Shepherd
07-22-2013, 12:54 PM
The following article from yesterday's NY Times on "Our Coming Food Crisis" by a prominent scientist is important reading. Temperatures up to 130 degrees are now happening here in California. We are in a new reality. It is important for more people to learn how to garden and farm, as well as to understand the importance of water. These are basic survival issues.
As the following article says, "roughly 40% of the net farm income for the country normally comes from the 17 Western states." This summer has been my worst year in 20 years of farming. It started strong. Then we had a big out-of-season rain, following by 100 degree weather. So first my fruit got spoiled, then fried. As it gets hotter up here, more pests will arrive, which means more pesticides, which means more asthma, cancer, and other health problems. A cascade of problems will follow, especially with respect to health care.
We need many changes in policy and in farm practices. As this article suggests, we need more perennials, which my crops are. But most of all, we need more farmers, especially younger people. When I left full-time college teaching 20 years ago to farm, many colleagues were critical. It was already clear to me back then that we will not be able to feed the growing population with the industrial ag practices, which seek more consumers. Note that the new Farm Bill is striking down food stamps. What happened to compassion?
Agri-culture is the basis of culture. You are what you eat. Colleges need to have more courses on ag. and issues such as climate change, if more humans and other species are to survive on this one, holy Earth. Our North Bay can become even more of a leader on these issues. It is time to stop cutting down apple orchards, especially near schools, and dairy farms and replacing them with vineyards. We need a massive change in consciousness about what is really important. There is a larger spiritual issue here.
Shepherd Bliss, Kokopelli Farm
July 21, 2013
https://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/misc/nytlogo152x23.gif
<nyt_headline version="1.0" type=" ">Our Coming Food Crisis</nyt_headline><nyt_headline version="1.0" type=" "></nyt_headline>
<nyt_byline>By GARY PAUL NABHAN
</nyt_byline><nyt_text><nyt_correction_top></nyt_correction_top>TUCSON, Ariz. — THIS summer the tiny town of Furnace Creek, Calif., may once again grace the nation’s front pages. Situated in Death Valley, it last made news in 1913, when it set the record for the world’s hottest recorded temperature, at 134 degrees. With the heat wave currently blanketing the Western states, and given that the mercury there has already reached 130 degrees, the news media is awash in speculation that Furnace Creek could soon break its own mark.
Such speculation, though, misses the real concern posed by the heat wave, which covers an area larger than New England. The problem isn’t spiking temperatures, but a new reality in which long stretches of triple-digit days are common — threatening not only the lives of the millions of people who live there, but also a cornerstone of the American food supply.
People living outside the region seldom recognize its immense contribution to American agriculture: roughly 40 percent of the net farm income for the country normally comes from the 17 Western states; cattle and sheep production make up a significant part of that, as do salad greens, dry beans, onions, melons, hops, barley, wheat and citrus fruits. The current heat wave will undeniably diminish both the quality and quantity of these foods.
The most vulnerable crops are those that were already in flower and fruit when temperatures surged, ...
Continues here (https://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/22/opinion/our-coming-food-crisis.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0).
</nyt_text>
As the following article says, "roughly 40% of the net farm income for the country normally comes from the 17 Western states." This summer has been my worst year in 20 years of farming. It started strong. Then we had a big out-of-season rain, following by 100 degree weather. So first my fruit got spoiled, then fried. As it gets hotter up here, more pests will arrive, which means more pesticides, which means more asthma, cancer, and other health problems. A cascade of problems will follow, especially with respect to health care.
We need many changes in policy and in farm practices. As this article suggests, we need more perennials, which my crops are. But most of all, we need more farmers, especially younger people. When I left full-time college teaching 20 years ago to farm, many colleagues were critical. It was already clear to me back then that we will not be able to feed the growing population with the industrial ag practices, which seek more consumers. Note that the new Farm Bill is striking down food stamps. What happened to compassion?
Agri-culture is the basis of culture. You are what you eat. Colleges need to have more courses on ag. and issues such as climate change, if more humans and other species are to survive on this one, holy Earth. Our North Bay can become even more of a leader on these issues. It is time to stop cutting down apple orchards, especially near schools, and dairy farms and replacing them with vineyards. We need a massive change in consciousness about what is really important. There is a larger spiritual issue here.
Shepherd Bliss, Kokopelli Farm
July 21, 2013
https://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/misc/nytlogo152x23.gif
<nyt_headline version="1.0" type=" ">Our Coming Food Crisis</nyt_headline><nyt_headline version="1.0" type=" "></nyt_headline>
<nyt_byline>By GARY PAUL NABHAN
</nyt_byline><nyt_text><nyt_correction_top></nyt_correction_top>TUCSON, Ariz. — THIS summer the tiny town of Furnace Creek, Calif., may once again grace the nation’s front pages. Situated in Death Valley, it last made news in 1913, when it set the record for the world’s hottest recorded temperature, at 134 degrees. With the heat wave currently blanketing the Western states, and given that the mercury there has already reached 130 degrees, the news media is awash in speculation that Furnace Creek could soon break its own mark.
Such speculation, though, misses the real concern posed by the heat wave, which covers an area larger than New England. The problem isn’t spiking temperatures, but a new reality in which long stretches of triple-digit days are common — threatening not only the lives of the millions of people who live there, but also a cornerstone of the American food supply.
People living outside the region seldom recognize its immense contribution to American agriculture: roughly 40 percent of the net farm income for the country normally comes from the 17 Western states; cattle and sheep production make up a significant part of that, as do salad greens, dry beans, onions, melons, hops, barley, wheat and citrus fruits. The current heat wave will undeniably diminish both the quality and quantity of these foods.
The most vulnerable crops are those that were already in flower and fruit when temperatures surged, ...
Continues here (https://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/22/opinion/our-coming-food-crisis.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0).
</nyt_text>