Organic Farming

Join us for our Cultivating Community Kick-off event, tomorrow night at Salem Church Library, 7pm.

Librarian Wini Ashooh will present a short introduction to Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, the story of her family’s challenge to grow and buy food locally in southwest Virginia.  Books will be available for loan.

The program continues with a panel discussion about local farming and food, organic gardening, community gardening and more! 

Panelists include:

Ellen Snead, co-owner of Snead’s Asparagus Farm

Lawrence Latane -owner of Blenheim Farm – member of Local Harvest Organic Gardens

Elizabeth Borst - Manager of Spotsylvania Farmer’s Market; active in the Fredericksburg Food Initiative, and creator of the Buy Fresh Buy Local guide for Fredericksburg, Spotsylvania and King George

Wendy Stone - Fredericksburg Parks and Recreation- will talk about the Fredericksburg Farmer’s Market and the new Fredericksburg Community Garden Plots.

Kelly Liddington - Richmond County Extension Office
 

See more Cultivating Community events!

The Omnivore's Dilemma, by Michael Pollan, seeks to determine through investigative journalism exactly what goes into deciding what we should eat. Pollan explains that as omnivores, humans have such a vast variety of foods that they are able to eat—plant, animal, and even fungi--that it creates a problem within the human mind. Other species such as the koala bear only have one choice for dinner, eucalyptus leaves; because humans have so many choices, deciding what to eat can take up a large part of humans' time. 
 
In order to investigate exactly how we have come to use the supermarkets and the industrial-style meal preparations today, Pollan looks at all of the ways in which people are able to feed themselves. He analyzes first the industrial-style food change, which starts with large farms in other parts of the country—or, in some cases, other parts of the world—and consists mostly of corn products, which leads to a meal served at your local McDonald's. Then he looks into the organic phenomena that we're seeing today, which stemmed out of early ideas about better ways to manufacture food that does not contain hormones and antibiotics that other industrial food chains add. Next, he looks at some alternative food production models, such as grass feed farms. The one that he examines most thoroughly is Polyface Farm, which is located in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley. Lastly, Pollan looks at the most traditional way of food production—food foraging—with which he produces an entire meal using his own skills in Berkley, California.

I don’t know about you, but I’m always drawn to accounts of people who forgo traditional lives to pursue the unknown. Some make the move to remote locations; others choose to follow unusual career paths. In The Dirty Life: On Farming, Food and Love, author Kristin Kimball leaves behind what many might label an enviable existence as a freelance writer in New York City to stake a claim on a 500-acre, ramshackle farm.

Kristin’s been assigned to write an article about Mark, who’s making a name for himself in the ever-changing world of farming. Rather than being able to interview her subject—who remains on a constant treadmill of chores—she finds herself hoeing broccoli and slaughtering pigs…all in her urban finest. The next day brings her no closer to Mark as she’s assigned to work the tomato fields. With time running out and only a few scribbles recorded, Kristin implores Mark to answer her questions. Their brief encounter will lead to a major life change for them both.