#local agriculture

[copperbadge]

Hi Sam! I hope you're doing well! Could you tell me (or point me to a previous post) about the farmshare thing you get? Is it local or could I sign up for it in a different state?

It's local, I'm afraid, but you may have one near you that's just as good! Especially during the pandemic a bunch of new ones popped up. If you google "farm share" or "farm CSA" in your area you may find a few.

Mine is through Urban Canopy. They call it a "LUCSA" which stands for Local Unified Community Supported Agriculture. Some just go by "CSA" but when I called it that someone pointed out that people who don't want to see discussions of child exploitation have it blacklisted, so I started calling it a Farm Share, which is another common name for it. I'm actually super lucky; prior to the pandemic a lot of the community agriculture in Chicago either didn't deliver to my area or didn't deliver at all, and now there are several.

The idea is that farms local to your region create a box of their product on a regular schedule and you pay a flat fee per box. Usually you can't choose what goes in it, it's just what's in season. Farm share boxes tend to be more expensive than what you'd pay at the grocery store, but I'm now in a position where I can pay more for fresh food and feel good about supporting local small farms and businesses without worrying about the cost.

I pre-paid for the season (15 boxes) and bought a meat add-on, so I pay somewhere around $60-$70 per box (plus delivery tip), brought to me twice-monthly from October through March by a delightful woman named Yarrow. In each box I get roughly a gallon of beverage (some alcoholic, some non), a loaf of bread, a dozen eggs, a pound or so of mushrooms, and, once monthly, three pounds of meat. Those are what convinced me to invest, because as someone who doesn't eat a lot of veg I wanted at least a handful of things I was guaranteed to like, and I love eggs and mushrooms and meat. In addition to the above, the box usually contains a large bag of greens (last one was kale) plus 5-8 different in-season veggies and fruits, like potatoes, onions, apples, peppers, radishes, carrots, et cetera.

So I've...basically stopped having to go to the grocery store. I still go once in a while for staples, but it's gone from once a week to about once a month, and I live mostly on what's in my CSA box and the occasional meal out.

There are some farm shares now where they send you a list of options and you pick; in Chicago, it's Tomato Mountain, which I'm going to look into when this farm share runs out, although I've been very happy with Urban Canopy so far in terms of food quality, amount, and convenience. I was thinking I probably wouldn't renew my subscription for the summer season, but after a few months of the winter season I'm reconsidering that.

So yeah, if you have the money and can eat veg and take regular deliveries, I think it's a cool way to get your food -- you're supporting local businesses and at least in my case learning how to cook new dishes or improvising with familiar ones.

[downtoearthmarkets]

A message from Dacotah Rousseau, Managing Director, Down to Earth Markets: I am pleased to share our second-ever impact report with you, covering the work that Down to Earth Markets did in 2023. Last year we started this reporting initiative to better express our values as a mission-driven B Corp and certified NY Benefit Corporation. As a small company in a niche field, it also gives us an opportunity to pull back from the busy life of a farmers market manager to look at the big picture. Like cleaning the dirty panes of a large window, stepping back allows us to see the effect we are having, and it can be satisfying, inspiring and challenging (sometimes frustrating) all at the same time. The change is measurable but there’s always a lot more to do. When we shift perspective from the tasks at hand to the larger view we can also take in the vista beyond our window. Out there are things we don’t control but that we want to understand, and that can influence and inform our work. This Impact Report delivers to you, a stakeholder in our farmers markets and a stakeholder in the food system, an explanation of what we do, how we do it and why we do it. There are few clear boundaries when we start to think about all the ways in which food, its production, acquisition and enjoyment, weaves through our lives, but we focus on a few significant areas of impact:

The food growers and makers, whose success is at the core of our mission

The communities where we have our farmers markets

The environment, which registers our impact from seed to table

We call you a stakeholder because, whoever and wherever you are, where our food comes from and how it’s made is significant to your bigger picture. Even if you are not selling your food through our markets, buying your groceries from our vendors, or otherwise directly connected to Down to Earth’s operations, what we do to build the local food system here in the New York City area has ripple effects.    In our 2023 Impact Report we share some of the data collected by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in their 2022 Census of Agriculture, a survey of American farms conducted every five years. This includes everything from the tiniest plots of land hosting market gardens to the biggest monoculture farms fueling America’s cars with corn ethanol. Our dip into the report looks at the state of New York’s farms specifically. What you learn may surprise you if your mental image of the American farm is of a massive combine working endless corn fields, or concentrated animal feeding operations in factory-like buildings. The food you see when you look down at your plate also comes from a complex and often overlooked segment of the food system that depends on small scale farmers to play their role. This isn’t simply a question of knowing where our food comes from. How small-scale farmers are doing makes a difference to the variety of food crops available in the world, the environmental impact of farming, our dependence on global food shipping and the availability of food in times of crisis, even the nutritional value of the food we eat. We all need our small farms to survive and thrive, but even though the need is obvious the outcomes are not. There has to be a place where small-scale farmers and food makers can sell their products at a fair price that allows them to cover their expenses and plan for the future. Shaping the food system requires making a market. Read on to learn about the difference Down to Earth’s work made in 2023 and how your support helps us hold space for the farmers and food makers we rely on to feed us delicious things and to keep our food system healthy and whole. -Dacotah

[randallrandykonsker]

Randall Randy Konsker - The Importance of Supporting Local Agriculture

Local agriculture has been a cornerstone of communities, offering fresh, nutritious food, bolstering local economies, and promoting sustainable farming practices. Randall Randy Konsker, an experienced agricultural consultant, fervently champions the importance of local agriculture. His insights highlight the myriad benefits that local farming provides to individuals, communities, and the environment. In this discussion, we delve into Konsker’s views on why supporting local agriculture is essential for a sustainable and prosperous future.

[20may]

Buy-honey and bee products locally.

According to some people local honey will cure your allergies, and others are simply into locally grown products. Whether you want to reduce your carbon footprint or support local agriculture, buying honey that's made by local bees is not a bad idea. “Bee engaged with Youth”. World Bee Day 2024.

[rosielindy]

Picking up some precious cargo at the airport, then the adventure can begin! Even if part of that adventure involves a late afternoon work zoom meeting, then the real adventure can begin! 

✈️ 🚙 👯‍♀️ 🥰

[ireton]

The 4 Big Meat Packers In America Are Making A Move To Bankrupt Small Farms In America Starting In August

“This is a way that they're gonna be trying to force us out”

“The big 4 packers are killing the American cattle industry right now. Projected by August, each cattle rancher that is selling their animal is gonna be making $30 less per 100 pounds on that market ready animal.

- The American cattle rancher makes about 30% of every dollar earned on that animal - With this gonna be set in place, this is gonna take us down into the twenties.

This is gonna be a real scary place for the American cattle rancher. ‌ ‌If they can't make a profit or make a living off of what they're selling, their ranches are gonna be put up for sale.

This is a way that they're gonna be trying to force us out.

- And not only that, the corrupt thing is they're gonna be marking everything up $30 to every 100 pounds that they're making in return.

So with that being said, guys, we need to get back to buying local, supporting our local people. And as always, buy American and buy local.”

[lost-estradiographer]

I

know that voting for the status quo sucks.

To say it "sucks" massively understates the exact amount of suffering that exists under the status quo, an amount that I acknowledge I am too privileged to ever fully grasp.

I cannot magically provide some viable third-party candidate just barely a month before the election. I cannot solve Israel/Palestine Conflict that has haunted the world for over 70 years. I am a 29-year old transgender woman working her way through her own mental illnesses, trauma, and an undergraduate degree. I was never going to be the one to solve anything here.

All I can tell you is that regardless of whether you vote or not, there will be a presidential election. It's going to be a shitshow, regardless. Whether you vote or not, there will be a different president in January. Voting for the status quo may not be directly in your interests.

We had four years of Trump and we are still trying to unfuck ourselves from that. The beginning of my antagonistic relationship with the government was protesting in the streets of DC under his administration. I've fled from the Metro PD. I've put on a change of clothes and slipped out the back door of a gay sports bar.

Fucking vote.

Fucking vote.

Fucking vote.

Honestly, I

I don't want to see this voter apathy shit anymore.

People are going to keep dying under any president. Any president can, and probably wil, be morally culpable for the deaths of innocent people, both in the country and abroad. Carter might be the last president we had that wasn't overtly a war criminal and we still had foreign civilians killed by U.S. military involvement under the Carter admin.

I'm torn between asking you to block me, or asking you to message me, if you're taking the route of voter apathy. I'll tell you right away, here and now, that I probably don't have a solution to whatever problem is keeping you from voting for Harris. I can't even solve my own problems right, tbh. The government isn't really here for me, either.

But there isn't going to be some sort of miraculous revolution that results in The Ending Where Everyone Lives. If there's a revolution, then supply chains will falter and children and the infirm will die of preventable diseases and infections and complications in hospitals that would have otherwise been able to easily deal with such things. That's what happens in a revolution. I'm after the long-term idea where Humanity as a species lives. I'm after the route where we don't have an ending, we keep going.

Fucking vote, because exactly one of the two leading presidential candidates believes climate change is real, and it is the single greatest threat to all life on earth. We have spent the past 250 years, not just playing God with the environment, but actively creating an ecological niche in which future generations of humanity must continue to play God with the environment, dragging it back to a healthy place drop by drop, inch by inch, a degree at a time.

Or, I mean, don't vote. Either way, we'll all die at some point. Perhaps some of us will be lucky enough to die standing by our principles.

Those lucky few will become soil one day, just like I will.

I am begging you on my hands and knees to fucking vote, though, because our options are The Status Quo vs. Worse. That's

That's it.

There is no door number three right now. Our system, our flawed and broken and imbalanced and unjust system, does not accommodate for a third door. Whether you vote or not, you will be dragged through either Door 1 or Door 2 with all of humanity, as we whirl through the cosmos upon our tiny little speck of dust. The only other legitimate option is to allow oneself to become trampled; to become soil early. I don't say legitimate to give this option legitimacy, but to make clear that again, there is no door three. Door three is a casket. A one-way bed.

I didn't vote in 2016, and I'm hoping that you'll vote for the status quo this time, because that's the route that gives me the best odds of having a long and healthy life to regret my failure through inaction.

Just please

Fucking vote.

Or again, if you're taking the apathy route, probably just save me the time of blocking you, because you're not going to magically pull a viable third-party candidate out of your pocket less than six weeks before the election.

[thedansemacabres]

something lovely for sustainable agriculture in honour of the gods, I think, would be learning how to make natural dyes, use eggshells for all sorts of purposes, sewing, etc. These arts are often forgotten, allowing for corporations to overtake our lives. Demeter's hands guide our own, so why not learn to make lovely dyes with her fine crops?

[ttrpg-smash-pass-vs]

It's been a while since i was last on this blog, besides the interesting Plasmoid race that's giving me ideas, what other unique races are there?

Also what is your opinion on potatoes? 🥔🎀✨️

You actually caught me in a moment where I haven't been paying the most attention, just went from near a month of 12 hour workdays to trying to refill the queue decimated in that time XD In general we've been doing the loser's bracket of Mordenkeinen's monsters and all the PC species. So we've had a good amount of the weirder monsters lately, like the star spawns and hags. I got a lot of entertainment out of the war over the demon lords when some main tournament bits posted out of turn (didn't have time to refresh queue with the right monsters).

Things are about the heat up as we launch into the main tournament though, and PF2e monsters in a few weeks! I'm especially excited about the PF2e stuff, and have spent my last 2 days prepping like 50 of them.

Oh, and potatoes are some of the finest things known to our species, the Inca should be celebrated worldwide for thier contribution to humanity! They have gotten me through the toughest times. Did you know they have all the carbs and nutrients needed for our survival except proteins, fatty acids, calcium, selenium, fibre and vitamins A, B12, E, K. Cycle in some beans occasionally to cover half of what remains, some vitamins (or better, some veggies) and milk (or leafy veggies like spinach or turnip greens) for a cheap and tasty way to stay perfectly healthy on little money. That + some occasional cheap meats or bones begged from the local butcher kept me alive for a while! Hell, Potatoes+Zucchini/Squash+cheap cuts of meat+leafy greens+beans are most of what I eat NOW

[mycological-mariner]

It’s rather lonely being the only one in your little freak corner of hyperfixations

[wildrungarden]

⭐️Currently reading: The One-Straw Revolution by Masanobu Fukuoka ⭐️

‘Just playing or doing nothing at all, children are happy. A discriminating adult, on the other hand, decides what will make him happy, and when these conditions are met he feels satisfied.’

The synopsis calls it ‘Zen and the Art of Farming.’ This book is about his experience over 30 years of using the ‘do-nothing’ farming method. He lets his orchard and rice/barley fields grow wild without any pest controls or fertilizers. That’s the basis of it (kinda?) — but what makes this book amazing is that he goes deep into why it works for him. Explaining why he doesn’t have to use chemicals to treat weeds and pests. Into the full circle of life & how to actually grow ‘natural’ food. We always want bigger and better quality & focus on high yields and money. How disconnected we really are growing from nature in agriculture.

If you aren’t into agriculture or learning about the exact ‘whys’ of his experiences from growing rice, barley & citrus on his personal field —- skip to part 2 of the book. I honestly wouldn’t recommend skipping(it holds a lot of useful information), but after part 2 is where I really got interested.

It’s not only about farming though - it also incorporates our health, diet and how basic our knowledge is as humans. It makes you think.

Even this book being written in 1978 - it still holds up to today. We’ve had all this knowledge since then and we still continue to do industrial agriculture and live/eat the way we do. It’s eye opening, for sure.

I’m not completely finished yet - I have about 40 pages left - but that’s what I think so far ☺️ You should definitely give it a try.

[ireton]

THE GERMAN FARMERS WON

After Bringing Berlin to a complete halt, the Government have backed down on several ludicrous taxation & net zero policy impacting food production. Of course you won’t see this on fake news MSM as they don’t wish you to know the wider narrative and/or implications of. This however is just the battle & not the war.

[thetwistedrope]

The earliest written accounts of life on the coast, from the late 1700s, often refer to this area as being an “untamed wilderness.” The coast did not look like an English Garden, or a European farm, nor did the cultivation of these lands stand out with obviously unnatural or artificial features but rather was molded closely with the local geography. These authors did not recognize a form of cultivation that was unfamiliar to them. To their unaccustomed eyes, the coast was wild. It was not. A local example can be found at Mittlenatch Island. The small island looks rather unremarkable from the Campbell River shore; however, a closer inspection reveals just how intensely it was cultivated. Nearly all the “wild” flowers and shrubs are edible in some part, either their roots or their fruits. Some species, such as Camas, require regular harvesting and even controlled burning to increase its production. 

[bunnyboyzyon]

LOCAL FARMS >>>>> pt. 2

Guys they sell food. And it's affordable. And sustainable. And the money they get from you buying their food sustains them and their business and allows them to keep growing and selling affordable food and create a small community that appreciates local sustainable farming and their wonderful food.

BUY FROM THEM RAGAHSGAJG

[coachbeards]

you know that episode of leverage where Eliot meets that little boy in the hospital whose father is abusive, but he can’t tell anyone because his dad knows the cops, they come over to their house to play poker, etc���…that’s how I feel little beard was btw