STORE WARS

Not long ago in a supermarket not so far away... Help CUKE SKYWALKER and PRINCESS LETTUCE fight the dark side in this funny but poinant video from Free Range Films. May the farm be with you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVrIyEu6h_E

Food Democracy Now

This grassroots organization is leading the march
for Obama's next pick for Secretary of Agriculture. Intent that while farmers face harsh challenges regarding eneregy costs, inputs, land-use and legislative policies that undermine their ability to compete in the open market, there must be a push for better policies.

When Obama tapped former Iowa Governor & lawyer Tom Vilsack, who has backed genetic engineering (GMO foods) and has a close relationship with corporate agribusiness (i.e. Monsanto), many organic proponents screamed their opposition. The Organic Consumers Association, for instance, is pressuring Congress to reject the Vilsack nomination with mass petitions.

According to FDN, "The current system unnaturally favors economies of scale, consolidation and market concentration and the allocation of massive subsidies for commodities, all of which benefit the interests of corporate agribusiness over the livelihoods of farm families...we believe our next Secretary of Agriculture must have a vision that calls for: recreating regional food systems, supporting the growth of humane, natural and organic farms, and protecting the environment, biodiversity and the health of our children while implementing policies that place conservation, soil health, animal welfare and worker's rights as well as sustainable renewable energy near the top of their agenda."

Visit their sites at: http://www.fooddemocracynow.org/ and http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/642/petition.jsp?petition_KEY=1798

Fresh herbs are more popular than ever!

From the December 2008 Yearbook of Fresh Digest magazine:

"Now, instead of high sodium supplements like salt and garlic powder, more and more consumers are reaching for healthier, fresh herbs and spices at their local grocery store. So much, in fact, that fresh herbs and spices are one of the fastest growing categories amongst vegetables in the produce department.'

Fresh herbs and spices have experienced tremendous growth at the retail level', said Craig Agnew, Gourmet Garden, president for North America. 'The consumer has become increasingly aware of the importance of healthy eating and, at the same time, has developed a more sophisticated pallet that wants a fresher, better flavor'"

CHICKENS FIRST SNOW

These guys just turned 6-months old around Christmas. They are comprised of Plymouth Rock Whites, Plymouth Rock Barreds (speckled black) and New Hampshire Reds (similar to RI Reds). In thieir entire existence they have never seen snow before this moment.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1DV4jy12AQ

Visual wasteland, spiritual begining

It is early October. I'm wearing a long sleave shirt and holding a glass of cabernet (that sadly I neither grew nor vinted) but still the evening air is nipping at my skin. There a a stillness, but a breeze so light, perhaps a single knaut. It is more of a coldness on the right side of my face than a draft. Even the black silouettes of maples and poplars against the dwidling western sky are still in the post-sunset twighlight. I stand here, grounding myself to nature, feeling my inner core sway to the earth like a water-lily facing the warm sun on a cool april day.

In the garden I see not the itchy sculptures of dried sunflowers, but the remaining seeds the birds have left behind. A promise of the future... Of next season's harvest that might fetch exorbitant returns in an over-priveledged urban farmers market. I see not the twigs & stems of black iron weeds, but the fodder and forage for my daylight pulletts that will soon bear free-range organic eggs, high in oleic aciddy goodness & low in hormonal, anitbiotic maddness. I see not the despair of a plot gone to seed, the the promise of fresh organic matter ready to feed the future. I see elderly grandparents crying and praying for their children's children.

There is a sliver of crescent glowing moon, slung higher in its invisible hammock than last night. Across the abutting marsh, there are not misquitoes, but rather honking, migratory Canadian geese preparing their courage for twightlight flight. I will wait for their magestic presence to pass over me in a flying "V", almost close enough to reach. I won't need to wait long. There is nothing here in the season of life that is long... Although it may take forever to arrive, its fleeting is always too soon.


Seamus McRagnall