It's harvest time in Michigan. Pumpkins for sale crowd the
lawns of farmhouses on a few rural roads. The combines are harvesting
truckloads of corn. The farmers' market offers a dozen varieties of crisp
apples. In my garden, a riot of morning glories still covers the gate. The last
tomatoes are ripening and the chard grows exuberantly in the cool weather. Last
spring, it was hard to imagine that the empty beds and piles of compost would
eventually yield such bounty. Now all the weeding, mulching and coaxing of
seedlings has given me enough onions, potatoes, squash, tomatoes and beans to
last through the winter.
Food encompasses sublime tastes and hidden cruelties, personal health and
environmental quality, individual choices and global trade policies. The food
we eat today represents choices made by our ancestors over thousands of years
about taste, texture, color and hardiness. In turn, the choices that we make
about which foods to purchase affect the foods of future generations. In
choosing the foods we eat, we're participating in political and ecological
processes across the globe.
I learned many of these connections after my husband and I moved to a small
farm 15 years ago. We were neophytes to farming. Since our livelihoods didn't
depend upon farming - both of us are professors at the University - we could
afford to experiment with subsistence farming. We farm organically, partly
because we're committed to that philosophy and partly to understand what the
challenges are. It's a way to learn about soils, plants, animals and weather on
a daily basis. We've received valuable information and assistance from
neighboring farmers, both organic and conventional. We've found friendship and
mutual support in our neighborhood - such as a pint of fresh raspberries in our
mailbox and a neighbor plowing our driveway early on a snowy winter morning.
In a large vegetable, herb and flower garden, I grow about half of our
vegetables for the year. From early April, when the rhubarb and asparagus poke
up, to November, when I harvest the last carrots and leeks, we are treated to a
succession of flavors. The garden has been the source of many lessons about
food. I've tried many varieties of vegetables and different methods of weed
control. I've had unexpected successes and total failures. I've learned about
companion planting, cover crops and composting.
Some of the most valuable lessons are about the bigger picture of food. For
example, I realize how much time and effort it takes to grow food. Much of the
work goes to preparing the soil, weeding, watering and harvesting at the right
moment. For me, it's part education, part relaxation and part recreation; I
don't calculate a cost-benefit ratio. But for our farmer neighbors, the work is
relentless and the pay is low. This pattern occurs throughout the United States
and is part of the economic crisis that has caused many small farms to
collapse, many rural communities to vanish and most remaining farms to become
larger and more mechanized.
Contradictory ideas prevail about the cost and value of food. We live in a
society that expects and purchases cheap food. Consumers and Washington policy
makers enforce this pattern each in their own way - consumers by purchasing
food at stores that offer low prices and lawmakers by awarding subsidies to
crops whose products permeate our food system. Growers and farmworkers are
caught in the middle. In the United States, the average family spends a smaller
proportion of its income on food than in any other developed country. But the
affordability has its own cost. Faced with an abundance of cheap food,
Americans have a high daily caloric intake and are beset with a host of
food-related afflictions - a high incidence of obesity, diabetes, heart disease
and stroke.
I often hear the question - why is organic food so expensive? This is the wrong
question. The right question is - why is regular food so cheap? Although the
checkout price is low, the full cost is much higher. Agricultural subsidies,
which now cost taxpayers over $25 billion per year, go to conventionally
produced food. Conventional agriculture aggravates environmental deterioration
through soil erosion, runoff of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides into
wetlands, biocide poisoning of non-target plants and animals, greater
greenhouse gas emissions and loss of native biodiversity. Programs to reverse
this damage are funded by taxpayers. And finally, most research funding,
whether from federal or industry sources, is directed toward conventional
agriculture. Thus we pay for conventional agriculture at many stages. In
contrast, organic agriculture pays its own way. Ongoing research is revealing
other benefits of organic food and farming. A recent study from the University
of California at Davis showed that organically grown tomatoes had higher levels
of anti-oxidants (anti-aging, anti-cancer compounds) than conventional tomatoes
did. A long-term study of organic and conventional methods of raising grains at
the Rodale Institute in Pennsylvania found that the organic system, using cover
crops, sequesters more carbon in the soil than the no-till conventional system.
The conventional lore is that the yields from organic farming are well below
those of chemically intensive farming - hence, organic food must remain a niche
market in the global food system. A group of us on campus decided to
investigate whether the yield data from the scientific literature supports this
claim. On a field trip for a course I teach with Ivette Perfecto, called
"Food, Land, and Society," we visited Garden Works, a small organic
farm north of Ann Arbor. There, an impressive patchwork of vegetables undergoes
several harvests each growing season. We asked Farmer Rob how much produce
comes from his 2.5 acres each year. His answer was 27 tons. That's a lot. If he
can grow 27 tons of produce on 2.5 acres, why can't organic agriculture feed
the world?
For a year, eight of us combed the literature for studies comparing the yields
of organic and non-organic crops and analyzed the results. What we found
differed from the conventional lore. Our results, based on 293 yield
comparisons of plant and animal foods, showed that organic agriculture has the
potential to feed the entire human population based on the amount of
agricultural land currently in use. We also found that leguminous cover crops,
grown between normal cropping periods on current cropland, could fix more
nitrogen than all of the synthetic nitrogen fertilizer currently applied.
Our study was published in the June issue of the journal "Renewable
Agriculture and Food Systems." The paper attracted attention at a
conference on organic agriculture sponsored by the Food and Agricultural
Organization of the United Nations, and subsequently, several press releases
reported that the FAO was supporting organic agriculture. We have received
inquiries from all over the world about our paper, and the reception has
largely been enthusiastic. There has also been a backlash. Both academic crop
ecologists and a spokesman for a right-wing think tank have criticized the
validity and accuracy of our data. Ironically, their standards seem to differ
for the studies that come to the opposite conclusion from ours. A colleague at
the FAO has notified us that lobbying on behalf of conventional agriculture increased
after they circulated press releases promoting organic agriculture. High stakes
are involved, because global agribusiness corporations make billions of dollars
each year selling synthetic fertilizers, synthetic pesticides and genetically
modified seeds. But more and more people are aware of the benefits of organic
farming, of eating food in season, of supporting local farmers and of the
impacts of farming on ecosystem services locally and globally.
So enjoy the bounty of the harvest. Also, know that what you choose to eat will
have a wider impact reaching all the way to the farmworkers, the farmers, the
soil, the earthworms, the grocers, the Secretary of Agriculture, the monarch
butterflies migrating to Mexico and beyond. Through our food choices, we affect
the world.
- Catherine Badgley
is a research scientist in the Museum of Paleontology and an assistant
professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.
9. Position for project coordinator for
Please help
us find the right person for this job as project coordinator for the Michigan
Youth Farm Stand Project. The person who fills this position will be
liaison between campus team members and local project sites. He/she will
provide technical assistance to local sites regarding both content and process
for accomplishing goals and will coordinate with evaluation
components. The coordinator will assist local sites to connect with
local and/or state markets. He/she will ensure that local sites adhere to
the nutrition education objectives and guidelines of the USDA Food Stamp
Nutrition Education (FSNE) Program.
With assistance and support from other team members, the coordinator will
organize educational retreats/trainings for local site coordinators and
youth. He/she will also train local site coordinators in the
objectives of the YFSP: Nutrition education, entrepreneur experience and
reaching FNP target populations. With Graduate Student Assistant(s), the
coordinator will revise the project handbook and materials. He/she will guide
site leaders/coordinators through action plan and budget development, and
invoicing process. Along with other team members, he/she will assist with
fund development for project continuation. The coordinator will also
assist in organizing and coordination of new local sites. Additional
information about the Michigan Youth Farmstand Project may be found at www.yfsp.msu.edu.
The position requires a bachelors degree and some community-based work or
volunteer experience. The salary is limited to $, but benefits are
provided. The Michigan Youth Farm Stand Project is part of the C.S. Mott
Group for Sustainable Food Systems at MSU, which engages communities in applied
research and outreach to promote sustainable agriculture and food
systems. The coordinator will be a member of this group, with many
opportunities for networking and engagement with local food and farming
scholars and activists.
For complete position details, see
www.hr.msu.edu/HRsite/HiringPostings/Faculty/Postings/JobPostings/FTAcaStaffPosting.htm
The deadline for applications is October 18, 2007, or until a suitable
candidate is found. If you have questions about the position, please
direct them to Ms. Anne Scott, 517-353-0751 or [log in to unmask]
9. Policy Internship with the Michael
Fields Agricultural Institute
Hello All –
The message below and attached announcement outline a great
opportunity for students to take part in a Policy
Internship with the Michael Fields Agricultural Institute (http://www.michaelfieldsaginst.org/).
I was an intern in 2006 and had an amazing experience! You’re
welcome to contact me directly ([log in to unmask]) to have a
discussion about my experience. Also, feel free to contact Margaret Krome
([log in to unmask]), Policy
Program Director at Michael Fields, for more details.
Please circulate widely.
NEWS RELEASE, September 24, 2007
231.889.3216, toll
free 877.526.1441
[log in to unmask]
www.csafarms.org/csaresources.asp