Laura Lengnick, author of Resilient Agriculture, will be at Prairie Fruits Farm & Creamery on Saturday, Feb. 18, from 2– 5 pm to discuss her book and look at PFFC as a case study of resilience in the face of climate change. She will discuss how we can meld two areas of her experience and expertise, climate change in agriculture and storytelling, to help others understand what lies ahead and how we can respond to it. Copies of her book will be available for purchase, and we’ll have some local food snacks available as well. Around 4 pm we’ll wind it up and go forward with our ideas to make our responses to climate change accessible and important to our customers and the greater public.
Laura’s visit is hosted by U of I’s Agroecology and Sustainable Agriculture Program and Prairie Fruits Farm & Creamery. PFF is located at 4410 N Lincoln Ave, Champaign, IL 61822
Check out this new book from John Head, Robert W. Wagstaff Distinguished Professor of Law at KU, has written “International Law and Agroecological Husbandry: Building Legal Foundations for a New Agriculture.” The book first outlines the “extractive agriculture” system the modern world has used for the last few centuries and its unsustainability. Head then explores the prospects for transitioning to a system that could produce grains perennially and achieve adequate yields to feed the world while reducing problems such as climate change and soil degradation.
She describes how Rundgren takes the reader through “a metaphorical menu that encompasses the ecological and economic dimensions of each course, and serves up the associated historical, political, and cultural considerations with relish.”
This review attracted my interest because a team of faculty designing a class called “Introduction to Sustainable Food Systems” to introduce students to College of Agriculture at the University of Illinois had discussed using meals as a way to organize the class. It would be very interesting for students taking ACES 102 to read this book and see if the course leads them to agree with Gershuny who, after reading the book, concludes that “the way most food in today’s globalized and industrial food system is produced, manufactured, transported, and marketed is creating poor health among the humans who consume it as well as the planetary ecosystems that sustain us all.”
Grace Gershuny’s, Organic Revolutionary: A Memoir of the Movement for Real Food, Planetary Healing, and Human Liberation, reviews origins of the U.S. organic standard through the author’s eyes beginning with the 1970s back-to-the-land movement, appreciation of the soul of the soil and the organic farming movement in northern New England. Grace was one of the lead authors of the U.S. National Organic Standard and an active contributor to the newly approved Sustainable Agriculture Standard (Leo 4000). This is extremely valuable reading for anyone interested in how social movements, standards and human tenacity can help forge sustainable food systems that live up to our highest aspirational goals. Books ($16.50) can be ordered online from Lulu.com. http://www.lulu.com/shop/grace-gershuny/organic-revolutionary/paperback/product-22549124.html
Eric Tonesmeier’s newest book is a guide for individuals, communities and organizations interested in taping agriculture’s capacity to mitigate climate change. The Carbon Farming Solution shares a suite of agricultural practices and crops that sequester carbon in the soil and biomass through the use of perennial crops, new approaches to animal grazing, and agroforestry leveraged through creative financial mechanisms. It provides in-depth analysis of the available research and identifies needs by covering: Perennial staple and industrial crops including those that can provide us with starches, sugar, oils, fiber, energy, and more; Improved grazing and livestock practices; Measurements of a project’s impact on carbon reduction and sequestration; Details on how to scale up existing carbon farming enterprises; Effective financing models for communities and the private sector
An overview of international policy barriers to expanding carbon farming
– Available at: http://www.chelseagreen.com/the-carbon-farming-solution#sthash.sa6qwqQk.dpuf; His writings, videos and more can be viewed at www.perennialsolutions.org
And, on the lighter side- The Land of Milk and Uncle Honey is by Alan Guebert, who writes the nationally syndicated column “The Farm and Food File”, is a master storyteller, who recounts farm life on Indian Farm in Southern Illinois during the 1960s and `70s. This is available from the University of Illinois Press at http://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/catalog/93kft5fg9780252080944.html
In late May 2015, MSU Center for Regional Food Systems published a new annotated bibliography, Structural racism present in the U.S. Food System
The resource provides useful background reading to advocates, scholars, and anyone else working to bring about a more sustainable and just food system in the United States.
We received a number of comments and suggestions on the bibliography since it first appeared. The revised version (URL link below) includes additional citations that reflect feedback regarding the initial May 2015 version.
Next Tuesday at 12:35pm, Jonathan Safran Foer will be doing a “virtual visit” to the Illini Union, in room 404, giving us a chance to ask him questions about his book Eating Animals, a heavy piece of nonfiction. I call it heavy not because its prose is dense (it’s quite pleasant to read) or because it is full of numbers (all figures that are there are necessary, and in good context), but because its subject matter is so difficult to stomach (pun intended). Though the title might imply that it is a straightforward vegetarian manifesto, Foer assures his readers as early as page 13 that it is not. It is something more complicated and less comfortable for both omnivorous and herbivorous humans. Continue reading “Eating Animals Review”
The University of Illinois College of ACES recently released the second installment of its publication “Food for Thought.” The magazine focuses on the research conducted and solutions found by the scientists within the college. It can be read and/or downloaded here. The first issue (published in 2012) can be found here.
In central New York State, as well as all over the country, an unlikely revival is happening in sustainably-minded agriculture; the return of work horses and draft mules on the American farm. A recent write-up in the New York Times entitled Farm Equipment That Runs on Oats featured a farm in Ghent, NY, run by a man by the name of Stephen Leslie, that has been foregoing heavy machinery in favor of a two-horse team of Norwegian Fjord horses for nearly 20 years.
Leslie’s technique of using horses, which seems unorthodox and old-fashioned to us now, was the de facto method of tilling the land up until the Post World War II period. After that, the mechanization of society nearly made agricultural horses obsolete, but Leslie, citing the unsustainabilty of modern agriculture, sees room for a workhorse renaissance. “People are attracted to the way of working with animals, of being back in touch with nature, of regaining a kind of rhythmic elegance to our lives,” Leslie was quoted as saying in the Times‘ write-up.
Stephen Leslie and his horses
Horses are an integral part of Leslie’s “closed-loop” method of agriculture, in which the food produced on the farm goes towards feeding the animals, and the animals go on to help produce the food, thus creating one of the most environmentally-friendly systems of agriculture available. However, the drawbacks of farming with horses are daunting, as it takes a certain temperament to work with live animals, as well as care and upkeep that tractors do not require. For instance, Leslie must check his team’s hooves every day before starting to look for cuts and stuck stones that may damage or infect the hoof. Additionally, the learning curve for working with live animals can be very steep. Leslie’s partner had both of her tibias broken by a pair of runaway horses, an injury that took years to fully recover from. For “four or five years afterwards” Leslie had apprehension taking his horses out, forced to balance his fears with maintaining a calm temperament for the sake of the horses.
For his part, Leslie does not see this extra work as a drawback, but as a part of a rewarding lifestyle. The work gives Leslie a connection to the animals, which gives people, in his opinion, “a deeper self-understanding”. To that end he has written his own book, The New Horse-Powered Farm: Tools and Systems for the Small-Scale, Sustainable Market Grower, a guide for anyone considering horse-powered farming and wondering how to get started. The book has received positive reviews from experts on the subject, with Joe Mischka, the Editor and Publisher of Rural Heritage magazine writing that “this comprehensive treatment of the subject provides the beginner or transitional farmer with the resources needed to succeed, as Leslie takes no shortcuts in his research and presentation of material” (via Chelsea Green Publishing).
Will horse-led agriculture ever be the dominant form of production that it once was 70 years ago? Very unlikely, as the process requires an amount of time and a temperament that most do not or don’t want to invest in with the option of heavy machinery available to them. However, it is there, which is something that couldn’t be said even 20 years ago, and it is starting to be recognized more and more as both environmentally friendly and personally rewarding to those who have the mind for it.
For those interested in amateur beekeeping, and really, who isn’t, comes a new book from Les Crowder and Heather Harrell, Top-Bar Beekeeping: Organic Practices for Honeybee Health. The book focuses, as the name might suggest, on the practice of top-bar beekeeping, a strategy which has become very popular with the beekeeping scene; so popular, in fact, that some people have switched to it from the more traditional Langstroth model (probably what you see when you think of beekeeping; long, vertical slabs of pre-structured honeycombs that slide in and out of portable containers). This more laissez-faire form of beekeeping employs a basic structure from which bees construct their own hive, and it is this more natural asthetic that attracts connoisseurs to the top-bar approach, along with an ease-of-use and inexpensiveness that appeals to part-time beekeepers.
Crowder and Harrell’s book focuses on beekeeping organically, “without antibiotics, miticides, or other chemical inputs” (if you’re wondering what exactly a miticide is, it’s defined by the good people at Merriam-Webster as ‘an agent used to kill mites’). According the the book’s synopsis, the top-bar approach also is beneficial for encouraging pollination, a major reason that “It will also appeal to home orchardists, gardeners, and permaculture practitioners”.
Unfortunately, you’ll have to fight the urge to jump out of your seat, run to your nearest purveyor of books and buy it now, because it’s not out yet. It won’t be, until September 15th. I will admit, after doing some research into beekeeping, it does seem like a fascinating topic (those in the know refer to the beehive as a ‘superorganism’, with absolutely mind-blowing social structures based on the hive mind) so if you’re interested, I’d sincerely suggest checking it out. I also sincerely hope you have a good weekend.
“It’s wonderful to me that bees have this simple, age-old thing going on”
-Peter Fonda
“If you haven’t heard what’s happening with seeds, let me tell you. They’re disappearing, about like every damn thing else. . . . But I’m not going to talk about anything that’s going to make us feel hopeless, or despairing, because there’s no despair in a seed.”
Clicking on this will not let you look inside. Sorry.
On August 1st what looks to be a very interesting book will be hitting bookstores; The Seed Underground: A Growing Revolution to Save Food, by Janisse Ray. Telling the oft-overlooked stories of the most important element of agriculture, the seed, Ray’s book is a lament of the drastic and sudden disappearance of seed variety- a nearly 94% loss of variety since the beginning of the 20th century- and a spotlight on those ‘whose aim is to save time-honored open-pollinated varieties like Old Time Tennessee muskmelon and Long County Longhorn okra’. Though Ray tells of a possibly bleak future for us if we don’t move to preserve what seeds we do have left, the book takes an optimistic tone, as the above quote shows, which, at least for me, is refreshing.. Check out The Seed Underground upon its full release in early August. Pre-orders available on Amazon and probably any other place you might like to order your books.
Laura Lengnick, author of Resilient Agriculture, will be at Prairie Fruits Farm & Creamery on Saturday, Feb. 18, from 2– 5 pm to discuss her book and look at PFFC as a case study of resilience in the face of climate change. She will discuss how we can meld two areas of her experience and expertise, climate change in agriculture and storytelling, to help others understand what lies ahead and how we can respond to it. Copies of her book will be available for purchase, and we’ll have some local food snacks available as well. Around 4 pm we’ll wind it up and go forward with our ideas to make our responses to climate change accessible and important to our customers and the greater public.
Next Tuesday at 12:35pm, Jonathan Safran Foer will be doing a “virtual visit” to the Illini Union, in room 404, giving us a chance to ask him questions about his book Eating Animals, a heavy piece of nonfiction. I call it heavy not because its prose is dense (it’s quite pleasant to read) or because it is full of numbers (all figures that are there are necessary, and in good context), but because its subject matter is so difficult to stomach (pun intended). Though the title might imply that it is a straightforward vegetarian manifesto, Foer assures his readers as early as page 13 that it is not. It is something more complicated and less comfortable for both omnivorous and herbivorous humans. 
