I was just listening to Farming Today and heard the most unbelievable quote. Something to the effect that if the UK’s Badger Cull went forward the speaker would boycott all British raised farm goods. This is an insane position. Firstly, not all farmers are behind the badger cull. Some quite happily get along with [...]

All this past week, even immersed in pig business, the workshop and guests, I have been having some brilliant conversations with Heather Gorringe and Farmer Phil of Wiggly Wigglers about the plight of farming, agriculture and how Social media can close the gap between farmer and consumer and how it can help change the [...]

These videos have come to my attention recently and they deserve to be seen by everyone.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKwLP6JoOVY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGoWKVA87ro

Technorati Tags: farming, agriculture, food, politics, rooting for farmers, gastrocast, buy local, waitrose, fair trade for farmers

The following is a letter to the editor about this article in Cooperative Living a magazine published 10 times a year by the Virginia, Maryland & Delaware Association of Electric Cooperatives.
Dear Editor,
I read with interest your article by Don Gardner in the “Food For Thought” Column of August’s Cooperative Living magazine. I sincerely hope you [...]

The term “Food Miles” has become a catch phrase lately. The concept of food traveling an average of 1200 miles from source to destination has gained a lot of mileage itself and people have reacted to it by supporting local agriculture and  local food systems.
However, with the rise in support of the local has come [...]

I’m so mad I can’t see straight.  After countless hours of rousing people to the cause, after writing our legislators and encouraging others to do so, after finally thinking big things were happening with the 2007 Farm Bill we get this:
News from the House Agriculture Committee
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Media Contacts:
April Demert Slayton [...]

The Podchef has uploaded a special rant on Farming, farmers, the USDA, agriculture, Animal ID (NAIS) and the state of the food system and some thoughts on what we can do about it.
You can visit the blog post and download it, or listen to it here:

Technorati Tags: rant, podchef, gastrocast, [...]

I was on the mainland yesterday visiting my friends Steve and Katherine at their farmstand. Among the many topics we discussed was, what I will call the Farmstand, or Farm Shop, Ethos.1 The Farmstand, or Farm Shop, differs from a Farmers’ Market because they are semi-permanent structures on or adjacent to the farm itself, [...]

The US Government wants you to feel safe about the beef you eat. So safe that they’ve banned independent BSE (mad cow) testing!
The Associated Press notes that the Bush administration “will fight to keep meatpackers from testing all their animals for mad cow disease. The Agriculture Department tests fewer than 1 percent of slaughtered cows [...]

In a recent discussion about Country of Origin Labeling–or COOL–I got to thinking that the only true way of knowing which country your food comes from is to buy Locally, from Producers, Growers and Farmers you can know and trust. If more local farmers, producers, and growers would be specific on their material about where, [...]