There are always emails flying around the Farm Aid office with links to thought-provoking websites and articles on food, farming, health, environmental issues and agricultural policy—and we want to share them with you! Every week I’ll gather up all of the latest informative, compelling, and quirky material that we stumble on in a “Farm and Food Roundup!”
September 3rd marked the final day of a 2-week sit-in front of the White House in protest of the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. If approved, the pipeline would pump over one million barrels of “tar sands” oil from Canada to the USA every day and run right through the middle of family farms and the precious Ogallala Aquifer. On the final day of the sit-in, the demonstrators revealed that 618,428 people worldwide signed the “Stop the Tar Sands” petition to President Obama. Over the 2-week period, 1.252 participants were arrested.
Check out photos of the final demonstration day
Take a look at this cool graphic to see how large your backyard would need to be for you to fulfill all of your dietary needs from living off the land—it’s probably less than you’d think!
This Wall Street Journal article discusses how Monsanto Co. corn plants in Iowa are being wiped out by the rootworms that they were genetically modified to fend off. It examines the idea that if bugs develop resistances to genetic modifications, we may be doing more harm than good to our food supply.
Stunning and tragic photos of the Vermont flood damage in the aftermath of Hurricane Irene.
An interesting New York Times article about the pioneers of home economics class and how reviving the subject in schools could help to fight obesity.
Have you read any interesting farm and food news lately? Let me know!
