The Dirt On Our Farms (Great Article!)

[nosmokes]

original-Tom Paine


The Dirt On Our Farms



As a vegan who enjoys prowling the local farmer's market for new and delicious produce to cook up, I've long been convinced that the way most Americans interact with fruits and vegetables is fundamentally problematic, and that Big Agribiz is to blame.

We have an agri-culture that is not just unhealthy for humans (pumped full of toxins), but unhealthy for the planet (those toxins run off, and intsensive monoculture planting strips topsoil of its nutrients, turning it into dust), unsustainable (highly dependent on oil) and untasty (ever eaten a decent tomato grown in a family farm?). But I always assumed that the economics of agriculture in America—with huge, super-efficient factory farming—were unbeatable. It's just cheaper that way, and in America that's the only justification you need. This week The Washington Post told me I was wrong .

If you think the above assertions are typical vegan hyperbole, read Michael Pollan's powerful essay for The New York Times, “The Vegetable-Industrial Complex," for a description of how, for example, the modern industrial farming process has destroyed the organic cycle between produce and pastured cattle, creating entirely new problems of feedlot bacteria that are to blame for the deadly strains of E. coli that have been circulating lately. While more regulation might solve some problems, as Pollan points out, it's far more urgent that we radically rethink the way we grow our food. The federal government and Big Spinach “treat E. coli 0157:H7 as an unavoidable fact of life rather than what it is: a fact of industrial agriculture.”

Pollan is the author of “The Omnivore's Dilemma,” one of the best extensive examinations of why an American diet is ultimately unsustainable. As Pollan mentions, factory farming no longer uses organic fertilizer (cow manure and compost) to maintain the highly complex ecology of nutrient-rich topsoil.


The Dirt On Our Farms



As a vegan who enjoys prowling the local farmer's market for new and delicious produce to cook up, I've long been convinced that the way most Americans interact with fruits and vegetables is fundamentally problematic, and that Big Agribiz is to blame.

We have an agri-culture that is not just unhealthy for humans (pumped full of toxins), but unhealthy for the planet (those toxins run off, and intsensive monoculture planting strips topsoil of its nutrients, turning it into dust), unsustainable (highly dependent on oil) and untasty (ever eaten a decent tomato grown in a family farm?). But I always assumed that the economics of agriculture in America—with huge, super-efficient factory farming—were unbeatable. It's just cheaper that way, and in America that's the only justification you need. This week The Washington Post told me I was wrong .

If you think the above assertions are typical vegan hyperbole, read Michael Pollan's powerful essay for The New York Times, “The Vegetable-Industrial Complex," for a description of how, for example, the modern industrial farming process has destroyed the organic cycle between produce and pastured cattle, creating entirely new problems of feedlot bacteria that are to blame for the deadly strains of E. coli that have been circulating lately. While more regulation might solve some problems, as Pollan points out, it's far more urgent that we radically rethink the way we grow our food. The federal government and Big Spinach “treat E. coli 0157:H7 as an unavoidable fact of life rather than what it is: a fact of industrial agriculture.”

Pollan is the author of “The Omnivore's Dilemma,” one of the best extensive examinations of why an American diet is ultimately unsustainable. As Pollan mentions, factory farming no longer uses organic fertilizer (cow manure and compost) to maintain the highly complex ecology of nutrient-rich topsoil.
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complete article here

[pinto]

1. Good article. One point, though; wasn't the recent e-coli

infection of the Salinas Valley spinach crop traced to a neighboring pig farm? I may be off here, but I doubt the Salinas Valley pig farm is what's commonly seen as a big farm/feed lot operation. (I'm comparing the scale to those in the San Joaquin Valley.) Maybe the more salient point is about pesticide use and runoff...iirc, the pig farm is uphill from the spinach fields, which would make sense in the Salinas Valley - the bottom land is more arable for crop production. :shrug:

[pansypoo53219]

2. propably them

industrial pig farms. another abomination.
i compost and grow some vegies. do farmers market and organic also. and i have frozen so many peppers this year. and onions. hate winter store onions but damned if they had russet potatos. can't stand the yukon golds.
i want a russet.

i go more carnivore in winter. can't get decent vegies.

oh, i have very good dirt.

[brer cat]

17. Have you tried wintering-over your onions?

We keep them in the ground for the winter and do fine. We are in North Georgia mountains which get pretty cold, although we do have warm spells during the winter. We can also keep our mustard greens in the ground all winter.

[nosmokes]

3. my understanding was the hog farm was definitely a CAFO and would

qualify as industrial agriculture under anyone's definition. i had some emails with more details about the operation (the hog farm) but i can't locate 'em right now. it wan't a giant operation as hog CAFOs go, but it was certainly more than a couple hundred hogs being raised by a farmer.

[pinto]

5. Thanks for the follow up. I wasn't sure about the operation, either,

once it dropped out of the press. (And go figure, I live an hour or so away, as the freeway goes...) :think:

[nicknameless]

10. Salinas Valley farmers using partially treated wastewater seems a more likely culprit.

http://www.californiaprogressreport.com/2006/10/e_coli_why_mont.html

The September 2006 case of E. coli food contamination, the 20th national case and the 9th case in California in the last decade to be traced back to the region, has masked over the over-arching question of why Monterey County would choose to use tertiary treated sewage effluent to irrigate 12,000 acres of widely consumed food crops such as strawberries, artichokes and tender leafy green vegetables such as lettuce and spinach.

For nearly a decade, the Food and Drug Administration has zeroed in on the Salinas Valley -- the "Salad Bowl of the Nation" -- as a hot spot for food-borne illness. The latest E. coli outbreak is the ninth incident in the last decade to be traced back to the region, which produces two-thirds of the nation's spinach and much of its other fresh greens.

Water, contaminated by human or animal waste, has consistently been a leading suspect. Those bacteria can move to lettuce or spinach in many ways -- from a creek flooding a field in winter to dirty water in a roadside ditch soaking a field worker's boot or even in tertiary treated sewage effluent used to irrigate 12,000 acres of Salinas Valley vegetables and edible food crops.

Most of us have seen situations where tertiary treated sewage effluent was used on non-food vegetation such as golf courses. We all have noticed the signs that warn golfers to avoid excessive contact with any material that may have been sprinkler-irrigated with tertiary treated effluent water and some even recommend you thoroughly wash your golf ball after playing on such turf.

Well, why you might ask, if we are so concerned about the use of such water, would Monterey County have decided to irrigate their precious and expensive cropland with such potentially dangerous water? The answer goes beyond the current, September 2006, examination of that decision -- the infection of over 200 people and three deaths attributed to E. coli 0157:H7.

<snip>

[Benhurst]

4. Recommended #3

[YankeyMCC]

6. I just finished "Omnivore's Dilemma"

recently. It's a real kick in the ass, even for this committed carnivorous omnivore.

I wont be going veg but there will be changes made in this household.

[nosmokes]

11. you don't need to give up meat!

just find local organic/bio-intensive producers of free range pastured beef and hogs that ranged and penned in deep straw bed covered pens. poultry raised in conditions like th poster above was talking about. family and co-op farmers are what you're looking for and their numbers are growing all over. if your CSA farmer doesn't do meat, and many don't, they're a great resource for finding tfolks that do. or click the url in my sig line and follow some prompts from there and you should be able to find something. or look up ;local butchers in your phone book. if you're in a decent sized town or city odds are you have a butcher that specialises in organic and local meat.

buy local
buy organic
buy fair trade

[YankeyMCC]

12. That's exactly what we're going to do nt

[nam78_two]

7. K&$.nt

[Morgana LaFey]

8. Please support you local CSA -- COmmunity Supported Agriculture

Eat locally grown, delicious, usually organic food which helps support the small farmers and those trying to farm sustainably.

IT'S IMPORTANT! DO IT!

[SpiralHawk]

14. CSA - read all about it

"Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) offers a way for every human being to be directly involved in the care and healing of the earth, while also ensuring a supply of clean, healthy food for their families and their neighbors."

http://www.chiron-communications.com/farms.html

[Morgana LaFey]

15. Most excellent. Thanks. nt

[Porcupine]

9. I just got some free range eggs today......

These eggs are NOT the eggs that say "free range" at your local supermarket. These eggs came from chickens who were in a traveling cage out in a field. I thought I knew what an egg was until I tried cooking these.

The yolks were orange like cheddar cheese. They stood up above the egg in the frying pan and were as thick as mayonaise. The taste was completely different from your storebought egg. This same woman also grows carrots that are as sweet as apples and people line up to buy them at $2 a bag.

The denatured food that we have come to accept is killing people and sapping their spirit. The majority of our farmers are little more than truck drivers who drive products on and off the field according to a schedule they get from their lenders. Crops grow right up to a perimeter around the house and they don't have vegetable gardens or fruit trees near the farm. The farms I see are monoculture nightmares.

Support your local farmers market or community supported agriculture farmer. Let your supplier know when there is something you like or something you would like to see sold. I've even purchased seeds and handed them to truck farmers and asked them to grow them. You will be rewarded for your efforts.

[MadHound]

13. This isn't news to those of us out here living it, it has been an ever increasing threat

For the past fifty five years. But there is a small, but growing revolution underway as more and more people like myself are taking back to the land, and using practices that our forefathers used, crop rotation, fallow fields, manure, compost, cover crops, etc.

I live in Mid Mo, where I have a budding orchard and gardens. The land around here hasn't been in crop producton for a good twenty five years, but the damage that was done with petroleum based fertilizers still shows. The ground, the dirt itself has required extensive buildup work. Fortunately, my neighbor is more than willing to pasture his horses and cows in my field, thus providing a walking fertilizer source. My front field wasn't quite as bad off, but I'm still applying compost to my trees every year.

There is a small but growing number of people who are going back to the old ways, the proven ways. These are your local farmers market people, or your smaller regional providers. The diversify their crops, they rely on manure and compost, they take care of the land, in order that it may take care of them. Please, please, support your local small farmers. Most of them are organic, and most practice farming in such a way as a true stewart of the earth would. If you don't have a local market or CSA, get thee out to the country and go cruise the backroads and gravel roads, find those little roadside stands full of fresh produce. Get hooked up with these people, and they in turn will lead you to others who can provide other products, like beef, for you. We all look out for each other out here, and pass customers on to our neighbors if the needs fit. I'm growing fruit trees, berries mushrooms, and perhaps truck garden crops. My neighbor raises horses and organic cattle. He and I pass each other's names to our customers, and it is mutually benificial. Besides, his organic beef is fantastic, and as in most cases, if you have the freezer space, buying a half or quarter cow yields beef prices that are much cheaper than grocery chain prices.

So as others have said, support your local farmers. We're out here, and we're fighting the good fight against corporate agriculture, but we need your help. And if getting back to nature appeals to you, come, join us. You will find a ready community of wonderful people, one where our being neighbors, friends and farmers superscedes politics and religion. And the joy of being a stewart of the earth more than compensate for the big payoffs of corporate farming.

[NJCher]

16. organic preferred

A Web site client of mine, a garden center and nursery, asked me to build a page devoted to their organic products. The owner said, "The market's going organic. People aren't interested in anything else."



Cher