It’s also delicious, and packed with nutrients. No wonder it’s getting the star treatment from good food fans around the world. Trouble is, folks back home in Bolivia are now finding it too expensive to [...]]]> Quinoa is not a grain after all, I learned from reading this NY Times piece. It’s a chenopod. Now you know.

It’s also delicious, and packed with nutrients. No wonder it’s getting the star treatment from good food fans around the world. Trouble is, folks back home in Bolivia are now finding it too expensive to buy.

In Salinas de Garcí Mendoza and elsewhere, part of this change is due to climbing quinoa prices and more quinoa being destined for export.

“I adore quinoa, but I can’t afford it anymore,” said Micaela Huanca, 50, a street vendor in El Alto, a city of slums above the capital, La Paz. “I look at it in the markets and walk away.”

Not all Bolivians are upset. Those growing for export now have more money. Which they can spend on what the youth want more of anyway: noodles, white bread and sugar-water.

Quinoa’s Global Success Creates Quandary in Bolivia – NYTimes.com.

Three years ago it was a puzzle when the food price crisis starved millions. It was a time of record harvests; the world never had so much food. Turns out speculators — the same banks, hedge funds and capitalist investors who brought you to the brink of global financial wipeout — [...]]]>

Urban farmer in Cuba

Three years ago it was a puzzle when the food price crisis starved millions. It was a time of record harvests; the world never had so much food. Turns out speculators — the same banks, hedge funds and capitalist investors who brought you to the brink of global financial wipeout — were doing the same with crops, driving up prices to make a bigger profit. Turns out they’re still doing it, and more are going to die.

From the Guardian story: Food speculation: ‘People die from hunger while banks make a killing on food’

What does it mean to people in developed countries? Everything, including chocolate:

But the speculation is not just in staple foods. Last year, London hedge fund Armajaro bought 240,000 tonnes, or more than 7%, of the world’s stocks of cocoa beans, helping to drive chocolate to its highest price in 33 years.

Great news for urban farmers: The NFU is a critically important voice for farmers…and they’ve just decided that city growers ought to be part of the team.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE [...]]]>

Great news for urban farmers: The NFU is a critically important voice for farmers…and they’ve just decided that city growers ought to be part of the team.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Wednesday December 8th, 2010

NFU OPENS MEMBERSHIP TO URBAN FARMERS

Saskatoon, Sask – National Farmers Union (NFU) membership is now open to urban farmers, according to a resolution passed at the NFU’s 41st Annual Convention, held from December 2-4 in Saskatoon. The NFU constitution, states that, membership is open to any person that is engaged in farming in Canada.

Newly elected, NFU Youth Vice-President, Paul Slomp stated that “young and new farmers are supporting themselves and feeding their communities by producing fruits, vegetables, grains and some cases livestock on lands within city boundaries.” Paul, a livestock farmer from Eastern Ontario, went on to say, “These farmers tend to be well-educated and innovative in their efforts to reclaim unused acreage. The NFU is very inclusive and our members have diverse operations. It makes sense to include urban farmers in the organization. Membership in the NFU will give these farmers a forum to bring policy to all levels of government, and allow them to contribute both their expertise and their concerns to the betterment of all farm families.”

“These plots may be small but these skilled farmers use them quite extensively, returning from $5000 to $10,000/acre,” said NFU Women’s President, Joan Brady. Brady, who operates an intensive market garden on 3.5 acres in Huron County went on to say, “communities are increasingly concerned about planning for their food needs for the future. Food production in the cities will act as a buffer to the insecurity of a global food system, well beyond the control of the average Canadian.”

The NFU is a non-partisan, nation-wide democratic organization made up of thousands of farm families from across Canada who produce a wide variety of commodities, including grains, livestock, fruits and vegetables. The NFU was founded in 1969 and chartered in 1970 under a Special Act of Parliament. The mandate is to work for policies designed to:

1. raise net farm incomes from the marketplace;

2. promote a food system that is built on a foundation of financially-viable family farms which produce high-quality, healthy, safe food;

3. encourage environmentally-sensitive practices that will protect our precious soil, water and other natural resources; and

4. promote social and economic justice for food producers and all citizens.

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For more information, questions about NFU policies, or questions about membership, please contact:

Joan Brady, NFU Women’s President (519) 237-3139

Paul Slomp, NFU Youth Vice President (613) 230-0684

Kevin Wipf, NFU Executive Director (306) 652-9465

“One can imagine pushing a shopping cart through this suburban farm and picking your produce right from the vine, with the option to bring your harvest to the restaurant chef for preparation and eating your harvest on the spot.”

via [...]]]> An interesting entry in the Reburbia contest asking designers to imagine better ways to use the suburbs:

“One can imagine pushing a shopping cart through this suburban farm and picking your produce right from the vine, with the option to bring your harvest to the restaurant chef for preparation and eating your harvest on the spot.”

via BIG BOX AGRICULTURE: A Productive Suburb « ReBurbia.

Crop Shop

Link to the Guardian story, [...]]]> Here in Vancouver the prospect of allowing backyard chickens got some residents all aflutter. In the UK they’re talking about home-raised pigs. A yard big enough for a medium-sized dog, says one expert, is big enough for Porky, although they’re party animals so you want to keep more than just one.

Link to the Guardian story, “The sale of pigs for domestic use has risen sharply” here.