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In the summer of 2016, the Permaculture Skills Center in Sebastopol, CA is offering a Farm School, a 10-week intensive on regenerative farming, followed by an integrated 6-month mentorship on independent projects.  The program integrates sustainable design, business planning, and farm operation-- blending class, field trips, visits from local experts, and on-farm experience-- to give students a holistic education in […]

We have a stubborn and delicious dream that farming can evolve to exist without a constant input of fossil fuels, and Peace of Earth Farm in Albany, VT is dreaming it too! Farmer Rebecca Beidler, has put out a call for support on a super innovative research project to combine the technologies of root cellars and ice houses to […]

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvxwJlSMPP8] Thanks be this morning to Canadians and and the internet! This week, we discovered that there are SO MANY episodes of Canadian sketch series The Red and Green Show up on youtube. Haven't heard of The Red and Green Show? It's a Home-Improvement-meets-Portlandia-meets-Cartalk kind of affair-- only with quirky little original jingles in every scene. Sounds too gloriously campy to be true, […]

The Conway School, a Landscape Design School in Massachusette's Pioneer Valley, is holding an information session March 19th at its new Easthampton campus. The Conway School is a 40-year old accredited institution that offers Masters of Science degrees in Ecological Design. Its curriculum focusses on hands-on, real-world, project-based learning with supplemental classes in design theory, graphics, computer skills […]

Scientists have suggested eating of insects as a way to address food shortage and improve nutrition. Many edible species of crickets, grasshoppers, caterpillars and termites are highly nutritious, according to scientists from the Lake Victoria region of Kenya. There are over 2,000 insect species being consumed by more than two billion people globally today. "We […]

http://static2.businessinsider.de/image/56d73e44dd0895290f8b459e-1200-759/indian_aurochs_b_p_namadicus_3.jpg Until four hundred years ago, a wild, long-horned ancestor of cattle roamed across much of Europe. The last of these stately creatures — known as aurochs — went extinct in the 1600s. But what if there were a way to bring them back? Last year David MacHugh, a professor of genomics at University College […]

Sunday March 13th at the 2016 Just Food Conference New York City The FoodBargeHack is a brainstorming and educational event sponsored by the Lower Hudson Long Island Resource Conservation & Development Council (LHLIRCD), bringing together a diverse group of stakeholders and passionate participants. We seek experts in transportation logistics, food distribution, agricultural product aggregation, food […]

Never fear! Sci Hub is here! It's the first website in the world to provide mass & public access to research papers...FOR FREE. Check it out HERE.  

Native to China and northeastern India, mandarins are one of five original types of citrus (along with pummelos, citrons, kumquats and papedas) from which all others, like oranges and grapefruit, are derived. Until recently, because most mandarins were relatively small, delicate or full of seeds, they remained less cultivated than other citrus in the United […]

The Lionel Pincus & Princess Firyal Map Division is very proud to announce the release of more than 20,000 cartographic works as high resolution downloads. We believe these maps have no known US copyright restrictions.* To the extent that some jurisdictions grant NYPL an additional copyright in the digital reproductions of these maps, NYPL is […]

https://www.democracynow.org/images/blog_posts/40/30140/splash/BertaCaceres.jpg Honduran indigenous and environmental organizer Berta Cáceres has been assassinated in her home. She was one of the leading organizers for indigenous land rights in Honduras. In 1993 she co-founded the National Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH). For years the group faced a series of threats and repression. According to […]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49fxlkN27zc

For more information, click HERE!

The culinary historian Michael Twitty has dedicated his career to celebrating the people whose culinary and agricultural contributions to America have been misappropriated throughout history. In August, Twitty spoke at MAD, imploring the audience to take an honest look at our gastronomic past, so that we might be able to bridge “pseudo-boundaries of race”, as […]

SOIL links Canadian farmers willing to take on and train apprentices with folks wanting to work and learn on an organic farm using sustainable practices. We aim to facilitate apprenticeships which transfer lasting knowledge to both the farmer and the apprentice. Established in 1989 as a non-profit organization, our goals are: To encourage the growth […]

To hear one of the bands (So Sol), click HERE!

https://assets-production-webvanta-com.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/000000/44/16/original/images/resilience-logo.png Resilience.org is a program of the Post Carbon Institute (PCI). From 2004 to 2012 the site was known as "Energy Bulletin." Over the years Energy Bulletin broadened its coverage from peak oil and energy to include other resource depletion, related issues, and articles which describe, encourage or educate on meaningful responses — in essence, […]

'A Farmer’s Road’ tells the story of how two Ph.D. soil scientists (Jarrell and Cooperband) traded the security of academic tenure for the relentless challenges and economic uncertainty of operating a Grade A goat dairy and farmstead creamery in central Illinois. Surrounded by commodity-based agribusiness, they strive to embody the core principles of sustainability, showcasing […]

Monsanto's Dream Bill (H.R. 1599) would prohibit any state efforts to require labeling of genetically engineered foods (GMOs) — and it already passed in the House of Representatives and was just introduced in the Senate. We have to stop this bill in the Senate! The Grocery Manufacturers Association, an industry group that represents Monsanto, Nestlé, […]

Fundamental long-term changes in values, Morris argues, are driven by the most basic force of all: energy. Humans have found three main ways to get the energy they need—from foraging, farming, and fossil fuels. Each energy source sets strict limits on what kinds of societies can succeed, and each kind of society rewards specific values. […]

Meet Michelle LaPenai: artist, designer, forager and gardener passionate about food as medicine. She wants to serve those bringing good things into the market place and wants to be a part of this movement to use her skills. She is not looking for pro bono work, but to connect with farmers in order to bring […]

Versaland is a 145-acre permaculture research farm in Iowa City, Iowa. Science-focused and early stage, Versaland (with you!) will plant 12,000+ trees in the 2016 season while continuing to develop our ponds, earthworks and Keyline installations. Versaland operates custom-built machinery, an electric tractor and many other farm innovations. Hosting skill-specific workshops throughout the season including […]

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UN2tlgMbCmw] Earlier this year, The Virginia Beginning Farmer & Rancher Coalition sat down with the owners of five farms across Virginia to talk with them about their enterprises. They asked them how they got started in farming, where they sell their products, how they handle their labor, and so much more! These conversations were recorded […]

Concerns over use of glyphosate-based herbicides and risks associated with exposures: a consensus statement February 17, 2016, Environmental Health The broad-spectrum herbicide glyphosate (common trade name “Roundup”) was first sold to farmers in 1974. Since the late 1970s, the volume of glyphosate-based herbicides (GBHs) applied has increased approximately 100-fold. In response to changing GBH use […]

"PhotosynQ is an open source software and sensor platform where communities can identify, research, and implement new methods to solve their local problems. Our initial focus is on agriculture, where we’re bringing together researchers, extension, crop consultants, and farmers to develop precision ag solutions in markets largely ignored by ‘big ag’ (small farms, niche crops, […]

Enter the Young Farmer Success Act, which would extend the student loan debt forgiveness granted to persons in public service by the Higher Education Act of 1965 to full time farmer and farm workers. It's in the senate now!  What you think? Is farming an act of national service? Then join up with the folks […]

Join us for this informal monthly gathering of bee enthusiasts - a chat fest of beekeeping information! We meet on the LAST Wednesday of every month - mark your calendars!  See details below. All are welcome!  No experience necessary, though if you're really new to it, reading up some before you come is a good […]

If a comic illustration can read like an heart-stirring anthem plays, then the one below would have all of us on our feet hollering along with our eyes closed. Quite honestly, greenhorns, I teared up a little reading this comic this morning. Leave it to Bill Watterson to tell you just what you need to hear when […]

14 women who work every day to improve your food 3. Severine Von Tscharner Fleming Based in Chaplain Valley, NY, Fleming is an activist, farmer, founder and director of The Greenhorns, a grassroots cultural organization that advocates for a growing movement of young farmers and ranchers in America. Fleming founded the Society for Agriculture and […]

cooperative development where ecology and economics meet Cooperative Design Lab (CDL) is 9-month cooperative development program serving cooperative projects in any stage of formation. Originally a collaborative between the Resilience Hub, Cooperative Fermentation, and Cooperative Development Institute, Design Lab is now in its second year running and is the only program of its kind offered […]

The "Diggers' Song" (also known as "Levellers and Diggers") is a 17th-century ballad, in terms of content a protest song concerned with land rights, inspired by the Diggers movement, composed by Gerrard Winstanley. To learn more, click HERE!

The film presents the social and economic history of the Great Plains -- from the time of the settlement of the prairies, through the World War I boom, to the years of depression and drought. The first part of the film shows cattle as they grazed on grasslands, and homesteaders who hurried onto the plains […]

As a quick thumbnail sketch, permaculture is an ecological approach to the design of whole systems. It is an ethically bounded framework of ecological design that can be used to design everything from landscapes and farms to business enterprises and other cultural projects, on nearly any scale. On the surface, permaculture is often about designing […]

These design templates are meant to be implemented on common landscapes. While they use temperate climate species that grow in the northern hemisphere (hardiness zones 4-7), documentation about underlying patterns is provided so substitutions can be made for different growing conditions and desired yields. Check out this awesome and exciting PDF to learn more!

...Let’s say last season I had a 70 foot bed (roughly 500 plants) of Bells of Ireland. Each plant produces between 6-8 stems that are tall enough for bouquets, for a total of 3-4,000 stems. Bells are great bouquet filler and I like to use three stems in each one to make things go fast. […]