Check this out. Keeping farmland in farming may not be the only solution to locally grown food.
http://sb.cc.stonybrook.edu/news/general/150813FreightFarms.php
Monday, March 14, 2016
Tuesday, January 19, 2016
just another link about food...with an important message
http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/01/18/463109192/thou-shalt-not-toss-food-enlisting-religious-groups-to-fight-waste
Wednesday, December 23, 2015
EDMAR Farms is protected by a Conservation Easement!
It was such a nice moment: I was in my kitchen in Europe cheering champagne glasses with four people sitting at a kitchen table in East Eden thanks to FaceTime. The Parysek farm is finally protected by a conservation easement, which means it will stay farmland forever.
As the phone was passed around the table, I was moved to see each face: Martha, the wife of the late Eddie, the bus driver who protected me during the vulnerable grade school years, who loved the land and the view because it represented peace on earth; Karen, their daughter who, with her sisters Linda and Marcia love the farm so much that they cannot envision another purpose for this spot, and whose down-to-earth voices remind me of their brother Kenny, Winkelman Farm's first president; Lucille, the Notary Public, who is the mother of my best friend during those years that Eddie was protecting me; and finally Sam, who gives his time and energy to Winkelman Farm because he believes that this corner of the world is special and deserving of protection for the public's enjoyment.
We can all celebrate tonight, for all those good people whose last glimpse of life would have been enriched by the thought that this view would last forever.
Thank you for your support!
Merry Christmas.
As the phone was passed around the table, I was moved to see each face: Martha, the wife of the late Eddie, the bus driver who protected me during the vulnerable grade school years, who loved the land and the view because it represented peace on earth; Karen, their daughter who, with her sisters Linda and Marcia love the farm so much that they cannot envision another purpose for this spot, and whose down-to-earth voices remind me of their brother Kenny, Winkelman Farm's first president; Lucille, the Notary Public, who is the mother of my best friend during those years that Eddie was protecting me; and finally Sam, who gives his time and energy to Winkelman Farm because he believes that this corner of the world is special and deserving of protection for the public's enjoyment.
We can all celebrate tonight, for all those good people whose last glimpse of life would have been enriched by the thought that this view would last forever.
Thank you for your support!
Merry Christmas.
Monday, December 21, 2015
Why Contribute to Winkelman Farm?
I was
recently asked to set up a table to display Winkelman Farm at a charity bazaar
in Switzerland. The point of the Bazaar
is to raise awareness and fundraise for charities. I was asked to join because
friends presenting at the Bazaar know that I also support Winkelman Farm. I instinctively hesitated to participate
because our cause of farmland conservation in Western New York State pales next
to the other causes: schools and
orphanages in developing countries.
Charity is
about helping those in need, so Winkelman Farm is there to address a need in
Western New York to keep farmland in farming.
Winkelman Farm is also about justice, that is, fair play and
equity. Is it fair that the farmer who
takes care of the open spaces we all enjoy is not compensated for that service? By “farmer” I mean the small family farmer
that treats the land as the inheritance of her children. This
farmer stretches pennies to keep things working, to provide food for our
tables, to ensure that crops are rotated for our drive-by viewing pleasure, and
to conserve the spaces for wildlife to thrive in our watersheds and wooded
areas.
In this
case, charity is righting a wrong: it is an injustice that the people that work
their backs off to feed us cannot afford to keep the land that we enjoy,
open over generations. They are not in a position, in
their retiring years, to make gifts - even tax-deductible ones - to the public of
scenic fields and forested land. We, the
public, do not pay enough for our food to give them this luxury, even as our
food is transported further and further from the field to our tables.
Winkelman
Farm addresses this injustice by using charitable funds to purchase
conservation easements on farmland so that retiring farmers can comfortably
hand the land down to their children, or sell it to another farmer, so that the
land produces benefits for all of us forever.
So, no, I
will not present Winkelman Farm at the charity Bazaar in Switzerland. I will go and support the children who need
help in Nicaragua, Sri Lanka, Nepal and South Africa. At the same time, I will continue to support
Winkelman Farm because I believe that farming communities are important to our
children’s future in Western New York.
Thursday, September 3, 2015
I had to share this...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21j_OCNLuYg
Jon is a farmer from northeastern Thailand. He founded the Pun Pun Center for Self-reliance, an organic farm outside Chiang Mai, with his wife Peggy Reents in 2003. Pun Pun doubles as a center for sustainable living and seed production, aiming to bring indigenous and rare seeds back into use. It regularly hosts training on simple techniques to live more sustainably. Outside of Pun Pun, Jon is a leader in bringing the natural building movement to Thailand, appearing as a spokesperson on dozens of publications and TV programs for the past 10 years. He continually strives to find easier ways for people to fulfill their basic needs. For more information visit http://www.punpunthailand.org
Jon is a farmer from northeastern Thailand. He founded the Pun Pun Center for Self-reliance, an organic farm outside Chiang Mai, with his wife Peggy Reents in 2003. Pun Pun doubles as a center for sustainable living and seed production, aiming to bring indigenous and rare seeds back into use. It regularly hosts training on simple techniques to live more sustainably. Outside of Pun Pun, Jon is a leader in bringing the natural building movement to Thailand, appearing as a spokesperson on dozens of publications and TV programs for the past 10 years. He continually strives to find easier ways for people to fulfill their basic needs. For more information visit http://www.punpunthailand.org
Monday, August 24, 2015
Friday, August 21, 2015
Eden
See what's happening just around the corner in Eden:
http://wnylc.org/land-protection/current-projects/eden-farmland-protection-program/
http://wnylc.org/land-protection/current-projects/eden-farmland-protection-program/
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