Polyface, Inc. A Simple Fix for Farming. IT’S becoming clear that we can grow all the food we need, and profitably, with far fewer chemicals. And I’m not talking about imposing some utopian vision of small organic farms on the world. Conventional agriculture can shed much of its chemical use — if it wants to. This was hammered home once again in what may be the most important agricultural study this year, although it has been largely ignored by the media, two of the leading science journals and even one of the study’s sponsors, the often hapless Department of Agriculture.
The study was done on land owned by Iowa State University called the Marsden Farm. On 22 acres of it, beginning in 2003, researchers set up three plots: one replicated the typical Midwestern cycle of planting corn one year and then soybeans the next, along with its routine mix of chemicals. On another, they planted a three-year cycle that included oats; the third plot added a four-year cycle and alfalfa. Rosie Gainsborough Why wouldn’t a farmer go this route?
M.brickhousefarms1943. College Farm | The Dirt. Bringing the Movement Home: The 100-Mile Diet, Local Eating for Global Change Maggie Stonecash '08 As for-profit globalization plows onward, our local economies, environments, health and food production continue to be left behind in disarray. In the face of the constantly emerging global economy, the green movement is attempting to bring the food revolution back to our backyards. One of the many tactics for promoting local foods in hopes of shrinking the distance between the consumer and producer is the 100 Mile Diet. This simple experiment in local eating was born in 2005 from two Canadian residents, Alisa Smith and James MacKinnon. For one year, they would attempt to live off drink and food from within 100 miles of their apartment in Vancouver . The 100 Mile Diet is a drastic reduction from the typical 1,500 Mile Diet. When the first experimenters were interviewed about their cold turkey 100mile diet they admitted that it was hard and time consuming at first.
100 MILE DIET: local eating for global change. Sounds intriguing, doesn't it? But think about it - if we all started eating locally, as in products produced within 100 miles of our home base, think of how things would change, how our diet would change. Sounds too restrictive, impossible, unrealistic, painful doesn't it! Lol Well, in reality, up until the 1940's, this was the norm for most Americans. It still holds true for many people around the world. Of course, we always had our luxury items like oranges and lemons, coffee, tea, and chocolate/cacao, but for the most part, we ate what was produced within a reasonable distance of our home.
Since then, we live in a time of the winter tomato - flown halfway around the world, with 1/10th the flavor, and at 5 times the cost of a real, local tomato of summer. At Whitmore Farm, we take our seconds from our market tomatoes, still picked at the height of their flavor, and freeze whole and pureed tomatoes which is about as easy as it gets. Entire food traditions have slowly withered away. 1. Greenbrier Farms. Meadow Creek Dairy - Home. Windowfarms.org.