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All week long, we post updates on what’s happening at Farm Aid and in the world of farms and food on Twitter. In case you missed some of those links, below are some notable stories we shared in the past week:- The USDA is scrapping its controversial plans for a NAIS (National Animal Identification System) program. (To learn more about the NAIS program, read the Wikipedia entry here.)
- "How Much Grass Must Be in Organic Milk?"
- An interesting video interview with a farmer that serves as an introduction to what biodynamic farming is.
- A very sad New York Times article on a recent dairy farmer’s suicide. "They lost money on every cow every day of every month last year."
- An article about the myriad of uses that a revolutionary new spray-on liquid glass may have. Lots of ways it may be used for food and farming!
- Lots of interesting stats from a USDA survey on organic farms. Did you know that most organic farmers sold locally, with 44% selling within 100 miles?
How many more suicides will it take till this country realizes that it is killing the very heart and soul of it? Very few people will ever truly understand the feeling of a farmer in this day and age. I can relate to the hardship. This way of life can be as demanding as any on the face of this earth. For those of you who pay attention to the Farm Aid blog there are two things I strongly recommend that you do. First contact your local congressman and senator and urge them to step up to the plate to see to it that dairy farmers receive a fair price. The government currently publishes a report that shows the monthly cost of production. This would be a good starting point on the pay issue for milk. Secondly please support Farm Aid the work that they do for family farmers is tremendous. I know because they have helped me to address some of these issues recently in Washington DC. And for those of you have helped with these issues in the past a sincere Thank You!
ReplyDeleteBruce Drinkman
might want to start looking at Detroit. Big John Hantz, of Hantz Financial, formerly of American Express is wanting to take over a bunch of land in the city. Bring in Hi-tech, high capital. He says he wants to farm, but I think it is more about holding development land. Also international relief groups are coming in to put their mark on the Detroit urban ag movement. Check out Frank's blog. He is the county agent in Wayne Co. aka Detroit http://bit.ly/aaT4XK
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