News & Views

Seeds of Change Research Farm to host Permaculture Design Workshop with renowned permaculturist, Scott Pittman
Dates: October 5th—9th, 2007

Our Research Farm is pleased to be hosting a five-day workshop on permaculture design principles and the creation of sustainable systems, centered around Mr. Pittman's design for our 16-acre certified organic farm.

Tuition: $150 (includes lunch and refreshments, but does not include accommodations)
Location: Seeds of Change Research Farm, north of Espanola, NM
Instructor: Scott Pittman
Contact: Kelle Carter or Emily Skelton, 505-852-1508

5th Annual Los Angeles Permaculture Event
Offers 6 Months of Education on Sustainability
Dates: October '07—March '08, first weekend of every month

Beginning in October, the first weekend of every month through March of 2008 will offer an opportunity to learn about permaculture topics to participants in a southern California program. The 5th Annual Los Angeles Permaculture Design Experience: Creating the Conditions for Sustainability to Happen begins on October 6th and 7th with an introduction to permaculture and natural patterns that stretches into November. In December and January, the focus will shift to designing and building a complete home ecosystem. The program culminates with a look at ecovillage design and the importance of communities in February and March. Program graduates will earn a Design Certificate in Permaculture.

Tuition: $950 for all six weekends (day and weekend rates available, discounts, trades, and payment plans offered)
Location: In and around Los Angeles County
Instructors: Larry Santoyo, Jude Hobbs, Scott Pittman, Toby Hemenway, John Valenzuela and other highly experienced permaculture designers, educators and recognized leaders in the world-wide sustainability movement.
Contact: EarthFlow Design Works at earthflow.com

Two-day Course in Keyline Design & Practices
in Finger Lakes Region of New York
Dates: September 15th—16th

Australian Darren Doherty, an experienced Keyline Design consultant, will teach a two-day course in Keyline principles targeted at farm land managers. "Keyline" refers to a set of principles, techniques and systems, that form the logical basis for a plan for the sustainable development of landscapes. A topic of primary importance in Keyline design is the development of living soil and its beneficial effect on water retention and distribution, humus creation, and nutrient levels. This course is a shortened version of a six-day Keyline course, and will focus on broadacre applications to pasture, vineyards, and croplands.

Tuition: $250
Location: Community College of the Finger Lakes Campus Lecture Hall, Canandaigua, NY
Instructor: Darren Doherty
Contact: Royal A. Purdy, 315-986-7007, www.permaculture.biz

Biointensive Agriculture Luminary
to teach Economic Mini-Farming Seminar
Date: Saturday, September 15th

John Jeavons, Executive Director of Ecology Action and author of How To Grow More Vegetables Than You Ever Thought Possible on Less Land Than You Can Imagine, will teach a short seminar on mini-farming in mid-September. Jeavons will explain the ideas, strategies, and crops that allow for successful economic mini-farming, which can begin in a backyard.

Cost: $25
Location: Common Ground Educational Center, Palo Alto, California
Instructor: John Jeavons
Contact: Common Ground Education Center, 650-493-6072
www.commongroundinpaloalto.org

New Reports Tell How Organic Agriculture Can Help Feed the World

Two recent reports point to the ability of organic farming methods to combat world hunger. University of Michigan researchers arrived at a conclusion similar to that reached by Danish researchers and presented at a recent conference of the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization.

Both parties found that in developing countries the adoption of organic farming methods could help to address hunger by increasing yields. This idea stands in opposition to the commonly held belief that switching from conventional farming to organic farming results in decreased yields. Niels Halberg, the head researcher behind the Danish report, points out that this is not the case in developing nations where farmers contend with less-fertile soil, or where they use far less chemically-based fertilizers and pesticides (which are often unaffordable anyway) than their Western counterparts. In an article in Ode Magazine, Halberg remarked that "When these farmers learn to use organic methods using locally available resources, their crop yields increase." He also suggested that because organic farming retains soil nutrients and can offer better yields over the long run, Western governments earmark foreign aid contributions for organic farming training for farmers in developing nations.

Michigan researchers reported that adopting organic farming methods could increase crop yields by 200–300% in developing nations. To accomplish this, green manure from cover crops planted between growing seasons would be needed to provide the appropriate soil amendments, namely nitrogen. Ivette Perfecto, a principal researcher in the study, said that the findings refuted the arguments that organic farming results in lower yields, and there is a poverty of acceptable organic nitrogen sources. "Corporate interest in agriculture and the way agriculture research has been conducted in land grant institutions, with a lot of influence by the chemical companies and pesticide companies as well as fertilizer companies—all have been playing an important role in convincing the public that you need to have these inputs to produce food," Perfecto observed. A longer article about the Danish study is available in Ode Magazine. A link to the complete Danish study is available through EcoWiki. The Michigan study was reported on by the University of Michigan News Service.

New York Times Article Cites Funding Shortage
for USDA's National Organic Program

In an article published in the August 19th edition of the New York Times, journalist Andrew Martin called attention to the disparity between the earnings of the organic food sector and the funding for the government agency that oversees it. The USDA's National Organic Program (NOP) regulates the organic industry, with sales in excess of $14 billion, with a staff of nine and a budget of $1.5 million. Martin points out that single farming enterprises have been awarded subsidies that exceed the budget for the NOP, and that although other sectors of the USDA spend a combined $28 million per year on organic research, subsidies for dry pea farmers totaled $37 million in 2005, which gives an impression of how small the resources directed at organics are in the larger context. With little manpower and few dollars to work with, the NOP is in charge of drafting and enacting regulations, accrediting organic certifiers, investigating complaints, and defining new standards for new organic products. The article points a finger at the USDA and the farm-state members of Congress as "reliable cheerleaders for industrialized agriculture," and points out that "Big Ag has often viewed organics with suspicion, if not outright disdain."

The full article is available at the New York Times website (free subscription required).

WHO Report States 30% of Disease in Children Stems From Environment

On July 27th the Kuwait News Agency reported on new findings published by the World Health Organization which attribute 30% of illness in children globally to environmental factors. The recently published Principles for Evaluating Health Risks in Children Associated with Exposure to Chemicals, part of the WHO's Environmental Health Criteria series, contains the alarming statistic that 13 million children die annually of factors that are preventable with improvements to the environment. According to the report, "Accumulating evidence indicates that children, who comprise over one third of the world's population, are among the most vulnerable of the world's population and that environmental factors can affect children's health quite differently from adults' health." The authors of the report conclude that the developmental stage at which a person is exposed to an environmental toxin may be just as important as the degree of exposure to the toxin. Children may be at increased risk of exposure to environmental chemicals for a number of reasons, including higher inhalation rate, consumption of more food and drink per body weight than adults, and behaviors such as crawling on the ground and putting their hands in their mouths. Chemicals which were identified as posing a special risk to children include heavy metals, pesticides, and air pollutants.

A longer article was published by the Kuwait News Agency. The complete report is available for download at the WHO website.