Ideas for Change in America

  • No Farms No Food: Save the Land that Sustains Us

    Every minute of every day, we lose two acres of farm and ranch land to sprawling development!

    Interest in farm and food issues in America is skyrocketing, but there is one piece missing in most these debates: If farmers are to provide fresh, affordable and safe food for America, we must save our disappearing farm and ranch lands. 

    For the past 30 years, American Farmland Trust has been dedicated to saving America's farm and ranch land, promoting healthy farming practices and supporting farmers and ranchers.  But we will only consider our work a success when every community in the nation recognizes their farmland to be irreplaceable and farm and ranch land conservation becomes a public priority -- an item on every state's agenda and a key element of national farm policy. 

    Our farm and ranch land urgently needs our committed stewardship! Together, we can save millions of acres of the land that sustains us. We can work with farmers and ranchers to address major environmental challenges like climate change and water quality. And we can help the nation's farmers meet the growing demand for local food and support a new green economy. Our plan for the next five years carves a clear path to a sustainable future for agriculture and our communities, a future in which all Americans can enjoy farm-fresh food on our tables, the pleasure of an open country road, the security of clean water, and farms contributing to local economies.  Vote for us as part of "Ideas for Change" and join the movement to save the land that sustains us! 

    - American Farmland Trust Jan 26 @ 07:14AM PST

Comments (107)

14 older comments see the full discussion ^

  • Neil Blonstein
    Feb 17, 2010 @ 02:18PM PT
    Neil Blonstein

    I voted for this. I am a vegetarian who planted a dozen fruit trees in South Florida.  Most people in my neighborhood don't plant a single edible item.  Teach our children agriculture, gardening and respect for physicial labor. It will go a long way for solving social ills.

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  • Stevan Mack
    Feb 18, 2010 @ 07:40AM PT
    Stevan Mack

    "Family farming" doesn't always mean that you need acreage to grow crops. There's a family in Pasadena, CA that grows 6 THOUSAND pounds of food on their tiny house lot in the city. They even sell edible flowers and have animals. Check out pathtofreedom.com to see it. Getting "off the grid" shouldn't just pertain to energy. We can accomplish this ideal in many other facets of our society. Especially with our food.

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    • Lisa Perschke
      Feb 20, 2010 @ 09:09AM PT
      Lisa Perschke

      Thank you for sharing this wonderful example of local community gardening, Stevan. We need to keep farms alive and thriving but we need community gardening to take whatever form it needs to since all areas will not be able to adopt one type of blueprint or principle as areas with a large amount of farm land. We need a process that is as versital as the country is.

      One idea is titled: Community Supported Agriculture in local neighborhoods touches on this type of thinking. I thought you might be interested in getting involved and recommend you check it out at the following link:

      http://www.change.org/ideas/view/community_supported_agriculture_in_local_neighborhoods

      Thanks for your help to change how food is produced!

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  • Julia Russell
    Feb 18, 2010 @ 02:56PM PT
    Julia Russell

    Perhaps when the food runs out or it becomes cost prohibitive to buy because it has to be shipped in from other countries, our governments will finally realize what they are doing and have done to all of us.  I already stay away from imported foods in light of what has come out of China.

    Posted by Sandra Wilson on 02/10/2010 @ 07:12PM PT

    I slapped the No Farms No Food bumper sticker on almost two years ago & buy no fruit or produce unless it says "Product of USA".  Summer's great because it's so easy to buy locally.  I buy milk and eggs locally all year round.  I can't imagine life without our hard working farm people.  It's not only people that eat food off the farm, don't forget our livestock eat grain/hay/oats, etc., as well as our pets.

    Why would I want to give up my freedom and choices to someone outside the United States?  It just doesn't make sense.  Food is a necessity, let's keep it in the control of the American people!!!!

    Posted by Sharon Gabrielli-N... on 02/09/2010 @ 04:56PM PT

    AMEN to Sandra's and Sharon's statements. Thanks to u both so much!

    Julia S. Russell

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  • Bonnie Grove
    Feb 18, 2010 @ 11:13PM PT
    Bonnie Grove

    No Farm - No Food     says it all.

       People need to wise up and stop being lazy! 

    We Are The Earths Disease.  We need to stop destroying the very thing that provides for us!

    Even a Dog knows   Not To Bite The Hand That Feeds It!!!

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    • Lisa Perschke
      Feb 20, 2010 @ 09:16AM PT
      Lisa Perschke

      My thinking exactly, Bonnie. Americans need to get out of the house and get involved with nature again. We need to become educated, sustainable stewards of the earth. We need to awaken the American people to the facts before we destroy the earth completely. We are all a part of the solution to our ills, we just need to do something about it.

      One idea is titled: Community Supported Agriculture in local neighborhoods reflects this type of thinking. I thought you might be interested in getting involved and recommend you check it out at the following link:

      http://www.change.org/ideas/view/community_supported_agriculture_in_local_neighborhoods

      Thank you for your comment, and for your help to change America, one step at a time.

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  • Pia Jensen
    Feb 22, 2010 @ 07:49AM PT
    Pia Jensen

    Charitable Community Supported Agriculture (CCSA) is what I support as a volunteer at www.santafecommunityfarm.org where the produce all goes to the needy, distributed through The Food Depot (to all of northern NM) and to folks who volunteer on the farm. Federal grants make it hard for oranizations like this because of the strings attached to grants. A new mechanism needs to be in place formmany of the USDA grants, perhaps styled more like SBA funding. Accountability for grant money is not an issue but the demographics data collection through surveying is prohibitive.

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  • Neil Blonstein
    Feb 22, 2010 @ 06:47PM PT
    Neil Blonstein

     

    Look at the priniciples of the largest food coop in the United States: www.foodcoop.com based in Park Slope, Brooklyn.  Unsold produce is distributed to a soup kitchen or composted in a local community garden. 15,700 members. I am proud to be one since we had 2,000 members and half the space 14 years ago.  We support neighboring coops with labor.

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  • gemma alinabon
    Feb 24, 2010 @ 06:07AM PT
    gemma alinabon

    NO FARM NO FOOD, hey you guys WE NEED YOUR HELP, we have a case in my home village in the PHILIPPINES........IT'S ABOUT COAL MINING;what do i need to do to help my folks and neighboring villages to stop coal mining?they   ruined our  livelihood and can cause a lifetime misery , the coal miners are from foreign land , and our politician  ;dont even care  the consequences of the villager.Our land had already a big effect from previous miner, [like big cracked on land; deep holes and landslide.]

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  • Rebecca Gray
    Feb 24, 2010 @ 01:33PM PT
    Rebecca Gray

    We cannot let good farmland be used to build houses. We already have a food shortage in certain areas of the world. We could supply the world if the good farmland was used for growing food.

    Build houses where the land is not suited for agriculture. Here in Utah wehave lots of open land that wil grow nothing but sagebrush. I have seen Apple & cherry orchards be torn out and houses built in place of the trees. 

    Pass a law so that we can save the good growing land to raise crops and

    build houses where things cannot be grown.

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  • stephen sterner
    Mar 01, 2010 @ 02:48PM PT
    stephen sterner

    I am prode of my fellow americans and just want to add this,if we don't stop the government from putting our farm out of business  we will be at the other mercy of other countries take care of our land as our fore fathers did or we will lose everything to our children,this is not about our country that at one time was strong but at weak country that did even care about what we leave our children, we needed to stop the money hungry government and stand our ground and fight as americas for our children

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  • Virginia Clibrey
    Mar 01, 2010 @ 02:53PM PT
    Virginia Clibrey

    HELP SAVE OUR FARMS AND FOOD!!!!!!

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  • Ethan Genauer
    Mar 01, 2010 @ 05:02PM PT
    Ethan Genauer

    There is another idea in the final round that everyone who voted for this idea should support! In fact, in some respects it is very similar. Here's the other idea.

    "Slow Money: invest in local food systems to save the economy and the planet

    We need to bring our money back down to earth. Anyone with a 401K or an IRA account is an investor, and we investors need to reconnect to the places where we live. 

    Think about it: if we invest just 1% of that money in local food instead of Wall Street gimmicks, we'd grow carrots instead of derivatives, beets instead of bonuses. We'd create a thriving economy that makes real, healthy food, instead of a fake one that just makes money for bankers. Let's invest our money where our food is.

    To vote for this idea go to http://www.change.org/ideas/view/slow_our_money_down_and_invest_as_if_food_farms_and_fertility_mattered

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  • :Dennis-Allen Fick
    Mar 01, 2010 @ 06:21PM PT
    :Dennis-Allen Fick

    The small family farms are being financialy ruined by the U.S. government handout progams only the lager corporate enties benefit from these programs. In Indiana U.S. senator Richard  Luger's corporate farms is a good example.Corporations such as Monsanto,ADM ect., would have all geneticaly unmodified seeds destoyed so farmers and consumers are beholding to them for their next meal. Not to mention seed sales and the chemicals and pharmaceuticals that they also profit from. Watch the movie"The Future of Food" or "Bad Seed". Roosevelt's New Deal in 1932 promised farmers a parity payment so that they could remain solvent while the U.S. promoted imported food supplies, not one payment was ever made to the first farmer. Meanwhile Bankers and the Government sponsered Farm Credit Services stole family farms and corporate farming began. Now the lobbiests for these entities control legislation to further destroy the small family farms and rape the U.S consumer along with the small farmer.

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  • Layan Said
    Mar 02, 2010 @ 04:01AM PT
    Layan Said

    Yes, we are the real disease of our planet and the solar system.  If you take 100 of us, at random, and bury us in a mass grave, in no time at all, you would have a toxic waste dump, a superfund site!  If we were the top of the food chain for aliens, they would not eat us as we would poison them, all because of what we eat.  If the food we grow and eat attracts insects, Nature's garbage collectors, that need to be poisoned, then that food is not fit for human consumption, yet, we get out of shape eating it.  Have we become so brainwashed and braindead that we let someone feed us and our children poison, knowingly?  He whose food you eat is whose music you dance to!

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  • Stan Andrews
    Mar 02, 2010 @ 04:33AM PT
    Stan Andrews

    As a retired researcher, and an organic farmer, I feel that safe, locally-grown food, that can be grown sustainably, is THE priority.

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  • Layan Said
    Mar 02, 2010 @ 04:50AM PT
    Layan Said

    As a researcher, retired professor and organic farmer, I could not agree with you more.  Locally-grown and consumed food is our medicine, our vaccine for endemic diseases, the basis of our sustainability and the hope for the development of a locally-based bio-economy.

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  • Jill Bedford
    Mar 02, 2010 @ 06:12AM PT
    Jill Bedford

    Get to know your area farmers. 

    Let them know you care about their welfare and support their struggles.

    Ask how you can help. Support and volunteer in your local land trust.

    Encourage the Trusts to focus on farmland/open space.

    Thank them for being stewards of the land

    Encourage farmers to consider grass fed livestock, Integrative Pest Management or better yet organic. 

     

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  • ANDREAS ELDRACHER
    Mar 03, 2010 @ 05:29AM PT
    ANDREAS ELDRACHER

    "The root of your existance relies on the fruitful harvest of resource preservation."

    Understanding the need for common sense and NOT being absorbed in quick greed to leave a country to fend for sustinance is a priority. Remember you can't take it with you when you go. Developing preservation and refinning resources is a crutial to  sustainning natures gift for survival. Farmers are the unsung heros which should be taken care of by all costs. The economic echo system relies on a flow of monitary volume, but the success can only be made with sustinance from the earth. 

     

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  • Marsha Cade
    Mar 03, 2010 @ 09:00AM PT
    Marsha Cade

    RegionalBest.com is proud to support No Farms No Food.  We're an online food market and many of our producers are small farmers or other small local food companies who sell their foods at local farmer's markets. We're committed to help these producers thrive and survive and will continue to support the cause.

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  • chris doyle
    Mar 03, 2010 @ 05:09PM PT
    chris doyle

    plant the worlds most useful natural resource,HEMP

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  • Neil Blonstein
    Mar 04, 2010 @ 06:55AM PT
    Neil Blonstein

    This is a world-wide problem: We should look toward Green Parties and Vegetarians.

    The Green Party of Ireland was founded by Esperanto speakers.

    The Green Party of France maintains that international communication would best occur in the international language, Esperanto.

    see www.verduloj.org

    Lev Tolstoy was the honarary president of Tut-monda Esperantista Vegetara Asocio (TEVA).  Ten percent of all Esperanto speakers are vegetarians.

    TEVA  has a link within the International Vegetarian Union www.ivu.org

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  • GEORGE VAN ARSDALE
    Mar 04, 2010 @ 10:03AM PT
    GEORGE VAN ARSDALE

    There's good reason why some comments express doubt about the legitimacy of the organization sponsoring this petition/vote. Many organizations fundamentally hostile to democratic and progressive policies are being sponsored by the vast agri-chemical industry through phony front organizations set up by the neo-fascist right wingnuts. How are folks to know this is not one of them?

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    • American Farmland Trust
      Mar 04, 2010 @ 12:26PM PT
      American Farmland Trust

      Dear George,
      Thank you for your comment.  I assure you we (American Farmland Trust) are neither "hostile to democratic and progressive policies" nor sponsored by "the neo-fascist right-wingnuts."  We are a non-profit whose mission is to help farmers and ranchers protect their land, produce a healthier environment and build successful communities.  Since our founding in 1980 by a group of farmers and citizens, we've helped save millions of acres of farmland from development and led the way for establishing sound environmental practices on millions more. I encourage you to visit our website to learn more about the mission and history of our organization: http://www.farmland.org/about/mission/default.asp
      Thanks,
      Allen @ American Farmland Trust

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    • Lisa Perschke
      Mar 09, 2010 @ 05:22PM PT
      Lisa Perschke

      George, I can not support a non-profit organization that is funded by corporations. Large farms and ranches are good if managed well, and if it provides food stuffs to feed its local community. So much food is grown and shipped all over the county, that unless the local community has input into what is grown and support the farmer, such as in a CSA, large farms will produce but it will also waste. Waste resources and the food will not be utilized completely, leaving a great deal to rot and wilt.

      Check out my idea about  Community Supported Agriculture in local neighborhoods at the link:

      http://www.change.org/ideas/view/community_supported_agriculture_in_local_neighborhoods

      Allen, your U Tube video on your website that you listed above has no sound, just video of beautiful farm land. Oh well.

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  • Conniel Lawson
    Mar 04, 2010 @ 11:37AM PT
    Conniel Lawson

    I have a small farm and will not divide the land so at least there will be a small plot for my orchard and garden.  I have preserved food from my garden and fruit orchard for many years.  If we don't start saving farm land we will be at the mercy of other countries.  We can see where that has gotten us by looking at our oil problem now.  I like to support local farmers and hope others will do the same.  Save our farms!

    Connie Lawson - Dublin, Virginia

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  • Bobbylee Willis
    Mar 04, 2010 @ 02:30PM PT
    Bobbylee Willis

    WW2 England almost starved to death because, the country depended upon other countries to provide them food and oil, the water ways were guarded by the enemy and sank most of the ships that supported the staples England got. Think about it, they the big business is doing that to us again killing our farmlands, shutting down dairies and import even the meats we eat in fast-food. We are in trouble if our supplies from foreign government cut us off, we need all small and large farms just to shrive     

     

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  • Ethan Genauer
    Mar 04, 2010 @ 11:11PM PT
    Ethan Genauer

    I have an idea: Let's form an alliance. Everyone who voted for this idea, please also vote for my idea, "Good Food For All Kids: A Garden in Every School."

    http://www.change.org/ideas/view/good_food_for_all_kids_a_garden_at_every_school_2

    Guess what -- The integration of our ideas is necessary for both to succeed. Without new farmers to cultivate the land, preserving farmland cannot fulfill its purpose. The idea of Universal School Gardens can train and educate the next generation of farmers.

    Please vote ... it's a great idea, I'm sure you'll agree!

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  • Joan Philips
    Mar 05, 2010 @ 02:13PM PT
    Joan Philips

    Let's look at the root cause. Farmland is turning into housing because there are about 3 million more people in the USA every year. They gotta live somewhere. Let's promote family planning and limit immigration and then we'll all have food security.

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    • Jileeann Kruger
      Mar 09, 2010 @ 12:52PM PT
      Jileeann Kruger

      Sounds Like An Idea! 

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    • Andrea Hoyt
      Mar 09, 2010 @ 04:24PM PT
      Andrea Hoyt

      You said it Joan!  People population is growing but our country is not.  I support my local farmer and avoid buying imported produce when I can.  I've watched urban sprawl chase farmers out of towns up and down the west coast over the past 35 years.  It is sad and frustrating. People don't seem to get it.  I'm also worried about what people mean when they say, more land for ranching.  I am an advocate for wildlife and wolf relocation and historically, ranchers and wolves don't mix.  Some ranchers have been working with conservationists, and changed some old stereotypes.  I hope this is something that will become the norm.

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    • Melanie W
      Mar 19, 2010 @ 09:07PM PT
      Melanie W

      Joan,

      I am a farmer, I grew up on a farm, raised my kids on a farm and will more than likely die on the farm.  The land around the farm I am on now had two (2) houses near me up until a couple of years ago, now there are two dozen.  People saw the area and when they retired they moved in on the area farmers and offered them deals they would not refuse.  These people had homes but decided that they wanted to live in the country for retirement.  Yes, we need to do some family planning but limiting immigration is not the way.  If that had happened to any of the prior generations of most of this list - you would not be here in the united states.  Some of us would because our families were here when the ships arrived.  I hear people in the grocery complain about the prices that us farmers are charging when a lady picks up a package of sausage and how horrible we farmers are to charge so much -- do you guys know what we get for a pound of pig?  Well, we do not get any where near $3.00 a pound, we get 25 cent a pound if we are lucky.  We get paid .50 cents a pound for a cow.  We get 65 cent a pound for goats - and that's on a really good day.  Sheep - they are down to 45 cent a pound.  Now look at the prices at the grocery.  Farming is hard work, it is sun up to sun down no matter what the weather.  The government does not care about the small farmer, only the corporations like smithfield and any other company that has lobbyist behind them.  I would hope that all on this list will stand behind the words and back the local family farmer that is trying only to feed their own families and keep the dirt that we love.

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  • Alan Kardoff
    Mar 06, 2010 @ 07:18PM PT
    Alan Kardoff

    Your program is vital if America is going to keep growing most of its own food. There are so many complaints about buying imported goods. Most go unheard. We must have and maintain a viable agricultuiral system based on family-owned farms if American is to continue as a viable nation.

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  • Neil Blonstein
    Mar 08, 2010 @ 07:48AM PT
    Neil Blonstein

    It is through education--gardening in the public schools--that your long term goals will be reached. The eleventh place proposal seems worthy of of (mutual) support. 

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    • Lisa Perschke
      Mar 09, 2010 @ 05:01PM PT
      Lisa Perschke

      I am sorry that you feel that the only place that people, children in particular, can learn is in a school setting. I homeschooled my chilren when they were young. I am their best teacher! I teach the children in my community and in my household how to live, how to eat nutriously, how to grow their food, worship and how to respect their elders. My elders taught me outside the classroom. 

      Schools are not the only place to teach the next generation about sustainable agriculture. Community and home is the best learning avenue.

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    • Andrea Hoyt
      Mar 10, 2010 @ 02:27PM PT
      Andrea Hoyt

      Neil...I agree, there should be more emphasis on farms (gardening too) and the importance of them in all schools; public, private, and home.  This would be wonderful!  Unfortunately, it is only a small part of the solution.

      Lisa... it is unrealistic to think that the majority of the population of this country will be able to or choose to homeschool.  While i think homeschooling is great, and your children are very lucky, we need to reach as many of the next generation as we can.  Schools (of all kinds) need to start pursuing a deeper connections to their communities.  Some children just won't get the ideals that your children do at home, sadly, and community (including all schools) is their next best chance. 

       

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    • Lisa Perschke
      Mar 10, 2010 @ 05:09PM PT
      Lisa Perschke

      My children are in public school and the public school concentrate on making the MEAP Score and preparing all year to make the grade. Depending on the school system of the nation to teach our children sustainability is a long shot.

      My idea supports education but through Land Colleges and program funding for Master Gardener, Master Composter and local non-profit gardening groups. Next year these programs will be cut in Michigan. We can't wait for the system to meet our needs for such education. We need this type of funding to continue.

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  • Eric Becker
    Mar 08, 2010 @ 08:11AM PT
    Eric Becker

    If you want to support farms, also please vote for Slow Money - financing sustainable agriculture: http://www.change.org/ideas/view/slow_our_money_down_and_invest_as_if_food_farms_and_fertility_mattered

    Thanks!

     

     

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  • Thomas Hopkins
    Mar 08, 2010 @ 07:30PM PT
    Thomas Hopkins

    Jesus talked a lot about planting and reaping.Remember this(The only "Secret of Success"  you'll ever nedd) What goes around comes around!If, you sow good you'll reap good.If, you sow evil you'll reap evil.There are evils coming upon this world that has never been seen before,let's wake up world,NOW.Love is the key we need to make things right and we don't have much time.God loves you,I love you, and that's the way it is!

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  • ricarda leemans
    Mar 09, 2010 @ 06:34AM PT
    ricarda leemans

    Where can I vote,that is not clear to me. And can I vote, being an European? kalaleemans@gmail.com

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  • carl wayne
    Mar 09, 2010 @ 10:22AM PT
    carl wayne

    I vote for less governmental control and more individual freedom.

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  • Craig Collins
    Mar 09, 2010 @ 01:20PM PT
    Craig Collins

    I think that sometimes people can't see the "forest" because they are too focused on the "trees"......regardless of the "type" of farming practices employed....the basic question is about preserving ground for agriculture.  Conversely....what will that ground be used for if not agriculture......suburban sprawl most likely.  Once the land is developed, there isn't any going back, and that resource is lost.  I think the multiple types of farming practices and the pros and cons of each is an interesting discussion in itself.......but I don't think that is what is being asked here.  Just MHO!

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  • Sue Aschbacher
    Mar 09, 2010 @ 01:31PM PT
    Sue Aschbacher

    I am a small organic farmer and I had land taken away from me, farm fencing destroyed, apple orchard cut down, big ditches dug thur my farm entrance. Even my soil was removed from my property. All because two neighbors wanted a 66 foot road instead of the 33 foot road which existed. The judge went against Wisconsin Laws and Statues and freely gave these two men my land. Even the sheriff was in on their deal. I paid thousands of dollars to lawers who didn't represent me. Now I have a farm that the hay and beef trucks cannot get in because of the big ditches these men made.  This is not America, were one judge can give farm land and destroy a farm operation. Just because two men at the end of my farm road, which is also a dead end, wanted a 66 foot road on my property, but when my road connected with their road, their road is 12 feet.  These men also have taken me to court for my chickens and I lost (same judge) and paid a fine and there's more cases that my farm and I have lost and paid fines.  I or the farm animals never did anything to these neighbors, but if you know the right judge and sheriff, you can buy anything you want.  I wish someone in the agiculture world would help me defend my farm, but no one wants to go against this judge and sheriff.  Wish I could put my story on Dateline or a TV show like it.  This has been going on for 12 years and has taken a hugh toll on the farm and our finances.  Maybe because I am a single mom that they can get away with what they did.   Sue Aschbacher  'Lit'l Shepherd's Farm'

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  • vicki mangum
    Mar 09, 2010 @ 02:14PM PT
    vicki mangum

    Hi Sue, I know how to file a law suit. We could file a suit against all of these yahoos. If you are interested please contact me by email.  My address is

    vickivarner55@gmail.com    My name is Vicki. I live in Idaho. Where do you live?

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  • Liz Markham
    Mar 09, 2010 @ 05:18PM PT
    Liz Markham

    @ David Greene - very well said!  I too support the efforts to maintain farmland, and I support the family farms, and local farming.  I'm not in favor of the industrial farming that we are seeing in the US - although I am pragmatic enough to realize that our current demands have created this supply chain.  Saving farmland is the first step to rebuilding small, local farming operations.  We need to find a way to make small scale farming financially viable.  

    By buying local, and supporting our local farmers we are casting our vote to make these changes happen.  

    Please vote for this bill, but vote daily as well in your food choices.  Support your local food sources, and choose your food wisely.  If we support the big corporations they keep winning.  

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    • Lisa Perschke
      Mar 09, 2010 @ 05:39PM PT
      Lisa Perschke

      Buying local is not supporting by this idea. No where on their website do they support locally grown food. Check the American Farmland website to see what corporations are funding this non-profit organization.

      I would support such an idea if it was truly not attached to the large farms that have no localized support. So many natural resources, including produce, soil, water, petroleum, pesticides and fertilizers are wasted growing food without local connections. The food grown on large farms is sent all over the county and most of the time can't find a market to be sold before it spoils. What a waste! Local farming is definitely needed to provide the avenue for produce to be adequately used.

      Check out the idea titled Community Supported Agriculture in local neighborhoods at the following link:

      http://www.change.org/ideas/view/community_supported_agriculture_in_local_neighborhoods

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  • Joseph Cucculelli
    Mar 09, 2010 @ 06:20PM PT
    Joseph Cucculelli

    As a chef  in the industry i would rather support local farmers than conglomorate monopolies that aren"t supportative of local communities.

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  • e. fred elledge
    Mar 09, 2010 @ 11:24PM PT
    e. fred elledge

    I have been alarmed with our paving of farmland since childhood.  The Soviets concept of pods of housing towers around the metro stations and leave the green space is much more realistic.  Earths major problem is uncontrolled reproduction of humans, cats and dogs.

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  • Cherie Edwards
    Mar 10, 2010 @ 07:13AM PT
    Cherie Edwards

    I just wanted to say that farms and ranches are very important.  This is where the food on our tables come from.  Not those fast food joints. I think the fast paced ife in our world today allows for some to forget what is important in life.  We need to sit at the table with our families.  Eat nutritious foods.  Food is important to us for our existence on this planet.  It has been since since the beginning and moreso with the advent of agriculture. 

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  • Tod Murphy
    Mar 10, 2010 @ 10:32AM PT
    Tod Murphy

    The idea that diversified organic farms owned by the people who work the land CANNOT supply sufficient food for the world is more propaganda from vested interests (large corporate ag and the land grant university researchers who feed off the corporate ag teat).  As is borne out by study after study and for those of us working the land our own eyes is this reality-diversified farms produce more food calories per acre with fewer calories of inputs than the commodity/corporate agriculture model of mono-cropping.

    The free market reinforces this observation, it is the diversified farms that operate outside the economic bounty of government subsidies while the corporate agriculture model is absolutely dependent upon tax payers dollars flowing through Washington DC into the hands of corporate farms. 

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  • Richard Marble
    Mar 10, 2010 @ 12:06PM PT
    Richard Marble

    I do not know who  American Farmland Trust is but they have never done anything that I am aware of for any of the farms in my area.

      I contacted them a while back about a field right beside my farm I need help buying that is owned by someone who does not farm.  Never got anything back from them at all.  They didn't even contact me to say they could not help. 

    They sound like they talk the talk but they sure don't look like they walk the walk. There are a lot of non profits that do a really good raising money but don't do anything to really help.  As far as I can see this is one of them.

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    • American Farmland Trust
      Mar 10, 2010 @ 01:35PM PT
      American Farmland Trust

      Dear Richard,

      I am so sorry to hear about the field next to your farm.  I wish we could help you buy the field, but unfortunately we do not have anywhere near the money necessary to help the many individual farmers purchase the millions of acres across the United States that are threatened by development- we wish we did, but we don't.  

      Instead, I can point you to the Farmland Information Center (www.farmlandinfo.org), a clearinghouse of farmland protection information that we administer alongside the National Resource Conservation Service.  Our staff there can point you to local, state and federal legislation, loans, land trusts etc. that may help you address the property you are concerned about.   

      Here at American Farmland Trust, we are working with local and state officials and the federal government to make farmland conservation a public priority, an item on every state’s agenda and a key element of national farm policy. 

      This includes such activities as pioneering the use of agricultural conservation easements (agreements with landowners to keep their land open and available for farming) as a tool to keep farmland protected forever and helping 27 states and hundreds of local communities create and improve programs to protect farmland from sprawling development.

      There is still plenty of work to be done, but I assure you we are working tirelessly every day to "walk the walk" when it comes to farmland protection.  It would be great if we had the resources to look at you particular situation (and many more like you) but unfortunately they are not always available.  What we are trying to do is to help put the legislation, policies, projects and framework in place that can help all local communities (like yours) put farmland protection plans in place.  That way we can all get the most bang for our buck.

      Thanks for keeping us on our toes and I do apologize if no one ever got back to you. I wish you the best when it comes to your adjacent land.  Let me know if you can't get in touch with the Farmland Information Center and I will help (awood@farmland.org)

      In the meantime, please click around our website to learn more about us and what we may be doing in your area.
      http://www.farmland.org


      Thanks!
      Allen @ American Farmland Trust

       

       

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  • Cheryl Heatherly
    Mar 11, 2010 @ 12:14PM PT
    Cheryl Heatherly

    The site will not let me vote!!!

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  • Greg Parmer
    Mar 11, 2010 @ 06:32PM PT
    Greg Parmer

    If the financial incentive to abandon perfectly sound buildings in favor of erecting new ones were eliminated the issue would disappear. It's the same problem that creates doughnut shaped population centers. Make it financially favorable to re-use old buildings and many issues will be solved, this one included.

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  • cindy prince
    Mar 12, 2010 @ 06:29AM PT
    cindy prince

    we need t ostop corporations like Monsanto from taking over the seed industry and hybrid-izing all the seeds. we will have NO FOOD AT ALL if everything depends upon seeds that cannot grow plants which regenreate VIABLE SEEDS! this is a MUCH bigger problem and needs addressing immediately!

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  • Mar 12, 2010 @ 08:37AM PT
    M M

    We need to be sure that we are SUPPORTING small farmers and not handicapping them by passing sweeping bills and fines concerning "greener" and healthier farming. Private, small farmers, want to do what's right for the earth and for their families and communities, but they have to be able to make a living as well. When you vote for agricultural reforms, keep in mind that those laws effect ALL farming, not just the big farm corps that you think are so evil. Make sure you are not inadvertently handicapping the little guy by slapping big fines and regulations on corporate agriculture. I for one, being a small farm owner, would like to see more SUPPORT and not just ridicule and regulation from the "green" community and other interested parties. Help small American farm society by promoting positive change, not just restrictions!

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  • Mark Beasley
    Mar 15, 2010 @ 09:13PM PT
    Mark Beasley

    How many times have you bought a package of...let's say chicken legs...and the bone was broken. That chicken had to of suffered his last moment on this earth, from being raised in some assembly line chicken house, feeding on steroid laced chicken feed and never having the oppurtunity to ever run in a pasture. We need more family run farms, you just don't know what your missing if you've never eaten a brown egg, or a free range chicken that been allowed to eat from the land...Support your farmers market and your local farmer! If you have any near where you live!!

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  • Charles Hancock Be Helpful Not Hurtful
    Mar 15, 2010 @ 09:59PM PT
    Charles Hancock Be Helpful Not Hurtful

    I am from the Pacific Northwest and I grew up accostomed to an abundance of Salmon.  More and more often we are hearing on the news how healthy Salmon are to eat. I am trying to do what I can to ensure that I will be able to eat fresh healthy Salmon.  We are getting closer and closer to over fishing them.

    This is one of the best ways that I have found to be able to eat healthy meat in a sustainable fashion.  The hope of this program is for each community to be able to cultivate a sustainable healthy fish population.  Oh and you want to talk about environmentally friendly!  This heals the environment:)

    http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_barber_how_i_fell_in_love_with_a_fish.html

    Be Helpful Not Hurtful

    http://behelpfulnothurtful.blogspot.com/

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  • Charles Hancock Be Helpful Not Hurtful
    Mar 15, 2010 @ 10:04PM PT
    Charles Hancock Be Helpful Not Hurtful

    I am from the Pacific Northwest and I grew up accostomed to an abundance of Salmon.  More and more often we are hearing on the news how healthy Salmon are to eat. I am trying to do what I can to ensure that I will be able to eat fresh healthy Salmon.  We are getting closer and closer to over fishing them.

    This is one of the best ways that I have found to be able to eat healthy meat in a sustainable fashion.  The hope of this program is for each community to be able to cultivate a sustainable healthy fish population.  Oh and you want to talk about environmentally friendly!  This heals the environment:)

    http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_barber_how_i_fell_in_love_with_a_fish.html

    Be Helpful Not Hurtful

    http://behelpfulnothurtful.blogspot.com/

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  • Raelin Hansen
    Mar 26, 2010 @ 02:10PM PT
    Raelin Hansen

    We all know that corporate agribusiness concerns have a vested interest in our continued dependence on their products, and in the suppression of a move toward greater reliance on locally grown food. We've seen evidence of this in the attempts to pass laws subjecting small farmers to onerous and largely meaningless production standards. Why i bring this up is because i'd like to ask you, while you're here, to pop over and take a closer look at another Top Ten winner: Move to Amend. I say this because one thing that every one of us, with our many causes, must realize, is that this is THE ISSUE on which all other issues ultimately hinge, because corporations have their fingers in EVERY LAST SINGLE PIE! Pass it on! Continue to work for Peace, of course, but please join the push to FIRST OF ALL do away with the absurd fiction of corporate personhood, because the recent Supreme Court decision in "Citizens United vs Federal Election Commission" affects ANY chance that you have of changing the current situation, and indeed threatens most of the few freedoms we still have. (Because "speech" with money is bigger and louder than anyone's rightful, individual free speech, and advertising [read propaganda] has a notorious power to whip up fear in more malleable members of society.)

    I will add this: the most powerful use of - and publicity for - this issue is to make it, for the midterms, a major (even better make it THE MAJOR) campaign issue. If organized groups of people confront the candidates and ask them "How will you vote, or better yet will you co-sponsor a move to amend our constitution, to do away with for once and for all this absurd conception of corporations as persons?" If they won't do that, they shouldn't have our vote! Our freedom and our control over the issues that affect us rest, beneath it all, on this one issue!

     

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  • Rahimzeanov Oleg
    Apr 16, 2010 @ 10:20AM PT
    Rahimzeanov Oleg

    Mersi

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  • Steven Earl Salmony
    Apr 26, 2010 @ 06:07AM PT
    Steven Earl Salmony

    As UN Secretary-General Mr. Kofi Annan noted in 1997, "The world has enough food. What it lacks is the political will to ensure that all people have access to this bounty, that all people enjoy food security."

    Please examine the probability that humans are producing too much, not too little food. The problem we face is the way increasing the global food supply leads to increasing absolute global human population numbers. It is the super-abundant, large scale harvests that are making it possible for population numbers of the human species to explode beyond the limits imposed by the relatively small, evidently finite, noticeably frangible environment of a planet with the size, composition and ecology of Earth.

    The spectacular success of the Green Revolution over the past 40 years has "produced" an unintended and completely unanticipated global challenge, I suppose: the rapidly increasing supply of food for human consumption has given birth to a human population bomb, which is exploding worldwide before our eyes.

    Perhaps the most formidable threat to future human wellbeing and environmental health appears to be caused by the unbridled, corporate overproduction of food on the one hand and the abject failure of the leaders of the human community to insist upon more fair and equitable redistribution of the world's food supply so that "all people enjoy food security".

    WE NEED TO SHARE AND TO BUILD SUSTAINABLE, HUMAN-SCALE FARMING PRACTICES.

     

    Steven Earl Salmony

    AWAREness Campaign on The Human Population, established 2001

    http://www.panearth.org/

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This idea was voted as one of the top 10 ideas in the 2010 Ideas for Change in America competition. For more information, including a list of all 10 winners, click here.

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