry’s commitment
to reduce a full 25 percent of its greenhouse gas emissions by 2020.

Just Food of New York has linked 28 vegetable growers with 80 Community
Supported Agriculture groups, serving some 25,000 city dwellers, and will
help 8 farms deliver produce to 39 food pantries this year, seeking to
exceed last year’s delivery total of 132,000 pounds of food.

Local and organic foods are among the top 20 hottest trends for 2009,
according to the National Restaurant Association. The trade group said
“People want tasty, clean, farm-fresh fruit and vegetables from farmers
they know, and they want to support their local communities and
businesses.”
Sodexo, the food-service behemoth that serves 9.3 million meals a day, is
getting props for being helpful to colleges who are demanding more local
and organic food.

Make all the food changes you can, and change for the greener other parts
of your built environment. We’re working at it here. Rodale Institute
staff just completed installing our first green roof on a new garden
building. It will slow rainwater runoff, insulate the building, beautify
the area and last lots longer than a standard roof material.

Read more >>
Spring weather comes and goes here this year, but our apples are blooming
gloriously. We’ve put 50 new apple trees in the ground—the first new
planting in many years. We’re seeking “core supporters” on our
Facebook page to greatly expand this new planting to model the best orchard
practices for organic apple production in the Northeast. Families really
want pesticide-free fruit, and we want to help growers throughout the
region step up to satisfy this demand.

Greg Bowman at the Rodale Institute