Foodlust
  • Home
  • The Food Chronicles
  • About
  • Contact

Come and Get It

7/11/2011

1 Comment

 
Picture
Today was the first day of my Agroecology course at UCSC's Sustainable Living Center where every meal begins with a story. It's right up my alley because I love to know the story of my food. The passionate kitchen staff calls us all to circle and then each one takes a turn describing the meal with colorful images and mouth watering detail on both ingredients and origin.

We spent the better part of the today becoming more familiar with the practice of Agroecology which has roots dating back to the 1930's by Basil Bensin. In the early 80's, Miguel Altieri resurrected the study and with the help of Steve Gliessman (course director @ USCS) brought it to international attention. Now there are over 15 courses on the subject with classes at University of Vermont and the University of Pennsylvania. Steve is the foremost authority on the subject writing textbooks and serving as a consultant for schools looking to expand their agricultural programs traveling as far as South Africa's University of Venda. Steve opened the course with, "The reason we need agroecology is because we need to treat agricultural systems as ecosystems in order to manage them sustainably."

Picture
Here we are taking a tour of the Sustainable Living Center's campus. In the center is course director, Steve Gliessman. Behind him are the farm fields which serve as study plots as well as a CSA. Behind Steve lies the beautiful Monterrey Bay where cool breezes move in off of the coast each evening and full sun drenches the crops during the day.

Small World Story...After passing Steve five times or more the first day, I finally stopped him and asked, "Were you ever in an environmental film?" I explained how I have been working for the Wild & Scenic Film Festival and that he looked so familiar. He nonchalantly mentioned one possible film, Birdsong & Coffee. To which my remark was, "Of course! That's right! I knew I recognized you. But you were more than just in the film, you were one of the main characters." He blushed! You can watch the full-length version on line. Click Here. The film talks about his work with coffee co-ops in Central America and efforts to help farmers get a fair price for their crops. The movie also advocates for the traditional shade grown style of raising coffee which not only prevents soil erosion as seen in deforested fields but provides necessary habitat for migrating song birds.

1 Comment
mel
7/12/2011 01:26:54 pm

it's getting richer and richer love..keep the thoughts flowin'

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011

    Follow SusieSutphin on Twitter

    RSS Feed

    Categories

    All
    4 Season Growing
    Agrarianism
    Agritourism
    Agroecology
    Agtivist
    Animals
    Aquaponics
    Biodiversity
    Book Blog Vol. 2
    Book Blog Vol. 3
    Book Blog Vol. 4
    Book Blog Vol. 5
    Book Blog Vol. I
    Climate Change
    Coffee
    Community
    Compost
    Conventional Farming
    Cost Of Food
    Crafts
    Crop Rotation
    Csas4713f5b38e
    Dairy
    Education
    Energy
    Equity
    Fair Trade
    Farm Bill
    Farm Incubator
    Farming
    Farm Stories
    Feed The World
    Food Access
    Food Hub
    Food Labels
    Food Miles
    Food Policy
    Food Security
    Foodshed
    Food Sovereignty
    Food Stories
    Food Waste
    Forestry
    Fracking
    Gardens To Hospitals
    Gmo
    Green Jobs
    Growing Dome
    Happy Cows
    History
    Kids
    Land Use
    Localized Economies
    Markets
    Nutrition
    Occupy Movement
    Organic
    Permaculture
    Pest Management
    Recipes
    Regional Food Systems
    Reruns: The Best Of
    Restaurants
    Rodale Articles
    Seasonality
    Slow Food
    Social Movement
    Soil
    Strawberries
    Sustainability
    This I Believe
    Vegetables
    Vermiculture
    Volunteering

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.