Green Options » sustainable agriculture

Agriculture Subsidies and Rising Food Prices

Puspa Sharma — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 14:49:14 +0000

This is a guest post by Puspa Sharma, MA Candidate in Global Finance, Trade and Economic Integration at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies, University of Denver.

Exponential increases in food prices in recent times have created enormous challenges to governments, national and international organizations, and aid agencies everywhere in the world. The World Bank has estimated that the rising food prices could push an additional 100 million people into poverty, thereby undermining the current efforts geared towards poverty reduction.

Increasing demand, decreasing supply, and the rising oil prices, which are in turn affected by numerous other factors, have been some reasons for the rise in food prices. Demand for cereal grains has been rising not only as a result of population growth, but also because of the growing middle class population in countries like China and India. Growing incomes have resulted in more demand for cereal grains directly and also more meat and dairy, which in turn has raised the demand for more grains as feed for the livestock. Another more important reason for the rise in demand for food crops is the development of bio-fuels, which have attracted a great deal of attention in recent times.

On the supply front, according to a publication by the International Center for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD), droughts in Australia and Turkey and bad weather in Ukraine and parts of North America have resulted in less agricultural production which has caused food prices to rise. A more important, but often overlooked reason for the decrease in the supply of farm commodities against rising demand is that the subsidies that the developed countries have been providing to their agriculture sector have dampened world prices of those products and made the products of developing countries uncompetitive. This has had a tremendous impact in agricultural production in developing countries. In the absence of competitiveness and any other gains to be derived from agriculture, the developing countries have had less incentive to invest in agricultural infrastructure, agricultural research and development, and the like. As a result, agriculture production in these countries continually declined disrupting supply.

Then, who should take the blame of rising food prices? If we look at the demand side, we see that the demand has been rising in one part because of rising incomes in few developing countries, and on the other, because of the development of bio-fuels by the developed countries. On the supply side, drought and bad weather conditions are not something which are under human control, but less supply resulting from less production in developing countries owing to the agricultural policies of the developed countries definitely deserves attention.

Read more of this story »

Green Diva’s Guide to Delicious Living: 6 Reasons to be a Conscious Carnivore

Megan McWilliams — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 19:33:19 +0000

or

Reasons to be a Vegetarian!

As a former vegetarian, I eat a very select and small amount of meat and consider myself a conscious carnivore these days. I’m doing research for a book and i wanted to gather some facts about the environmental impact the industrialized meat production system. I’m all about creating a safe, humane, healthy and regional farming system for both veggies and animals.

After scratching the surface of the topic of industrialized meat production, I’m more convinced than ever, we will not survive if we continue (as a culture in the US) to demand and consume as much meat as we have become accustomed to. Churning out beef, pork, chicken, etc. on this scale can’t be sustainable, and I’m sure there are hundreds of great arguments about why we really don’t need to consume this much meat. I’ll leave that debate to those better qualified to cite studies and reports. I just know how I feel and what works for me. I’ve got many addictions, but thankfully meat isn’t one of them.

A Truly Sustainable Alternative to Dairy Based Ice Cream

Paul Smith — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 22:30:38 +0000

This is a story that will likely make you hungry, inspired, and hopefully thinking a little broader than you started. This is a story of passion and mystery, with a twist at the end. This is about an ice cream that uses no dairy, yet tastes as good as, if not better than its milk based counterparts. And you won’t want to choose it because you can’t have dairy, you’ll just like it because it’s good. Or so that’s what the folks behind Coconut Bliss are aiming for. Now I know, you’re saying, coconut based, that sounds (insert gushing or repulsed adjectives here)

Hang on.

Coconut Bliss makes all the standard flavors you’d expect and far beyond, from Vanilla Island to Chocolate Hazelnut Fudge, with some Strawberry Lemon Love thrown in for good measure. The flavor, when it hits your tongue, is distinctly focused on the flavor at hand. Coconut sits very much in the background, nearly undetected. It’s more the messenger rather than the flag bearer. They use very clean ingredients, all organic, and skip insulin spiking sugar for its more even keeled cousin, agave nectar.

Read more of this story »

Green Diva’s Guide to Delicious Living: Community Supported Agriculture

Megan McWilliams — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 17:54:47 +0000

Saw an article in the New York Times that got my attention this morning - Cutting Out the Middlemen, Shoppers Buy Slices of Farms by Susan Saulny - that inspired me to do a little shout out in support of CSA(Community Supported Agriculture). Of course, the concept isn’t so new to many of us who have been at this sustainable lifestyle thing for a while, but I realize there are a lot of folks just learning about some of this - yeah!

Over 20 years ago (when I was about 12 - not really, but I hate to seem so old!), I lived in the Berkshire mountains of western Massachusetts, which was an enclave of progressive, sustainability folks. I became president of one of the largest most comprehensive store-front food coops in New England, Berkshire Co-Op Market. We were plugged into some great local organic farmers and I was fortunate to be part of one of the early CSA groups.

It felt great to support our local organic farmers, who at that time, were struggling - there were no supermarket chains buying organic produce back then!

Find out more about CSAs and how you can find one near you!

Read more of this story »

Green Diva’s Guide to Delicious Living: Wal-Mart Good for Local Business?

Megan McWilliams — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 18:04:26 +0000

I am all about buying local and in particular, I am a big supporter of local farmers. I’ve always seen Wal-Mart as the antithesis of my beliefs in creating a more regionally economically sustainable culture.

When a press release came through from Wal-Mart announcing their commitment to increase their use of local farmers to provide fresh produce, I was skeptical.

However, in doing a little research for this post, I visited the Wal-Mart website and found that they have an entire section devoted to sustainability. Okay. That is good. You can see that they are going to great lengths to at least appear to be implementing more sustainable activities across the board. But one could argue that these are all either cost-saving measures or done to be SC or Sustainable Correct, which is important to their marketing and PR efforts.

This cynical view of things aside, one could also argue that anything Wal-Mart implements on a corporate level will have a pretty big impact on whatever local economies they might otherwise be harming.

Read more of this story »

Green Diva’s Guide to Delicious Living: Willie Nelson & Farm Aid’s Call to Action to Help Flooded Farmers

Megan McWilliams — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 21:10:30 +0000

Needless to say, I was excited to see a message in my inbox from Willie Nelson! Having met him and interviewed he and his wife last year (briefly), I was sure he was writing to tell me how great I am . . . but, while personally a little disappointing, I was glad to see that he was writing on behalf of Farm Aid Disaster Fund which is kicking into gear to help family farmers in the Midwest that have been by the disastrous floods.

I became involved in Farm Aid last year because I feel very strongly about the need to support family farms. I think regionally and responsibly produced food is perhaps the cornerstone of creating a healthier more sustainable existence. Farm Aid is doing some great work not only to help raise awareness about these issues, but in raising money to directly assist farmers as they grow and work to change the big agricultural system that is so dominant.

Read more of this story »

How Eco-Friendly Coffee Makes a Difference

Meredith Melnick — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 23:04:54 +0000

Americans drink 400 million cups of coffee each day, which contributes to the coffee bean’s status as the second most globally traded product after petroleum. Now, a recent report from the Universidad Autonoma de Madrid has found that regular coffee intake can actually prevent heart disease in women. Coffee is a much needed cash crop in many countries with few other exports such as Ethiopia, Guatemala and Papua New Guinea, but the industry has also been plagued by reports of worker abuse and corporate rip offs. Rainforest and other endangered species habitat is often cleared for coffee plantation, making it an environmentally dicey purchase, as well.

So how do we get our morning cup without a side of guilt? How to decipher real world impact from a multitude of coffee labels after the jump.

Read more of this story »

Green Diva’s Guide to Delicious Living: How to Find Locally Produced Food

Megan McWilliams — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 15:15:15 +0000

Since I will not have the ability to do a serious vegetable garden or have chickens and/or goats and cows at my suburban New Jersey home . . . YET . . . I am very committed to finding locally produced food. For so many reasons I’m a local foodie. Here are a couple of them:

- the lower carbon impact of supporting food that isn’t ‘big Ag’ produced and shipped across the country

- I personally enjoy meeting the farmers (whenever possible) and supporting their efforts

- the food is so much fresher and tastes better to me

- I simply get great satisfaction in knowing that I’m helping to move towards a more sustainable agriculture system by eating/buying locally

The following list of various ways to find and buy local food is an excerpt from a story we did last May/June in Relevant Times, by Tamara Jean Scully, who is a freelance writer, specializing in agricultural issues. She is a local foods advocate, working with the Foodshed Alliance to support local, sustainable family farming. Tammy is also a part-time farmer, growing perennials, raspberries and minor fruits. tamarajeanscully.com

Read more of this story »

What About the Food in the Farm Bill?

Megan McWilliams — Thu, 15 May 2008 15:34:44 +0000

I’m relatively new to this crazy Farm Bill thing. I was invited last Summer to an event at Paul Newman and local food activist chef Michel Nischan’s restaurant, the Dressing Room in Wesport CT, to listen to an amazing panel of speakers and participate in a dialog about the 2007 Farm Bill. This incredibly informative and passionate panel included, US Representative Rose DeLauro (D-New Haven, CT); Gus Schumacher, the undersecretary of Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services during the Clinton Administration; Daniel Imhoff, author of Food Fight: A Citizen’s Guide to the Farm Bill; and Annie Farrell an advocate for sustainable and organic farming and manager of Millstone Farm in CT.

I was stunned by what I learned last year - more importantly, I was stunned by what I didn’t know, and I consider myself a sustainable agriculture supporter! I’ve been trying to track the progress of this Bill in its fits and starts and controversial moments, but still find myself quite ignorant and ever-more surprised when I hear or read another piece of this hulking bulk of legislation.Today is my ‘recipe’ day, not that I’ve kept up with the schedule lately AT ALL, but after reading the NY Times article about the latest on the Farm Bill, I just had to write something about this. Sorry. Look for some lighter fare (perhaps easier to digest than the Farm Bill) Monday!

Read more of this story »

Investment Funding for Organic Food Leads Discussion at Investors’ Circle Conference

Leah Edwards — Thu, 08 May 2008 18:35:36 +0000

At the Investors’ Circle Conference in San Francisco, the Plenary Session of the May 7th Education Day was titled, “Is Organic the Next Clean Tech?” Can organic foods (and other products) can attract major investment capital, in the way clean technology has in the past few years, to the tune of tens of billions of dollars.
I am not sure whether the answer is a resounding yes, but panelist Walter Robb, Co-President and COO of Whole Foods Market announced that Whole Foods will be investing in small supplier companies, and all of the panelists were positive about the potential of investing in organics.

Kristen Groos Richmond, Co-founder/CEO of Revolution Foods, who has a wonderful if improbable company, which I wrote about before, can speak first-hand about the ways entrepreneurs can attract professional investors while pursuing goals such as connecting local farmers and consumers.

Read more of this story »

Red, Green & Blue: Better Living Through Hemp?

Shirley Siluk Gregory — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 20:05:58 +0000

Whenever I read an online article about alternative energy and scroll down to the reader comments below, I’m already thinking, "Here come the hemp people." No news or feature story about biofuels or sustainable agriculture can go by without supporters of industrial hemp crawling out of the woodwork to tout their wonder crop. My reaction has generally been to say, "OK, we’ve made our obligatory hemp post. Let’s get on with the real debate now."

Until I actually researched the subject. Hemp — not the munchies-inducing variety, but the kinds with very low amounts of the psychoactive substance THC — really does appear to be all its proponents make it out to be. Hemp fibers can be used to make clothing, furniture and even biodegradable plastic, and to strengthen cement. Hemp seeds can be eaten as is, ground into flour, pressed for oil or made into non-dairy milk and ice cream. The seeds are also rich in protein and the omega-3, -6 and -9 fatty acids that the human body needs but can’t make on its own. And, like so many U.S. Congresspersons and the Iraq War, before the U.S. government was against hemp, it was for it, actively promoting the crop as a source of fiber for cordage during World War II.

Then there’s the biofuel appeal: both hemp seeds and stalks can be converted into biodiesel or alcohol fuels. Better yet, hemp grows fast and produces way more fiber per acre than cotton, flax or even trees. If it weren’t for the ridiculous, costly and ineffective "War on Drugs" that lumps industrial hemp into the same category as Maiu Wowie, we might be able to tap into a sustainable, highly useful crop that’s far superior to the current favorite in Kansas and on Capitol Hill: corn.

Also on GO:

Green Myth-Busting: Hemp is Marijuana

Ask VJD: Hemp for Health

Red, Green and Blue: The Farm Bill

Shirley Siluk Gregory — Thu, 10 May 2007 13:01:44 +0000

Editor's note: In today's Red, Green and Blue, our political commentators Jimmy Hogan and Shirley Siluk Gregory weigh in on the U.S. Farm Bill and its related subsidies, due for reauthorization this year.

Shirley: If Congress is serious about solving the host of problems it claims it wants to fix — rising obesity and diet-related illnesses, polluted stormwater runoff and environmental degradation, food insecurity and overdependence on fossil fuels — it should look no further than the Farm Bill, which is due for reauthorization this year.

As it's crafted right now, the Farm Bill (which, as Michael Pollan writes, should more properly be termed the Food Bill) does little to promote small-scale or sustainable farming. But it's very good at driving chemical-dependent industrial agriculture that floods the market with cheap corn and other commodity crops. The results are an overwhelming supply of corn syrup and corn syrup-derived junk foods that are cheaper than healthy foods, and a system that undercuts family farmers both at home and abroad while helping Big Ag companies like Archer Daniels Midland, Monsanto and Tyson reap ever-growing profits and market share.

For the sake of food security, there's certainly a good case to be made for farm subsidies of the right kind, but that's not what we have right now.

Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Funding Opportunities

John-Paul Maxfield — Tue, 14 Nov 2006 11:09:00 +0000

SARE is a competitive grants program providing grants to researchers, agricultural educators, farmers and ranchers, and students in the United States.

Research and Education Grants: Ranging from $30,000 to $150,000 or more, these grants fund projects that usually involve scientists, producers, and others in an interdisciplinary approach.

Professional Development Grants: To spread the knowledge about sustainable concepts and practices, these projects educate Cooperative Extension Service staff and other ag professionals.

Producer Grants: Producers apply for grants that typically run between $1,000 and $15,000 to conduct research, marketing and demonstration projects and share the results with other farmers and ranchers.

On Farm Research/Partnership: Supports on-farm research by Extension, NRCS, and/or nonprofit organizations. Northeast, Southern and Western regions.

Sustainable Community Innovation: Forges connections between sustainable agriculture and rural community development. Northeast and Southern regions.

Read more of this story »