Mouthfuls: Crop Mob enables sustainable agriculture - Mouthfuls

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Crop Mob enables sustainable agriculture Massive labor descends on small farms

#1 User is offline   Rail Paul 

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Posted 25 February 2010 - 02:38 PM

Christine Muhlke has a NYT article about a new trend among some small farms. These labor intensive enterprises now see regular influxes of 20 - 50 people for a day's work. In one day, an entire crop can be picked, a field cleared of stones, fences raised, etc.

For the volunteers, an intense day's work creates psychic value. For areas with lots of small farms, and lots of college students, young adults, etc the combination is very powerful.


T Magazine

QUOTE
Bobby Tucker, the 28-year-old co-owner of Okfuskee Farm in rural Silk Hope, looked eagerly at the 50-plus volunteers bundled in all manner of flannel and hand-knits. In five hours, these pop-up farmers would do more on his fledgling farm than he and his three interns could accomplish in months. “It’s immeasurable,” he said of the gift of same-day infrastructure.

It’s the beauty of being Crop Mobbed.

The Crop Mob, a monthly word-of-mouth (and -Web) event in which landless farmers and the agricurious descend on a farm for an afternoon, has taken its traveling work party to 15 small, sustainable farms. Together, volunteers have contributed more than 2,000 person-hours, doing tasks like mulching, building greenhouses and pulling rocks out of fields.

My only complaint was that if they need to charge me $30 because they're robbing the duck to pay the boar they might as well give me a more substantial portion of flour, water, and bits of meat.

Orik, on the pasta price at Hearth in NYC
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#2 User is offline   johnnyd 

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Posted 25 February 2010 - 02:52 PM

What a fascinating indicator of the shift in respect for small farms. It seems just yesterday that my hippie chums at college who bought farms in Vermont were regarded as cute and cuddly, now they are artisans of agricultural renown. Places here in Maine have a huge following - an heirloom potato farm was in danger of losing several seed varieties so they put a call out and got a ton of folks to pick their fields before the frost.
"Chicken Zaatar in thirty minutes! Ready to eat by the end of evening prayer! Deeelish! Allah-akbar, everybody! Woohoo!!"
- Rachael Ray in a potentially lucrative new gig

Portland Food Map.com
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#3 User is offline   SLBunge 

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Posted 25 February 2010 - 06:29 PM

QUOTE(Rail Paul @ Feb 25 2010, 08:38 AM) View Post
psychic value

??

More successful palm readings after working in the fields?
Suffocating under a pile of cheese curds.
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#4 User is offline   SRD 

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Posted 26 February 2010 - 08:00 AM

Good Ol' American Co-operation:

qeybDjUhsDU
Give a man a fire and he will be warm for a while. Set a man on fire and he will be warm for the rest of his life.

My new website: http://www.riverdale.org.uk/
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