Farmland under attack worldwide and locally

Do you want to live where there is no local food supply?

If you are interested in eating locally, you need to pay attention to zoning regulations and changes of farmland to residential or industrial purposes. In fact, the problem of farmland loss is getting so prevalent that international organizations are trying to raise awareness of the problem. It is both local and international, and here are some links so that you can see for yourself.

Local First

Locally in Kitsap County Washington, it is hard sometimes to determine what is good and what is bad. The question always remains: "What are the gotchas?"

Rural Wooded Incentive Program sounds good on the surface, however trading development credits on a piece of prime land for some poor land allows unequal trades without consequences except to you and me. This is a common practice for farmland, too.

When developers -- the dirt dogs who want to quickly turn an easily developed piece of land to a small financial profit -- nice-sounding pieces of local regulation begin to pop up, like this one: TITLE 21: Land Use and Development Procedures Code Development Process. The first paragraph of this reads " Kitsap County is currently updating Kitsap County Code Title 21 ‘Land Use and Development Procedures’. The goal of the update is to create a more streamlined and user-friendly code." Innocuous or hostile to farmland? That is the question.

Internationally: creating "Blood Food"

As food production is curtailed in other areas of the world, for all food production is local somewhere, supply and economic pressures rise. Famine can be created in areas with farms because all the food is taken somewhere else and sold. There is lots of talk about "blood diamonds," but there is "blood food," too. We read very little about this, but it is happening right now.

Here are several links to articles on this topic (if this blog is over one month old, you may not be able to access these). They are from FT (Financial Times) the world's leading economic newspaper, which is featuring a series of articles called The global food crisis Published: April 13 2008 18:21 | Last updated: May 6 2008 16:29

Tokyo aims to halt ‘farmland grabbing’, By Michiyo Nakamoto in Tokyo and Javier Blas in London, Published: May 25 2009 19:31 | Last updated: May 25 2009 19:31


The global food crisis: Africa almost giving land away, says UN", By Javier Blas in London, Published: May 24 2009 22:05 | Last updated: May 24 2009 22:05

The global food crisis: Food security fuels land grab, says report By Javier Blas in London, Published: May 24 2009 22:05 | Last updated: May 24 2009 22:05

This reminds of Joni Michell's song "Big Yellow Taxi." Her version is awesome, but so is Amy Grant's and Counting Crow's versions. The line of this song that is my theme this issue is "They take Paradise and put up a parking lot."

Sneaky tax on food: Please write you legislator to VOTE NO ON SB5911

As if farming is not hard enough, now WA State legislators are trying to sneak the B&O tax onto farmers. This really is a tax on food, which is not taxed in Washington State.

The Capital Press published this story last week, Ag legislator sends out alert about proposed B&O tax. Kudos to Rep. Mark Schoesler, R- Ritzville, ranking Republican on the Senate Agriculture and Rural Development Committee and also a member of the Ways & Means Committee.

The B&O tax taxes Washington State businesses selling within Washington State on the GROSS income not the NET income. It is probably the one tax in Washington that hurts businesses the most. However, if you sell your product outside of the state, you do not pay it on that income, and if you import product into the state, you do not pay it on that income, either. This tax has the potential to cripple or even destroy the locally grown food movement in Washington State.

To read the bill and follow it, click SB5911 progress.

I urge you to steal this letter, which I cribbed from Jackie Aitchison the Manager of the Poulsbo Farmers Market and the director of the Washington State Farmers Market Association. It does not matter which part of the state you live in, please write. If you are outside of the state, go ahead and write too. Plaster the legislature with VOTE NO ON SB5911

HERE IS the letter I sent my state legislators. I sent it to Representatives and Senators alike, since what goes through one chamber tend to go through the other.

I am farmer in Kitsap Country and I ask you to VOTE NO on SB5911.

This bill is a direct tax on food and violates the spirit of the sales tax law that does not tax food.

This bill would be a major setback. It comes at a time when we are trying to nurture and support our local farming community. Our local farming community provides us with family wage jobs, healthy locally grown food, an alternative to the big box economy, and a beautiful rural landscape that can survive in an economically viable form.

This gross income tax ignores the fact that local Washington State farmers are in, at best, a breakeven situation, and may be losing money.

This bill would subject Washington farmers who gross over $200,000 to the state B&O tax. Since the tax is based on gross, rather than net, it completely disregards costs. For most small farmers, meaning most of our farmers here in Kitsap County, this is a regressive tax that puts them at a great disadvantage.

A $200,000 gross represents no personal income for many local farmers because expenses and risks inherent to the business are extremely high.

My husband and I are struggling to grow our small farm income to a level that we are not at risk to support it. We both work outside of the farm to support ourselves. We believe that we will be able to make the farming operation profitable; however this type of regressive taxation makes that task vastly more difficult. This tax allows companies that import food to our state that raised outside of our state, and even outside of our country. Because they will not pay this tax, those companies will be able to compete more effectively against us and sell their product for less than we are able to sell it.

If you are interested in finding out more about how farming in Kitsap County and other counties in our state contributes to our community or hearing the concerns of our farmers and our farmer's markets, I would be happy to arrange something.

Thank you,
Marilyn Holt, Owner
Abundantly Green
1146 NE Madison Road
Poulsbo, WA 98370

The trigger amount looks to be large number to kick in this tax, but it's not: $200,000 Gross receipts is still not enough when it cost more to product that much food, or if you are at break even, or even if you have a marginal profit -- 1% of $200,000 is $2,000 -- can you live on that a year?

Thank you for helping,
Marilyn

New administration supports local and organic agriculture

UPDATE

Sam Kass, who has been cooking for the Obama family for several years, is moving to the White to continue feeding them healthy organic food. He will be working with chef Cristeta Comerford, who is the head chef, apparently.

This is according to a NYTimes blog entry Obamas Bring Their Chicago Chef to the White House

Mr. Kass's appointment signals changes at the White House that should please chefs like Alice Waters, who have lobbied the Obamas to set an example for the rest of the country by emphasizing food that is healthy, local and sustainable. It further suggests that a vegetable garden on the White House grounds, another of Ms. Waters' dreams, could be on the horizon.

This is seen as good news for local, wholesome, organic food. The orginal post follows and gives some background on President Obama's vision for food.

In her Health.com article, Julie Upton, RD, talks about how the Obama family, and the President himself may help both the health of our country and the local and organic agriculture movement. She writes in
4 Ways Barack Obama Can Change the Way Our Country Eats that

Both President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden have expressed their desire to support legislation in favor of local and organic agriculture. Obama frequently mentions his appreciation of reform-minded food writer Michael Pollan, reports the New York Times, and wife Michelle has said she tries to buy organic when she can.

She joins other writers who are supporting that healthier food can be inspired from the top down. Michael Pollan clearly puts forth a way that we can change what we do, how we eat, even how we see ourselves. Michael Pollen proposed a "Farmer in Chief" in his New York Times blog The Food Issue: Farmer in Chief, discusses how we got to where we are with our food supply.

Others are advocating a portion of the grounds of the White House be turned into an organic garden.

Back in December, (December 23, 2008) Kim Severson listed what many people want to see happen in the new year in her article Is a New Food Policy on Obama’s List?

This is not simple wishful thinking. For the first time in nearly 40 years, we have a President with a rural agenda and policy. Read it. It is not all you may hope for, but it is radically different from anything we have seen in since Nixon. Plank after planK clearly spells out the Obama Administration's policies, such as this:

Encourage Organic and Local Agriculture: Help organic farmers afford to certify their crops and reform crop insurance to not penalize organic farmers. Promote regional food systems.

Those few of us who are in the forefront of healthy eating need to support and push this agenda. While you may find parts in it that are not perfect, support of all of it is essential to making sure that we have a place from which make adjustments. As Kim Severson said as she concluded her article,

“It’s like the hat manufacturers being furious because J. F. K. didn’t wear a hat, and suddenly everyone in America stopped wearing hats,” she said. “It’s that simple.”

Afterword: If you read these articles, look at the comments. There you will read the opponents of President Obama and his policies. Please consider writing comments in support of the articles (if you truly can make them) because the negativity to such ideas seems very strong and often stated.

Abundantly Green now listed on LocalHarvest

Local Harvest is a national website that allows people in the "lower 48" to find farmers' markets, family farms, and other sources of sustainably grown food in their area.

Abundantly Green is proud to join other Puget Sound and Washington State farms on Local Harvest. You can see our listing here.

I encourage you to click through and see this wonderful site started by Guillermo Payet, "a software engineer and activist dedicated to generating positive social change through the Internet." I also suggest that you Google Guillermo Payet and read more about him.

Estimating Your Total Food Market Size

The U.S. Food Market Estimator from the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University popped into my inbox today. It is a tool to estimate the gross consumption of food required in any state. For example, I found that in Washington State the population required the production of 18,326,421 pounds of garlic annual. Fascinating!

For small farmers, it puts our production capabilities into perspective. The market is huge, and we are small niche providers of specialty products. It can be easy to lose sight of this when we go into a huge grocery store and see as much produce a we may produce in a month or even a season on the shelves. It goes a long way to showing how there is room for us in the fresh food market.

This is a well-developed tool and the website provides supporting information, with links to the following topics:
• What is the U.S. Food Market Estimator?
• How does this tool work?
• Does this tool show actual consumption?
• What are the limitations of this tool?
• What food products are included?
• How are units of measure determined?
• Who might use this tool?
• Who developed the U.S. Food Market Estimator?

I encourage everyone to bookmark this tool and use it.

2008 Poulsbo Holiday Farmers Market

We are selling three kinds of garlic and CSA shares at the 2008 Poulsbo Holiday Farmers Market tomorrow. Join us for this special seasonal Poulsbo Farmers Market event:

November 22 from 1pm – 5 pm
At the Poulsbo Kitsap Regional Library.
700 NE Lincoln Rd, Poulsbo
(360) 779-2915 www.krl.org

Don’t miss your last chance to shop all your local farmers market favorites at the 2008 Poulsbo Holiday Farmers Market.

Tainted Milk: Why Sustainable Agricultural Practices are Needed

Sustainable agricultural practices feed the soil with the nutrients it needs to grow healthy crops to feed you. Dying, chemically fed soil produces grains, vegetables, and other plants that are low in protein. Processing practices can also lower the nutrient value. Foods are tested for protein levels under certain situations. Food grown in poor soil simply lacking nutrients, and food processing managers who want to pass the tests without providing the nutrients have found a cheap cheat in Melamine, a chemical that shows higher levels of protein than really exists.

Melamine, a plastic that is poisonous to humans and animals (tainted dog and cat food in 2007), was found in the milk given to babies in Chinese hospitals in Beijing. The result, so far, is 6,200 sickened and 3 dead.

An article published on Huntington Post reports the following.

More than 6,200 babies have been sickened by tainted milk formula and dozens of infants are suffering from acute kidney failure, China's health minister said Wednesday as the death toll rose to three children.

The article went on to discuss the situation,closing the article with this:

Suppliers to the dairy companies are believed to have added the banned chemical, normally used in plastics, to watered-down milk to make it appear higher in protein. Inspectors will now start testing for melamine in all dairy products, Li said.

The chemical additive was at the center of a major pet food scandal in the United States in 2007. An estimated 1,500 dogs and cats died after ingesting a pet food ingredient manufactured in China that was laced with melamine.

This sad story is going to be repeated again and again all over the world as our food chain is centralized, processing leeches out the nutrients, and the soil our food is grown in is weakened and killed by herbicides and pesticides.

By buying organically grown and naturally grown food, you are telling farmers that you value this type of food. The message that "conventional" farmers are being bombarded with is if they farm without these additives (poisons) they will fail. The simple act of buying organic food shows conventional farmers that this is a lie, and they can make a living farming the healthy way.

My prayers and best wishes for full recoveries go out to the sick children and their parents. I send my condolences to the parents and families of the children who died.

Kitsap Community & Agricultural Alliance (KCAA)

We, Abundantly Green and you, our CSA family members, and Poulsbo Farmers Market customers, and readers of Amicus Agraria are active in the local food movement just by what we do. Several years ago, I became active in moving a community-based agriculture promotion group forward. That group became the Kitsap Community & Agricultural Alliance (KCAA). The KCAA depends on people like you, community members, to join and work with it to promote and support local agriculture of all types in the Kitsap Peninsula.

The group is headed by our dear friend Nikki Johanson of Pheasant Fields Farm. She is joined by many people. There is a monthly meeting the first Tuesday of the month, 7:00 pm at the Norm Dicks Government Center in Bremerton.

The KCAA was a primary sponsor of Joe Salatin coming to Kitsap county in June where he spoke to a sold-out audience at Olympic College on June 4. Mr. Salatin was profiled as one of the most influential independent organic farmers in the country in the book The Omnivores Dilemma.
Jim Freeman, a KCAA member volunteer, created an amazing blog for the KCAA called Buy Local Food in Kitsap, The Blog changes several times a week, featuring a farm, market, or source for local food.

The KCAA Blog features many topics that you might not realize were important to local food in Kitsap. One topic I recommend is “How to Support Local Farmers.” You might think, “I buy locally, I belong to a CSA,” and while essential, it is just one of many things that needs to happen to keep farms like ours farming. The blog is a good way to meet and befriend others who share your love of local, wholesome, farm fresh food, like ours. The blog, Buy Local Food in Kitsap, links to others, including our web page and Amicus Agraria. You can also go to it through the Abundantly Green website. You are invited to join in and comment and blog at both.

You do not have to be a resident of the Kitsap Peninsula to support and join the KCAA. The membership information follows:
• Individual Membership at $20 for a 1 year membership
• Family Membership (one contact) for $35 for a 1 year membership
• send a check to Kitsap Community & Agricultural Alliance, P. O. Box 11, Keyport, WA 98345
• Or fill out the form from the website
• phone number is 360-779-6523
• email is kcaa4u@yahoo.com