Recently in gardening and agro Category

Langdon at DailyYonder.com says the Energy Bill contains goods 'n' others for farmers:

Something else that’s not too hard to figure out is that H.R.2454 does at least one important thing by keeping USDA in charge of farms instead of allowing EPA to regulate carbon dioxide, other gases, and even dust emitted by agricultural activities. As important as environmental protection is, explaining the workings of farms to a whole new set of bureaucrats is like turning an ice cream crank without the ice. You can work till you’re blue in the face but nothing will come of it.

Esolen has yet another fascinating post:

What I had not counted on was the purely human: that when a man and a woman both work full-time outside of the home, their relationship to one another, to the home, and to the money they earn must, absent a conscious determination otherwise, be fundamentally altered.  Now I can't speak with complete confidence about this; I am more or less wondering aloud.  Does what is called "The Tragedy of the Commons" apply, when no one in particular is responsible for the earning of the money, and no one in particular is responsible for stretching that money, managing it, spending it wisely for the sake of the family?  If no one in particular is responsible for that latter role, does that job actually get done?  Sometimes yes; often no -- we know plenty of double-income families who do not take care of their economic gardens, so to speak, and who live more expensive and also more slovenly lives than do single-income families (for example, the majority of homeschooling families).  Governor Bradford of Plymouth noted that even among his fellow Christians, the fallback position was to do as little work as possible tending land held in common, while deriving from it as much as they reasonably could; his response was to decry the utopias of some (he has in mind Plato's Republic), and to assign to each family their own land to work.  In other words, if no one in particular is responsible for either earning or managing / spending, then a couple may engage in behavior that rewards the individual in the short term, while hurting the family in the long term.  Why should I work my tail off, when my husband or wife has settled into a comfortable position?  Or why should I watch what I spend, when my husband or wife is blowing over a hundred dollars a week on lunch? 

There are applications in the way we treat natural resources too.

Brad Bloom:

Ok, sure you might sing some while weeding a row of corn. Gardening however can be a more thorough kind of worship. Every blister and every drop of sweat reflects the devotion and respect you have for God. Discover how demanding worship can be by engaging in the act of giving your all.

Great piece - read the whole thing. Just wish I didn't seem to have such brown thumbs. Perhaps a gift of the Spirit I haven't yet received...

In "Everything He Wants to Do is Illegal " farmer Joel Salatin talks about the issues facing small farmers, who Big Corporate Farms and their Big Government pals want to regulate out of existence:

I think it's amazing that in a country that promotes freedom to own firearms, freedom to worship and freedom of speech, we don't have the freedom to choose our own food.

He discusses how it has become harder, in some states, for small farms to sell or process their products. Are home gardens next? Sure, Big Corporate Farms help feed the world,  but in a time where much of what we buy in grocery stores could be considered hazardous, should governments be targeting smaller farms? I don't know how much this is an issue, but Salatin also discusses the problems related to the rise of Big Organic and the health benefits of non-industrialized animals. He also notes that the profession of farming is looked down upon:

The problem is that our culture tells bright, bushy-tailed young people that farming is for backward, D-student, tobacco-chewing, trip-over-the-transmission-in-the-front-yard, redneck Bubbas.

When was the last time you heard a group of parents bragging? Ever hear one say, “Well, you can have your doctors, lawyers, accountants and engineers. My kid is going to grow up and be a farmer.” Ever hear that? Not on your life. The biggest obstacle is emotional — overcoming the cultural prejudice against splinters and blisters. That is why I talk about economics and marketing, along with the mystical, artistic elements of the farm. Yes, it’s a lot of work. But what a great office. What a noble life. What a sacred calling.

I guess people must think all food is conjured up in a factory. -D

Think you have to live in the country to get that garden up and going? Check out Urban Farms coming August 25:

Urban Farm™ magazine’s mission is to promote the benefits of self sustainability and to provide the tools with which to do it on any size property. Urban Farm™ reaches out to those in the city and suburbs, those who are inspired by the local food movement and who want to start raising chickens and growing food for themselves, supporting local agriculture and living more sustainably.

-D

BUMPED: Great project by a Knoxville church:

St. John's Lutheran Church, 544 N. Broadway, is revamping its main parking lot. But there is no paving involved. Instead, the church is using brick "hardscaping," a technique that aims to be pleasing to the eye as well as easy on the environment.

There's no storm water runoff (a pollution problem for big parking lots), and the pavers last decades longer and look better.

Lush trees and flowers, benches and a large open greenspace will create an area for the church and community members to gather outdoors. Outside of church activities, the lot should be mostly empty. "We wanted to create something uplifting instead of another asphalt jungle," said Don Shell, a designing architect for the new parking lot as well as former president of the church's council.

"Uplifting." Amen, brother. [photo credit]

UPDATED: With some local governments charging rain runoff taxes, this type of paving could prove more cost effective in the long run.

NY Times:

In San Francisco’s Tenderloin district, Maya Donelson has filled planter boxes with vegetables on a 900-square-foot patch of roof at the Glide Memorial Church. For the past year she has managed the Graze the Roof Project at the church’s Glide Center, a neighborhood social service provider.

The food goes to the center’s volunteers and children in the neighborhood who work in the garden one day a week and learn to cook what they grow.

And in the Wall Street Journal, vegetable oil makes better jet fuel than jet fuel. Does your airplane smell like frenchfries?

Daily Yonder has two interesting bits this week:

- SCOTUS overly Eastern, and overly Ivy. With the swirl of barbs and recriminations over Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s U.S. Supreme Court nomination centering on race, little attention is being paid to what is a glaring lack of representation on the high court: Rural America.

- Blue states ignorant of rural issues? Maybe, maybe not. Rep. DeLauro "votes with the left-leaning caucus of her party," notes Cattle Network. And "NAIS is a concept abhorred by small family farmers, about as conservative a group of people as you can find on the American political scene." So the new hero for many rural Americans is a Connecticut Yankee. How about them apples?

Can a Supreme Court and federal agencies (EPA, Interior) lead by a bunch of city folk and beltway politicians fairly represent rural ag and environmental issues? Do they even understand them? [Map source]

Another terrific interview by Holly Lebowitz Rossi.

As we in the northeast are ramping up our growing season, they're winding down from theirs in Florida, where Candy Evans and Lori Robbins work with their United Methodist Church congregation to run "Cason Community Garden" in Delray Beach. 

Being vegetarian is popular in some eco-circles. Part of the reason is that raising animals can be bad for the environment. We noted a few posts ago that this reason is not necessarily always true.

A popular food in vegetarian diets is soy, which is high in protein. However, now there is a growing body of work that says too much soy can have some side effects, especially in men. Though the American Academy of Pediatrics has also said all infants should be given cow's milk unless a medical necessity deems otherwise. Read more in Men's Health. -D