Nutrient Dense Foods for Consumers, Gardeners, and Farmers from Environmental Leadership Program on Vimeo.

The focus on nutrient dense production has been around quite awhile, but it’s really picked up steam in the past few years.  Each growing season, more farmers and gardeners are beginning to focus on the nutrient quality of their crops; perhaps we are on the verge of a tipping point toward broadscale interest in the relationship between soils, health, and nutrition.  Dan Barber, the influential Chef at Stone Barns in New York, referenced refractometer use as a in his recent interview with the TED Blog:

While we support organic farming, we do so in a thoroughly modern context, employing the most innovative, up to date, and efficient technologies to move food forward. One example is the refractometer—a small, handheld device that measures Brix, the sugar content of a fruit or vegetable.

Looking for more information?  Our Farm&Garden Resource Page has a variety of tip-sheets including one focusing on Growing Nutrient Dense Foods. Here are four links which will provide perspective on the concepts behind Nutrient Density:

• Allan Balliett, a biodynamic growers in West Virginia offers a nice blog entry focusing on refractometer use, posted by Hartke is Online in February 2010.
• Jon Frank from International Ag. Labs and High Brix Gardens shares his answer to What is Brix?
• The Real Food Campaign led by Dan Kittredge is a leader in the Nutrient Density movement in the Northeast and nationally.
• Michael Astera’s blog The New Agriculture provides a more nuanced discussion of the matter; and provides a lengthier introduction.

• Paul Krugman provides a view on the economics of climate change with his article “Building a Green Economy” in today’s New York Times Magazine.  See also our quick 2-pager on Climate Change and Agriculture in the Northeast from last November.
• On the other end of the spectrum, the Boston Globe published an op-ed piece by Elliot Entis on the merits of genetically engineered crops which was titled “Green Thumbs”.  This will surely bring a broad response from readers on the controversial subject.  Thankfully, NOFA-Mass provides good information about organic growers opposition to Genetically Engineered Crops on their website.  No doubt, Ronnie Cummins of the Organic Consumers Association would offer quite a different view than Entis’s piece published in today’s Globe.

There are quite a few points in Entis’s editorial which I take exception to, not the least of which is his claim that, “since genetically engineered crops have been planted, there have been no incidents of harm to man, beast, or the environment.”  Entis is correct in stating that many conventional growers have come to appreciate the technology in genetically engineered crops, which allow them to streamline herbicide applications from 4 or 5 chemicals to 1 chemical (e.g. glycoophosphate, commonly the brand name Roundup).  I was able to observe this on a farm tour through Boulder County Colorado last June, where sugar beet growers were affirming that without roundup ready technology they wouldn’t have planted Sugar Beets.  But before we adopt wide scale application of a technology, I believe it is necessary to consider the impact of our decisions.  Contamination of non-gmo (genetically modified organisms) seed with gmo traits is in my mind a clear example of “harm to man, beast, or the environment”.  Whether its the case of Canadian grower Percy Schmeiser whose Canola crops were contaminated by Roundup Ready Canola, or the current concerns held by the organic table beet or chard seed producers, planting of gmo crops continues to have major implications for our society.  Hopefully we’ll see a well written rebuttal to Entis’s op-ed piece; maybe even a perspective which includes the proper role of soil stewardship in continuing to feed and nourish our globe, as opposed to the strong bias toward technology as the silver bullet of the future.

While Entis states, “genetically engineered crops are now under develop to address this constraint” (fresh water scarcity), organic and biologically minded conventional growers have already been practicing methods of agriculture for decades which works to build soil organic matter, thereby increasing carbon levels in our soils.  As we increase organic matter in our soils, we build the resilience necessary to face the impact of climate change, new rainfall patterns, and the availability of irrigation.  But a stark difference is at the heart of focusing on improving our soils rather than relying on technology… that difference would be who profits from such action.  A reliance on new seed technology fosters long-term dependence on seed companies and their “patented” seeds, while improving our soils builds profits for the farmer.  No doubt, as a vegetable grower I’ll vote for the latter.  Unlike the ballot cast at recent town elections, or with our dollar in the marketplace, this vote will take the form of remineralizing of our soils, sowing cover crops, reinoculating our soils with mycorrhizal fungi (which will help us build glomalin levels in our soils) and beneficial bacteria.  I consider myself lucky, at the farm we get to vote every single day for the future we would like to help manifest; and we invite you to join us.

Springtime is a busy one around the farm… along with the usual farm activities:  seeding in the greenhouse, spreading amendments and field sprays of fish and biodynamic preps, getting the apprentice crew up to speed, we have been enjoying a rather productive couple of weeks engaging with our local community.  Through a dynamic process of sharing and learning we aim to add our threads to an ever stronger network focusing on sustainable agriculture in SE Massachusetts.

Among the long list of the past few week’s hi-lights:

• In Fall River, community gardens are blossoming; we participated in a community workshop on seed selection on April 6th at the Oak Village Apartment community Room.
• See the Farm to Table blog entry about The Friends Academy Garden just North of the farm on Tucker Road.
• Sharing the Harvest at the Dartmouth YMCA is in the process of building a new greenhouse for starting seedlings; last week we joined farmer Dan in assembling the ground posts, bows, and purlins.  This week they’ll be skinning the greenhouse with poly and growing starts in their brand new greenhouse!
• This past Saturday we hosted one of NOFAMass’s Spring Organic Gardening Workshop Day here on the farm… a hearty group of folks braved the strong west wind, rejoiced in the solar heated greenhouse and picked up a few new tips and tools for the 2010 garden season.
  

  Workshop Participants view the Raised Bed, April 11, 2010

A final note, at the end of March, President Obama declared the 31st Cesar Chavez day …  For more info see http://www.chavezfoundation.org/ or the link to a PBS program on the subject – http://www.pbs.org/itvs/fightfields/.  Quite a worthy tribute to one of the heroes of the American agricultural labor movement, and good reminder for us to be thankful for the folks who grow our food both here in the USA and the crops which are imported across our borders.

Perhaps the biggest newsmaker has been the debut of Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution this past Friday night on ABC.  While Jamie might not do the best job hi-lighting the ongoing work of folks already working to improve school nutrition, for example Debra Eschmeyer; it’s absolutely exciting to have a network television station pick up a show focusing on the real implications of our current food system.  Hopefully it will stimulate wider discussions in our communities over the coming weeks.

ABC also ran a story this weekend examining the destruction of surplus Strawberry crops, I’ll let the story speak for itself…

Our industrial food system is broken.  While it has achieved dramatic success in producing amazing increases in yields over the past couple of decades; it has built this success on the unsustainable use of fossil fuels for fertilizers, heavy application of harmful pesticides, unfair labor practices, and a general neglect for producing and distributing healthy foods to everyone in our society.  A case in point is the widescale adoption of High-Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) as a sweetner in processed foods.  Numerous studies are beginning to show the negative health implications of HFCS in our diet:  see this web story about research at Princeton University and Dr. Joseph Mercola’s terrific appraisal on the Huffington Post a few weeks back.

What are some of the solutions?  Traditional sugar for some; though in 2008 we started planting GMO sugar beets in the U.S., opening up another conversation altogether (I know farmers who stated that without the introduction of GMO technologies for Sugar Beets they would have quite producing sugar beets altogether).  For a small group of growers and bakers in the Northeast it’s a return to heritage wheat and local grain production.  Though I have a hard time imagine any serious scale production of commodities that are comparatively easy to ship from the breadbasket.  For your consideration… according to the Mass. Dept of Ag. Resources the state of Massachusetts has a little more than 500,000 arable acres available for agriculture.  In comparison Cass County in North Dakota cropped a half-million acres in soybeans alone this past year.  The production in Cass County contributed to the estimated 77 million acres of soybeans planted in 2009 in the United States.  Let’s recap – The united states plants more than 150 times the arable land in Massachusetts in one crop:  soybeans.

Relocalization of grains in the Northeast is an interesting idea to consider, but it will necessarily involve production in the larger production areas outside of Massachusetts (i.e. New York State, Aroostook County in Maine). Continuing to improve access to fresh fruits and vegetables makes sense; but we should be aware that there are many reasons fruits and vegetables cost more at the grocery store… especially if you exclude tomatoes and potatoes the cost per calorie produced is much higher for most vegetables than commodities like corn and soybeans.  A farmer may be able to survive (sic) selling a bushel of feed corn for as little as 10 cents/pound (note:  the current price is around 7 cents), but as the ABC story shows when prices for fresh market strawberries drop to 25 cents/pound it doesn’t make sense for the growers to spend money harvesting the crop.

Sometime in the coming weeks I’ll try to contribute a post on the thriving and essential importance of our local food systems; which should be celebrated for not only what they currently contribute to our community health, but also their role in stabilizing our economic systems…