|
|
|
|
|
Typical March weather today---early Spring in New England
Hi Folks,
Had a melon for lunch today----half a melon to be precise. Looking out the window at the spring snow, cold and wet, with only slightly less cold mud beneath. And here was I eating fresh Cantaloupe---amazing. Unheard of before the Second War. Not a bad melon either---decent taste, somewhat sweet---but just a little too crunchy. I have a hard time getting used to these Western type Cantaloupes that have been bred to be this hard to facilitate shipping in rail cars and handling with fork-lifts. The original Cantaloupe was bred by Papal Gardeners just outside of Rome to feed the Papacy about twelve centuries ago. And they had soft, sweet and flavorful flesh---just like pre-War melons here in the States. But consumers have become so used to the hard shipping melons in the Super (What's so super about them?) Markets, that they often think Arrowhead's sweet ripe melons are spoiled, and these folks must be coerced into trying them. But those of us who are CSA at Arrowhead Members know better.
Anyway, as I sat here crunching on my melon, I started to think about where it might be from. No 'Place of Origin' label to help me. No Corporate Growers' Lobby would ever let Congress pass a law like that. So we must guess about where my lunch might have originated. My best guess? California's South Central Valley, or the irrigated dessert of Arizona, but more likely Mexico in February. And then I began to think about what it might have been sprayed with. And if the Spray Applicator really knew what he was doing. And I say 'he' because, trust me, there are few if any female equipment operators in Mexico.
And then I started to wonder just who had harvested my melon. We know, of course, that those who hand harvest our food, no matter where it is grown in the world, will be among the lowest paid people in that state or country. And that is the way Congress, USDA and Corporate America have planned it; cheap food no matter what the cost. It has been this way for sixty five years.
Just think of the implications of having the poorest of the poor grow, harvest and pack our food. Do they earn enough to have good, clean water? And practice good sanitation? Do they even care? After all these corporate farm workers likely can't afford to buy the crops that they harvest for us relatively wealthy Americans. They know that there is no moving up, no escape from a life of poverty harvesting food for Corporate Farms. And, they know that their Children will likely end up with the same dead-end work that they do. These folks are denied the pleasure of taking any pride in what they do. So ask yourself this; do they really care about; or even think about whom they are harvesting lunch for? They likely have little in the way of education, so do they even know about sanitation, let alone care? E. Coli and Salmonella on melons? Hardly wonder about that.
If we want a safe and sustainable food supply and a farm economy that creates sustainable farms and a new young and vibrant crop of farmers and farm workers we simply must get used to the fact that we have to pay more for food and pay attention to where it is grown and the folks who grow it.
Did I tell you what I paid for my half melon? No? Ninety-nine cents. Ninety-Nine cents. Even in the midst of a nice warm summer here in Essex County, no Farm could be sustainable growing Dollar Ninety-Eight melons. And the Farm could not pay a decent wage to its workers. And it certainly could not hope to retain the next generation on the Farm. Hopeless. So "Cheap Food no matter what the cost'? The cost is our next generation of Farmers here in the States. And the loss of Human Dignity around the world. It's little wonder that American's feel compelled to travel abroad wearing the Canadian Maple Leaf on their lapels. A nice, cheap lunch.
Here at Arrowhead we work with folks, they don't work 'for us' and we grow delicious, ripe, sweet melons. Completely unsuitable for shipping and of no interest to SuperMarkets. Our 2012 melon crop was such a success, and a big hit with members, that we are branching out. This year we are growing eight new and old watermelon cultivars, three new Cantaloupes, Honeydews, French Charentais, Crenshaw, Canary, and Galia melons. I can't wait to have a melon for lunch that does NOT crunch.
|
|
|
THAT BRINGS US TO THE FARM BILL
Every five years, Congress is mandated, by law, to produce a Farm Bill. This legislation is meant to ensure an adequate and safe food supply for Americans and a return on investment and profit sufficient to keep American Farms profitable.
Since the Nixon Administration, with Earl Butz as Secretary of Agriculture, every Presidential Administration has used the Farm Bill to make sure that food, here in the States, is cheap. Cheap enough so that we, as an economy and as a culture, can enjoy the 'benefits' of consumerism. And Congress has been more than happy to go along. The USDA has manipulated consumer food prices by throwing huge sums of tax money into programs that disrupt the normal supply/demand equation. By encouraging the development of large Corporate Agriculture, using endless subsidies, the Government has created an untenable situation for smaller Family Farms. More liberal, urban Congress-persons have been wooed into supporting the consolidation of American Agriculture with the addition of a sixty billion dollar food stamp program and guaranteed lower food prices for consumers. And more conservative Farm State Congress-persons have been wooed by lobbying from the large Food Corporations and International Trade Groups (read Cargill, Perdue, American Farm Bureau, International Beef, Syngenta, Monsanto, Citi-Group, Bank of America, Bayer, Dean Foods, Tyson and the like). In the course of just forty years Congress has created a monster it can no longer control.
We now have some of the poorest quality food in the world, foisted onto a consuming public that no longer remembers anything better. Supermarket chains deliberately mislead us into believing that week old vegetables are fresh, that week old milk is the norm and that tomatoes with perfect cosmetics are better than nutritious and delicious ones. Government deliberately misleads us into thinking we pay less for our food than any western, industrialized country without disclosing the taxpayer subsidies that produced it. Corporations deliberately mislead us by assuring us that today's pesticides are perfectly safe, just as they assured us that DDT was a safe insecticide and that the 2-4D-2-4-5T herbicide---Agent Orange---was perfectly safe.
And what do we end up with? Poor tasting food that needs 'flavor enhancers'. Over-weight children that are malnourished. And fourth graders that do not realize that we have to kill a pig in order to eat bacon. Until policy is changed we will see larger and larger corporations in Agriculture. And fewer and fewer Family Farmers. Simple as that.
During the last four minutes of it's session, the last Congress rushed through a one year Farm Bill extension, as an amendment to the Fiscal Cliff Bill. This legislation did the following: Cut all funding for the Organic Crop and Livestock Production Research Program; eliminated all of the six million dollars for the Small Farm Development initiative; cut funding for the Inner-city School Breakfast Program; cut funding for the Food for Peace Program; Eliminated funding for the New Entry Farmer Program. All this while leaving in place SIX BILLION DOLLARS in direct payment subsidies for the production of Cotton, Soybeans and Corn by large Corporate Farms and an even larger amount of direct payment subsidies for large corporate grain commodity traders and energy corporations for turning our food supply into fuel---bio-diesel and ethanol. A total subsidy, by the way, of nearly sixty cents per gallon.
This has created complete chaos in the areas of Small Farm Retention, Organic Research, New Entry Farmer Programs and soil and water conservation. What a mess! Maybe you should tell your Representative and Senators.
In the meantime, my best advice is to eat locally produced food and don't hesitate to ask questions where you buy it.
|
|
HOW SHALL WE PLANT OUR SWEET CORN?
In January I proposed just five of the many models we could use to produce our Sweet Corn for The CSA at Arrowhead, asking each of you which model you preferred. And I had intended to share some e-mail responses here in the Newsletter. However, on February 7th an odd thing happened. My trusty old Compaq ate my entire Inbox all the way back to October 23rd of 2010. That's right---the dog ate my homework. Please let me move on graciously here.
I have had some wonderful conversations and e-discussions with many of you---and my apology if I lost you completely. Some folks made it perfectly clear that they wanted NO part of using genetically modified seed. Others suggested it might be all right to use BT technology or Round-up Ready technology. Still other folks felt we should give Remay a try. Someone thought we should consider dropping Sweet Corn all together as the crop simply seemed too complicated to grow. No one, however, seemed to take me up on using my Grandfather's pre-War methods of production.
We have indeed had a lively debate, which is what I intended. But in the end I have not changed my mind. At least not for this season.
GMO technology is hear to stay, whether or not we care for it. We tend to lump all GMOs together, and Damn them all. This would be akin to saying that all teenagers are bad because a few of them use handguns to kill people. We blame Monsanto alone for the whole mess. We should not. While Monsanto appears to have covered up some major flaws in it's BT research findings regarding Mammalian toxicity, this does not diminish the value of other GMO technologies. And while Europe has largely banned the production and sale of GMO Crops, at least six of the world's major GMO development companies are located in Europe. And here in the States we have Sygenta and Seminnis as well as Monsanto, being the major GMO players. And both ends of the political spectrum have supported GMO use here in the U.S. The Bush administration and the Obama Administration have been in total support, as has Congress. And just FYI, the world's center of GMO development is Singapore.
Contrary to what you may have heard, the cat is out of the bag, Genetic Crop Modification is here to stay. Eighty percent of US and Brazil Soybean acreage is planted with GM seed---some one hundred sixty million acres. And by the way, Brazil is now the largest grower of Soybeans having passed the U.S. two years ago. Seventy million of the ninety-two million acres of corn planted here in the States last year were planted with GM seed. All twenty five of the top grain corn varieties planted in 2012 were patented GM seed. And almost all Sweet Corn grown for Supermarket sales in the U.S. is grown from Genetically Modified seed. Most small local Sweet Corn growers are not yet planting GM seed, but the growing trend is in the GM seed direction.
And you can scarcely get away from it. You burn GMO crops in your automobile and your tires are 8% soybeans. Every bit of beef, pork, chicken and lamb in the supermarket, and at most local Farms, Is fed with GM grain. Eggs are produced with GM grain. Hot dogs, cereal, mayonnaise, soda, ice cream, beer, coffee creamer, yogurt, French fries, milk, pudding mix---the list is almost endless---all contain GM crop ingredients.
BUT, here at Arrowhead we will grow NO GMO crops. We will continue to enjoy non-GMO Sweet Corn, grown by my cousin Rob Bartlett at his Family Farm in Salisbury. Rob does use herbicides on all of his corn, and he sprays his corn with insecticides as needed, according to his Earworm moth trap counts. But no GMO seed..
|
|
|
Maybe next year we will try growing Sweet Corn here at Arrowhead the way my Grandfather Charlie taught me---with no chemicals at all. Just be prepared to cut out the earworms.
My thanks to all who have shared their thoughts with me. Talk with you soon.
Cheers,
Dick Chase
When the wind is in the east,
'Tis neither good for man nor beast;
When the wind is in the north,
The skillful fisher goes not forth;
When the wind is in the south,
It blows the bait in the fishes' mouth;
When the wind is in the west,
Then 'tis at the very best.
Member Signups Needed: Early Spring Share, Summer Vegetable Share, Tree Fruit Share. All CSAs need members, paid members, to continue their operations. Click here to see our website, click here to use PayPal. It is that time of year!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
