The Farm Beginnings Collaborative is a network of Farm Beginnings™ training programs that are 1) farmer led; 2) community based; and 3) focused on sustainable growers.

From its humble beginnings in a dairy barn in Minnesota more than 20 years ago by a group of farmers calling themselves the “Wabasha County Give a Damns”, it has grown. Its founders wanted to get young people back to the farm and help them make it. The idea grew with organizational support from the Land Stewardship Project, a Minnesota nonprofit. For the whole story, read this piece the Minnesota Post: https://www.minnpost.com/politics-policy/2008/03/farm-beginnings-leads-happy-endings-land.

Over the past two decades, Farm Beginnings™ programs have grown to include 14 regions of the country from North Dakota to North Carolina, Maine to Nebraska. Food Works was accepted as the southernmost Illinois program in 2011. The Land Connection offers Farm Beginnings™ in central Illinois. Angelic Organics Learning Center, whose program is one of the oldest in the network, offers the Stateline Farm Beginnings program in northern Illinois/Wisconsin.

Each program is rooted in its region, informed by local farmers with local wisdom, and strengthened by a national network that shares the most effective tools. The Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association is the newest organization to join the Farm Beginnings Collaborative. Member group Grow NYC is pioneering teaching beginning farmers in the urban setting of New York City while programs in the Dakotas and northern Minnesota share strategies for dealing with low density population areas. Beginning farmers in the program learn to keep good farm records, develop a business plan, evaluate enterprise profitability, protect resources , market effectively, and maintain sustainability.

Organizations involved in Farm Beginnings are committed to sustainable farms and food. Farm Beginnings has nurtured thousands of new farmers and is poised to train thousands more within the next decade to meet the demand for new stewards of food and land.

Our friends at Regenerate Illinois have posted a blog in the forum reflecting on a monoculture landscape. We want to share it with you: https://www.regenerateillinois.org/forum/regenerative-farming/crop-livestock-reintegration

September 16-17th 2017 Visit 13 area farms for $20/carload from 1-6 p.m.. Get your passes, make your plan, grab your water bottle, hat and the kids - but leave the pets at home! You can get more info at: http://www.neighborhood.coop/component/k2/item/3697-co-op-farm-crawl

Here are some images from previous Crawls.

#localfood #craftbeer #Ava #SouthernIllinois #agroforestry #agroecology #permaculture

People curious about the the possibilities of a rich, productive farm landscape without vast monoculture crops are encouraged to attend the first Food Film Series offering Friday, July 7th at Scratch Brewery in Ava, Illinois.

In July, Food Works and Scratch are hosting a movie night every Friday and the first film, Inhabit: A Permaculture Perspective, shows small and large examples of a farm model that renews the land, preserves biodiversity and partners effectively with nature.

"You will be inspired by the life-affirming possibilities shown in this film whether you have only a kitchen flower pot or a thousand acres," said Kathleen Logan Smith, Food Works Executive Director.
“It’s a feast for the eyes and filling food for thought.”

Films will be shown at dusk at Scratch Brewery at 264 Thompson Rd in Ava, Illinois.

The other films in the series focus on food sovereignty and security. They are: Seed: The Untold Story (July 14); American Meat (July 21); and Greening the Revolution (July 28).

There is no charge for admission. A $5 donation is suggested.

Register today! http://www.fwsoil.org/field-days.html

Join Food Works as we tour SIU-Carbondale's Fermentation Sciences Institute. Explore with us this Illinois asset for engaging the next generation of wine, beer, cider and food artisans. We're looking forward to learning more about how the Institute advances food and agriculture in Southern Illinois.
Watch your emails for details on location and parking. Are you coming? Let us know below or call: 618-370-3287 or email info@eatsouthernillinois.org.

There's no charge for this event. Just let us know you're coming!

The Mid America Organic Conference in Kansas City, Missouri featured pioneering organic gardener, teacher, author of “The New Organic Grower” and “The Winter Garden”, and tool-maker Elliot Coleman.

Coleman farms in Blue Hill, Maine. In his keynote address January 27th, he described his beginnings in farming and the latest controversy facing organic farmers.

He began farming in 1968 when his passions for rock climbing and white water kayaking predisposed him to interpret the word “impossible” as a challenge to be tackled. Dismissing the scoffers, he applied his adventurer’s ethic to the challenge of farming organically. At a time when corporations were selling ‘better living through chemistry’, bucking that brainwashing took the same courage as looking up at a sheer rock and face and saying, “Let’s do this.” Coleman said he brought the five precepts of adventurers to the farm challenge: minimalism, independence, avoiding artificiality, leaving a pristine world, proceeding in harmony with nature.

In his farming, Coleman said he seeks ‘pure delight in the success of an adventure’.  In his quest, he pursues a farming system where the soil fully nourishes the crops.

“Organic farming is an act of faith in natural systems,” Coleman said. “Ultimately, organic farming crops grow in fertile soil attached to the earth and sustained by biological processes, ideally with no off-farm inputs.”

These were the basics of the original National Organic Program focused on health from a balanced bioactive soil, Coleman said. This brings up the latest controversy in organic standards.

He said organic farmers defeated USDA efforts to include irradiation, sewage sludge and GMO’s in the US Organic Standard when the standard was being written. The integrity of the label is now facing more degradation pressures. Coleman said the popularity of the Organic label has some opportunists seeing dollar signs instead of the scientific and ethical commitment to bioactive soil. He said the integrity of the USDA Organic Label is in a ‘predictable descent’. Here Coleman cited Eric Hoffer’s quote from The Temper of Our Time:  “Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket.” He cited unsustainable ‘organic’ 1,000 cow dairy operations as an example of how the relationship built on the soil has been corroded by a mentality that puts market capital above soil capital.

Coleman concluded with a call for a reaffirmation of the foundational principles of the National Organic Standards which are: All crops grow in fertile soil attached to the earth and sustained by biological processes; Farm derived organic matter and ground rock are applied to maintain fertility internally; crop rotations, green manure and cover crops to keep soil biology well fed; a plant positive philosophy focused on the cause of pests and disease, not the symptoms; livestock included, outdoors, on pasture; minimal reliance on outside inputs.

Coleman said this standard does not include hydroponic crops, which by their method of production are independent of bioactive soil because they are grown in solutions and fed nutrients. Coleman’s sentiments were met with enthusiastic applause from an audience of organic producers.

Get Involved
However you feel about the importance of soil in the integrity of the organic standards, keep up with the National Organic Standards Board activities. The National Organic Standard Board has a meeting in April. The agenda goes deep into farm inputs and food additives - some to approve and some facing the sunset list. You'll also find notes and reports on the hydroponic issue starting on page 127 of this document. See the agenda here: https://www.ams.usda.gov/event/nosb-spring-2017-meeting-denver-co

-Reported by Kathleen Logan Smith, Executive Director, Food Works