Topic: ☕Food News

CUpS video Interviews with experts on the science, politics, and culture of food.

Curt Ellis and Ian Cheney talk about Truck Farm (video)

CUpS: Food News

Well they’ve done it again. The two filmmakers that brought us King Corn, Curt Ellis and Ian Cheney, have come together to create another film that covers an important subject about how do we grow fresh, local food in dense urban environments, with a good deal of fun and quirkiness folded in: Truck Farm.

Old Gray Dodge; Courtesy of King Corn

The truck that has the lead role in this film is no newcomer. She played a pivotal part in King Corn – she delivered the duo to Iowa to grow their one acre of genetically modified corn, provided a resting spot to eat their fast food during the road trip, and also hauled their corn away after it was harvested. Quite an accomplishment for an old gal. But that wasn’t enough. She still had some spunk left in her.

Old Dodge Used to Grow Food; courtesy of Truck Farm

After settling in the big Apple, Cheney got an itch to grow food, but didn’t have access to space to grow it in. This is a problem for many city dwellers, but Cheney had an Aha! moment – why not turn the 40 square feet of space in the truck’s bed into an urban farm bed? Why not indeed!

Of course, filming the process, devising a way to hook up a camera to take 12 still pictures every hour, and involving a very creative musical duo, The Fishermen Three, to lay the ‘narration’ for this distinctive and unconventional film was a natural step. Well, for them it was.

In its second season of growing food, Truck Farm aspires to be fully harvested this coming winter as an hourlong documentary – one that I am looking forward to seeing, along with a myriad of others interested in learning more new ways to grow good food.

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Posted in ☕Food News | Tagged city farming, curt ellis, documentary film, dodge truck, Growing & Raising Food, king corn, new york, rooftop gardens, truck farm, urban agriculture, urban farming | 1 Comment

Seeds of Life: Consolidation in the Seed Industry (video)

By Cooking Up a Story

Frank Morton, an organic seed breeder from Philomath, Oregon, explains the current structure of the global commercial seed industry, as part of our ongoing series, Seeds of Life.

(see related: Animated Charts Showing the Seed Industry Structure from Phil Howard, Assistant Professor, Michigan State University.)

On the surface, understanding the organizational structure of the seed industry may seem a pursuit into the arcane, and wonkish world of academics, and private seed breeders. This is certainly not the case!

World's Top 10 Seed Companies; ETC Group, 2007. Click to enlarge image

According to the ETC Group’s, November 2008 report, Who Owns Nature (PDF), 67% of the commercial seed industry is controlled by just 10 global corporations. By contrast, prior to 1950, most seeds where freely available for use by farmers, and universities, whose seed breeding research programs were held in the public domain. The rise of consolidation in the seed industry parallels the rise of biotechnology in food crops. Since 1996, when only 37% of the commercial seed business was controlled by private interests, as of 2007, that number has skyrocketed to 82%.

In a recent New York Times article, Rapid Rise in Seed Prices Draws U.S. Scrutiny, the price of corn seed, the most dominant seed crop, has risen 132% since 2001. Soybeans, another major seed crop, rose 108% over this same period of time. The U.S. Department of Justice is currently investigating the seed industry for possible antitrust violations.

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Posted in ☕Food News | Tagged bayer, corn, frank morton, hybrids, monopolies, monsanto, philomath oregon, seed industry consolidation, seed prices, seeds of life, soybeans, syngenta, top 10 commercial seed companies, vendor lock in, wild garden seed | Post a comment

Monsanto v. Geerston Seed Farms: The Supreme Court Alfalfa Decision (video)

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CUpS Food News: A Conversation with Craig Johnston

June 28, 2010; The recent Supreme Court decision on the Roundup Ready Alfalfa case (PDF) has drawn a mixture of reactions from the mainstream media, and from the Blogosphere. To help us better understand this decision, CUpS sat down with Craig Johnston, professor of environmental law at Lewis & Clark Law School, and the lead author (on behalf of the NRDC) of one of the briefs presented to the Supreme Court in this case.

A Field of Alfalfa

Alfalfa is the fourth largest cash crop, and is conventionally grown on over 20 million acres of land throughout the US. A member of the legume family, alfalfa is an important forage crop for livestock, and also for commercial seed production. The concern of some farmers, both conventional and organic alfalfa growers, is that through open pollination (principally from plants grown to produce commercial seed that must be allowed to bloom), the plants would be susceptible to cross contamination from the pollen of nearby genetically engineered (transgenic) alfalfa plants. The potential for gene flow (cross contamination between transgenic and non-transgenic varieties) was considered a possible outcome of the unrestricted regulation of Roundup Ready Alfalfa (RRA), and potentially, a catastrophic environmental threat to non-transgenic alfalfa seed growers. The other environmental concern was the possible transfer of the Roundup resistance to native populations of weeds, requiring the use of more toxic herbicides for future weed control. Read More »

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Posted in ☕Food News | Tagged alfalfa, alfalfa seed growers, animal public health inspection service, aphis, biotechnology, center for food safety, craig johnston, cross contamination, frank morton, geerston seed farms, genetic engineering, gmo alfalfa, gmo crops, gmo sugar beets, lewis and clark law school, monsanto, national environmental policy act, nepa, nrdc, plant protection act, round up ready alfalfa, seeds, supreme court, usda | Post a comment

Seeds Of Life: Open Pollination (video)

By Cooking Up a Story

CUpS: Food News

Organic Seed Breeder, Frank Morton Working In the Field; Wild Garden Seed, Philomath, Oregon

Continuing with our Seeds of Life series, Willamette Valley organic seed breeder, Frank Morton, explains the benefits of open pollination in plant breeding, and the important role for farmers in the selection process to continually improve plant varieties for better local adaptation.

In open pollinated plant varieties, pollination can occur from the pollen of related species that sometimes travel great distances (as measured in miles), by insects, wind, and birds.

Open pollinated plants can be selected over time to breed a desired mix of traits, and the seeds from these plants can be reused over successive generations with highly favorable results. In particular, Morton says, organic farmers want organically bred seeds, that is, seeds which are designed to work well in an organic system. Organic farmers place a strong emphasis on maintaining soil fertility, and do not use commercial fertilizers, and other chemicals to artificially boost production yields. Organically bred seeds, may be bred for roots that travel deeper through the ground to acquire the necessary supply of nutrients that a healthy plant may require. By contrast, an organically grown seed, means only that the seeds were grown on organic soil, but will not have been bred to do better under an organic farming system.

Swiss Chard; Wild Garden Seed Farm

Working with open pollinated plants, Morton provides organically bred seeds better suited for organic and sustainable farming systems, and offers farmers a means of continually improving their own crops along with the ability to reuse their seed.

By contrast, most hybrid seeds, including genetically engineered seeds with patent protections, either can not be reused under licensing restrictions, or, the hybrids have been designed not to be stable beyond their first harvest. This lock and key protection means that while farmers will continue to purchase their seeds year after year from the seed companies, they may also have to purchase an assorted mix of farm chemicals to insure the best chance of success with those seeds. Not only does this bind a farmer to the seed companies, it precludes them from cultivating varieties over time from their own selection process. As Morton emphasizes in the video, when the farmer participates directly in the selection process, he can further adapt his seed to fit his particular tastes, and growing conditions.

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Posted in ☕Food News | Tagged adm, bayer, cargill, commercial seed companies, dow, farmers, food system, frank morton, genetic engineering, gmo, hybrids, monsanto, plant breeders, plant selection, seeds of life, sygenta, transgenic crops | 3 Comments

Topic: ☕Food News

Curt Ellis and Ian Cheney talk about Truck Farm (video)

CUpS: Food News

Related Posts:

Seeds of Life: Consolidation in the Seed Industry (video)

Related Posts:

Monsanto v. Geerston Seed Farms: The Supreme Court Alfalfa Decision (video)

CUpS Food News: A Conversation with Craig Johnston

Related Posts:

Seeds Of Life: Open Pollination (video)

CUpS: Food News

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