March 2010
The Landrace Peppers of New Mexico and Familia
Mar 13th
L. Acuña Sandoval
I was a farmer long before I understood the importance and power of raising food. And I’m not talking about the mainstream political power necessarily of someone setting agricultural policy and deciding which programs get funding and which do not. I started my first garden in Southern Colorado near Pueblo in 1969, and although it was small, I can still close my eyes and remember where each plant was. For some reason I can do that for most of the gardens I have cultivated in my lifetime. I finally understand it is because I was connected with the More >
Farmers’ Markets: The Public Face of Local Food
Mar 13th
Denise Miller
On our way to visit a small organic farm in the Las Cruces area a year or two ago, colleagues and I observed two scenes from the car window that dismayed us. First we noticed a field full of harvest-ready cantaloupes. Too bad those melons weren’t on their way to a local school or making their way to a farmers’ market up north, we thought. Heading down the same road several hours later, we saw the field of melons being plowed under.
Whether it was lack of demand, lack of labor or some other variable that kept those melons from More >
Improving New Mexico Children’s Health and the Farming Economy
Mar 13th
NM-Grown Fresh Fruits and Vegetables for School Lunches
Pamela Roy
“In these challenging economic times when a quarter of New Mexico’s children are considered food insecure, it is even more important that we meet their nutritional needs through a healthy school lunch that includes fresh fruits and vegetables. Investing in our school meal program to purchase NM-grown fresh fruits and vegetables is a win/win for children and their health as well as NM’s farming families,” exclaimed Senator Pete Campos. Senator Campos is a champion of locally grown produce for school meals. Despite a challenging state budget, the senator, along with other state More >
Book Review: “The Call of the Land,” An Agrarian Primer for the 21st Century
Mar 13th
Globally, one in six of us is urgently hungry or starving, according to the U.N. Yet obesity afflicts two-thirds of Americans and costs $147 billion in annual medical bills, Time Magazine reports. Industrial agriculture produces cheap food but erodes soil, poisons the environment with chemical inputs, and consumes 19% of U.S. fossil fuels. Peak oil, climate change, and wobbling economies further jeopardize our ability to feed ourselves.
The Call of the Land, a new book by journalist Steven McFadden, joins a growing chorus voicing a revised vision for food and agriculture. Picking up where Food Inc., the recent documentary on More >
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