Sunday, July 20, 2008
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
For thought......
Authentic Food
AUTHENTIC FOOD - AUTHENTIC FARMING
By Eliot Coleman, printed in Mother Earth News
The label "organic" has lost the fluidity it used to hold for the growers more concerned with quality than the bottom line, and consumers more concerned with nutrition than a static set of standards for labeling. "Authentic" is meant to be the flexible term "organic" once was. It identifies fresh foods produced by local growers who want to focus on what they are doing, instead of what they aren't doing. (The word authentic derives from the Greek authentes: one who does things for him or herself.) The standards for a term like this shouldn't be set in stone, but here are the ones I like to focus on: All foods are produced by the growers who sell them. Fresh fruits and vegetables, milk, eggs and meat products are produced within a 50-mile radius of their place of their final sale. The seed and storage crops (grains, beans, nuts, potatoes, etc.) are produced within a 300-mile radius of their final sale. Only traditional processed foods such as cheese, wine, bread and lactofermented products may claim, "Made with Authentic ingredients." The growers' fields, barns and greenhouses are open for inspection at any time, so customers, themselves, can be the certifiers of their food. All agricultural practices used on farms selling under the "Authentic" label are chosen to produce foods of the highest nutritional quality. Soils are nourished, as in the natural world, with farm-derived organic matter and mineral particles from ground rock. Green manures and cover crops are included within broadly based crop rotations to maintain biological diversity. A "plant positive" rather than "pest negative" philosophy is followed focusing on correcting the caused of problems rather than treating symptoms. Livestock are raised outdoors on grass-based pasture systems to the fullest extent possible. The goal is vigorous, healthy crops and livestock endowed with their inherent powers of vitality and resistance.
"Authentic" growers are committed to supplying food that is fresh, ripe, clean, safe and nourishing. "Authentic" farms are genetically modified organism-free zones. I encourage all small growers with local markets who believe in exceptional food to use the word "Authentic" to mean "Beyond Organic." With a definition that stresses local, seller-grown and fresh, there is little likelihood that large-scale marketers can steal this concept.
"'Authentic' growers are committed to supplying food that is fresh, ripe, clean, safe and nourishing. "Authentic" farms are genetically modified organism-free zones...With a definition that stresses local, seller-grown and fresh, there is little likelihood that large-scale marketers can steal this concept."-Eliot Coleman
Copyright © Four Season Farm, Inc, All Rights ReservedPhotographs © Barbara Damrosch (unless noted)
AUTHENTIC FOOD - AUTHENTIC FARMING
By Eliot Coleman, printed in Mother Earth News
The label "organic" has lost the fluidity it used to hold for the growers more concerned with quality than the bottom line, and consumers more concerned with nutrition than a static set of standards for labeling. "Authentic" is meant to be the flexible term "organic" once was. It identifies fresh foods produced by local growers who want to focus on what they are doing, instead of what they aren't doing. (The word authentic derives from the Greek authentes: one who does things for him or herself.) The standards for a term like this shouldn't be set in stone, but here are the ones I like to focus on: All foods are produced by the growers who sell them. Fresh fruits and vegetables, milk, eggs and meat products are produced within a 50-mile radius of their place of their final sale. The seed and storage crops (grains, beans, nuts, potatoes, etc.) are produced within a 300-mile radius of their final sale. Only traditional processed foods such as cheese, wine, bread and lactofermented products may claim, "Made with Authentic ingredients." The growers' fields, barns and greenhouses are open for inspection at any time, so customers, themselves, can be the certifiers of their food. All agricultural practices used on farms selling under the "Authentic" label are chosen to produce foods of the highest nutritional quality. Soils are nourished, as in the natural world, with farm-derived organic matter and mineral particles from ground rock. Green manures and cover crops are included within broadly based crop rotations to maintain biological diversity. A "plant positive" rather than "pest negative" philosophy is followed focusing on correcting the caused of problems rather than treating symptoms. Livestock are raised outdoors on grass-based pasture systems to the fullest extent possible. The goal is vigorous, healthy crops and livestock endowed with their inherent powers of vitality and resistance.
"Authentic" growers are committed to supplying food that is fresh, ripe, clean, safe and nourishing. "Authentic" farms are genetically modified organism-free zones. I encourage all small growers with local markets who believe in exceptional food to use the word "Authentic" to mean "Beyond Organic." With a definition that stresses local, seller-grown and fresh, there is little likelihood that large-scale marketers can steal this concept.
"'Authentic' growers are committed to supplying food that is fresh, ripe, clean, safe and nourishing. "Authentic" farms are genetically modified organism-free zones...With a definition that stresses local, seller-grown and fresh, there is little likelihood that large-scale marketers can steal this concept."-Eliot Coleman
Copyright © Four Season Farm, Inc, All Rights ReservedPhotographs © Barbara Damrosch (unless noted)
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Check the R.A.S. Farms & I CULTURE stand at the SouL Rebel Music Festival
Saturday July 12, 2008 At Guercio Field on Barker Reservoir in Nederland, Colorado.
Noon till Dusk
Sister Carol, President Brown
The Yellow Wall Dub Squad, Itawe, Ms Banks
Stevie Culture, Canon & The Lion of Judah
Roots & Fire, Jubal & The Rude Boy's, Blood Preshah
More TBA
The Yellow Wall Dub Squad, Itawe, Ms Banks
Stevie Culture, Canon & The Lion of Judah
Roots & Fire, Jubal & The Rude Boy's, Blood Preshah
More TBA
Come by the R.A.S. Farms & I CULTURE stand ......................
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Wisemind from the man Jah Tiller
http://www.durangotelegraph.com/telegraph.php?inc=/08-07-10/localnews.htm
Nice to see someone writing an intelligent article for a change. It doesn't gloss over the hard core reality that farmers have their backs up against the wall.
Nice to see someone writing an intelligent article for a change. It doesn't gloss over the hard core reality that farmers have their backs up against the wall.
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
InI bredren Livity Farms on Albuquerque news
Check out InI bredren Chris of Livity Farms getting a spot on KOAT news in Albuquerque, NM.
http://www.koat.com/video/16609885/index.html
http://www.koat.com/video/16609885/index.html
Friday, July 4, 2008
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
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