Sustainable agriculture methods won't sustain African populations, argues Robert Paarlberg in the latest edition of Foreign Policy Magazine. Conventional farming methods, with the high-tech inputs familiar in the U.S., are what the continent needs to feed its diverse and growing populations. And is that bad for the environment? "No," Paarlberg claims. "Not only is organic farming less friendly to the environment than assumed, but modern conventional farming is becoming significantly more sustainable." He says the ruinous practices of the past, the ones Rachel Carlson wrote about in Silent Spring, have changed enormously since the 1960's when the book was published. He cites no-till planting, drip irrigation and precision fertilization as practices that both increase food production and do less environmental harm. You can read his article here: http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/04/26/attention_whole_foods_shoppers?page=0,3


     The White House kitchen garden, one year later, is a definite Obama administration success. Sam Kass, right, assistant chef for the Presidential residence, said the garden produced half-a-ton of food in its first season, soul-cleansing, hands-in-the-dirt work for volunteer staffers and lots and lots of positive PR. Lancaster Farming special sections editor Charlene M. Shupp Espenshade stopped by for a tour on a recent trip to Foggy Bottom and prepared a report for this week's edition. You can also read it here: http://lancasterfarming.com/node/2925


     Yeah! What she said. http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/house-cat-attacks-bear/1abiotmlj

     Ничто не будет работать, как олень. Or, as they say in Moline, "Nothing runs like a Deere."
Reuter's reported on Tuesday that the world's largets farm equipment maker is opening up shop in Russia with a half-billion dollar manufacturing and parts distribution plant near Moscow. It's not the first time Big Green has been to Russia. A century ago the company filled an order from the Pacific city of Vladivostock for 900 plows. You can read the Reuter's story here: http://www.chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?id=37985&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+ChicagobusinesscomBreakingNews+(ChicagoBusiness.com+Breaking+News


     The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments Tuesday about the rift between conventional and organic farmers over genetically modified (GMO) crops. A lower court has ruled against the sale of GMO Roundup-resistant alfalfa seeds. Organic farmers say their industry, particularly dairy, could be destroyed if non-GMO feeds became unavailable. Conventional producers want to have all the science and biotechnology they can get. Of course, Lancaster Farming was there in the person of staff writer Chris Torres, who prepared a report for the issue due in your mailbox Saturday. His impressions of the Justices? "There was a pole in front of me," Torres said, "so I could hardly see anything, but I noticed that Ruth Bader Ginsberg is really short, and that Justice Alito is a really down-to-earth guy."

     Speaking of Big Green...  http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/jason-aldean-big-green-tractor-not-a-slide-show/bd9d11cc9b5986d935f6bd9d11cc9b5986d935f6-55956733968




 

     Detroit revolutionized the auto business, and could now be on its way to leading the way in urban agriculture. With 25,000 acres of vacant, often blighted, land Motor City officials and civic leaders are hoping to turn small-scale - and maybe large-scale - city farming into a resource for jobs, environmental enhancement and tax revenues. 
     While other cities are looking at urban farming, reporter David Runk said Friday in the Washington Post, "...no other city seems to have as much potential for urban farming as Detroit, where land is cheap, empty lots are plentiful, and residents are desperate for jobs. The number of community gardens has been growing each year, and bigger, commercial agriculture could be coming as city planners draw up land use rules for farming."
     Nobody expects to be growing 1,000 acres of soybeans or corn at the intersection of Fenkel and Hubbell, but you might be seeing tomatoes, asparagus, strwberries and the occasional chicken. Runk's story is here:  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/23/AR2010042300467.html


     I stopped at a local Subway the other morning for a breakfast sandwich, coffee and OJ. The reason I stopped was because I saw a newspaper ad saying the Subway serves breakfast. "Something new," I thought. "I'll give it a shot." So while I was waiting for my Western omelette sandwich (pretty good, actually), I asked the young lady preparing it how the new breakfast business was going. 
     "New?" she said. 
     "Well, yeah, I just saw it advertised." 
     "We've been doing it ever since I've been here, and that's seven years."
     I was shocked. First, because she looked like she'd have been in kindergarten seven years ago, and second because I had never known about it. Until I read it in the newspaper. A print ad. Ink on paper. Is this a shameless endorsement of my medium? You betcha.


     Did aliens from outerspace actually visit our ancestors? Of course. And they brought unearthly, sometimes disgusting things with them. How else would you explain kiwi fruit? http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/ancient-astronaut-theory-did-aliens-visit-our-ancestors/265bucfm

     Pennsylvania's famed Star Barn will probably be saved from destruction, but traditional barns across the country are disappearing. Rural areas are dotted with the skeletons of round  barns, bank barns, crib barns, tobacco barns, rice barns and just about any other kind of barn you can think of. They've been replace by by big sheds, silos and steel-sided storage structures. Writing last week in The Economist, a reporter told of a visit to Thorntown, Indiana, where a local FFA chapter had spent part of their week restoring an old barn for the Dull family. It was one of the lucky structures. Iowa, for example is losing 1,000 barns a year, according to ag preservationists. If you'd like to read the story, you can find it here: http://www.economist.com/world/united-states/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15954270


     Meat industry trade groups have convinced the inspection arm of the USDA to extend the deadline for comments on tough new rules that would hit processors with higher costs and vague guidelines. Jay Wenther, executive director of the American Association of Meat Processors, said the proposed rules were "...widely vague and widely interpretable." Lancaster Farming staff writer Chris Torres wrote a report on the situation, which appears in our current edition. You can also read it here: http://www.lancasterfarming.com/node/2921
  
     Farmer John is a little wacky. But I think I'll rent the movie.
http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/the-real-dirt-of-farmer-john/a2fe5d6bddf188828521a2fe5d6bddf188828521-1650461967629

     Hippy Cuban activist harvests top plant prize. That would be Humberto Rios Labrada, a guitar-playing-raunchy-song-singing-bureaucracy-defying-no-nonsense guy who thinks practically non-stop about seeds. That's Labrada, wearing the plaid shirt in the photo. The 47-year-old scientist's passion for seeds and crop improvment earned him a 2010 Goldman Environmental Prize, also known as the "Green Nobels."

Labrada takes his guitar and his sustainable agriculture gospel on more than 300 farm visits a year. His gospel is this: Cuba needs to become self-reliant in food production. He's been preaching his gospel ever since the Russians pulled out of the island nation, abandoning their big tractors, and stopping their shipments of fertilizer and pesticides. Their high-input approach to massive agriculture was just not suited to the kind of small-scale food production that the Cubans actually need, Labrada feels. 

  Associated Press writer Will Weissert tagged along with Labrada on a couple of recent farm visits, and prepared a report which you can read here: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/slideshow/ALeqM5h92l-SyIZ91huXWEPwYazw0Fve_gD9F674780?index=0

  Nay is a Black-and-Brown Swiss yearling who survived a barn fire and went on to garner showring honors competing against some of the top animals in the country at this year's New York Spring Dairy Carousel. Black-and-Brown? Nay was in her home barn in Belchertown, Mass., according to Sara Gauthier, her owner, when an electrical fire broke out, destroying six 4-H animals and Ms Gauthier's goats. The fire singed Nay, leaving black marks and splatters on her hide. But since color isn't a show-ring issue with Brown Swiss, she's been doing quite well in shows. Lancaster Farming Correspondent Meagan Crandall paid a visit to Nay and prepared a report you can read in our current edition. You can also see it here: http://www.lancasterfarming.com/node/2908

  No more arguments about who has to wash the frying pan... http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/paper-fried-egg/1absihqtg

  The Senate Ag Committee wants to clamp down on financial derivatives. Committee chair Blanche Lincoln, right, has proposed regulations so stringent, that even that raging socialist (if you believe raging Tea Party rhetoric) Barack Obama has balked at the language in her bill, scheduled to be taken up tomorrow by her committee. More than 1,500 lobbyists, executives, bankers and others have made their way to ag committee members to give their views on legislation that would introduce transparency and control into the complicated and murky world of financial derivatives trading, according to reporters Edward Wyatt and Eric Lichtbau, writing in yesterday's New York Times.
  According to the duo...
  Now wait a minute. Wait a minute. 
  Are we to understand that Blanche Lincoln, the Senator from Arkansas, is going to wrestle that gang of Wall Street robber barons to the ground and make them behave? Can she do that? From the ag committee? The Ag Committee?
  Apparently, she's got them scared. They can hear that lasso whistling over their heads. If Blanche has her way, they'll have to duck to escape her rope. They''ll have to run bent over double. Crawl on their hands and knees. Slither on their bellies. 
  You know, I don't understand Wall Street, but I've seen enough, heard enough and read enough to know that there are too many people there who've become rich by stealing from me. And from you. And everybody we know and all their friends and relatives.
  Hooray for Blanche. Hooray. Hooray.
  To read the New York Times story, go here: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/20/business/20derivatives.html?dbk 


  The sagging economy has thrown some serious speed bumps into plans to relocate, rehab and rejuvenate Pennsylvania's famed Star Barn, possibly the most photographed, sketched, painted and admired barn in the country. Built in 1872, the barn's impressive architecture - the soaring cupola, the gables, the five-pointed stars on each end - would have made it a standout in the middle of nowhere.         When I-283, connecting Lancaster and Harrisburg opened in 1972, hundreds of thousands of drivers yearly could not help but notice this magnificent structure just outside Harrisburg. As the decades rolled on, it became obvious that the barn was deteriorating. 
     Robert Barr took special notice, and, in 2006, bought the barn through Agrarian Country, an enterprise he founded to relocate it. He was in the process of recruiting volunteers, grants and donors when the economy happened. Barr is bowed but not beaten, according to Lancaster Farming reporter Chris Torres, who wrote about the project for our current edition. You can also read his story here: http://lancasterfarming.com/node/2911


  Middle-aged fool attacked by puppies. Wife orders a case of dewormer. http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/golden-retriever-puppies-attack/1ab1g5zvx

     How about a nice soap salad? And a noxious insect entree? Not to your liking? Well, then, maybe you're one of those people hopelessly averse to the flavor compounds in cilantro, aka coriander. According to an article last week in The New York Times, many people are repelled by cilantro's aroma, which is caused by a class of fat molecules, called aldehydes.
     Aldehydes are found in soaps, and some bugs use aldehydes to either attract or repel other creatures. People who don't grow up with cilantro are often repelled. But some cuisines - among them Asian, Latin American and portugese - call for the generous use of cilantro, and people in those cultures are fond of the herb. One of the world's most famous cooks, Julia Childs, couldn't stand the stuff. Nor could she abide arugula. "Throw it on the floor," she said. So if you're thinking of supplementing your milk check with profits from a field of cilantro, maybe you'd better look for a less devisive vegetable. 
    Reporter Harold McGee looked into the cilantro matter in the last Tuesday's edition. You can read his report here: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/14/dining/14curious.html

     Big sea fisherman Gaylord Clark is hoping to someday reel in a profit from his pastured poultry operation in Stevenson, Maryland. Clark, who makes a living as a commercial fisherman in Alaska and on the West Coast, spends most of the year on his small farm just outside Baltimore. His wife, Lee Ann, contributes to family finances with income from a calligraphy business. Lancaster Farming Maryland correspondent Laurie Savage visited the Clarks to talk about their unique lifestyle, and prepared a report for the issue due in your  mailbox Saturday. Gaylord and his daughter, Madelyn, are shown here on the shore of Alaska's Bristol Bay, along with one that didn't get away.


     Here's an idea for your home-schooled kids.  http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/shadow-toys-with-math-teacher/1abefax9d

     Although he receives $200,000 a year in farm subsidies, Tenessee congressional candidate Stephen Fincher tell his Tea Party supporters that he wants to phase out farm subsidies. That's Stephen to the, uh, right. In a Washington Post story last Thursday, reporter David Weigel said the size of his subsidies puts Fincher in a class of his own, but he's not the only candidate on both sides of the farm payment issue. Indiana Senate candidate Marlin Stutzman received a total of more than $170,000 over a period of 10 years, yet tells the Tea Party faithful that "...we should get out of the subsidy business...and let the free market work." You can read Weigel's report here: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/right-now/2010/04/not_ready_tea_party_candidate.html

     Meet our new editor, Dennis Larison. Dave Lefever has decided to close out the Lancaster Farming chapter of his life to cultivate new fields. The staff has wished him good luck and Godspeed on his new journey. We have warmly welcomed Dave's replacement, who's had some interesting jobs - e.g., building stage sets in New York City - on his way to the editor's desk here in Ephrata. Our intrepid correspondent Lou Ann Good interviewed Dennis for her page one story, which you can read in our current edition, or at our website, which is here: http://lancasterfarming.com/node/2902

Would you believe - Rent-A-Goat?  http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/338473403/farmcycle-0

"No Go" GMOs in Africa

     








Africa isn't Indiana, if we follow the thinking of Dennis Keeney and Sophia Murphy, staff members at the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy in Minneapolis. And GMO crops designed for the wide open acreages in our Midwest are definitely not suited for the small-scale farms, often less than an acre, common in most of Africa. Keeney and Murphy take none other than Bill Gates, arguably the world's most ambitious philanthropist, for his support of efforts by Monsanto et al to sell GMO seed to farmers in Africa. The IATP duo feels that Gates should spend his foundation's hundreds of millions on efforts to improve Africa's indigenous crops. They made their comments in yesterday's edition of the Des Moines Register, which you can see here: http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=20103200306

    












Our nuttiest feature story ever.  John Herbert of Gettysburg has a passion for nuts, and thinks nut trees and their flavorful, healthful fruits. He thinks his fellow Pennsylvanians could find both satisfaction and profit in growing one or more of the many species that grow in the commonwealth. Lancaster Farming food and family editor called on Herbert to talk about his favorite kind of tree, and reported on the visit in our current edition.


     Wonder what you'd get for $772?    http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/338473403/farmcycle-0