Food News

Back in January 2012, we talked about Greenmarket farmers, Mike Betit and Amanda Andrews of Tamarack Hollow Farm in Vermont, and Lucky, their time share Holstein ox. Read the original story here.

Lucky was added to the farm's workforce to plow and haul. So, with few economies of scale on Mike and Amanda's 88 acre organic farm, Lucky was a versatile, cost-effective contributor to the bottom line of their operation. In fact, Lucky was so useful, he has been replaced in permanent residence by two Dutch Belted Oxen, Thunder and Lightning.  Dutch Belted are beautiful black cattle with a white 'belt' around their middles noted, like all dairy breed oxen, for their strength and for their ability to thrive on good quality forage. They are medium in size, weighing about 1,700 pounds. The oxen, pictured with Amanda in the field, arrived this month and, by all reports, Mike, Amanda, Thunder, and Lightning are all doing well.  In fact, Thunder and Lightning already come when called and follow Mike around the fields.

by Yi Wang & Eric Weltman, Food and Water Watch
February 2012
 
American farm policy and corporate mergers have created powerful agribusiness giants with dominant market shares—corporations that control virtually every of segment of the industrial food system. A leading agricultural economist in 2002 concluded that consolidation across the food system has hurt farmers and consumers more than the efficiency gains it has generated.1  While monopolies and oligopolies have captured the bulk of the profits, small and midsized family farms have gotten squeezed out. Workers face exploitative conditions and consumers end up paying higher prices, with millions living in food deserts without access to fresh food.

There is a growing movement to (re)build food systems that are good, local, sustainable, and fair. Alternative certification schemes such as organic and Fair Trade and marketing channels such as farmers markets, food hubs, and community-supported agriculture (CSAs) offer practical examples of visions for a more equitable and sustainable food system. Unfortunately, voting with our wallets and forks alone is not enough. As the ‘alternative food movement’ works at the local level to restore links between consumers and farmers, urban and rural, and to secure justice and rights for workers, we must also address the rules that govern the food system. The next Farm Bill presents a critical opportunity to chip away at the power of agribusiness and to build fair and sustainable local food systems.

By Rosalin Luetum

On a snowy Saturday morning in January, hundreds of people filled the swank auditorium of The New York Times building for "TEDxManhattan: Changing the Way We Eat."  In its second year, TEDxManhattan centers around the sustainable food movement, where inspiring and illuminating talks are given by speakers with various backgrounds in food and farming.  Attendees included farmers, philanthropists, academics, educators, students, health professionals, chefs and bakers, while those unable to attend were able to access the day's events via live webcast and local viewing parties.  Whether physically present or not, audiences left the storm outside to gather in the hearth of ideas, conversation and inspiration.