Echo

Judge Rejects Approval of Biotech Sugar Beets

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(NY) The New York Times – A federal judge has ruled that the government failed to adequately assess the environmental impacts of genetically engineered sugar beets before approving the crop for cultivation in the United States. The decision could lead to a ban on the planting of the beets, which have been widely adopted by farmers. In a decision issued Monday, Judge Jeffrey S. White of Federal District Court in San Francisco, said that the Agriculture Department should have done an environmental impact statement. He said it should have assessed the consequences from the likely spread of the genetically engineered trait to other sugar beets or to the related crops of Swiss chard and red table beets.  More

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Local-food advocates point out hidden costs in groceries

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(OH) Cleveland Plain Dealer – Despite the clamor for local food, only about 1 percent of the food eaten in Ohio is grown in Ohio. And of the 14 million acres farmed in our state, 8 million produce corn and soybeans. Those crops are subsidized by the government, shipped out of state to make processed food, then shipped back for sale. Mary K. Holmes gave those statistics from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to those attending a forum Saturday, Sept. 19, sponsored by the Innovative Farmers of Ohio, a small-farm support group.

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Farmers defend Great Lakes crops from deer

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By Sarah Coefield
Coefield@msu.edu
Great Lakes Echo
Sept. 23, 2009

Countless deer descend on crops in the Great Lakes region, leaving in their wake torn corn silks, leafless soybeans, devastated orchards and millions of dollars in damage.  It’s a drop in the bucket for the agriculturally rich region but nonetheless painful for individual farmers. “In the grand scheme of things, it’s a minor amount, but it can be your entire crop,” said Paul Zimmerman, the public affairs executive director for the Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation. While damage may be little noticed on large farms, it can be devastating for small operations where deer can quickly wipe out a field of young soybeans. “Welcome to raising crops in Mother Nature,” Zimmerman said.

Echo

Was paradise lost?

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(WI) Milwaukee Journal Sentinel – Health care as we know it didn’t exist 3,000 years ago. But along the Georgia coast, the Pacific Northwest, and coastal Brazil, people grew tall and strong and lived relatively free of disease. They ate game, fish, shellfish and wild plants. But as corn farming spread through various regions of the Americas, people got shorter. Many became prone to anemia and began dying of tuberculosis and other infectious diseases.More

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Farm runoff woes: Can voluntary programs alone keep dirt out of the water?

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By Jeff Gillies
jeffgillies@gmail.com
Great Lakes Echo
Sept. 17, 2009

The Great Lakes and the Chesapeake Bay both field noxious summer algae blooms fueled by dirt and nutrients from farm fields. The six northeastern states that drain into the Chesapeake Bay have a patchwork plan to curb it. It doesn’t work and never will, says a recent report by the Environmental Working Group, a non-profit lobbyist and research group. The report claims runoff prevention programs fail because they’re voluntary — farmers that don’t want to participate don’t have to.

Echo

VIDEO: Fighting to farm by greening the rust belt

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By Troy Hale & Geri Alumit Zeldes
Great Lakes Echo
Sept. 9, 2009

Each week about 50 high school and college students feed the hens, tend the greenhouse and sift the new compost at Harvesting Earth Educational Farm located in Beecher, a community outside of Flint. To break up the tasks, farm owners Master Jacky and Dora King, black belts in karate, teach these young workers self-defense moves using rakes, hoes and shovels. For many of these young people, this is their first job. For the Kings, the farm is sowing the seeds of sustainable agriculture that may save Flint.

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Getting Benton Harbor to tap area’s bounty

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(MI) The Herald-Palladium – Fruit and vegetable growers from six farms stood at folding tables Wednesday afternoon in the parking lot at the Mercy Center in Benton Harbor. The tables were filled with locally grown produce, all the colors of the rainbow. More

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From junk pile to farm park

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(MI) Detroit Free Press – Howard Taylor might never have started his own theme park if his wife hadn’t reached her limit with the junk strewn about their yard. “I bought an old sawmill in 1991 and had the pieces spread out everywhere,” said Howard Taylor, who with his wife, Gloria, has created Wellington Farm Park, where visitors can tour a village that re-creates life on the Depression-era farm he knew as a child. More

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Huge crowds show up for first Edible Flint Food Garden Tour

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(MI) The Flint Journal – They came, they saw…and they ate the cherry tomatoes. More than 160 people showed up at the Flint Farmers’ Market Tuesday night to pack a caravan of buses for a free tour of Flint’s booming urban agriculture movement. Not even the organizers expected so much interest and enthusiasm for the first Edible Flint Food Garden Tour.  More