Source: Guildbrook Farm | Simple Sustainable Living
July 14, 2017
We all learn from making mistakes, but some homesteading mistakes can cost you a lot of time and money. Learn from our homestead mistakes and others in this collaboration with other homestead channels.
Source: Guildbrook Farm | Simple Sustainable Living
July 6, 2017
Jeremy goes over some of the design changes he is making to our chicken coops based on how they worked (or didn’t work) over the last year.
Source: GrowingYourGreens
July 1, 2017
John from http://www.growingyourgreens.com/ visits Bonton Farm, in South Dallas, in an area that is a food desert. You will discover what they are growing at bonton to feed the local Dallas community and what they are doing to bring back vitality to the community.
First, John will take you on a tour of Bonton Farm to show you what is growing. You will learn some of the crops that are doing well at Bonton farms, and some of the techniques they are using to grow the food. You will learn more about eco-logical farming where they are doing a no-till method of growing food.
Next, you will discover how fertility is added to the land, and how goats, pigs, chickens and bees are used on the property.
Finally, John will interview Patrick, the Director of Sales at the farm and former farm manager.
18:06 Interview with Patrick of Bonton Farm
18:35 How did the farm start?
20:17 How has the farm helped you in your life?
21:04 How has the farmed helped the community?
21:40 Why buys your food that is grown at Bonton farm?
22:38 Why dont give out your food to the local community?
24:14 Tell me more about the Bonton community?
25:25 How is this farm helping with the Food Desert problem?
27:20 How many people does the Bonton farm employ?
27:27 What do you like most about your job at Bontom Farm?
29:28 How can someone come out and see the farm or volunteer?
30:14 What future vision do you see for the farm and how can the farm help more people?
32:05 Will Bonton farms help other farms in food deserts start their farm?
34:19 Any final comments or thoughts for my viewers today?
37:17 What is the link to the Bonton Farm Web site?
After watching this episode, you will learn more about how land can be used for the good of the people to build community and grow food at the same time.
Source: UrbanFarmer
June 17, 2017
Source: UrbanFarmer
Curtis Stone
June 8, 2017
VLOG134. A demonstration of how productive a small farm can be. Greens harvester tool found here: http://bit.ly/1W3nLGb
Source: NoMoreFakeNews.com | JonRappoport.wordpress.com
By: Jon Rappoport
May 15, 2017
“I have a great idea. We’re the Sherman County government. We have power. Let’s claim Azure Farms can’t control their weeds. Let’s come in and invade them with Roundup and other toxic chemicals. Let’s destroy their organic farm. We know the spraying won’t wipe out the weeds—it’ll make the situation worse. But who cares? Let’s open up ourselves to massive lawsuits. I’m sure Monsanto will give us some legal help. We can set a fantastic precedent. No organic farm is safe. No organic farmer has the right to protect his land from the government. Isn’t that a terrific idea?”
Government trespass, invasion?
So far, I have seen no coverage of this issue in Oregon newspapers. Why not? Also, I find nothing on the Sherman County, Oregon, government website about a massive spraying program.
A local government is going to decimate a huge organic farm with herbicide?
Azure Farms, a 2000-acre organic farm in Oregon, states it is under threat from the local Sherman County government. Why? Because Sherman County officials are re-interpreting a law concerning the “control of noxious weeds,” so it means “eradication.”
These weeds can be controlled on an organic farm, but the only way they can be eliminated (according to conventional “science”) is by spraying. And that means Roundup and other toxic chemicals. That would decimate the organic nature of the farm. That would decertify it as an organic farm.
Further, according to Azure, Sherman County plans to put a lien on the farm, forcing it to pay for the spraying.
The deadline for expressing opposition is May 22. A better deadline is May 17.
Here is the complete press release from Azure Farms and the ways to register your concern:
Azure Farms is a working, certified organic farm located in Moro, central Oregon, in Sherman County. It has been certified organic for about 18 years. The farm produces almost all the organic wheat, field peas, barley, Einkorn, and beef for Azure Standard.
Sherman County is changing the interpretation of its statutory code from controlling noxious weeds to eradicating noxious weeds. These weeds include Morning Glory, Canada Thistle, and Whitetop, all of which have been on the farm for many years, but that only toxic chemicals will eradicate.
Organic farming methods – at least as far as we know today – can only control noxious weeds—it is very difficult to eradicate them.
Sherman County may be issuing a Court Order on May 22, 2017 to quarantine Azure Farms and possibly to spray the whole farm with poisonous herbicides, contaminating them with Milestone, Escort and Roundup herbicides.
This will destroy all the efforts Azure Farms has made for years to produce the very cleanest and healthiest food humanly possible. About 2,000 organic acres would be impacted; that is about 1.5 times the size of the city center of Philadelphia that is about to be sprayed with noxious, toxic, polluting herbicides.
The county would then put a lien on the farm to pay for the expense of the labor and chemicals used.
Contact Sherman County Court before May 17 when the next court discussion will be held.
Contact info:
1. Via email at lhernandez@co.sherman.or.us or
2. Call Lauren at 541-565-3416.
Show Sherman County that people care about their food NOT containing toxic chemicals.
Overwhelm the Sherman County representatives with your voices!
—end of Azure Farms statement—
Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor to jonathanturley.org, has been covering this story. He reached out and obtained a devastating letter from agricultural scientist, Charles Benbrook. Benbrook has his critics within the conventional pesticide and GMO research community. Here is Smith’s piece and Dr. Benbrook’s letter:
Yesterday I fielded an article concerning a rather distressing mandate by an Oregon county weed control agency seeking to force the application of hazardous herbicides onto a 2,000 acre organic farm owned by Azure Farms. Sherman County Oregon maintains this scorched earth policy is necessary to abate, or more specifically “eradicate”, weeds listed by state statute as noxious.
Now, the scientific community is responding to this overreaching government action by acting in the interests of health and responsible environmental stewardship through advocacy in the hopes that officials in Sherman County will reconsider their mandate.
Dr. Charles Benbrook is a highly credentialed research professor and expert serving on several boards of directors for agribusiness and natural resources organizations. Having read news of Sherman County’s actions, he penned an authoritative response I believe will make informative reading for those concerned by present and future implications in the forced use of herbicides under the rubric of noxious weed eradication, and the damage to organic farming generally arising from such mandates.
Charles Benbrook has a PhD in agricultural economics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and an undergraduate degree from Harvard University. He currently is a Visiting Professor at Newcastle University in the UK…
He was a Research Professor at Washington State University from 2012-2015, and served as the Chief Scientist of The Organic Center from 2006-2012. He was the Executive Director of the Board on Agriculture in the National Academy of Sciences from 1984-1990. He was the staff director of the Subcommittee on Department [USDA] Operations, Research, and Foreign Agriculture of the House Committee on Agriculture (1981-1983). He worked as an agricultural and natural resources policy expert in the Council for Environmental Quality in the last 1.5 years of the Carter Administration. He began Benbrook Consulting Services (BCS) in 1990, and continues to carry out projects with a wide range of clients via BCS
He coauthors an informative website Hygeia-Analytics.com.
I reached out to Dr. Benbrook and received permission to reprint his letter in the hope that with more attention, including that from the scientific community, we can arrive at a reasonable solution to the county’s concerns. Here is Dr. Benbrook’s letter:…
Tom McCoy
Joe Dabulskis
Sherman County Commissioners
Lauren Hernandez
Administrative Assistant
Sherman County, Oregon
Rod Asher
Sherman Country Weed District Supervisor
Moro, Oregon
Alexis Taylor
Director
Oregon Department of Agriculture
Dear Ms. Hernandez el al:
I live in Wallowa County. I learned today of the recent, dramatic change in the Sherman County noxious weed control program and the plan to forcibly spray a 2,000-acre organic farm in the county.
Over a long career, I have studied herbicide use and efficacy, public and private weed control efforts, the linkages between herbicide use and the emergence and spread of resistant weeds, and the public health and environmental impacts of herbicide use and other weed management strategies.
I served for six years, along with fellow Oregonian Barry Bushue, past-president of the Oregon Farm Bureau, on the USDA’s AC 21 Agricultural Biotechnology Advisory Committee. Issues arising from herbicide use were a frequent topic of discussion during our Committee’s deliberations.
I have published multiple scientific papers in peer-reviewed journals on glyphosate, its human health risks, and the impact of genetically engineered crops on overall herbicide use and the spread of resistant weeds. In a separate email, I will forward you copies of my published research relevant to the use of herbicides, and glyphosate in particular.
The notion that Sherman County can eradicate noxious weeds by blanket herbicide spraying is deeply misguided. I cannot imagine a single, reputable university weed scientist in the State supporting the idea that an herbicide-based noxious weed eradication program would work (i.e., eradicate the target weeds) in Oregon, or any other state. To hear another opinion from one of the State’s most widely known and respected weed scientists, I urge the County to consult with Dr. Carol Mallory-Smith, Oregon State University.
I also doubt any corporate official working for Monsanto, the manufacturer of glyphosate (Roundup), would agree or endorse the notion that any long-established weed in Sherman County, noxious or otherwise, could be eradicated via blanket spraying with Roundup, or for that matter any combination of herbicides.
Before proceeding with any county-mandated herbicide use justified by the goal of eradication, I urge the County to seek concurrence from the herbicide manufacturer that they believe use of their product will likely eradicate your named, target, noxious weeds.
Given that almost no one with experience in weed management believes that any long-established weed, noxious or otherwise, can be eradicated with herbicides, one wonders why the County has adopted such a draconian change in its noxious weed control program. I can think of two plausible motivations – a desire by companies and individuals involved in noxious weed control activities, via selling or applying herbicides, to increase business volume and profits; or, an effort to reduce or eliminate acreage in the Country that is certified organic.
Weeds are classified as noxious when they prone to spread, are difficult to control, and pose a public health or economic threat to citizens, public lands, and/or farming and ranching operations. Ironically, by far the fastest growing and mostly economically damaging noxious weeds in the U.S. are both noxious and spreading because they have developed resistance to commonly applied herbicides, and especially glyphosate.
There is near-universal agreement in the weed science community nationwide, and surely as well in the PNW, that over-reliance on glyphosate (Roundup) over the last two decades has created multiple, new noxious weeds posing serious economic, environmental, and public health threats.
In fact, over 120 million acres of cultivated cropland in the U.S. is now infested with one or more glyphosate-resistant weed (for details, see http://cehn-healthykids.org/herbicide-use/resistant-weeds/.
The majority of glyphosate-resistant weeds are in the Southeast and Midwest, where routine, year-after-year planting of Roundup Ready crops has led to heavy and continuous selection pressure on weed populations, pressure that over three-to-six years typically leads to the evolution of genetically resistant weed phenotypes, that can then take off, spreading across tens of millions of acres in just a few years.
Ask any farmer in Georgia, or Iowa, or Arkansas whether they would call “noxious” the glyphosate-resistant kochia, Palmer amaranth, Johnson grass, marestail, or any of a dozen other glyphosate-resistant weeds in their fields.
It is virtually certain that an herbicide-based attempt to eradicate noxious weeds in Sherman County would fail. It would also be extremely costly, and would pose hard-to-predict collateral damage on non-target plants from drift, and on human health and the environment. But even worse, it would also, almost certainly, accelerate the emergence and spread of a host of weeds resistant to the herbicides used in the program.
This would, in turn, leave the county, and the county’s farmers with not just their existing suite of noxious weeds to deal with, but a new generation of them resistant to glyphosate, or whatever other herbicides are widely used.
Sherman County’s proposal, while perhaps well meaning, will simply push the herbicide use-resistant weed treadmill into high gear. Just as farmers in other parts of the county have learned over the last 20 years, excessive reliance on glyphosate, or herbicides over-all, accomplishes only one thing reliably – it accelerates the emergence and spread of resistant weeds, requiring applications of more, and often more toxic herbicides, and so on before some one, or something breaks this vicious cycle.
I urge you to take into account two other consequences if the County pursues this deeply flawed strategy. Certified organic food products grown and processed in Oregon, and distributed by Oregon-based companies like Azure and the Organically Grown Company, are highly regarded throughout the U.S. for exceptional quality, consistency, and value.
Plus, export demand is growing rapidly across several Pacific Rim nations for high-value, certified organic foods and wine from Oregon. Triggering a high-profile fight over government-mandated herbicide spraying on certified organic fields in Sherman County will come as a shock to many people, who are under the impression that all Oregonians, farmers and consumers alike, are committed to a vibrant, growing, and profitable organic food industry.
Does Sherman County really want to erode this halo benefiting the marketing of not just organic products, but all food and beverages from Oregon?
Second, if Sherman County is serious about weed eradication, it will have to mandate widespread spraying countywide, and not just on organic farms, and not just for one year. The public reaction will be swift, strong, and build in ferocity. It will likely lead to civil actions of the sort that can trigger substantial, unforeseen costs and consequences. I am surely not the only citizen of the State that recalls the tragic events last year in Malheur County.
Plus, I guarantee you that the County, the herbicide applicators, and the manufacturers of the herbicides applied, under force of law on organic or other farms, will face a torrent of litigation seeking compensatory damages for loss of reputation, health risks, and the loss of premium markets and prices.
I have followed litigation of this sort for decades, and have served as an expert witness in several herbicide-related cases. While it is obviously premature to start contemplating the precise legal theories and statutes that will form the crux of future litigation, the County should develop a realistic estimate of the legal costs likely to arise in the wake of this strategy, if acted upon, so that the County Commissioners can alert the public upfront regarding how they will raise the funds needed to deal with the costs of near-inevitable litigation.
—end of Dr. Benbrook’s letter—
Yesterday, Sunday, I emailed the Sherman County government asking them whether they really intend to pursue this lunatic program. If and when I receive an answer, I’ll post it.
I also emailed Azure Farms, asking why they believe there is no coverage of this issue in Oregon newspapers. If I get an answer, I’ll post that, too.
Ordinarily, local papers will print a stories about contentious issues, however one-sided they may be. In this case, I find nothing.
Is it possible the threat of herbicide spraying has been overstated? Why would Azure issue a release claiming the spraying is imminent if it weren’t true? Why would Azure risk getting into a wrangle with the County government if the threat weren’t real? Why isn’t there any mention of the spraying program on the Sherman County website? Does the County actually think they can keep their intentions under wraps?
“I have a great idea. Let’s claim Azure Farms can’t control their weeds. Let’s come in and invade them with Roundup and other toxic chemicals. Let’s destroy their organic farm. We know the spraying won’t wipe out the weeds—it’ll make the situation worse. But who cares? Let’s open up ourselves to massive lawsuits. I’m sure Monsanto will give us some legal help. We can set a fantastic precedent. No organic farm is safe. No organic farmer has the right to protect his land from the government. Isn’t that a terrific idea?”
Read More At: JonRappoport.wordpress.com
_______________________________________________________________
Jon Rappoport
The author of three explosive collections, THE MATRIX REVEALED, EXIT FROM THE MATRIX, and POWER OUTSIDE THE MATRIX, Jon was a candidate for a US Congressional seat in the 29th District of California. He maintains a consulting practice for private clients, the purpose of which is the expansion of personal creative power. Nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, he has worked as an investigative reporter for 30 years, writing articles on politics, medicine, and health for CBS Healthwatch, LA Weekly, Spin Magazine, Stern, and other newspapers and magazines in the US and Europe. Jon has delivered lectures and seminars on global politics, health, logic, and creative power to audiences around the world. You can sign up for his free NoMoreFakeNews emails here or his free OutsideTheRealityMachine emails here.
Source: NaturalNews.com
Rhonda Johansson
March 12, 2017
Good news for all local farmers! The latest United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) survey reveals that there are now 24,650 certified organic operations in the U.S. This is a 13 percent increase from 2016 and the highest growth rate we’ve seen since 2008. The number of local, organic farms has been steadily increasing — albeit haphazardly — since 2002. However, it is only this year where a steady and distinctive rise is seen. The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition wrote on their website that “organic agriculture is one of the fastest growing sectors…for farmers across the country, strong demand for organic food translates into new and growing market opportunities.”
USDA organic certification provides farms or processing facilities the right and access to sell, label, and represent their products as organic in the United States. It is of particular importance for farms across rural America, where local industries contribute much to the area’s economic growth. As consumer demand for organic products grows, so too do sales. The USDA reported that there was approximately $43 billion in U.S. sales of organic products in 2015. Local farmers have said that being certified as organic by the USDA allows them to receive premium prices for their products.
The USDA ends their report quite succinctly; offering no justification as to why the rise is suddenly so sharp or relevant. Regardless, the growth is being lauded by many health advocates who believe in integrating into a cleaner, greener, and more organic lifestyle. The perils of pesticide-laden food, toxic tap water, and similar environmental concerns make it more necessary for people to be diligent about what they eat, what they do, and most importantly, how they live. Opting for organic food is an advantageous choice not only for your own personal health, but for the planet as well. There are several other reasons to choose organic foods, as listed on Prevention.com:
One other benefit of organic local farming is that it protects the environment. The foundation of all local farming is one of eco-sustenance. Preservation of soil and crop rotation keep farmlands healthy. Moreover, the natural ecosystem, wherein natural flora and animal life is allowed to thrive, is balanced.
While there are no official forecasts on the trend, it is hoped that more local farms going organic will be seen spreading across our nation. Follow more news about organics at Organics.news.
Sources include:
Source: Guildbrook Farm | Simple Sustainable Living
April 28, 2017
Source: WilliamEngahl.com
F. William Engdahl
February 13, 2017
When we human beings become too self-destructive for our own well-bring and that of our Earth, sometimes nature takes control and does what we in our greed and stupidity refuse to do. The refusal of Governments around the world–with notable exceptions such as the GMO-free Russian Federation–to order an immediate global ban on planting of Genetically Manipulated Organisms, GMO, including for corn, for soybeans, for cotton to name just a few, along with an immediate ban on paired weed-killers such as Monsanto’s Roundup, is stupidity pure. The response of nature, however, may sound the death knell for American farmers’ use of GMO seeds more effectively than any labelling or WHO carcinogen warning. Superweeds are literally choking GMO plants to death across the US Midwest farm belt and that should send a very real signal that nature abhors GMOs and their toxic weed-killing chemicals
Since President George Herbert Walker Bush met with the directors of Monsanto in the White House in a closed-door 1992 meeting, American agriculture and the American people have been the experimental guinea pig for testing the effects of planting of GMO crops paired to specific toxic weed-killers.
G.H.W. Bush after the Monsanto powwow ordered US Government agencies to treat the untested GMO seeds and their paired weed-killer chemicals as “substantially equivalent” to non-GMO plants and not requiring extra government testing, one of the more lunatic decisions of a President who seems to have had a morbid affinity for lunatic decisions.
Today, a quarter century later, 96% or almost every ear of USA corn, and most every single soybean, 94%, planted today in the United States is GMO. Those GMO crops find their way into practically every store-bought food product agribusiness pushes on us today. Most of it is Monsanto GMO crops using, by mandatory contract agreement, Monsanto glyphosate-based Roundup weed killer. This is because at present the Monsanto GMO seeds are genetically-modified only to resist Monsanto Roundup weed-killer based on glyphosate. As well, some 90% of every cotton ball harvested in the United States is GMO, and sprayed too, with toxic glyphosate.
Nature revolts
Now with ruthlessness against the crass violation of natural law that is inherent in the entire GMO eugenics experiment, nature is waging its own clever war on GMO crops in the USA. And make no mistake, the intent of the Rockefeller Foundation in funding the creation of GMO back in the 1970’s was and still is just that–eugenics.
It seems that the lies of Monsanto-Bayer, Dow-Dupont, ChemChina-Syngenta are coming back to haunt them. Far from their widely advertised claim that their patented GMO seeds need far less chemical weed-killers, USA farmers are finding out, over a period of years, that their crop acreages sprayed with ample doses of Roundup or other glyphosate-based weed-killers are fostering the growth of toxic Superweeds. Those superweeds are “glyphosate-resistant” meaning the Monsanto and other glyphosate weed-killers are useless. Farmers are forced to pour on other toxic weed-killer options to salvage their crops.
Three-quarters US prime Farmland
An alarming new study has just been published by the University of Illinois Plant Clinic highly relevant and highly ignored by mainstream irresponsible media. The study took some 593 field samples of approximately 2,000 waterhemp and palmer amaranth (pigweed) plants from ten farm states across the USA Midwest, the heartland of world agriculture, or at least until recently. They conducted careful testing and found the alarming results that across America’s farmbelt, 456 of the whole 593 field sites sampled showed Glyphosate Resistance – a total of 76.8%.
The Illinois University study, which reportedly is going viral among US farmers through the Internet, showed that for four of the nation’s largest food producing GMO states, the following percent of fields had superweeds such as waterhemp or palmer amaranth that had developed resistance to glyphosate and most other major weed-killers.
In Illinois, 48% of the fields with superweed samples present tested positive for both glyphosate and PPO Inhibitors (sometimes called contact herbicides, another form of weed killer) resistance. That means the superweeds thrive despite herbicide doses. In Indiana it was 66.6% or two-thirds. In Iowa, where the pro-GMO Governor, Terry Branstad is awaiting Senate approval as new Trump Ambassador to China, the percent of fields resistant to the superweeds is a shocking 74.7%, or three-quarters. And in Missouri, home state to Monsanto, the figure is 81.8%. This is significant I would say.
The University of Illinois researchers note that, “Fields with plants that are positive for both glyphosate and PPO inhibitor resistance are of particular concern due to the limited possibilities for control of these weeds.
Pigweed
Many natural food eaters associate amaranth with highly nutritious grain varieties. The Palmer Amaranth or Palmer Pigweed as it is known to farmers, is not so nice. It is toxic to livestock, and Palmer amaranth is also a threat most specifically to the production of cotton and soybean crops
Beginning 2006 Palmer amaranth was first confirmed resistant to glyphosate in some southern states, some twelve years after the commercialization of GMO crops in the USA. It choked off growth of cotton GMO plants. Since then it has spread north as far as Illinois, spread by wind. Palmer pigweed is the most aggressive pigweed species in growth rate and in its “competitive” ability against other plants, typically growing from 3-5 inches a day and dwarfing the cotton. In 2014, North Dakota State University’s “ND Weed Control Guide” selected Amaranthus palmeri, as “weed-of-the-year.”
Pigweed or Amaranthus palmeri is now unaffected by normal weed-killers across the US Midwest
Waterhemp is an even more aggressive variety of pigweed. Tall waterhemp produces between 300,000 and 5,000,000 seeds per plant. Tall waterhemp also has a growth rate, 50%-70% greater than other annual weeds. Its stem can grow up to three feet long and it can reduce soybean yields as much as 44%.
Farmers returning to non-GMO crops
The good news in this chronicle of nature’s stubbornness against mans’ stupidity is that more and more USA farmers are deciding to abandon GMO crops and return to non-GMO conventional seeds. Bill Giles, an Illinois farmer using GMO seeds since 2009 is planning to return to conventional non-GMO crops. He told Sustainable Pulse, “GM crops are on the edge of failure in the US as farmers are asked to fork out more and more money on herbicides to try to control the superweeds. We simply can’t afford it! It is near the end of the road for these crops and many of my friends in the Midwest are on the edge of turning back to conventional farming methods.”
Man and nature need to restore the natural harmony of life and nowhere more urgently than in restoring a natural food chain free from test-tube machinations to produce monstrosities such as GMO corn or GMO salmon whose true effects on humans is entirely unknown.
Read More At: WilliamEngdahl.com
_____________________________________________
F. William Engdahl is strategic risk consultant and lecturer, he holds a degree in politics from Princeton University and is a best-selling author on oil and geopolitics, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”
Source: Guildbrook Farm | Simple Sustainable Living
February 5, 2017
Are brown eggs healthier than white eggs? What is that brown spot in my egg? Do fertilized eggs taste different? How can you tell if an egg is old or rotten? The Guildbrook Farm girls answer some commonly asked questions about farm fresh chicken eggs.
If you have some tips or a video on farm fresh eggs, please be sure to leave a comment or link below. We encourage community and want to provide access to a variety of information so viewers can make their own informed decisions about the topics we cover.
Be sure to subscribe, we have a lot of videos coming out on homesteading, simple living, prepping, food storage, and healthy recipes. Follow us on our journey to become more self-reliant.
Thanks for watching!
Jaime and Jeremy
TheBreakAway 