Growing Food Organically
Growing Food Organically

In the face of rising food costs and tumbling financial markets, some people are looking for a safe haven or at least for a sensible answer regarding “what to do?”. One answer that is emerging from several corners of Kauai is “learn how to grow our own food!”. It is not a new answer but it is a response to the current times in which we are all facing one more crisis after another.

For those persons who are looking to take control of at least one such crisis, like the threat of food shortages and spiraling shipping costs, a new program is being offered at Kauai Community College entitled “Growing Food: Principles and Methods of Organic Horticulture.” It is designed for home gardeners and those seeking to establish community gardens in their neighborhood. It is a 10 session program that will be held Thursdays from 4:00 till 6:00 pm beginning October 16. Tuition is $120 and a limited number of partial scholarships are available.

The principal instructor will be Katherine Doherty who is experienced in organic horticulture and permaculture systems of food production. She holds a bachelors degree from University of Hawaii in ethnobotany and has taught courses in various related fields in Hawaii and New Zealand. She worked with a National Science Foundation funded program at Bishop Museum and has authored several studies in the fields of horticulture and ecology.

Growing Food Organically

In the face of rising food costs and tumbling financial markets, some people are looking for a safe haven or at least for a sensible answer regarding “what to do?”. One answer that is emerging from several corners of Kauai is “learn how to grow our own food!”. It is not a new answer but it is a response to the current times in which we are all facing one more crisis after another.

For those persons who are looking to take control of at least one such crisis, like the threat of food shortages and spiraling shipping costs, a new program is being offered at Kauai Community College entitled “Growing Food: Principles and Methods of Organic Horticulture.” It is designed for home gardeners and those seeking to establish community gardens in their neighborhood. It is a 10 session program that will be held Thursdays from 4:00 till 6:00 pm beginning October 16. Tuition is $120 and a limited number of partial scholarships are available.

The principal instructor will be Katherine Doherty who is experienced in organic horticulture and permaculture systems of food production. She holds a bachelors degree from University of Hawaii in ethnobotany and has taught courses in various related fields in Hawaii and New Zealand. She worked with a National Science Foundation funded program at Bishop Museum and has authored several studies in the fields of horticulture and ecology.

Published on Tuesday, September 30, 2008 by the Capital Times (Madison, Wisconsin)
Buy Local and Help Main Street

by Bill Berry

STEVENS POINT -- On the Saturday after the big financial meltdown of September, people milled around the farmers' market on the public square here as if nothing had happened. Of course, many of them knew otherwise. But what is a person to do? The tomatoes are ripe for only so long, and a long winter is ahead.

Besides, at times like this, we have to take care of one another here at home. Financial markets may have no conscience, but the rest of us can do better than that.

The farmers' market here isn't as well known as Madison's, but it's at least as historic. Most of the buildings on the old public square at the east end of Main Street are late 19th century or early 20th century vintage, and the farmers have been coming here to sell produce for that long. Those with Polish names like Slowinski have been joined by Hmong folks with names like Vang. The market survives even as it changes here on the end of Main Street.

The "financial crisis," as it has quickly been dubbed, has led to concern about what will happen to America's Main Streets, and the jury is still out. When pundits speculate about Main Street, they're speaking in hyperbole about communities big and small across the land, not streets.

Published on Tuesday, September 30, 2008 by MSNBC
At Long Last, Food Labeling Law Set To Take Effect
Still, some expect confusion over what must be labeled

by Allison Linn

Walk into a grocery store after Sept. 30, and you'll be more likely to find out whether that head of lettuce you are buying was grown in Mexico or the United States. If you pick up a bag of lettuce, however, don't necessarily expect the same information.

[Beginning Sept. 30, the government will require food retailers to tell consumers what country certain foods came from. (Getty Images)]Beginning Sept. 30, the government will require food retailers to tell consumers what country certain foods came from. (Getty Images)
After years of wrangling, so-called "country of origin labeling" is expected to take effect at the end of the month, requiring most food retailers to disclose where many types of meat, produce and other food products come from. The new rules aim to make it easier for regular consumers to know whether their food was imported or not, much like they can find out whether the toys they buy for their children were made domestically or overseas.

But while the regulations will provide customers with more information about where their food comes from, there also is likely to be some confusion, as consumers - and experts - work to understand exactly what is covered under the regulations, and what isn't.

Updated at 3:36 p.m., Monday, September 29, 2008

Hawaii works to diversify crops

Associated Press

Roy Oyama has grown just about every vegetable possible in his five decades as a farmer on Kaua'i.
Advertisement

Quantcast

"I've grown everything in vegetables from A to Z. I haven't found anything that doesn't grow in Hawai'i," said Oyama, a third-generation farmer who hopes Oyama Farms will continue with his children and grandchildren. "Sustainable means different things to people. To me, it means being natural, nothing high cost or unnatural."

Oyama was one of 150 farmers, ranchers, aquaculturists, fishermen, chefs and proponents of sustainable agriculture gathered last week for two conferences at the Outrigger Keauhou Beach Resort.

"Partnerships for Sustainable Local Food Production," presented by the American Culinary Federation Kona-Kohala Chefs de Cuisine, was coupled with the Hawaii International Tropical Fruit Growers' conference titled "Sustainable Diversification of Tropical Fruit."

"We realized these two conferences dovetailed really well. It just made sense to put them together," said Ken Love, executive director of the statewide Hawaii Tropical Fruit Growers. "Chefs and farmers need to better understand each other's goals and limitations so they can partner together for putting local food on the table."

Hawai'i should take advantage of its locally grown products and produce, said Jerry DeWitt, director of the Leopold Center of Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University.

http://kauaiworld.com/articles/2008/09/27/news/news03.txt
Kilauea park plans up for review; input sought

by Michael Levine - The Garden Island

The public is invited to provide input on three options for the development of a 75-acre agricultural park alongside Kilauea Road between Quarry Road and the gated Sea Cliff Plantations development, according to county officials.

The long-awaited project was made possible through a transfer of acreage in the Crater Hill area to the county in the fall of 2006. The donation of the ag park parcel was a condition of development imposed by the Planning Department more than 25 years ago, a press release states.
*

The three alternatives, available for public viewing at www.kauai.gov/OED (and below), were devised by the county’s consultant, Kimura International, following extensive discussions with Kilauea residents, elected officials, farmers and others throughout the island.

According to a document on the Office of Economic Development Web site, all three alternatives contain a communal windbreak, roadways, irrigation facilities, a recycle/compost area, community gardens and an energy farm.

However, the alternatives differ in organization and other features.

Farm acreage varies only slightly, between 56.6 and 59.6 acres, but the number of farm plots ranges from just six to 20. The alternatives also offer varying details in terms of traditional farm lots, incubator farms, organic farms and orchards.

http://www.motherearthnews.com/Organic-Gardening/How-To-Start-A-Compost-...
How to Start a Compost Pile

By Heidi Hunt

A vegetable garden is more than what you see on the surface — dirt, plants and (hopefully!) some mulch. Under the surface, a complex web of dirt, roots, microbes and fungi transforms plain old dirt into a superior growing medium — soil. But that intricate web will exist only if you boost your plain old dirt with nutritious amendments, such as homemade compost. And in addition to being a garden soil amendment, compost can be worked into the soil around trees, bushes and flowers to also give them a nutritional boost.

Composting is a natural process, similar to the way nature breaks down leaves and other dead material on the forest floor. A combination of green and brown vegetable matter kept barely moist and turned regularly will “rot” into a dark, aromatic material filled with the beneficial bacteria, microbes and fungi that your plants need to grow like champs.
Getting Started

http://www.starbulletin.com/business/20080925_Isle_sugar_industry_dissol...
Isle sugar industry dissolves to one

Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Co. will be the state's last sugar maker

By Associated Press

POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Sep 25, 2008
(Page 1 of 2) | Single Page View

Sugar was once king in Hawaii, steering the economy and politics while shaping the multicultural identity and colorful pidgin English language of these islands.

But the once sweet and thriving industry has moved closer to extinction here with Gay & Robinson Inc.'s announcement it is leaving the sugar business after 119 years because of skyrocketing costs and mounting multimillion-dollar losses.

Sugarcane will still be raised in G&R's red volcanic soil on the lush island of Kauai. Rather than catering to America's sweet tooth, the crop will be converted into ethanol to feed vehicles and the nation's growing appetite for renewable energy.

The family-owned business will lease its 7,500 acres and facilities to other companies that plan to produce ethanol and electricity, but not sugar.

"Our losses were simply too great. We just had to stop the bleed," said E. Alan Kennett, G&R's president and general manager.

G&R, with its Sept. 10 announcement, is the latest Hawaiian sugar grower to abandon the business or close in the past two decades, leaving deteriorating smokestacks as aging monuments to the industry's heyday.

Easy Backyard Chicken Coops

Troy Griepentrog

There are dozens of reasons to keep a few hens in your back yard, including pest control and sheer entertainment. Fresh eggs may be the most popular reason, and eggs from hens allowed to do what comes naturally — roam and peck at grasses, weed seeds and bugs — not only taste better, they're better for you than eggs from cage-raised hens. Free-range eggs are higher in vitamin E and beta carotene, and lower in cholesterol. (Look for the exciting results of recent research in the October/November 2007 issue of Mother Earth News).

Break with Tradition

Keeping chickens should be fun and require little management. You don't need to spend lots of money and time to get set up. You can let them out to range, and they will instinctively return to their roosts at dusk. Just be sure to keep them penned up for a few days before you let them range for the first time; it takes them awhile to learn where 'home' is.

If you're thinking of a walk-in shed with a small outside run of barren earth, it's time to change your thinking. There's a better way to keep your hens. Instead of a traditional chicken shed, use a small moveable pen that allows chickens to eat bugs (ticks, grasshoppers, worms, fleas, etc.), grass (yes, chickens do eat grass and plants) and weed seeds. Let your chickens graze in the yard and move the pen every day or two. This creates a synergistic relationship — both the chickens and the lawn benefit.

Predator Protection

Terra Preta: Biochar and the MEGO effect
by Big Gav
This month's edition of National Geographic has a feature article on 'Soil', which looks at the steady degradation of agricultural land and the problem this poses in world where the population is heading for 9+ billion people - effectively calling attention to the 'peak dirt' problem (however soil is renewable, so any 'peak' should be able to be reversed if sufficient time and effort is put into doing so).

The article uses an acronym I've never come across before to describe the problem faced by those trying to draw attention to the issue: MEGO (My Eyes Glaze Over) - a phenomenon which should be familiar to anyone who has ever talked about peak oil, global warming or any of the other 'limits to growth'.

This year food shortages, caused in part by the diminishing quantity and quality of the world's soil, have led to riots in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. By 2030, when today's toddlers have toddlers of their own, 8.3 billion people will walk the Earth; to feed them, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization estimates, farmers will have to grow almost 30 percent more grain than they do now. Connoisseurs of human fecklessness will appreciate that even as humankind is ratchetting up its demands on soil, we are destroying it faster than ever before. 'Taking the long view, we are running out of dirt,' says David R. Montgomery, a geologist at the University of Washington in Seattle.