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Food Conversations
Lively and relevant information on sustainable living from a variety of contributors.
Red Truck Farm
As I drive across this quiet stretch of river on the small, two-lane bridge to Sauvie Island, leaving for now the city of Portland not so far behind, I want to write the story of Red Truck Farm, a 1/2-acre vegetable and dry bean farm dedicated to growing organic food for the local community. I [...]
Manual Fruit Tree Pollination-Dusting-Part 3
“WWOOF! The Movie” is about a collective of organizations that go by the acronym WWOOF: World-Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms. My wife and I have traveled around the globe for the last 5 months and videotaped our experiences within the organizations of France, Japan, Italy, and India. The tentative delivery date for the whole sha-bang [...]
The Organic Community, the USDA, and the Morning After
Part 5: Today’s discussion will pick up in the light of the morning after and the reservations – felt to this day – whether hooking up with Uncle Sam turned out to be as advantageous as hoped. A healthy match between the two has always been a tricky proposition, given the USDA’s top-down approach to decision making and the organic community’s commitment to consensus process.
Genetic Engineering: Road to Paradise or Paradise Lost?
This video from the political advocacy group Greenpeace, provides an overview of the contentious issues of biotechnology (genetic engineering) as it applies to food production. In some ways, biotechnology is the equivalent of the abortion rights issue of the agriculture world. Both sides of the debate hold entrenched views; those in opposition to its use [...]
Manual Fruit Tree Pollination -Part 2
This is the second installment of my three-part series on manual pollination in Japan from the upcoming feature, “WWOOF! The Movie”. It reveals the way in which pollen is extracted from the anthers of the apple (or any other fruit) flower through a special grinding mechanism. This video features Mari (our host’s niece-in-law) and Grandmother. [...]
Genesis of the USDA’s National Organic Program
Part 4: Organic agriculture was becoming pretty big business, considering that the people making it happen had started out with little more than determination. The organic community – meaning the extended family of farmers, certifying agents, natural food merchandisers, environmentalists and consumers – recognized that some harmony and reciprocity between the dozens of regional certification standards was needed to avoid a Tower of Babel.
Manual Fruit Tree Pollination In Japan (video)
My wife and I have traveled around the globe for the last 5 months and filmed our experiences within the WWOOF! organizations of France, Japan, Italy, and India, and are working on a feature film documenting this journey. “WWOOF! The Movie” is about a collective of organizations that go by the acronym WWOOF: World-Wide Opportunities [...]
A Diversified Crop and Livestock Farmer: My Introduction
Part I: I am a diversified livestock and vegetable farmer with six acres of land, where I now run a full time farm business called The Little Homestead. While I’ll be covering various aspects of food and farming in future articles on CUpS, I figured that first off, an introduction would be in order. This [...]