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A nice framework: http://augustafreepress.com/2011/12/29/young-farmers-want-partnerships-not-handouts/  

via Eliav Bitan.   Rock on, Eliav! Steve Sexton's article on "The Inefficiencies of Local Food" offers a good opportunity to clarify precisely what we in the food movement mean by "local" food. I think we mean much more than food produced around the corner. I think we mean human food grown in sustainable or organic […]

Putting Farmland on a Fertilizer Diet by Dan Charles for NPR The U.S. Department of Agriculture released a document yesterday that got no attention on the nightly news, or almost anywhere, really. Its title, I'm sure you'll agree, is a snooze: National Nutrient Management Standard. Yet this document represents the agency's best attempt to solve […]

Good thing our parents are paying attention! More young people see opportunity in farming from CBS News (AP)  MILWAUKEE — A Wisconsin factory worker worried about layoffs became a dairy farmer. An employee at a Minnesota nonprofit found an escape from her cubicle by buying a vegetable farm. A nuclear engineer tired of office bureaucracy […]

California's young farmers break traditional mold by Stacy Finz, Chronicle Staff Writer. Sunday, December 25, 2011 The average age of a farmer in California is creeping toward 60, and the California Department of Food and Agriculture is trying to attract newcomers to work the land. The need is especially acute, given that experts are forecasting […]

Check out Flavor Magazine's new piece: Meet the Future of Farming

NFU submitted comments last week to the U.S. Department of Labor regarding new proposed child labor safety regulations for agricultural and agriculture-related jobs. NFU policy supports the intent of the new regulations to make workplaces safer for young people, but urges caution in implementing regulations that may discourage children from learning about agriculture. "While farm […]

The Small Farms Quarterly (http://www.smallfarms.cornell.edu/pages/quarterly/index.cfm) is currently looking for contributing authors. This publication is a great way to get out the word about your programs and to highlight new and beginning, or experienced, farmers you're working with. Our deadlines for 2012 are as follows: Feb 10th, May 11th & August 10th. We look for articles between […]

Young agrarians find place By DOUG WARNOCK For the Capital Press A group of new, young agricultural producers filled the speaker list at the 2011 annual conference of the Quivira Coalition, which met in Albuquerque, N.M., in early November. The New Agrarians was the theme of this year's program where men and women, all under […]

Friend of a farmer: Why small-scale ag needs community by Steph Larsen Tucked into the end of a recent New York Times article about young farmers were two frank paragraphs about a quiet reality many of us face: Ms. Oakley said young farmers rarely discussed that lack of community, adding that she had seen the isolation […]

this article was originally posted on the blog of the National Young Farmers Coalition. USDA Report Shows Local Farms Earned $4.8 Billion in 2008 A new report by the USDA’s Economic Research Service, “Direct and Intermediated Marketing of Local Foods in the United States,” has some important implications for those interested in farming or marketing […]

The Food Divide By Christopher D. Cook for the San Francisco Bay Guardian, 11/29/2011 Antonia Williams is part of a slow, quiet food revolution. After battling obesity for much of her adult life, the 26-year-old lifelong Bayview resident did some research. "I realized it had a lot to do with the food I consumed," she […]

A bounty of great winter reading materials! http://www.thegreenhorns.net/reading.html

that is not slanted by big money WONDERFUL! first story was about mega dairies in new mexico. go fern! www.thefern.org

Agriculture needs massive investment to avoid hunger, scientists warn Group of leading scientists urge investment in sustainable agriculture to solve hunger crisis and reduce global warming by Fiona Harvey for The Guardian Billions more investment is needed in agriculture and food distribution systems around the world in the next few years, if widespread hunger is […]

 Lots of news on the blog these days http://www.gallup.com/poll/150689/Americans-Ability-Afford-Food-Nears-Three-Year-Low.aspx  most of it frustrating.

Some suggested reading from Nancy Ranney of the wonderful Ranney Ranch in New Mexico. Beginning with her talk at the 2010 Quivera Coalition Conference.  Thank you, Nancy! http://quiviracoalition.org/images/global/321-Working%2520with%2520carbon%2520on%2520the%2520Ranney%2520Ranch.pdf TIME article by Judith Schwartz:   http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,2016079,00.html New York Times article by Kim Severson:   http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/10/magazine/10cowshare.html# National Geographic blog by Bill Chameides:    http://www.greatenergychallengeblog.com/2010/11/thar-she-blows-wind-on-the-horizon-in-the-american-west/

With the Super Committee Failure, Advocates Look Toward the Farm Bill Yesterday, the chairs of the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction announced that the panel was unable to reach an agreement on a deficit reduction plan to cut $1.2 trillion from the federal budget over 10 years. In the past few weeks, both the Democrats and […]

Future Farmers Look Ahead By Motoko Rich for the New York Times November 11, 2011 INDIANAPOLIS — Gamaliel Rizzo grew up in a brownstone apartment in Brooklyn and is studying to become a doctor. Still, he spent his high school years learning how to raise chinchillas, goats and alpaca and growing radishes, sunflowers and cilantro. […]

HARDWORKING COUPLE (28F + 32M) SEEKS HOMESTEADING APPRENTICESHIP IN OR AROUND AMHERST MA SUMMER 2012 We want to know about the feasibility of living off the land. We grew up in rural CT and RI but have lived in NYC for the past 10 years! We are now hoping to leave NYC for good to […]

This Is What Revolution Looks Like Tuesday 15 November 2011 by: Chris Hedges, Truthdig | Op-Ed Welcome to the revolution. Our elites have exposed their hand. They have nothing to offer. They can destroy but they cannot build. They can repress but they cannot lead. They can steal but they cannot share. They can talk but they […]

The Secret Farm Bill by Mark Bittman for the New York Times The Republican-manufactured budget crisis of this past summer — remember? — resulted in a “solution” that’s hijacking what little representative democratic process we have left. Equally sad is that the so-called supercommittee — charged with creating an outline for reducing the deficit by […]

Some of this is based on the National Young Farmers Coalition survey that many of you filled out.  Thank you!  Young Farmers Find Huge Obstacles to Getting Started By Isolde Raftery,  November 12, 2011 in the New York Times Emily Oakley, who had worked on an organic farm in California, moved with her husband, Mike […]

(Photo credit: Jahi Chikwendiu) Michael Pollan: On the Steve Jobs of agriculture Washington Post. November 4, 2011. By Tim CarmanMichael Pollan may have one of the hardest jobs in the country: trying to encourage Americans to eat better — or at least better understand the current food system and how it has led to a diet that’s slowly […]

Government Counting Sheep? Now, Only in Its Dreams By WILLIAM NEUMAN Last year, Wisconsin led the nation in mink farming, producing 833,430 pelts. Texas was the undisputed king of pansies, growing 1.8 million flats of the flowers. And no state harvested more hops than Washington, with 24,336 acres. This year? Who knows? The government has […]

Someone Got Rich and Someone Got Sick By Chip Ward What if rising sea levels are yet another measure of inequality? What if the degradation of our planet’s life-support systems -- its atmosphere, oceans, and biosphere -- goes hand in hand with the accumulation of wealth, power, and control by that corrupt and greedy 1% […]

Nowtopian - economy, 'technology', public space, San Francisco past and present, class, books "We’re living in the midst of a fantastically exciting historic moment. I don’t know about you, but I have spent years thinking about these kinds of social ruptures, wishing for that sudden lurch in history when things change so fast. I spoke […]

Is This the Future of Farming? By Sarah Rich, Oct 26 2011 for The Atlantic ATLANTA -- It's easy to miss the Podponics headquarters on Ponce de Leon Avenue. We breezed right by before company co-founder Dan Backhaus came out to the curb to wave us in. To look at their setup--six rust-colored, graffitied shipping […]

This blog post analyzes the texts posted to Tumbler by We are the 99% / Occupy Wall Street protesters. It finds that the concerns voiced by the protesters are consistent with pre-modern demands by peasants living in feudal conditions. The blogger doesn't use the word "feudal" but he does reach the conclusion that people today […]

Severine is on the road gathering steam and contributers to the YOUNG FARMERS ALMANAC project. dyer- rebecca beekeeper- sam milk maiden- louella work songer- bennett, creek natural historian- barbara all contributing content to a deeply relevant, entertaining, and radical publication for the generation of new farmers currently staking a claim in the new american economy. […]

this is the cluster of bills I keep talking about. Young would-be farmers have a tough row to hoe by By GABRIEL SILVERMAN in the News Observer ASHINGTON -- The average age of the American farmer has been rising for decades and now is edging toward 60, as rural youth traded work in soil for […]

This Land Is Your Land You can find Joel Salatin's soul in his slaughterhouse. Just behind the oversize shed that serves as his farm's shop is what Salatin calls the chicken-processing center, where the living birds that squawked in the field this morning are killed, defeathered and cleaned in swift succession by a bucket brigade […]

article here: http://www.capitalpress.com/washington/SB-young-farmers-100711-art check out photos here: http://farmrun.com/?p=2593 and http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.258236727544783.54483.164653070236483&type=1

a cross post from civileats blog, worthy of sharing: Siena Chrisman's take on speculation, land grabs, corporate consolidation, and solidarity… on Civil Eats today: http://civileats.com/2011/10/13/why-the-food-movement-should-occupy-wall-street/

don't leave it to folks in the back of a supermarket. http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/09/canteloupe-outbreak-more   stay alive yo better yet, grow your own damn food

New kind of young farmers taking root in UTAH - read up! http://www.deseretnews.com/article/700183211/New-kind-of-young-farmers-taking-root.html?pg=2

Ed Scott, the nations first African American catfish farmer. Catfish farming saved a lot of lives in the Mississippi Delta. Below is a profile on Ed by Joe York of the Southern Foodways Alliance, titled "On Flavor  

The Brown Revolution: Increasing Agricultural Productivity Naturally By Lisa M. Hamilton A team of ranchers in South Dakota are using holistic management techniques to regenerate our ailing grasslands and fight climate change Dusk in Western South Dakota. A half-hour ago, at sunset, the world here made its last pulse for the day: birds hurried between […]

NY Times: Hiring Locally for Farm Work Is No Cure-All OLATHE, Colo. — How can there be a labor shortage when nearly one out of every 11 people in the nation are unemployed? That’s the question John Harold asked himself last winter when he was trying to figure out how much help he would need […]

and has a great set of skills to boot. See his information here on compost... Are you purchasing compost for your urban or small rural farm?  Confused by all the options, and want to make sure that your investment pays off?  Check out this article "How to Make The Most Out Of Purchased Compost" to […]