permaculture

[venaurafarm <venaurafarm@bellsouth.net>]

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I was just reading about hops production and the move to make it a small 
scale local farming option in the US, ass opposed to large scale 
production in the US Pacific Northwest. The model is the German one; 
they are the second largest producer of hops in the world and it is all 
grown on lots of small local farms, 10 to 20 acres in size each.

I think this system of large volume production distributed across many 
small local farms is a wonderful idea and worth trying across the entire 
US for production of all food, fiber, forage, feed and other economic 
crops. Is this the future for American agriculture with higher quality, 
fresher, more nutritious ("nutrient dense") foods providing a reliable 
supply for local customers who do their shopping at farmers markets (as 
most of the rest of the world does), buying groups, csa's, direst sales 
and local independent grocers.

The article was in the Independent, a weekly newspaper in Durham NC.

Is there a future for North Carolina hops farming?
by Lisa Sorg
http://www.indyweek.com/indyweek/is-there-a-future-for-north-carolina-hops-farming/Content?oid=3100964

"Hops grow best in the cool climes of the northern latitudes, where they 
take root in black loam and bask in summer daylight that can last as 
long as 16 hours: England, Germany, the Pacific Northwest. In other 
words, not Central North Carolina, with its unforgiving clay, hot and 
humid summers, warm winters and, because we are farther south, shorter 
day length during the prime growing season."

"The state's farmers would be wise to learn from Germany, Lewis says. 
The second-largest hops producer in the world, Germany has an average 
farm size of only 10 to 20 acres, far smaller than the vast tracts in 
the Pacific Northwest. Germany also uses smaller equipment, more 
suitable for the scale of North Carolina farms."

"North Carolina's focus on locally grown crops is reminscent of a time 
in the United Kingdom when an intimate relationship between growers and 
brewers existed. "The brewer would visit the field and check on the 
hops, a true locavore philosophy," Lewis says. "This brings a sense of 
community and gets us back to the old way of doing things.""