Farm Issues
Farm Bill: Healthy Food, not Corporate Welfare!
Unless you are a diehard policy wonk, it's tough to get excited about the Farm Bill. But consumers have a bigger stake in this mammoth piece of federal legislation than we may realize. Big Ag's lobbyists fight hard to protect corporate interests, almost always at the expense of consumers. The OCA is here to help you fight for for healthy food and against corporate welfare!
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Apples· steve urow© 2014 -
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steve urow's garden not· steve urow© 2014
bThe other day, a prominent Canadian journalist paid me a visit to interview me for his book on building a sustainable future. At one point, I expounded on the closed-nutrient cycle of old-school organic farming, contrasting it with what writer Michael Pollan deemed the "industrial-organic" way. In the old-school organic style, which relies on animals, farm wastes are recycled into the soil, providing all the nutrients necessary for the next harvest. The industrial-organic farmer, by contrast, imports his or her soil fertility -- just like the conventional farmer. The difference is that
Read moreFarm Policy Issues
One key and every present issue impacting agriculture is the weather. Although the weather is always unpredictable and changing, a news article from today documented that in some parts of the U.S., the conditions don't seem normal.
Kirk Johnson
http://select.nytimes.com/mem/tnt.html?_r=1&emc=tnt&tntget=
2006/03/21/national/21drought.html&tntemail0=y&oref=slogin, writing in today's New York Times, reported on unusual weather conditions occurring mostly in the Western part of the U.S.
"Spring is here,
Read moreGrill an activist! Tirso Moreno, farmworker organizer, answered our questions, below; later this week, he'll answer yours. Hit him with the best you got. Send in your burningest questions by noon PST on Wednesday, March 22, 2006. We'll publish selected questions and responses on Friday, March 24. Questions from Grist editors
Q: What's your job title?
General coordinator for the Farmworker Association of Florida.
Q: What does your organization do?
We work to empower communities of farmworkers and the rural poor, focusing on a wide range of issues, from
Read moreCOOKE COUNTY, TEXAS - Not long ago, half a dozen people calling themselves the Lone Star Minutemen descended on a corner in the college town near our farm to protest illegal immigration. Every day at this corner, undocumented Latino men gather in hopes of landing a day's work with passing contractors.
These Minutemen appropriated their name from the militia of the American Revolution, which had to be ready to swap plows for muskets at minute's notice to defend their new country. Those independent farmers became a cornerstone of the United States' civic mythology.
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