Tag: Food sovereignty

Earth Eats: Interview w/manager of the Local Growers Guild

contributor Gabrielle Price

This is an excerpt from a broadcast featuring the manager of the Local Growers’ Guild [and my housemate at Sunny Branch Farm], Megan Hutchison. The Refreshment Center Radio Show will have Megan on as our guest, along with many other locals involved in the food movement here in Bloomington in future.  I’m excited about this new direction and hope you’ll enjoy the sounds [and sights] TRC plans to deliver throughout the year.
With the internet so prevalent as a teaching tool, my wish is to connect other local food movements to share data, especially as the climate continues to change and perhaps help other growers in areas where some crops used to do well but growing seasons may have altered.  I’ll also have folks on from other countries, some who are doing incredible things with keyline and permaculture techniques – to see how that works in places here in the U.S.
Not to mention recipe swaps!
I thought this Earth Eats broadcast would be a good segue into what our local focus is, the direction we intend to go, not to mention it’s a fine introduction to Megan; a friend and fellow foodie you’ll be hearing more about!  There is a very active food movement here and I’m excited to share it with you.
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Earth Eats is a weekly podcast, public radio program and blog bringing the freshest news and recipes inspired by local food and sustainable agriculture, featured on Indiana Public Media on the web.
The Local Growers’ Guild is a cooperative of farmers, retailers, and community members dedicated to strengthening the local food economy in Southern Indiana through education, direct support, and market connections.  The LGG’s mission is to create a local food system that provides quality food to communities through direct markets and retailers; preserves the viability of family farms; improves the quality of life for growers; makes food issues visible; and promotes practices that preserve and protect the Earth.

http://www.facebook.com/video/embed?video_id=10151331062459877

Who Am I To Farm? Excerpt from The Permaculture Handbook

“The emergence of garden farms is at hand. Under the pressure of necessity as unemployment rippled through the economy, millions of North Americans turned to gardening or expanded their gardens in 2009 as evidenced by a 40% increase in vegetable seed sales.  Urban homesteading is spawning its own literature as energy descent forces more and more households to adapt in place.  With income constrained and energy and materials shortages looming, the only resources capable of filling the gap in livelihood are imagination, information, and knowledge, in particular a deeper understanding of the material cycles and energy flows of nature.  For that understanding, we look to permaculture, a language derived from the patterns of the world around us.”

Read more about Peter’s new book just uploaded at Permaculture Activist. 

 

Who Am I to Farm?
by Peter Bane
from issue #82, GROWING STAPLE CROPS • NOVEMBER 2011, excerpted from Peter’s new book: The Permaculture Handbook: Garden Farming for Town and Country.

Save Your Seeds / An Eyeopening Graphic

Thanks to our friends at Occupy Monsanto
Click graphic for full view

 

The issue here is more than just corporate takeover of the seed supply. The basic function of evolution’s survival of the fittest is to have biodiversity [see: democracy] to allow life forms to adapt to changing conditions; once we destroy the biodiversity we become 100% responsible for all future adaptations and natural evolution is rendered virtually non-existent.

Please note: This image is based on the seeds available in 1983, what do you think has happened since then?  SAVE YOUR SEEDS!