Recommended Articles: Farm School; Ag Supported Community

Tweet

Welcome to Farm School: A new generation of farmers is digging into books before they go out in the field (from The Tyee)
by Jeff Nield

EXCERPT: “The agriculture that we should bring about substantially is local scale, human intensive, ecologically sound,” says Dr. Kent Mullinix from Kwantlen Polytechnic University. The director of Sustainable Agri-food Systems acknowledges that, “The fact of the matter is this post industrial agri-food system is going to require a lot of people, in particular a lot of farmers.” Mullinix references the work of Richard Heinburg from the Post Carbon Institute whose research suggests that the United States will need up to 50 million new farmers to work the land and feed the people in a post carbon world.

Instead of a CSA, How About Agriculture-Supported Community? (from Change.org)
by Jason Mark

EXCERPT: CSAs are growing in number and size in part because they appeal to our desire for building relationships. Sure, consumers initially sign up to CSAs for the food; but often they stick around for the people. Over time, as CSA members get to know the people who are growing their food — whether through the weekly newsletters that many CSAs have, or annual farm visits and festivals — they come to feel a loyalty to their farmers. That spirit of kinship forms the heart of the CSA model: A farm is sustained by the passion of its customers.  Of course, any healthy relationship is a two-way street. If the CSA members are sustaining the farm financially, the farm is also sustaining its members by providing them with sustenance. This is how it’s always been: farms and gardens are the foundation, the very pre-requisites, of any civilization. So shouldn’t we also be talking about agriculture-supported communities?