Dear Farming Friends,

As we all struggle in our farming project with the 20 minute drive, the centralised versus decentralised land options and the issues of off-farm food storage, is there another option, a possible answer we haven't thought of yet? Why not farm in the city, why not build a huge farm skyscraper....?

"By the year 2050, nearly 80% of the earth's population will reside in urban centers. Applying the most conservative estimates to current demographic trends, the human population will increase by about 3 billion people during the interim. An estimated 10⁹ hectares of new land (about 20% more land than is represented by the country of Brazil) will be needed to grow enough food to feed them, if traditional farming practices continue as they are practiced today. At present, throughout the world, over 80% of the land that is suitable for raising crops is in use (sources: FAO and NASA). Historically, some 15% of that has been laid waste by poor management practices. What can be done to avoid this impending disaster?"

http://www.verticalfarm.com

sincerely,

jonney

Benefit Screening of Food Inc

No doubt we are all excited about the recent release of Food Inc featuring my main squeeze, Michael Pollen. It starts showing in Portland on the 19th but there is a benefit screening on the 23rd. This is a meeting night but let's discuss a plan? Excited to share this movie with everyone!


Food, Inc., a new documentary about our nation's food industry, is coming to Portland. The film features Michael Pollan and Eric Schlosser, and explores the realities of and alternatives to our broken food system.

Attend the film on Tuesday, June 23 at Cinema 21 and a portion of your ticket price will be donated to Slow Food! We will use these contributions specifically to further our work, partnerships, and programming to improve the "fairness" of the food we eat.

So, bring your family, bring your friends, see a great and thought-provoking film, and support Slow Food while you're at it! When you buy your ticket, make sure to say the code word, "Slow Food", to activate your donation!

What: Food, Inc. screening to benefit Slow Food
When: June 23rd, 7 pm
Where: Cinema 21, 616 NW 21st Ave.
Tickets: $8 regular admission, Cinema 21 box office

Planting Ensues!

Dear All Farm Loving Friends,

Ground has been broken, seeds sown and appetites wet. The past two weekends have seen the beginning of farm plot planting with a variety of friends and members helping to plant the first small sections of our farm. Looking up from where we diligently and compassionately cover up our first seeds, we see the epic space of two acres, soon to be covered in green and flowery goodness, sprawl out in front of us. I can safely say, these were some of the best two weekends I've had in Portland since my arrival last August. Here are a few pictures.

Vertical gardening

http://greenupgrader.com/7556/diy-vertical-garden-with-reclaimed-gutters/

In case we run out of land, we can build up with reclaimed gutters! I just loved this idea and wanted to share it. Maybe we can try this on our shade for an experiment.


What other great ideas can we share on the farm?

Farmer suicide, woah

Headline: 1,500 farmers commit mass suicide in India

What a message to start the day.

As we embark on this experiment, this project, this adventure it is good to add to the reasons that inspire us. We have our obvious reasons - health of our soil, our bodies, our community. But what about the health of our fellow farmers? What we are hoping to do together may help them by offering an alternative, offering hope.

Imagine if 1,500 farmers committed suicide in the USA not from financial debt (b/c our policy prevents it) but from the realization that their precious land is toxic from pesticides and slowly kills those that eat its produce? What would the Farm Bill look like after that?

Sanity Beckons

As we walk the knife edge between the virtual and real world in our farming group, sometimes it's important to remebmer the following:

Peace,

Jonney

Hard Farming Times in Paradise

This past week, Lauren's and my absence at the farm meeting was due to a presence in a different past of the world called paradise. Or at least that's what it appeared to the bleeched white, Portland soaked due that vibrantly reflected the sun's gaze from a lounger. However, 'paradise,' it turns out, is a relative global destination.

On the island of Eleuthera in the Bahamas is a small local farm business aptly named, 'Island Farm.' It covers about 2 acres of land, all of which had to be tiringly prepared due to the amount of rock in the soil. The island that is only a kilometer or two in width faces the monstrous atlantic whose winds continually blow & whose salty moisture make mostly all vegetation coarse and tough. Throw in a dry season lasting longer than I have ever seen with temperatures that make you want to melt rather than get out and farm, well, you see the evident challenges.

However, given the tough environment, this little farm seemed to be thriving. They grew all things from coconut trees that sprouted from their giant nuts to good old fashioned lettuce. Water conservation was a top priority and the farm's helping hand, a rather stern young lady, patrolled early clippings of plants in order to encourage much needed growth. While the project was small, it exuded success and positivity in a paradise that really wasn't a paradise at all. 

Visiting another farm, especially abroad, while being a new farmer was a completely different experience for me. I had a new appreciation and affinity for what these people were doing. This has left me with the hope that we as a group, as we mature and get stuck into growing our own produce, will take the time to visit other farms, if not for hard sought lessons, for the appreciation and communitas it engenders.

With farming affections,

Jonney

DDT - Using Biodynamic Farming to Remediate

Thought I would share this email that was sent to me from a local permaculture farmer~katherine

Marie Mauger (pronounced Mow-shay) runs a 17 ac biodynamic farm, perhaps 3-4 of it is currently in tillage. It is on an old pineapple plantation, which was heavily doused with DDT for several years.

She got a grant from the USDA to monitor test patches where she was working to detoxify the soil- hard to sale organic produce when its not organic, right? she did 16 test plots, 4 each of 4 different treatments: control, lignin, lignin-biodynamic and biodynamic.

she had a grad student witness the test plot preparations and handle thelab testing of ths soils.

The results were shocking, I think, to conventional science- the DDT concentrations in the control plot barely moved of course; the lignin treatement produced the next lowest % of decrease, somewhere in the 50-60% reduction, if I recall, and the liginin biodynamic treatment produced a 70% or so reduction. Biodynamic alone produced the greatest effect, an 82% reduction in DDT in the observed soil.

That this is all documented in a USDA report is of course remarkable; while I have my wn opinion of Steiner's metasystemic approach, the feild level applications are quite observably superior to other available treatments in this experiment.

for a complete copy of the test method and results, including the biodynamic application titles (ingredients are standard to titles, but are found elsewhere) please see

http://www.soilandhealth.org/01aglibrary/BD.Journal.TOC.html

and search for "mauger". you can register with the librarian and then dowlload the copy of the journal which outlines this experiement.

I have pictures of her farm, further detalis of this story, and much more. Shes a cutey!

Peace,

Deston Denniston, M.S., C.P.I.
Steward, Abundance Permaculture Consulting
www.abundancepermaculture.com
(360) 673-2124

New DM&E Feedback System

I have just set up and posted a new DM&E feedback system. The idea behind this is to give us a free and anonymous space to provide feedback While we are meeting often now and many issues are coming to light in our discussions, into the future we will require a formal channel to provide comments, suggestions and most of all complaints or concerns. While face to face to is always effective, some problems may need a more subtle route of communication. This system that allows you to identify yourself or not will help field feedback and channel it to the right working groups.

All feedback will be viewed by only the members in the DM&E working committee until released to further audiences. Further release is at the discretion of the DM&E working group. If the feedback is appropriate or if it is deemed required, the commentary will be brought up in front of the group at a general meeting.

We hope this gives us a formal channel of communication when required. Hopefully, most feedback will be given directly to working groups or individuals in question.

Link to the system: DM&E FEEDBACK SYSTEM

Please offer any feedback, comments, suggestions and edits you would like to see! And feel free to test out the form sheet!

Cheers,

Jonney

DID MONSANTO BUY SEEDS OF CHANGE?

Hi Folks,

So a few nights ago at dinner Angela dropped a bomb on me... A seed bomb.... "Monsanto bought Seeds of Change" (paraphraseing). "WHAT!"

So I had to do some research and find out what the skinny was on the one seed company I have relied on, to be aligned with my philisophical take on seeds as power, the place I relied on to be my one stop shop for organic seed (and just think of a happy place). This is what I found:

THE RESEARCH
I called them and they said, "We are in no way affiliated to Monsanto or Seminis" but I thought why is this rumor circulating so I dug deeper...

"And We Have the Seeds"
Monsanto Purchases World’s Largest Vegetable Seed Company

“Monsanto Company to Acquire Seminis, Inc., a Leading Vegetable and Fruit Seed Company
Acquisition Expected to Add Near-term Income Growth and Diversity to Monsanto's Seed Portfolio

ST. LOUIS (Jan. 24, 2005) - Monsanto Company (NYSE: MON) announced today that it signed a definitive agreement to acquire Seminis, Inc., for $1.4 billion in cash and assumed debt… “
(From Monsanto Press Release)

THE ARTICLE
So the short version of this thorough article, well worth reading on The Organic Seed Alliance, is that,

"Seminis controls 40 percent of the U.S. vegetable seed market and 20 percent of the world market—supplying the genetics for 55 percent of the lettuce on U.S. supermarket shelves, 75 percent of the tomatoes, and 85 percent of the peppers, with strong holdings in beans, cucumbers, squash, melons, broccoli, cabbage, spinach and peas."

Monsanto/Seminis does not own Seeds of Change. Yet Monsanto/Seminis produces varieties that may affect organic growers.

"Johnny’s, Territorial, Fedco, Nichol’s, Rupp, Osborne, Snow, and Stokes are among the dozens of commercial and garden seed catalogs that carry the more than 3,500 varieties that comprise Seminis’ offerings. This includes dozens of All-American Selections and an increasing number of varieties licensed to third parties for certified organic seed production."

Can the crop folks take a look at what varietals are in question (i.e. Semins/Monsanto produced)? See Article The Organic Seed Alliance

The article makes some great points on a philosophical and practical point of view. So please take the time to read the article and then consider my response.

MY RESPONSE
I am definitely trippin' about this from a policy food security point of view and I would like to put out the possibility of a small seed saving practice. Meaning - I know that seed saving can be a huge opertion, its complex and it can require large tracts of land.

THE TRAINING ED. & COLLABORATION OP
Once our memebrship is ratified, crops are planned and all other space allocation regarding food production is taken care of, and if we still have some space left over, I would like to consider growing some heirloom crops for the explicit purpose of learning hands on what it takes to run a seed saving operation.

I think it should be approved by the group (i.e. to use extra land), volunteer driven (i.e. time can't interfere with other duties and does not count for our commited Labor & Planning Time), and furthermore it can be an opportunity to collaborate with others in the farming community (i.e. What do you think Bob New... Bob New can you hear me...). What do you think Group?

Check it!

WESTCO: April 3-4-5, 2009

Oh boy, I'm the first one to post! I wanted to share with everyone a very exciting opportunity. As we ratified our mission statement including the word "co-operatively" I thought it fitting to share with you the West Coast Co-op gathering this coming weekend. A good friend of mine is organizing it down in Eugene. Check out the website and let me know if you are interested.

http://sites.google.com/site/scawiki/Home/westco-2009

It is geared toward cooperative housing but there are surely benefits to attending for anyone involved in group development. Plus, it will just be a cool group of people and fun events throughout the weekend. Oh ya, it's all free :)

Welcome to the Small Scale Farming Project Blog

We invite all of those from the SSFP to share thoughts, stories, lessons, experiences and photographs pertaining to our little farming mission here in the NW. The name and address of the blog will change when our name changes, but for now we'll use SSFP.

We hope this blog will be a way of sharing information and creating a sense of community and sharing between all of us. Of course we prefer face to face, but for when we have something we can't tell everyone but simply must... we now have an informal venue.

Enjoy!

Jonney Taee - DM&E Working Committee