Become a CSA Member: Invest in Local Farms, Reap Delicious Rewards With the New Year already in motion, we are quickly approaching the season of plentiful fruits and vegetables. It won’t be long until we are enjoying a bounty of fresh cut greens, spicy arugula,…
By Natural Blaze staff A Trader Joe’s had ample opportunity to chuck their perishable goods into the dump after refrigerators unexpectedly malfunctioned. Many grocery stores presumably do this. Instead, the chain blessed those in need and proved that practices that support food waste need to…
By Matt Agorist Chicago, IL — In the land of the free, if you try to help someone from freezing to death in subzero temperatures, you can and will be arrested and have your house stolen from you by state agents. A good Samaritan in Chicago…
By Katherine Paul Consumers can take satisfaction in the fact that they’ve played a role in what some say is the diminishing power of the GMA over Washington policy. At the height of the GMO labeling battle, we not-so-fondly referred to the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA)…
Forgive the pun, but we live with a fowl stench. That’s because a mega-chicken farm was built right on top of our home. This new poultry complex isn’t the family farm you may have in your head. It’s more like the Super Walmart of farms….
By Heather Callaghan, Editor Do you pick pineapple from a tree? Shell cashews and eat them right from the branch? Harvest quinoa like wheat? Peel the bark of vanilla? You might be surprised if you’ve never thought of these things before! See how many you get right!…
By Brandon Turbeville, Natural Blaze A recent article in the Omaha World Herald paints a dire picture for Nebraska farmers and for the farming community in the rest of the country as well. As reports of economic improvement – despite real metrics – continue to be paraded…
By Matt Agorist Florida’s 3rd District Court of Appeal just claimed that it is okay to fill your yard with plastic flamingos but if you plant vegetables, it’s illegal. Miami, FL — Last month, Florida’s 3rd District Court of Appeal upheld Miami Shores’ tyrannical and entirely unhealthy ban on…
Pennsylvania dairy farmer Brenda Cochran says, “The underlying crisis afflicting rural America–rural poverty–is a result of federal agriculture, dairy, food and trade policies that do not provide farmers a fair price–one that covers our costs of production. Farmers do not need NAFTA–we need a fair price–and…
By Michael Carolan, Colorado State University Name all the billion-dollar crops grown in the U.S. Midwest. The answer: Corn, soybeans and cranberries. Wait, what? Roughly 60 percent of the U.S. cranberry crop is produced in Wisconsin, generating close to US$1 billion in revenue and 4,000…
By Fair Farms Now Naturally Sunkissed Farm Finds their Groove through Trial and Error School teachers by day and regenerative farmers by night, Brett and Megan Hines haven’t followed a linear path to establish Naturally Sunkissed Farm. The young couple currently boasts a productive vegetable farm…
By Matt Agorist Wisconsin just quietly passed a bill that will allow farmers in the state to grow industrial hemp which will inevitably lead to economic growth and a hemp revolution. On April 2, 2009, the Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2009 was introduced in the…
By Karl Zimmerer, Pennsylvania State University One day last March I talked with Juliana and Elisa, a mother and daughter who farmed just outside the city of Huánuco, Peru. Although they had only one acre of land in this mountainous landscape, they grew dozens of…
By Heather Callaghan, Editor I stand with Michael Schmidt. I love him, a mass food freedom community loves him and I’m pretty sure our hundreds of thousands of readers love him. If you’ve seen his face before it was probably alongside a wine glass filled to the…
By Jason Erickson Apparently the right to feed yourself and your family is indeed not a fundamental one, as a Florida attorney previously declared. A longstanding battle between 17-year homeowners at the Village of Miami Shores, Tom Carroll and Hermine Ricketts, appears to have reached…
By Vic Bishop It’s tough to say when our societal values shifted so dramatically, but for some reason now, government at large has decided that charity for the homeless is a crime. In a society with such stunning abundance, efforts to feed the homeless are…
By Jessica Corbett “The fight for market share is achieved at the expense of the weakest links in the chain: farmers, and workers.” As the European Commission considers a proposed mega-merger between Bayer and Monsanto, new research published Tuesday illustrates how corporations are monopolizing the global food system—jeopardizing…
Can small-scale farming in the modern age really generate enough income for the average family to make an honest living? For Jean-Martin Fortier and his wife, Maude-Hélène Desroches, it does. The Canadian couple grows beets, broccoli, salad greens, carrots, and various other types of produce…
By Catherine J. Frompovich The food industry is extremely innovative at reducing waste products and salvaging any last bit of animal tissue aka meat. Transglutaminase is an animal-blood enzyme used as “meat glue” to create a prime filet steak, which many cooks and eaters can’t…
By Tess Pennington There are many different types of emergencies that can have long-term repercussions on our way of life. One of those impacts is on our food system. Due to our aging infrastructure and roadways, emergencies can stall the delivery of goods, leaving a…
