the irresistible fleet of bicycles

Dear allies, advisors, activists, agriculturalists.

Thank you for being a part of this network. You may well have already helped us feed fundraiser guests, wash dishes, stuff envelopes, or overcome existential crisis. We are so grateful for your advice, contributions and tremendous hard work.

Together we form a sizable, growing piece of the young farmer movement. Our greenhorn cornucopia is interwoven by microscopic hyphae, fiber-optic savvy, ancient genetic impulses, and a motivation that cannot quite be explained in economic terms. We are the future of farming in this country.

We are spreading the awareness that young farmers are a uniquely potent demographic of fearless agency. We are a cavalry of sustainability. We are gentle rangers sleek as foxes, searching out the cubbies of deep soil, nestling in dens and defending our turf. As we roll out over the countryside in tractors, pickups, and bicycles, our ears are tuned to the whistle of the hills, deaf to the incredulity of monoculture capitalists. We are the avant guard of the next phase in American agriculture, the next nurturers of this great land that feeds us.

By hook or by crook greenhorns get access to the land, access to the knowledge, access to the spiritual certainty at the core of a farmer’s life. We’ve tasted the magic.  We planted the magic. And we do it lovingly, for the sake of the sweet downy underbellies of baby chicks, for the clod crumbling of seed beds, for the mineralized sparkle of pickaxes in new orchards, for the fair air, the smooth wheelbarrow, the speckled egg, the tiny paw-prints, the stillness of morning and stars fading.

And, as you know, we are making a feature-length documentary film! We’ve posted our trailer online (watch the trailer here) and have submitted a 23 minute short to the Slow Food on Film Festival.  We can pick up the camera again once we raise $300,000.  Yes. It is a lot!  We’re sending out our prospecti, made of recycled materials, which include a DVD of the trailer, the NY Times article, a Nominate a Farmer form, the film’s budget, stickers, seeds, and a few production stills.  Also an address where donors can send the money! If you’d like to donate to this valorous vision, please email Severine at severine@pixiepoppins.org. 

We’ve been delighted recently with some encouraging press and hope this will help our fundraising efforts as well as spreading the message on young farmer’s burgeoning prowess in America. 

The New York Times Leaving the Trucker Hat Behind

The Huffington Post The Greenhorns: A New Breed of American Idol 

and The Ethicurean Sowing the Seeds of Revolution

Thank you for being a part of the fleet. Please do send in any comments, suggestions or existential quandaries so that we can include them in our emerging philosophy, political platform, and rhetorical megaphone. May this season bring just enough sunshine, just enough rain, and just enough adventure.

yours in the revival, 

The Greenhorns.

Things to look forward to:

>>Poster+ Post-Card Production: 

 A “Serve your country food”- recruitment poster

Young farmer census to determine how many young farmers already exist in America. We already have about 2,000 young farmers in our database, but are hoping to get a fairly accurate, quantitative accounting of our demographic. We’ll distribute these post-cards and invite young farmers to mail them into our headquarters. This way we can map where in the country the young farmers are and how the word spreads geographically. This might be happening in collaboration with Organic Gardening magazine.

>>Young farmers policy platform:

The Greenhorns are co-authoring an open letter to the presidential candidates about what young farmers need to succeed in feeding the next generation of eaters + citizens.

>>Young farmer mid-summer rabbit roast:

On the eastern seaboard, Saturday, July 12, we’ll be having a mid-summer’s rabbit roast. There will be watercress sandwiches, barn dance, and performance by fabulous young farmers and famous musicians.

Bales of Hay. Mustard dribbles. Interactive young farmer policy exhibit. Radio piece production. Tomatoes? If we are lucky.

>>Young Farmer Conference at Stone Barns in Tarrytown, NY :

5-6 December 2008, www.stonebarns.org 

With workshops, speakers, toolkits, seed swap, video events, film screenings, barn dance, canoodling, and yummy yummy food.  More details as they emerge.

>>To nominate a farmer, click here www.thegreenhorns.net/nominate

47 acre educational farm in Queens is looking to add one full-time, year-round worker. Primary responsibilities will be to assist farmer in vineyard and vegetable production, but must be willing to do general labor work as required. Some weekend work and seasonal attendance at farmer’s market. Farm experience and interest in organic and sustainable practices preferred. Gladly willing to train an inexperienced but enthusiastic and hard-working assistant. Tractor driving experience a plus; must drive standard transmission. Starting ~ $12/hr. Background check, clean driving record, two week trial period.

Description of Farm

The Queens County Farm Museum occupies New York City ’s largest remaining tract of natural, undisturbed farmland. Encompassing a 47 acre parcel in Floral Park, this remarkable piece of land is among the last vestiges of a 400 year history of agriculture as a way of life and livelihood in New York City . The farm is expanding its farming operations and is committed to sustainable practices. To embrace the history of agriculture is to acknowledge the ecological and social importance of agriculture in our present lives. The Farm Museum recognizes the interdependence of the health of our farm and the health of the community of New York City . The farm is home to a two acre vineyard, a small orchard, a 4000 sq foot glass greenhouse and 3000 square feet of cold frames. We are currently developing a comprehensive composting program, refurbishing our cold frames to grow market vegetables in the winter, and expanding our fruit and vegetable fields. The farm is also home to laying hens, goats, sheep and pigs.

Contact Michael Grady Robertson, mgrobertson@queensfarm.org

King Corn airs this week on the Emmy-winning PBS series Independent Lens.

Broadcasts begin tonight!

Check local listings, learn more about the world of corn, get lost in the corn maze, and go behind the scenes on the new PBS website for King Corn.

We urge those of you who haven’t yet called your representatives about the farm bill to take a look at the Sustainable Agriculture Coalition website and call the numbers on the site–we need to seal up the dealio with 15 million for beginning farmer funding (see this action alert to get started). Maybe, or maybe we ‘ll have a better time under Obama–that is the kind of question to ponder I suppose, to each his/her own conclusion. That is the democracy I’m into, not monopolist throatclenching hegemony.

Aimee Witteman, a young famer and young policy wonk down in Washington, works as a grassroots organizer for the Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (SAC). She has shared the following policy recommendations for the beginning farmer and rancher initiative (policy recommendations below). These funds would trickle down via grants made to organizations like Farm Beginnings, Land Stewardship Project, California Farm Link, and MOFGA farmer among others. These organizations run trainings, make loans, connect aspiring and retiring farmers, help interface with land-owners, and provide mentorship, support and business planning advice to new growers. More about such organizations can be found on the foryoungfarmers wiki.

Aimee and the SAC have a clear vision for how federal monies could best be leveraged for the good of the young farming demographic in the US. Sustainable Agriculture requires sustainable infrastructure, its similar to the situation of disposable vs. reusable. Buying that mason jar is costly, but afterwards you can carry around leftovers, hot tea, tap water, home-made beer…

As we become more actively engaged in the poltical process –with the changing of the guard in Washington this is a much tamer pony to bridle–it is important for us to clearly articulate how we would like these monies to be spent. Please do get in touch with us about the particular challenges in your region.

Think big with your requests–agribusiness is subsidised federally, and super-market organic is subsidized by bourgeouisie. Less pesticides is certainly a wonderful improvement, but we mustn’t be tricked by our compassionate economist friends who would lead us to believe that retail cost reflects total cost–or that cost reflects efficiency. Industrial agriculure is not effiicient, it is not cost effective. It is costing us our soil, our health, our countryside, our drinking water and our children’s prospects.

In Norway and Ireland wonderful programs exist to incent/reward organic production, and friends in Cork are getting 50% cost share from the government to build an organic beer brewery. In Switzerland the farmers are paid to leave the flower heads intact for pollinators, to maintain buffers on the forest edge, to allow the swallows to nest. The Natural Step project help farmers along a trajectory of sustainable management starting with IPM and ending up with input reduction, on-farm fertility management and grey water.

We must push for such programs here—and the Greenhorns are putting together our own policy platform to submit to the Obama campaign. Your contributions will make that document reflective of your region. Please be involved. We must change the system, outlive the system, plan beyond the system, and inhabit a future we create for ourselves. Please email us your comments to farmer@thegreenhorns.net. We’ll send you a draft document if you do.

BEGINNING FARMER AND RANCHER INITIATIVE

Background:

New farmers and ranchers are much more diverse than previous generations. In addition to next-generation farmers from multi-generation farm and ranch families, this new generation includes former farm workers, people from non-farming backgrounds such as mid-life career-changers, and college graduates who have chosen farming as their first career. They include more women than ever before as well as families with Hispanic, Somali, Hmong, and Eastern European backgrounds.

This diverse new generation of farmers and ranchers has very different challenges and needs than previous generations. Adequate access to training, technical assistance, land, credit and markets are critical to their success, however current farm policy is clearly deficient in these areas. The future health and vitality of agriculture, the food system, and rural communities will depend on public policies that encourage this new generation to work in agriculture and manage land sustainably.

Specific Policy Recommendations:

Since 1990, Congress has begun to incorporate provisions into the farm bill that are specific to beginning farmers and ranchers, especially in the area of farm credit. These nascent efforts should be expanded in the 2008 Farm Bill. The new farm bill should include a beginning farmer initiative that provides significant and concrete to help in creating new farming opportunities for small and mid-scale family farmers, including:

The Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program should be reauthorized and granted at least the $15 million a year in farm bill funding provided in the House version of the bill. The BFRDP is a competitive grants program supporting education, extension, and technical assistance initiatives directed at new farming opportunities. The BFRDP supports collaborative local, state, and regionally-based networks and partnerships to supply financial and entrepreneurial training, mentoring and apprenticeship programs, “land link” programs, and education and outreach activities to assist beginning farmers and ranchers, including targeted funds for socially disadvantaged producers.

A Beginning Farmer and Rancher Individual Development Account (IDA) pilot program should be made available in at least 15 states with at least $5 million in annual mandatory funding. An IDA program uses financial training and matched savings accounts to assist those of modest means to establish a pattern of savings. In the case of beginning farmers, the account proceeds may be used toward capital expenditures for a farm or ranch operation, including expenses associated with purchases of land, buildings, equipment, or livestock, or toward acquisition of training.

The Beginning Farmer and Rancher Down Payment Loan Program combines the resources of the Farm Service Agency, the beginning farmer, and a commercial lender or private seller, allowing limited federal dollars to be spread to more beginning farmers and ranchers. The 2008 Farm Bill should include the House bill’s provision that reduces the interest rate to 1%. The final farm bill should also reflect both the House and Senate version’s other improvements to the program, including reduced loan rates and down payment requirements, deferred first year payments, and an increase in the existing $250,000 maximum allowable farm sales price to $500,000 on the maximum allowable portion of farm sales price eligible for the down payment loan to better reflect current market realities.

The Beginning Farmer Land Contract Pilot Program adopted in 2002 promotes private land contract sales as a way for retiring farmers to transfer land to new farmers. The 2008 Farm Bill should include the House and Senate provisions that make the pilot program a permanent nation-wide program option. In addition, the final farm bill should include the House language that extends the current 2-year limit on payment guarantee, and include a new option for a standard 90% guarantee of the outstanding principle.

The 2008 Farm Bill should adopt the Senate provision that includes New Farmer Research funding as part of rural and agricultural entrepreneurship priority within IFAFS.

The 2008 Farm Bill should include a Risk Management Education Emphasis, as included in both the House and Senate bills that emphasizes making grants for risk management for beginning and socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers.

Conservation and Stewardship Incentives for New Farmers and Ranchers can help new farmers get a good start in agriculture, while getting more ‘bang for the buck’ out of conservation programs by creating a whole generation of conservation excellence.

The 2008 Farm Bill should:

Retain but strengthen conservation loan authorization by adding a priority for beginning and socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers and adding a priority for loans to help convert to sustainable or organic production systems, as included in the Senate bill.

Include the 15% bonus up to 90% cost share for beginning farmers and ranchers and socially disadvantaged producers, as written in the Senate version of the bill.

Reserve a 5% set-aside each for beginning and socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers in all farm bill conservation programs for the first portion of the program year.

Offer special incentives for existing owners of CRP land returning to production to rent or sell to beginning or socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers using sustainable grazing practices or fully compliant conservation cropping systems, as included in the House bill.

Authorize $15 million in annual mandatory funding for the Outreach and Assistance for Socially Disadvantaged Farmers and Ranchers, the funding level authorized in the House bill.

Rename the USDA Small and Beginning Farmer Office and Interagency Council the Office of Small Farms and Beginning Farmers and Ranchers, and give the office new duties that reflect recent GAO recommendations for better data collection, coordination, and goal setting, as included in the Senate bill.

This is a terrifying speech given by Monsanto excecutives about their communication strategies. Keep in mind that Monsanto and the other biotech-baddies have managed to control American’s perceptions of genetic engineering for the past 10 years at least. The story hasn’t changed even though none of the promises of increased yield, drought tolerance, salt tolerance, increase nutrition–none of these benefits has been achieved thru biotechnology–they have been achieved with traditional breeding. 

Cheers to our new series: letters from young farmers.  Of late, our inbox has been blessed with moving missives from those either currently farming or investigating the fruits of life on the land.  Our goal is to inspire another generation of optimistic agrarians, so when we receive these inspiring letters that inspire our work we can’t help but want to shout it from the mountain top, with the author’s permission of course.  Happy reading.

—–

Hello,

I have recently been more and more interested in vegetable farming. I visited my first, non-conventional farm, this past fall and was amazed that there are people farming diversely (things besides corn and soybeans). This visit inspired me and ever since I’ve been talking to more people about farming. I’m 22 years old and will be finished with an Anthropology degree in December. I’m suppose to get a “real world” job and step onto the treadmill of 9-5, but this is the last thing from my mind. I want to farm! I want to provide my community with fresh produce and give them a connection to the land again. 

Taro, one of the earliest cultivations, is threatened by the tsunami of GMO research in Hawaii- which is the world headquarters of genetic research in agriculture. Until recently Hawaii was a major exporter of cane sugar, pineapples and other tropical fruits to the mainland and Japan, as well as large-scale cattle raising industry. These agricultural sectors have suffered and the state of Hawaii has sought other experimental agricultural uses for the lands that had been maintained in monoculture for thirty years. There were experimental tamarisk plantations, and imported keawe plantations established (that wondeful white honey from Hawaii comes from this tree, my friend Logan studies the ethnobotany of keave and the potential use of its pods for sweetener, like mesquite pods).

Monsanto, Bayer, and the posse of bossy agri-life science companies (chemical companies) have come in to do their field tests here in Hawaii so that the escaped pollen won’t endanger the mainland agriculture, and to be out of sight.

This is only one consequence of the collapse–many of you know about the contamination of the organic papaya in Hawaii.

In spite of this, there is a resistance to the ceaseless charges from the chemical companies.  There are dedicated grassroots and educational organizations such as Hawaii SEED, Hawaii Organic Farmers Association, and The Kohala Center working for a GMO free, self-reliant island food system.  On a lighter note, for your enjoyment, here is a two part short film, Taro Roots, telling the tale of an urban Hawaiian culturally reconnecting with his native land.  Mahalo.

by Miranda July

I’d like to think all the people who follow my work are radical, political firecrackers. But those of you who are don’t need any encouragement from me. Instead I will focus my efforts on the demographic who, like me in 1996, feels completely disconnected from life, nevermind their country. I’m hoping that there aren’t very many of you, in this day and age. You people are hard to encourage, because all the political arguments will mean nothing to you. I just spent the last hour typing up my case for Obama, but you won’t even read it, you’ll skip ahead to something that seems subtler or less cliche, I know you. (And those of you who will read it, who are perhaps torn between Obama and Clinton, are well tended to by better writers.) So nevermind all that.

Here’s why you should vote: you are going to really love it, the whole strange procedure. You get to walk right into a building that you would never normally be allowed in, often an elementary school. You can pause in the hallway to look at all the weird school-art and feel the eerie vibe of hundreds of kids living their endless kid lives right nearby. Then you follow the arrows to the voting room and look at the faces of the volunteers - who are these people? There is a hush of secrecy, the voting booth is clunky, the whole thing seems fake somehow. You consider filling in all the bubbles, like you did on the SATs. But you don’t. You vote. You walk back outside feeling like you just gave blood or something, lightheaded from citizenry. You are wearing a sticker that says “I Voted” and you wish you could continue to get stickers like this throughout the day: I Ate Dinner, I Went To Sleep, I Got Out Of Bed, I Went To Work.

But alas, it is just this one thing that we all do together, savor it.

I tried to find an easy link for you to locate your polling place, but the best thing to do is just type the name of your city + “where do I vote” into google. If you’re not registered, then you might not be able to vote in the primaries, but register right now so you can vote in November.

pps: non-american readers: sorry. for everything. we are working on it.

from and while we’re on the topic, i am voting for barak obama

related: candidates food policy positions

Who should we trust with the health of the nation?

This You Tube video just served to remind me about the horror and deceitfulness of mega-pharmaseutical companies and the expense they’ll go to to manufacture our desire for pills. More and more pills. My own dad is on quite a number of pills, and at a conference I attended once in Boston I learned that the average American spends more than 2 dollars, and almost 3 dollars a day on pharmaseutical drugs.

That seems like a lot- 14 -21 dollars per week, which is quite a lot of money compared with the contemptible 9 dollars per week (2006) the government spends to support low-income women and children at nutritional risk. 

It would be naive to think that some medical treatments are not useful and prudent, but I would urge everyone to consider that the baseline health of our nation is deteriorating, and that cannot be stopped with a pill, only with a fundamental shift in the caliber of our diets.

On the wall of the St. Louis headquarters of Monsanto is mounted, crucifix like, in the toxic idolatry of agribusiness: GLYPHOSATE- a hologram the size of a human (below).
Yes, the company worships a herbicide, or more properly stated, their propriatary herbicide. This is the company that dominates our food chain with genetically modified seeds, a company that has a workbook for children explaining intellectual property rights, a company that intimidates farmers, and a company that manufactured the defoliant, agent orange, sprayed over Vietnam, which has caused thousands of children to be born malformed and vulnerable.  As a result of the spraying, a court case was waged against the chemical companies only to yield a dubious ruling in favor of the multinationals involved. 

On the other hand, we have the likes of Mr. Noah Fulmer who is the featured young farmer of the day- although actually he’s not a farmer. He’s trained in neuro-science, and he runs a non-profit called Farm Fresh Rhode Island, which runs the farmers market in Providence, and forges linkages between local growers and big stores, small restaurants, and the manifold commercial outlets of that fine city. 

Noah is a young farmer-enabler, he mediates between the various parts of the supply chain–he is the logistician behind the magical convergences that we call “Farmers Markets” he, and his many thousands of allies across the country are “food systems professionals” They are advocates, lobbyists, farm-linkers, inspectors, land trustees, conservation scientists, land-use planners, coop-managers, produce people, distributors and restaurateurs. They are the folks who facilitate the provisioning of our food system, and even though they don’t get such brown faces as farmers do, and their work is sometimes invisible, they are like the tiny neurotransmitters–potent transmission enablers–let us champion them also!

It is unfortunate that often the best foods cost the most–if you buy them in the city, that is. If you grow your own, its affordable to eat quail eggs.

 

In season local fruits are frugal.

Gastronomes, groupies, giggling girlie Zinfandelites and galloping sausage beer boy types— come one come all to the fantastic, slightly spastic, oh so ambitious project of Slow Food USA.

This August, for labor day, join us in San Francisco, the glitter by the bay. SLow FOod Nation.

This a travel journal entry from Severine’s trip through Iowa, East Tennessee, and Georgia.

———-

From the Georgia Organics Conference, laden with four pounds of peanuts and two gallons of sorghum syrup from the silent auction, I caught a ride to Atlanta with Farmer Dee. The light was brilliant as the hills of Chattanooga flattened down - very invasive privet in the forests here and a sandy soil. We arrived in Atlanta so that Dee could meet up with his homies from Whole Foods.

I must give him credit for bold strokes in the world. Dee has started something like four organic farms, and his latest project is a partnership with Whole Foods to compost the greenwaste collected in the stores, process it in a large-scale facility, apply the BD preparations, and market it back thru the stores under the Farmer Dee label.

Ambitious and adventurous Dee is a smooth-talking farmer, negociating deals with some big-time players for some huge Green building projects and even luxury developments.

We arrived in Atlanta just as the light turned golden and drove thru the suburbs looking for a green roof project. We didn’t find it.

What we did find was a hideous array of mega-mansions all plopped down with total irreverence behind faux medieval retaining walls. I think I saw about three reproductions of Monticello, huge baroque palaces, porticoes, columns and more columns, great huge hunkering gates with security huts, pavilions and bunkered garagedoors. Never ever, except perhaps in Greenwich, Connecticut, have I had such an allergic reaction to the extreme car-culture and conspicuous consumption of corporate wealth.

I was vindicated in my repulsion by the turf grass–all the new houses has gone right hard into the “scotts turf grass” modality (see Center for Food Safety’s victory against Scotts, see book The American Lawn by Georges Teyssot on google books, see Gimme Green documentary).

The grasses that they had planted out in rolls for their arbitrary imposition on the landscape were selected and bred by companyies like Scotts–they had been bred for maximum density, lushness and monoculture–and were intended to be fertilized and watered frequently. Of course, during the recent drought in this region the grass of the noveau-plantins could not be watered–and their expensive lawns have turned a chalky-dun, they sit there alien and brisltly like the cheap dashboard cover on an old cadillac. Meanwhile the ‘first wave’ suburban homes with more traditional grass mixtures planted in the lawn were modest but still bright green.

Why is this so infuriatingly thrilling as a case study? Well, its because these turf-grass stories are a perect metaphor for the destiny of siniustrail agriculture and the green revolution. When Norman Borlaug (Nobel Peace Prize winner) and the Rockefeller deployed the strategies of the “green revolution” they were essentially rolling out chemical hungry turf-grass on an agronomic scale.

The varieties were chosen for maximum output, and required tremendous, and often toxic inputs–this of course might yield a big crop, but it is actually not efficient. The trouble is only visible in drought years, where the more modestly productive landraces, traditional varieties, and especially native plants keep on keeping on. They are adapted to the occasional hardship, and their seeds, fruits and flowers continue to nurture the food-web. Extensive reasearch has been done comparing low-input sustainable agriculture with intensive industrial agriculture.

The verdict is clear–in optimum conditions, with optimum soil, regular irrigation, abundant fertilization/chemical maintenance, and mechanized cultivation–the ‘improved’ varieties outperform more traditional crops. However, in times of drought, in times of torrential rain, in times of pest pressures–the traditional varieties continue to produce. They are reliable.

Understanding this dynamic traditional agriculturalists in the andes plant a mixuture of crops in their fields–corn, quinoa, lupines, yucca, and various tubers ( many africans grow millet and sorghum alongside cassava) in a wet year they will yield more calories from the corn, but in dry years (of which there are many when the climate is in flux) the quinoa will continue to produce.