Showing posts with label Agriculture. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Agriculture. Show all posts
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Toxins in Germany
News is nothing if untimely, so forgive the brevity but I thought this link was worth posting on my blog. In another example of the critical need for food security, Germany is investigating the feeding of toxins to livestock that has already disrupted trades with 2 countries and possibly led to contaminated products in the UK. Nothing is more scary than having to question whether or not your food and water are safe to consume. This is why farmers here in the US go to such great lengths to protect their animals and crops and why there are so many government regulations in the food supply.
"My Empire of Dirt" (duplicate post)
Today I finished one of my Christmas books, from Amanda's parents, "My Empire of Dirt" by Manny Howard. If you recall, it was this past summer when I blogged about seeing his book review on the Colbert Report. While, of course, some of you don't think it advisable to take book recommendations from the great Colbert, this one in particular interested me for a few reasons.
1) Manny Howard tried to raise his own food in Brooklyn, New York. As a person involved in agriculture, I wanted to see what his experiences turned out like; his interview indicated that they were diverse, expensive and challenging.
2) Manny talked in his interview about how underpaid farmers truly are. While I'm sure there is a journalist's exaggeration stored up in there as well, he had a point that I wish more people understood. Farmers are subsidized so that the public doesn't have to pay as much for their food as they should have to, and people today just don't realize how much that is. People go on and on about subsidies and how they are protecting farmers, but the truth is that these same subsidies protect the people as much or more than they protect the farmers. And in this current market, food prices will go up; be prepared for it.
3) In his interview, he exhibited a unique sense of humor that I imagined would be equally entertaining in his book.
So let me tell you about my thoughts on this book after reading it...
Manny Howard is as easily distracted in his book as he is on camera. The very definition of ADD, this book is not good for someone who has trouble keeping track of weaving plot lines or conversational asides. If I could do one thing for this book, I would at least keep it strictly chronological in the real-life recounting of his activities on the farm. His division by topics is good but I like to see the whole-picture of timing as well and sometimes that falls by the wayside. His book is also laced with a bit of foul language, but frankly that doesn't bother me because in today's cultural context, it just goes to accurately show the extremity of emotional experiences he and his counterparts went through during his farming experiment.
Slight criticisms aside, I loved this book. It is fun to read a book and almost watch a man go through the same harsh learning experiences and realities that many inexperienced urbanites (myself included at one time) go through during an introduction to agrarian lifestyle. His opinion on locavorism is also refreshing and realistic. Not only that but he does a really good job of jumping right into the necessary mentality and struggling through his labor, approaching even the repulsive tasks of slaughter and manure management as requirements for a true agricultural experience. The fact that all of this happens in Brooklyn makes the story that much more hilarious and I enjoyed his inclusions of funny asides related to this as well. This book was a great and easy read.
| The Colbert Report | Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| Manny Howard | ||||
| ||||
1) Manny Howard tried to raise his own food in Brooklyn, New York. As a person involved in agriculture, I wanted to see what his experiences turned out like; his interview indicated that they were diverse, expensive and challenging.
2) Manny talked in his interview about how underpaid farmers truly are. While I'm sure there is a journalist's exaggeration stored up in there as well, he had a point that I wish more people understood. Farmers are subsidized so that the public doesn't have to pay as much for their food as they should have to, and people today just don't realize how much that is. People go on and on about subsidies and how they are protecting farmers, but the truth is that these same subsidies protect the people as much or more than they protect the farmers. And in this current market, food prices will go up; be prepared for it.
3) In his interview, he exhibited a unique sense of humor that I imagined would be equally entertaining in his book.
So let me tell you about my thoughts on this book after reading it...
Manny Howard is as easily distracted in his book as he is on camera. The very definition of ADD, this book is not good for someone who has trouble keeping track of weaving plot lines or conversational asides. If I could do one thing for this book, I would at least keep it strictly chronological in the real-life recounting of his activities on the farm. His division by topics is good but I like to see the whole-picture of timing as well and sometimes that falls by the wayside. His book is also laced with a bit of foul language, but frankly that doesn't bother me because in today's cultural context, it just goes to accurately show the extremity of emotional experiences he and his counterparts went through during his farming experiment.
Slight criticisms aside, I loved this book. It is fun to read a book and almost watch a man go through the same harsh learning experiences and realities that many inexperienced urbanites (myself included at one time) go through during an introduction to agrarian lifestyle. His opinion on locavorism is also refreshing and realistic. Not only that but he does a really good job of jumping right into the necessary mentality and struggling through his labor, approaching even the repulsive tasks of slaughter and manure management as requirements for a true agricultural experience. The fact that all of this happens in Brooklyn makes the story that much more hilarious and I enjoyed his inclusions of funny asides related to this as well. This book was a great and easy read.
Friday, January 7, 2011
Farewell from Strickland
I have to say that I'm going to miss having a governor who made such efforts to take care of animal agriculture in the state of Ohio and to respect the deals he brokered to protect them. Check out this effort of his to follow-through on his work with OFBF and HSUS...
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Brace yourself
As calamities compound, the world food price will continue to rise with supply shortages. It's amazing to me how quickly Econ 201 comes back to me. I can just see those diagrams of apples and lines are various as the DC freeway system defiling what had started out as a perfectly normal graph. Well, just in case you doubted why it's worth keeping food production here in the US, this would be one of those good reasons. Agriculture keeps pulling this economy along.
And for your reading, check out this BBC article on GM pigs to reduce phosphorus build-up. We discussed this in class last quarter and the idea is very exciting, although the reality has yet to be charted.
And for your reading, check out this BBC article on GM pigs to reduce phosphorus build-up. We discussed this in class last quarter and the idea is very exciting, although the reality has yet to be charted.
Friday, June 11, 2010
Blog recommendations
Today I would like to recommend this blog. I am not endorsing everything that is written, but merely appreciating the point of view and concern/interest for the agriculture industry. Your own decisions are up to you to make.
In the future, hopefully I will find out how to list the blogs on the side... until then, just follow the posted links.
In the future, hopefully I will find out how to list the blogs on the side... until then, just follow the posted links.
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