Archive for the 'Agriculture' Category

Chain Store Selling at City Market

Published by Waldo Jaquith on May 5, 2012 in Agriculture. 182 Comments

The Great Harvest chain has set up shop at the City Market, Graham Moomaw writes in the Daily Progress, and that’s got some local farmers upset. The market, overseen by the city, is meant to connect customers with local food producers, and over 100 folks have their names on a waiting list to get a spot at the popular weekly event. The Great Harvest Bread Company is a Montana-based chain, with hundreds of locations across the United States, established on a philosophy of providing more local control to franchisees than most chains. The city says that they were not aware that Great Harvest was a chain, although it’s not clear what difference that would have made in the application process. The owner of the local franchise says that there’s nothing wrong with allowing chains into the farmers’ market, while a couple of critics argue that, by that logic, Subway or Panera could set up shop there.

This debate has unfolded at farmers’ markets across the country, with some markets remaining dedicated to selling local produce, and others turning into something closer to weekly open-air markets for chains. Which approach is better depends on what each community thinks that the purpose of a farmers’ market is. We may be about to find out what the purpose of our farmers’ market is.

Human Feces Being Spread Across Albemarle Farmland

Published by Waldo Jaquith on February 1, 2011 in Agriculture. 18 Comments

Human feces is being sprayed on a field near the South Fork of the Rivanna Reservoir, Sean Tubbs reports for Charlottesville Tomorrow, and it’s perfectly legal. The neighbors, understandably, aren’t thrilled. Recyc Systems, of Culpeper, has a permit to spread the waste—aka “biosolids”—on a total of ten square miles of the county, which they haul down here from Washington D.C.’s wastewater sewage plant. It’s all done for free because—would you believe it?—apparently people won’t pay to have human feces spread all over their property, but they will have it done for nothing. A recent study by the Environmental Protection Agency found that biosolids are full of all the horrible things that your body has the good sense to excrete, including steroids, hormones, flame retardants, and heavy metals. There are some legal restrictions that help, like that livestock can’t graze on the land for thirty days after application, and a plan has to be submitted that explains how phosphorous and nitrogen will be kept out of the watershed.

Even if the county wanted to limit this, there’s no reason to think that they could—it’s regulated by the state, and the county isn’t given the power to regulate it.

City Schools Moving to Healthful, Local Foods

Published by Waldo Jaquith on November 15, 2010 in Agriculture and Education. 11 Comments

There’s a movement afoot to improve Charlottesville school food, Rachana Dixit writes in today’s Daily Progress, and it’s picking up steam. The city has long employed a dietician in the form of Alicia Cost to feed its 4,000 students, and recently hired allowed Rachel Williamson to manage a food garden at Buford. The national movement in support of local food and the strengthening local food network are making it possible to feed kids more healthful foods than the standard fast-food fare (Domino’s pizza was a major daily offering when I went to WAHS in the early nineties), with the caveat that it’s got to be a) cheap and b) something that the kids are willing to eat. Martha Stafford, owner of the Charlottesville Cooking School, has been hired to come up with some new recipes within those parameters, and has recently been having luck with a black bean and rice taco.

It’s embarrassing how excited I am by this.

11/18 Update: Guinevere Higgins points out that Buford doesn’t employ Williamson—an independent organization does.

Volunteer Farm to Help Stock Food Bank

Published by Waldo Jaquith on February 20, 2009 in Agriculture. Closed

The World Foundation for Children is setting up a volunteer-run farm in Culpeper County to provide meat and vegetables to the Charlottesville branch of the Blue Ridge Food Bank, Nate Delesline III writes in the Culpeper Star-Exponent. The organization has leased 100 acres for the next decade. They plan to start small, growing ten acres of potatoes, and move up from there. A couple of similar projects have been underway in the Shenandoah Valley for a while now, run by the same organization, reputedly with great success.

What’s Your CSA?

Published by Waldo Jaquith on February 16, 2009 in Agriculture. 6 Comments

Erika Howsare at C-Ville Weekly points out that it’s that time of year to sign up for Community Supported Agriculture programs. So it’s time for that annual discussion topic: Will you be signing for a CSA this year? Which one, and why?

Last year my wife and I decided that we’d skip the CSA and buy directly from farmers, and became regulars at the Farmers Market. Though we were happy with that decision, we were also really happy with Horse and Buggy Produce, who we worked in in 2006 and 2007. I think we’ll go the same route this year. We’re establishing a few new beds this year, and we’ve already gotten seeds sprouted for broccoli, lettuce and basil, and we got the peppers and tomatoes started last weekend. But it’s hard to beat the convenience of a CSA.

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