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In late February of this year California State Assembly member Cheryl Brown introduced AB 2593, a bill to legalize the sales of homemade food, including hot meals, within certain limits. The bill would provide a dramatic expansion of California citizens’ ability to legally sell homemade food. If you are receiving this message, you are likely […]

Hey Greenhorns...What is the Future of Citrus? Have you been wondering? We're sponsoring two great events this weekend in Ojai related to this question.   Saturday 23rd April 2pm Community Rights Workshop at Oak Grove School with Javan Briggs Sunday 24th April 2pm Citrus Grafting working at Poco Farm with John Valenzuela RSVP HERE. Specifically, we're asking: All these commodity […]

Meg Hiesinger is a kite maker who sees her craft as a way to help deepen people’s connections to nature through play. Meg began making kites after pulling a broken factory-made plastic  kite out of a stand of cactus near her home in Laguna Beach, California. It made her wonder how a kite might look […]

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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 […]

It's no secret that we love the Grange School. We're here to remind you that applications for their Spring term, which starts in April, are due in by Feb. 20. And, as any farmer can tell you, cold as it may be right now, the summer semester is right around the corner! CALL FOR APPLICANTS: […]

http://www.farmersguild.org/uploads/2/2/7/7/22774668/2933364_orig.jpg Every February, at the annual Farmers Guild-Raising, our community recognizes individuals making a difference by contributing to a stronger local food economy, promoting food justice and empowering a new generation of agrarians. If you know someone deserving of such acknowledgement, use the form below to nominate one or several people from your food and farming […]

Read this 2008 study on the University of Nebraska's Digital Commons. The study publishes research supported by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Program done in 2003 and 2004, which found statistically significant levels of herbicides and insecticides in rainwater in Maryland, Indiana, Nebraska, and California. We'd like to know how these […]

[vimeo 108598502 w=500 h=281] Evan Marks - Local Legendz We all have a vague sense that humans have a negative impact on the environment, but many of us push the thought to the backs of our minds and continue on with our days. When Evan Marks made that realization, he decided it was time to […]

Source | Images: SELC, via Shareable. Last week the state of California took a stand against the tyranny of the suburban lawn by passing the Neighborhood Food Act. The Neighborhood Food Act, AB 2561, is just one of several sustainable foods bills signed into law by California Gov. Jerry Brown last week. Designed to remove […]

You have probably noticed that there's a lot of bad news going around these days, and I don't know about you, but sometimes I just need to watch a feel-good video on the internet. Which brings me to today's installment of Californians just do the coolest things! (The link reroutes you to an episode of old TV treasure, California's […]

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHwJ6PoE19s] Following a successful theatrical release in fifty cities nationwide, the acclaimed documentary OCCUPY THE FARM is now available to stream or download on iTunes, Google Play, Amazon Instant Video and VUDU.

California's Grange Farm School provides programs designed for "practical people who are ready to make a difference in the real world. Students with a desire to enter a career in agriculture equipped with essential skills, knowledge, and resources. Students who want to be among the million new farmers, ranchers, and small businesses this country needs in […]

By Casey C. Sullivan, Esq. If I'm going to spend extra on organic produce and products, they better well be fully organic. We're talking pesticide-free, earth-friendly, non-synthetic organic here. If I get a product labeled organic that doesn't meet those standards, I'm going to feel cheated. And, as of today, I could sue. In an […]

  Ojai, California. Get your canned goods, pottery, organic body products, cards, handwoven and local plant dyed clothing, essential oil blends, local organic seeds, handmade sandals, fermented foods, goat milk soap, and so much more! Some makers will be demonstrating their crafts. Local nonprofits will have information and opportunites to donate to a good cause […]

Here is an awesome video series on food in California. Topics include: the health of farming families , UC Santa Cruz's farm program, school lunches for food justice, the pollinator project at Full Belly Farm, wage justice in the restaurant industry, monitoring ocean acidification with oysters, the history of Chinese food, and wild edibles as meaningful […]

The fourth annual Fibershed Wool & Fine Fiber Symposium November 7th, 2015 • Dance Palace, Point Reyes Station 10:00 am to 6:00 pm In addition to hands-on activities and demonstrations, there will be informative presentations on collaborations between fiber farmers and designers, as well as on carbon farming, soil carbon sampling and drought tolerant breeds. […]

Birthing a New Compton Matthew Williams, September 14, 2010, KCET '"My neighborhood, explain it...it's joy, peace, love, and happiness, and the best riding we can do," Richland Farm resident and town horseshoer, Andrew Johnson explains at the end of Birthing a New Compton, a short documentary video produced by high school students from Environmental Charter High […]

When: November 13th-16th Where: Anaheim, California The 16th annual Wise Traditions nutrition conference, hosted by the Weston A. Price Foundation, is coming to Anaheim, California, November 13-16. Conference participants will learn why butter is a health food, and why animal fats and coconut oil should be a part of everyone’s diet. The conference will be […]

Grow your jeans! Meet the farmers, ranchers and skilled artisans who grow our clothes from the soil to our skin on Saturday, October 3rd at the Mann Family Farm in Bolinas, CA. Celebrate the creation of locally grown and sewn denim jeans while enjoying the tastes and terroir experience of our land's foods and wines, […]

“As an experience, it’s amazing. If you want to be able to say you were there when a great American filmmaker’s career kicked off, you need to see Runoff.” – RogerEbert We are so pleased to bring the narrative feature film RUNOFF to California. Coming off an extended run in New York City where it played to […]

Thursday July 16th, 2015, 4pm Rally, 5pm Action Monroe St. & San Pablo Ave., Albany, CA On July 16th, 2015, farmers and neighbors of the historic Gill Tract will gather to hold a rally and take action to protect the historic Gill Tract Farm from looming development by UC Berkeley to build a Sprouts Supermarket, and to highlight the public health impacts […]

As you may remember from our previous blog post, the Grange Farm School in Mendocino County, CA is a 3-month residential farmer training program that combines classroom instruction with experiential education. The program is halfway through its first term, and the fall session-- starts September 1st. The Grange School curriculum focuses on holistic crop and livestock production, and their […]

The West Marin Review is a Point Reyes Station, California-based literary journal produced collaboratively by a team of volunteers. You can read their submission guidelines here.

Here is the updated schedule: Mendocino Farm Hack Mendocino County will host its first FarmHack at the Little Lake Grange and Ridgewood Ranch in Willits, CA this December 6-7. This weekend long event will bring together business owners, engineers and mechanics, farmers and home-scale producers to learn about the possibilities of ethanol production and use. A […]

When: 12/6/2014 Where: Grange Ag School. 16200 Willits Road. Willits, CA 95490 Mendocino County will host its first FarmHack at the Little Lake Grange and Ridgewood Ranch in Willits, CA this December 6-7. This weekend long event will bring together business owners, engineers and mechanics, farmers and home-scale producers to learn about the possibilities of […]

Kick off the holiday season with an evening of good music, local food, and the release of the brand new Farmers Guild Cookbook, a collection of recipes from our favorite young farmers and their own harvest, along with a collective exploration into our agrarian future.

via NPR Lisa Morehouse went to Corcoran state prison in California's Central Valley to report on inmates who work in the dairy there. "I really enjoy what I do," says Edward Wilson, who tests the milk for bacteria and is serving time for second-degree attempted murder. "I consume the milk, and I wouldn't want to send […]

Every year the Switzer Foundation provides funding for 20 scholars and innovators in terminal graduate programs in New England and California. The scholarship is $15,000 for the course of a year for people doing work on sustainability, agriculture, urban development, and related fields/issues. Their call of for applications says, "Candidates for the Fellowship should demonstrate […]

So much has been said about California's record-breaking draughts this year, but some experts have proposed that it's not so much a an absolute lack of water, but a problem of water management. A group of organizations in California have banded together to provide us with this INTERACTIVE MAP OF WATER RIGHTS in their state. It […]

A Butterfly Species Settles in San Francisco’s Market Street Two advocates track Western tiger swallowtails through the city and use art to encourage residents to think of the fluttering creatures as welcome neighbors By Aleta George for smithsonian.com August 28, 2013 “Nature is everywhere,” says lepidopterist Liam O’Brien about the tigers of San Francisco’s Market Street—Western […]

Land Access and the Challenge for the Food Movement: Panel discussionAUG 20, 2014 , 6:30PM- 8:30PM| LA PEÑA CULTURAL CENTER, BERKELEY, CA Land access is a serious challenge facing small-scale farmers. Concentration of ownership, increasing farm size, rural gentrification, financial speculation, and rising pressure from residential and industrial real estate developers have made farmland increasingly […]

Some drought-stricken rivers and streams in Northern California's coastal forests are being polluted and sucked dry by water-guzzling medical marijuana farms, wildlife officials say -- an issue that has spurred at least one county to try to outlaw personal grows. State fish and wildlife officials say much of the marijuana being grown in northern counties […]

Corner Tour is a band of charmers. We like to defy your ears with our melancholy mountain carnival. But don't ask us what kind of music this is. Listen for yourself especially around bedtime for some dream inspiration. Click HERE to download some of their music!   

Scholarships available for young farmers! Balle Conference: Prosperity for All June 11-13, Oakland, CA [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJJjR_8USH4&w=560&h=315]

This video demonstrates how a community is trying to save their water and wetlands and reduce the impact of an unnecessary freeway. Save Little Lake Valley http://www.savelittlelakevalley.org/ members are requesting that the California Water Quality Control Board order Caltrans, the Department of Transportation in CA., to cease and desist construction on the Willits Bypass. In […]