Link day
For the first time, I haven’t had this post set up beforehand. So today I’ll go through my bookmarks and see what I haven’t shared with you yet:
How does our ‘ecological footprint’ compare to the rest of the world? I found the article fascinating (but then, I’m a sucker for cool graphs 
)
In order for the inhabitants of planet Earth to lead a decent life without taxing the resources of the planet in an unsustainable fashion, each nation should consume less than the 1.8 hectares per capita of the ecological footprint available
Our movement away from our land.
My husband grew up, as most Americans who live far from rural places do, only dimly aware of the links between rain and agriculture, food in the stores and on shelves and food in fields. He grew up far away from the places where food was grown, far away from the rites and rituals of agriculture, seeing them only through the lens of his synagogue, which was itself a suburban place, where ritual foods come from the store. In two generations, my husband’s family lost not just a farm, but an awareness, a systemic understanding of how nature and human will and the blessings of G-d unify to feed and clothe and shelter them - that is, precisely the facts that shaped the development of their faith.
That article in a way leads to this one: Rural decline and farm aid.
… in the view of Jon Bailey, the massive scale of federal farm payments further perpetuates an ever-increasing growth in the size of farms.
Bailey, director of research and analysis at the Center for Rural Affairs in Lyons, Neb., said subsidies allow the largest farms to bid up the price of land, hike rents and expand operations. Subsidies encourage farms to grow because farmers can obtain additional payments by further increasing their acreage, he said.
When the size of farms grows larger, there are fewer farms for individuals to work on, leaving fewer opportunities in farming, he said. As a result, there are fewer business opportunities directly linked to farming.
“People who don’t have the resources then are sort of left out of the equation,” Bailey said.
He also said there’s evidence that as farms get larger, they take their business to larger, regional hubs instead of locally owned shops.
Mary Fund, communications director at the Kansas Rural Center, said there is evidence in the harm of subsidies in a 2005 study done by economist Mark Drabenstott, former director of the Kansas City Federal Reserve’s Center for the Study of Rural America. That study found, as Drabenstott put it, that “commodity programs wed regions to an ongoing pattern of economic consolidation.”
The result: In many of the counties whose farmers receive the most in subsidy payments growth in employment and new businesses is the weakest.
One thing that concerns me about this situation is the fact that one business going under could have such a large impact on the nation’s food supply. If fifty people grow wheat, or corn, or whatever, and one goes under, it’s not so bad. But if only three people grow the same thing and one goes under, it’s a catastrophe.
A picture is worth a thousand words :
Cool site of the week: CanningUSA
Step by step videos of how to can a variety of foods, including soups and stews.
Well, that’s all for today. I hope you have a restful weekend.
