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via the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition's Blog.  Also check out a response they posted from a farmer. Vilsack: Farm Bill Should Emphasize Beginning Farmers A funny thing happened on the way to a Senate Agriculture Committee farm bill hearing to review progress on implementation of the 2008 Farm Bill’s commodity, crop insurance, and disaster assistance […]

Unsafe at Any Meal By ERIC SCHLOSSER July 24, 2010 EVERY day, about 200,000 Americans are sickened by contaminated food. Every year, about 325,000 are hospitalized by a food-borne illness. And the number who are killed annually by something they ate is roughly the same as the number of Americans who’ve been killed in Iraq […]

many thanks to greenhorn Tim Quinn of Lost World Farm for his words and photos. He says of the Greenhorns, "Your group has been a large part of my inspiration, so I must of course say thank you all for your efforts in helping to jump start our efforts. I really believe that we as a collective […]

Check out this video from the Providence Journal on a new urban farming project.   | http://www.projo.com/video/news-index.html?nvid=414786

--so says a recent piece by Christine LaPado  in Chico's news, where the greenhorns get a shout out! you can read the blurb HERE rock on.

Young farmers: On-job training a must Federal proposal would keep non-family off land By Rick Dandes The Daily Item SUNBURY — A law proposed by a California congresswoman may make it illegal for young people to get summer jobs on local farms. Sponsored by U.S. Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard, D-34 of Los Angeles, the Children's Act […]

Agriculture struggles with lack of young farmers BY COURTENAY EDELHART, Californian staff writer [email protected] | Saturday, Jun 12 2010 12:00 PM Don Davis' grandfather founded his family's northern Kern County farm in the 1930s, but the family legacy will end when he retires. His children aren't interested in farming. They came of age in the 1980s, […]

The Journal of Extension recently published a short paper called "Best Management Practices for Beginning Farmer Support," documenting strategies and recommendations shared by great CCE educators who have a long history of helping new farmers. You can view the article at: http://www.joe.org/joe/2010june/tt9.php

Greenhorn Neysa King keeps a blog about her transition to a career in organic farming, Dissertation to Dirt.  Recently, She sent us this new post about her first year working on farms as a farm intern. http://www.dissertationtodirt.com/2010/06/people-who-like-farming-are-crazy.html

Good news on the doj hearings. Remember. it's not glamourous news. But at least it's not an unstoppable oilspill wafting out over the commons. By WILLIAM NEUMAN Published: June 18, 2010 The Obama administration proposed new rules on Friday seeking to increase competition and rein in potentially unfair practices by large meatpackers and poultry processors. […]

By MATTHEW B. CRAWFORD Published NY Times: May 21, 2009 The television show “Deadliest Catch” depicts commercial crab fishermen in the Bering Sea. Another, “Dirty Jobs,” shows all kinds of grueling work; one episode featured a guy who inseminates turkeys for a living. The weird fascination of these shows must lie partly in the fact […]

A nice piece on the Transitions Incentive Program.  From conservation land to beginning farmer land! Program seeks retired farm land By Vershal Hogan (Contact) | The Natchez Democrat Published Monday, May 31, 2010 VIDALIA — The U.S. Department of Agriculture is hoping to infuse new blood into agriculture by reactivating some old farmland. Sign-up is […]

“A Pipe Dream Revolution” is a portrayal of a young person’s quest to be a sustainable farmer, to live off the land and with integrity. It’s representative of a surging movement of idealistic 20-somethings who are abandoning their urban lifestyles, sometimes forgoing college, to help spur agricultural change in the United States. With nothing but […]

Feds pledge "future farmers'" summit June 1, 2010 from country-guide.ca The federal government plans to convene a meeting this fall of young and beginning farmers with representatives from the ag industry and Ottawa, toward what's expected to be a "redesign" of policy tools meant for renewal in the ag sector. Jean-Pierre Blackburn, the federal minister […]

just today in the nytimes -- major food brands (sugar pap mostly) are advertising between 15- 82% more than usual. What does this mean and how are they doing it? Insight from The Century of Self, a BBC 4 Documentary

steven's recent book" the call of the land" has a little passage about greenhorns in it. This is the Holy Land…I Am a Human Being May 22, 2010 – “I’m always a little surprised when I hear people say that they are getting on a plane and heading off to the Holy Land,” Winona LaDuke […]

Jennifer Washburn passed on this NYtimes article that references her forthcoming report, Big Oil Goes to College, which is being published by the Center for American Progress http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/26/us/politics/26energy.html Hopefully, this NYT "mention" will draw some much-needed media attention to the actual contents of my own report, which examines university-industry alliances to finance energy research on […]

Our friend Bennett, who traveled the world on a Watson Fellowship to learn work songs, was just featured in the NYtimes: City Slickers Take to the Crops, With Song Check out the Sylvester Manor website for more on the songs he sings, including some amazing lyrics to learn and sing in your own fields!

A Data Center Power Supply that Moos By ASHLEE VANCE. May 18, 2010. Hey diddle diddle. Guess what the cow has done this time? America’s dairy farmers could soon find themselves in the computer business, with the manure from their cows possibly powering the vast data centers of companies like Google and Microsoft. While not […]

The Food Movement, Rising by Michael Pollan, New York Review of Books. June 10 2010. Food Made Visible It might sound odd to say this about something people deal with at least three times a day, but food in America has been more or less invisible, politically speaking, until very recently. At least until the […]

May 21, 2010. By Allie Brown, CNN West Milford, New Jersey (CNN) -- For Gary Oppenheimer, 2007 was a year of plenty. His backyard garden produced a bountiful harvest with a surplus of spaghetti squash, melons, pumpkins, tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers for his family. At the end of the season, Oppenheimer had 40 pounds of […]

Diary of an Urban Farmer: Braving the Storm by Annie Novak Two weeks ago, three stories up in the air, I knelt on the rocky, shallow soil of the Eagle Street Rooftop Farm to plant row after row of eggplants, peppers, and tomatoes. The air off the East River was strong from the south, the […]

regardless of the answer, you'll appreciate this article by Shannon Hayes. The Work Ahead Growing renewed relationships with our food, homes, and communities requires hard work. It's time we embrace dirty hands. May hits us like an ice water dousing on a drowsy morning. It is simultaneously shocking and deeply refreshing. Winter’s leisurely breakfasts are […]

Thanks to Paula for telling us about this article from the telegraph.co.uk . MAY 23, 2010: The Champs-Elysees was transformed into a giant strip of farmland, as French farmers attempted to generate public enthusiasm about a sector they say faces an uncertain future. The two-day event, timed to coincide with a holiday weekend, attracted huge […]

our wonderful mechanic out here, pat kinney says that this year he's had 4 requests to apprentice at his shop from kids who'd dropped out of school and wanted to learn a trade. He says he hasn't been asked for an apprenticeship in 15 years. Unemployed? Learn to do something useful.

Haitian Farmers Commit to Burning Monsanto Hybrid Seeds Tuesday 18 May 2010, by Beverly Bell "A new earthquake" is what peasant farmer leader Chavannes Jean-Baptiste of the Peasant Movement of Papay (MPP) called the news that Monsanto will be donating 60,000 seed sacks (475 tons) of hybrid corn seeds and vegetable seeds, some of them […]

Here is a delightful new book from Chelsea Green, which we're digging into right now.   Up Tunket Road , the Education of a Modern Homesteader Ever since Thoreau’s Walden, the image of the American homesteader has been of someone getting away from civilization, of forging an independent life in the country. Yet if this […]

"Drop Dead Economics": The Financial Crisis in Greece and the European Union The Wealthy Won’t Pay Their Taxes, So Labor Must Do So By Michael Hudson Riddle: How are the Greek rioters like America’s Tea Party movement? Answer: Both reject government being taken over by the financial oligarchy to shift the tax burden onto labor […]

Our pal chandler passed this along - press opportunity for young farmers! Know any up-and-coming farmers, ranchers, or agribusiness people that would make interesting profile subjects for a story in the Capital Press? We are looking for folks 35 and younger who work in ag-related operations in Calif., Idaho, Ore. or Wash. Send an e-mail […]

Daily Yonder. Relevant news for rural America.  Check out their latest offerings: Dear Readers, We bring stories of local food and beverage this week. David Mudd reviews Cornbread Nation 5, a literary buffet of Southern foodways, and we introduce Kay Westhues's documentary of artesian wells across the Midwest, flowing free and sprouting stories. Gains but […]

we've been hearing from more and more young farmers in australia-- they are getting organized over there too.. and hot on the email. Farmers' voice needs to be loud and proud to bridge the city-country divide DEBORAH BAIN, May 4, 2010 The urban Australian population is removed both physically and emotionally from the farming sector. […]

courtesy of  the soil association. “I battle so furiously on behalf of the small family farm because they are threatened with extinction from huge global corporate concerns, and governments that fail to understand the absolute crucial importance they play in the issue of food security.” HRH The Prince of Wales – The Times – 8 […]

and applications are due May 14! New Beginnings TDA grants jump start a budding generation of farmers... Friday, May 7, 2010; By Matt Felder Trent Thompson is a fire fighter. Wife Kara is a math teacher. She’s from Amarillo. He’s from Fort Worth. Outside of Comanche lies a patch of land virtually undisturbed by human […]

what do we think about geo tinkery? As huge cloud-whitening experiment goes public, global coalition urges an immediate halt to geoengineering First UN talks on issue in thirty years begin today http://www.handsoffmotherearth.org Amidst revelations in this weekend’s London Times newspaper{1} that a team of scientists and engineers funded by billionaire Bill Gates are planning to […]

greenhorn Katy Giombolini sent us this letter and a beautiful poem that she wrote!  Thanks Katy, good luck in the fields this summer. I was taking a poetry class this past semester and one of the prompts was to write a poem copying another poet. I chose Allen Ginsberg's poem "Howl" because in highschool I […]

Their May newsletter is chock full of good information, resources, tips, and research findings.  Check it our HERE.. And their Spring Planting Festival is this weekend!

Starting today, and weekly from now on, we'll be featuring books  all of us greenhorns who " farm with their brains as well as their bodies".  We'll categorize them under "Reading list", so if you're looking for a good read, click on that category and take your pick! Geography students, this one's for you. The […]

imagine if the midwest grew 28 kinds of vegetables for local consumption! A very nice study just came out unfurling the economic impact of such a future-- no surprise, more farm jobs, more farm income, and more nicer food http://www.leopold.iastate.edu/research/marketing_files/midwest.html

just out in the nytimes: For Corn Syrup, the Sweet Talk Gets Harder By MELANIE WARNER Published: April 30, 2010 FOR much of 2009, Michael Locascio, an executive at ConAgra Foods, watched with concern as the bad news about high-fructose corn syrup kept coming

This just in from our scientist friend Lucas Patzek.  I have just moved to Washington State University's research station in Mount Vernon, which is about 30 minutes south of Bellingham. I'm finishing up my research on nitrogen use efficiency in organic/low-input wheat-potato systems. There will be some exciting workshops and educational events, including breeding for […]