Spotlight on Lighthouse Farm

I received a lovely email from Lighthouse Farm in Princeton, MN updating me on spring happenings on the Mesko family's farm. They recently purchased two milk cows which they intend to milk by hand (I presume primarily for the family's consumption). One of the cows, Valery, has a damaged utter from when she slipped and fell at the commercial dairy from which she was sold. She could no longer be milked on commercial milking machinery, so they were going to send poor Valery to slaughter! Instead, the Mesko's are nursing her back to health, taking her off her diet of corn and putting her on a more natural diet of 100% grass, and they are still getting plenty of milk by milking her by hand. This is something that could only happen on a small family farm, and it is just a wonderful example of the kind of compassion that small family farms engender. (The photo above shows Valery -- on the left -- being milked.)

Please check out their website: www.lighthousefarm.com

Recession Impacts Americans, While Oil Companies Make Off Like Bandits!

Since 2001, the top five oil companies have increased their annual profits by an average of 500%!!!

Here are some good tips from the OCA on how to increase your vehicle's fuel efficiency:

1. Don't be a jerky driver: Jumpy starts and fast getaways can burn over 50 percent more gasoline than normal acceleration. Use cruise control once accelerated. (And, let's be honest, slamming on the gas doesn't really get you there any faster!)
2. Drive slower: According to the U.S. Department of Energy, most automobiles get about 20 percent more miles per gallon on the highway at 55 miles per hour than they do at 70 miles per hour.
3. A well maintained car (oil change, fuel filters, tire pressure, alignment) gets an average of 10 percent better fuel efficiency.
4. Turn off your engine if you stop for more than one minute. (This does not apply if you are in traffic.) Restarting the automobile will use less gasoline than idling for more than one minute. (That's one I never knew -- I always thought it would be better to let the car idle...)
5. Decrease the number of short trips you make. Short trips drastically reduce gas mileage. If an automobile gets 20 miles per gallon in general, it may get only 4 miles per gallon on a short trip of 5 miles or less.

OCA Guide to Bodycare Products

When it comes to organics, what you put ON your body is just as important as what you put IN your body. (Remember, your body's largest organ is your skin!) Unfortunately, deciphering labels on body care products is much more difficult than reading food labels, and with all the strange chemical names it's difficult to keep straight what's safe and what's not. The Environmental Working Group has an excellent website that lists hundreds of brand-name products and rates them for safety, but when you're out shopping you can't exactly access that information. So, I was pleased to discover that the Organic Consumers' Association (OCA) has a one-page fact sheet to help customers figure out what to steer clear from. Next time I go shopping, I'll be sure to print this out and bring it with me. It's not just about your health, it's also about the environmental impact of chemical intensive farming to produce the "herbal extracts" that go into supposedly natural body care products.

Environmental Working Group website: www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/

OCA's fact sheet on body care: http://www.organicconsumers.org/bodycare/CCad05.pdf

US Government Subsidizing GMO Corn in Minnesota

The federal government has struck a deal with the Monsanto Corporation, and for the first time in history, the U.S. Department of Agriculture is endorsing a specific company's seeds. In fact, U.S. farmers in four states, including Minnesota, will be given taxpayer subsidized price breaks on insurance premiums if they buy Monsanto's genetically engineered corn this year as opposed to other biotech, conventional, or organic seeds. According to Monsanto's New Business Development Manager, Tim Hennessy, the federal government's new openness to promoting and advertising Monsanto "opens the door for a lot of future opportunity". Learn more and take action: http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_11198.cfm

Racism and Politics -- an interesting new perspective...

I just finished reading this article in the New York Times Magazine:

"What's the Real Racial Divide?" by Matt Bai

Here's an interesting quote from the article:

"As Erica Goode wrote in these pages last year, Robert Putnam and other sociologists have, in fact, found that people living in more diverse areas evince less trust for others — no matter what their race."

What do you think?

My two cents: Since I've been living in rural areas for a while, I've begun to notice that for most folks out here, racial diversity is pure abstraction. I can sort of see how (were they inclined to vote Democratic, which most around these parts are not) they would vote for Obama irrespective of his race since race has little relevance to them. I wouldn't say this makes them less racist, or xenophobic. It's not uncommon to hear a rural person make a statement like "Africans are so violent" or "it's those Asians that are the problem at the farmers markets," but for them these seem like obvious statements that come more from lack of experience than animosity.

And, having lived in a very racially diverse city in France, I can also see the perspective of urbanites inclined toward racist thoughts and behaviors. Perhaps it's just human nature to scapegoat the racial or ethnic "Other" when resources are limited or scarce.

I'd love to get your comments on this interesting article!

Local Foods Website

I just discovered a new source of information about finding locally produced foods in Minnesota! It's call the Local Foods Partnership and it appears to be a project of the Regional Sustainable Development Partnerships which is part of the U of MN. You can find all different kinds of products and it also links to the Buy Fresh Buy Local chapters. And, it's searchable!

Go to http://www.localfoods.umn.edu

Oprah Hosts Eckhart Tolle in Online Webcast

I recently read Eckhart Tolle's (pronounced TOLL-eh) popular book The Power of Now which has sparked a process of re-awakening to my spiritual journey. So, I was excited, and a bit surprised when I discovered that Oprah selected Tolle's newest book A New Earth for her book club. Not only that, she is also hosting Tolle on her website for a series of interactive webcasts to be held every Monday evening for 10 weeks. I missed the first live broadcast, but I was able to watch it on Oprah's website, and I found that I really enjoyed it. I don't think any of the ideas expressed during the webcast were particularly original, but Oprah and the audience tended to ask very practical questions that helped my own understanding of the concepts Tolle talks about in his books. Many of the questions were about how to fit Tolle's ideas into a more traditional Christian framework, which for me was useful in thinking about how to translate these spiritual and philosophical ideas into concepts that can be more easily understood by friends and family with more traditional religious backgrounds.

I'll be watching the next webcast TONIGHT at 8pm central. If you want to join me, you'll want to be logged in by around 7:40pm central. To participate, go to Oprah's Bookclub Website: http://event.oprah.com/videochannel/event/event_landing_2.html

Farm to School: Willmar, MN Makes the News

Props to the news team at KSAX for airing a story on the Farm to School program in Willmar, MN!

Watch the clip here.

Eveything I Want to Do is Illegal, Too

This is an excellent op-ed piece that come out in the NY Times a few days ago, written by a farmer from Rushford, MN. His is an excellent example of why the farm bill in its current incarnation is so darn screwy.

"My Forbidden Fruits (and Vegetables)" by Jack Hedin

Farm Bill: Where are YOUR tax dollars going?

This fantastic website was recently brought to my attention (thanks Mom!) that allows you to browse through the entire database of farm subsidies without slogging through reams of fine print. You can search by state, county, region and congressional district and you can view the top recipients of farm subsidy monies (yep, their names are right there!). So, snoop on your neighbors and notice who's getting the big bucks. Is it ma and pa farmer down the road? Nope. More like big corn and big beef. You can also see total funds received from various programs for the region, and they also supply some other interesting demographic data like how many children in that region are living below the poverty line.

Check it out!

UCC v. IRS

Though I'm no longer a regular church go-er I still keep in touch with my faith community at Falcon Heights United Church of Christ. This is a community that has a long history of supporting justice and equality for all people, so I believe they are deserving of our support at this time.

The United Church of Christ needs your help by taking a stand for freedom of speech.

As you no doubt have heard through media reports, the Internal Revenue Service has launched an investigation of the United Church of Christ, based on our invitation to U.S. Sen. Barack Obama - a longtime member of the UCC - to speak at our 50th Anniversary General Synod in Hartford, Connecticut this past June.

The UCC took great care to ensure that Senator Obama's appearance met appropriate legal and moral standards. We are confident that, in the end, the IRS investigation will confirm that no laws were violated.

However, in order to adequately defend ourselves as well as protect the broader principle of the freedom of religious communities to entertain questions of faith and public life, we will need to secure expert legal counsel, and the cost of this defense, we are told, could approach or exceed six figures. This is troubling news. That's why we are turning to you - our members and supporters - to ask for your financial support to help offset these unforeseen legal expenses.

Each year, generous UCC members contribute faithfully to "Our Church's Wider Mission," our shared fund for mission and ministry in our conferences, nationally, and globally. We seek your contributions to ensure that money given for mission will not be needed to pay legal bills, instead of ministry needs. Thus the reason we've created a new UCC Legal Fund to help keep to a minimum the impact of this investigation on OCWM funds.

Read more about the allegations from the IRS on the UCC website.

Contribute to the UCC legal defense fund online.

Great Lakes Study Suppressed

This study was recently brought to my attention via prwatch.org:

"For more than seven months, the nation's top public health agency has blocked the publication of an exhaustive federal study of environmental hazards in the eight Great Lakes states, reportedly because it contains such potentially 'alarming information' as evidence of elevated infant mortality and cancer rates," reports Sheila Kaplan. The 400-page study, undertaken by a division of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in cooperation with the government of Canada, "warns that more than nine million people who live in the more than two dozen 'areas of concern' -- including such major metropolitan areas as Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, and Milwaukee -- may face elevated health risks from being exposed to dioxin, PCBs, pesticides, lead, mercury, or six other hazardous pollutants." Canadian biologist Michael Gilbertson, who was involved in reviewing the study, said it has been suppressed because it suggests that vulnerable populations have been harmed by industrial pollutants. "It's not good because it's inconvenient," Gilbertson said. "The whole problem with all this kind of work is wrapped up in that word 'injury.' If you have injury, that implies liability. Liability, of course, implies damages, legal processes, and costs of remedial action. The governments, frankly, in both countries are so heavily aligned with, particularly, the chemical industry, that the word amongst the bureaucracies is that they really do not want any evidence of effect or injury to be allowed out there."

Learn more about the study at the Center for Public Integrity.

Conferences, Conferences, Conferences!

You can almost see me in this photo -- I'm waaaaay over on the left, with the short short hair (I cut it recently -- you can see the new "do" better in my Cuba photos). To my right is my lovely travel companion (we've been to TWO conferences together already!), Miss Caroline. This photo was taken at the Urban Agriculture Conference in Milwaukee last weekend. I've been soooo busy with work and everything else that I'm just now getting a chance to sort through my experiences and tell you all about them.

I think the Milwaukee conference will be the last in my series of farming conferences this year. We kicked things off in January with the "Garden Goddess Greenhouse" conference in Milan, MN (for those of you non-natives, that's pronounced MY-lan, not to be confused with the fashion capitol of the world in Italy). For those of you who haven't heard about what they're doing with passive solar technology, you should definitely check them out. Chuck Weibel and Carol Ford have put together this amazing winter CSA using a lean-to style greenhouse that operates all winter long with virtually no heat added from fossil-fuel sources -- it's all sun! They grow micro-greens and cool weather crops like kale, broccoli, cabbage, etc., and CSA members also get stored squashes, carrots, etc. Incredibly innovative! Check out their Yahoo Group and look at their photos: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gardengoddessnetwork/

The next big conference was the MOSES Organic Farming Conference two weekends ago in La Crosse, WI. It used to be called the Upper Midwest Organic Farming Conference, but since they realized they're the biggest deal in the country, they're just calling it the "Organic Farming Conference" from now on! It was huge indeed! 2400 people attended the conference this year! It was exciting and totally overwhelming for me to have all those organic farmers and organic supporters all in one place! I'm used to having to defend my preference for local, organic, sustainable foods and fibers, but for once I was not in the minority on that account. I think anyone who aspires to farm nowadays generally feels like an oddball, but at MOSES I definitely found "my people."

And then, I found them all again next weekend in Milwaukee! Ok, not all 2400 of them, this conference was much smaller, which was a bit easier to digest for me. I felt like I got more out of the workshops, too, since the smaller size gave more folks a chance to get their questions answered. The highlight of that conference for me (aside from the amazing food!), was the SPIN farming workshop. SPIN stands for Small Plot INtensive, and was developed by a couple cannuks in Saskatchewan. They've figured out how to make $50,000 on a half acre of land by growing and strategically marketing vegetables! If you don't believe me, check out their website at www.spinfarming.com. I've been so jazzed up about farming since that workshop that I'm ready to run out and buy a farm! But, no... I'm restraining myself for now (my monthly visits from Sallie Mae are a helpful reminder that I'm in no position to invest in land). Also, I discovered that Milwaukee is a really fun place to hang out. The first time I visited there when I was in high school I pretty much just went to see a band play, and spent most of the time at an outlying KOA. Also, I wasn't yet of age to enjoy Milwaukee's greatest tourist attraction -- the beer! So much irresistible microbrews! We went to the Milwaukee Ale House, and then at the conference we were served Capital Brewery beer and liquor from Death's Door (both made from wheat and juniper grown on Washington Island in Door County). Finally, to round out my blue collar experience of Milwaukee, I went to see the Drive By Truckers at the Pabst Theater! The concert was great, and the beer flowed like... ok, there was just a lot of beer drinking going on! Also, thanks to Caroline's friend Christy for putting us up (and putting up with us!) the whole time!

So, that's my little update. More servings of tasty local food stories from around the web coming up soon!

Is there a dentist in the house?

Watch this 5 minute video on the negative health effects of water fluoridation.

True Majority: Watch this and join the movement!