Farmers’ Markets 2010 – Buy Local Food

The season of Fall is upon us, and it is time to reflect and settle in for Winter.  We want to show you all of the amazing Farmers’ Markets going on across the Country, and it is never too early to start planing where you are going to find and source your local food for next year.

Our friends at That’s Natural! in Southern Colorado have advised us that their Loco for Local Farmers’ Market at the Sangre de Cristo Arts Center will take place starting July 1st, 2010 and run every Thursday evening from 4PM until 8PM through August 26th (Pueblo, Colorado).  They are looking for sponsors and vendors, please let them know if you are interested.

We will also be calling out to local farmers and producers in Iowa and New Mexico in the Holiday 2009 Editions of The Good American Post, so let us know if you have something going on with local food systems.

Managing Alternative Pollinators Now Available from SARE

College Park, MD – During the past 50 years, America has witnessed an almost 50 percent decline in the number of managed honey bee colonies. With two-thirds of the world’s crops requiring pollination—beekeepers and growers are seeking pollination alternatives and ways to bring honey bees back from the brink.

Managing Alternative Pollinators: A Handbook for Beekeepers, Growers and Conservationists is a first-of-its-kind, step-by-step, full-color guide for rearing and managing bumble bees, mason bees, leafcutter bees and other bee species that provide pollination alternatives to the rapidly declining honey bee.

Written by Eric Mader of the Xerces Society Pollinator Conservation Program; Professor of Entomology Marla Spivak; and Elaine Evans, author of Befriending Bumble Bees, the book includes expert information on the business and biology of pollination and how-to guidance on raising the alternative bee species.

The book is ideal for:

Beekeepers: Detailed information on each alternative pollinator’s biology, disease, pest and chemical susceptibility, and step-by-step instructions on how to rear and manage.

Growers: Guidance for understanding the business of pollination, matching pollinators to crops, and deciding how best to pollinate for successful agriculture and pollinator protection.

Concerned Citizens: Easy-to-understand accounts of the honey bee’s plight, the business of pollination, and what we all can do to protect pollinators and our food systems.

Download SARE’s Managing Alternative Pollinators for free at http://www.sare.org/publications/pollinators.htm. To order print copies ($23.50 plus $5.95 s/h) visit www.sare.org/WebStore, call 301/374-9696 or write to SARE Outreach, PO Box 753, Waldorf, Maryland 20604-0753. (Please specify title requested when ordering by mail.) Allow 3-4 weeks for delivery. Call 301/374-9696 for more information on bulk, rush or international shipments.

Published by SARE Outreach for the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program and features work supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), USDA. SARE’s mission is to advance – to the whole of American agriculture – innovations that improve profitability, stewardship and quality of life by investing in groundbreaking research and education. SARE Outreach operates under cooperative agreements with the University of Maryland and the University of Vermont to develop and disseminate information about sustainable agriculture. For more information visit www.sare.org.

Happy Meal Ban – Where is Responsibility?

In Santa Clara County, California, retailers will not be able to give away toys in their kids’ meals.  This is in response to an effort to curb childhood obesity.

This is ludicrous (so many instances now where I can use that word and not be sarcastic), as government-intervention into consumer-choice is dangerous at any level.

This is one step away from having the government mandate what your kids have to eat – oh wait – it is already near-impossible to get nutritious meals into our public education system.

If we are having problems with childhood obesity it is up to the parents/guardians to step up to the plate and make better and healthier choices, this is a little thing I call “responsibility”.

Tired of losing liberties and the free market?  Read The Good American Post, and start making decisions to support and promote positive change.

- Tisha Casida

Seed Banks – Saving History & Agriculture

While listening to The Thomas Jefferson Hour, I was reminded of the importance of saving seeds, especially heritage-varieties that are sometimes near extinction.  Why near extinction?  The “conventional” agriculture approach of mono-cropping (only growing one crop), and the relatively new phenomena of genetically-modified (GM) crops contributes to the downfall of “normal” and heritage or heirloom seeds.

Because agriculture has went from many smaller farms to fewer huge agri-businesses, our land and soils have become chemical-dependent versus earth-dependent (as was noted in this program).  And this can hurt the soil, the seeds, and basically the food supply and humanity as we know it.

So praise God, there are numerous individuals, organizations, and companies stepping up to the plate to “save seeds” literally.  Please support these companies this Spring when you purchase seeds, and then start saving seeds yourself – it is our duty to our food supply and to future consumers.

Here are some great resources for you:

Victory Seeds

Survival Seeds

Saving Our Seeds

Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds

By: Tisha Casida