Tag Archives: farmer

Ms. Gretchen Goes to Orlando

As the only farmer Georgia delegate to the Democratic National Convention, No Farms No Food and the only delegate from Lowndes County and one of the few from rural Georgia, Gretchen Quarterman is off to the Democratic Platform Committee meeting in Orlando today and tomorrow, Friday July 8th and Saturday July 9th 2016.

Remember: No Farms, No Food.

She already knows a bit more about the process than Jimmy Stewart in 1939’s Mr. Smith goes to Washington. Hm, I’d forgotten that movie was about Continue reading →

Growers Tell All –Diane Howard

Diane Howard will moderate a farmer panel, Growers Tell All: A Conversation with Experienced South Georgia Growers about God-Given Talents and 150+ Years of Growing, at South Georgia Growing Local 2014:


Innis Davis and three of the children in his family who help with his very large backyard garden on Cherry Street, Valdosta.
With a combined 150+ years of experience as growers, these veggie veterans will interact with members of the audience sharing their stories which include the following: planting, harvesting, and preserving by the moon; rotating crop sites; fertilizing; controlling weeds and insects; saving seed for 50+ years; growing in containers; and using their talents and techniques of growing to help friends and 3 generations of family. Serving as a moderator for this discussion will be Diane Howard who works closely with individuals in South Georgia to promote growing their own food and oversees a large garden on her 5th generation family farm in Grady County.

Here are the panelists’ speaker bios: Continue reading →

Gretchen with okra

Gretchen the farmer and Gretchen the Rotarian with okra and peppers and Brown Dog and Yellow Dog:

20121031 111820 Gretchen the farmer with okra and peppers and Brown Dog and Yellow Dog Gretchen the Rotarian with okra

Gretchen the farmer with okra and Brown Dog and Yellow Dog

Gretchen the farmer and Rotarian with okra and peppers and Brown Dog and Yellow Dog.
Pictures by John S. Quarterman for Okra Paradise Farms, Lowndes County, Georgia, 31 October 2012.

-jsq

Southern Nevada Health District forced private citizens to pour bleach on home-grown organic food

Quail Hollow Farm was holding a Farm-to-Fork dinner for invited guests, when a health inspector showed up and forced them to destroy the food. In this video of the event you can hear the arrogance of the inspector:
That’s all the information you need.
Well, no, it’s not.

The inspector said it was a public event because the guests had paid for d inner.

The farmer eventually called their lawyer who said ask the inspector to see her warrant. She had none.

But they had already been told their food that they grew with their own hands was not fit for a public dinner, nor a private dinner, not even to feed to their pigs. They were forced to pour bleach on it, making it unfit even for compost.

Given that every food contamination recall in recent years has come from big factory farms, not from small organic farms, does this raid seem right to you? Continue reading →

2,4-D: Back to the Past

So, having just spent a decade breeding mutant superweeds by pouuring pesticides on crops, what’s the recommended future of weed science?

Pour pesticides on crops until they breed more mutant superweeds.

So what is our old friend 2,4-D, which used to be commonly used back in the 1980s? Continue reading →

Deep-Till: Back to the Future of Plowing

Roy Roberson writes in Farm Press about http://southeastfarmpress.com/cotton/herbicide-resistance-0525/:
Deep tilling of crop land pocked and rutted by heavy equipment used on rain and snow soaked, often frozen farm land may not only clean up the land, but may have a significant positive effect on managing herbicide resistant weeds, especially Palmer pigweed.
Back to the future! “Deep tilling” is the current buzzword for plowing. That’s how my father farmed, with a bottom plow, a subsoiler, a harrow, and a cultivator.

The same article continues to defend no-till:

There is no doubt about the many benefits of minimum or no-till cropping systems. Reduced-tillage saves farmers money in equipment, improves soil quality, improves the environment by making the soil more porous and produces better drainage. The list of benefits goes on and on.
Promotes more erosion, is my observation. And how does no-till save farmers money if they have to pay for increasing amounts of pesticides to try to deal with mutant weeds like pigweed? Continue reading →