Here’s an interesting experiment in England – a farm is signing up 10,000 subscribers to run their farm, making actual monthly decisions (loosely based on the Facebook game called Farmville): The farm is on the National Trust’s Wimpole Estate. You’ll be part of a group of 10,000 online Farmers working with farm manager Richard Morris to...
Category: Farmland
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CGF Position Statement on the proposal to destroy farmland for east-side Gilroy high speed rail station
(CGF issued the following position statement earlier this year. -Brian) Committee for Green Foothills Policy Opposing a Proposed Eastern Location for the Gilroy Train Station February 16, 2011 Committee for Green Foothills is reviewing the as-yet incomplete information on the alignment and potential impacts of High Speed Rail between San Jose and Merced. Even at...
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Unaffordable land stunts farming – yet another reason to fight sprawl
Good article in the Mercury News: Unaffordable land stunts new generation of small farmers in California PESCADERO — In 2005, would-be farmers Nancy Vail and Jered Lawson spotted an old barn along Highway 1 that would make a good produce stand, along with 13 acres of prime coastal property, available for $1.25 million. They jumped...
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Guest Post by CGF Intern Anthony Aerts
(CGF Intern Anthony Aerts gave us this final write-up about his time with us this summer. Thanks for all the help, Anthony! -Brian) ...
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Grist: Silicon Valley investors place bets on sustainable ag
There’s an interesting article in the Grist environmental website about Silicon Valley investors looking at ways to invest in sustainable agriculture, during a big event that happened this weekend in Palo Alto: I attended an agriculture conference this week at the Four Seasons in Palo Alto. There were no pickup trucks in the BMW-packed parking...
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Watch out for "farmwashing"
There’s an interesting article in the Washington Post about restaurants that claim to be serving environmentally-protective, locally-grown food but aren’t: ….with business models built on sustainable food, the hype can get ahead of the execution. Even when intentions are good, there are questions about whether it is possible for a high-volume restaurant to practice everything...
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CGF at Morgan Hill City Council
Morgan Hill puts its City Council meetings online, so I wanted to point to two items where we were involved. We announced our Nov. 7th event on the South Valley in Gilroy: City of Morgan Hll City Council Meeting 10-7-2009 Part 1 from Larry Talbot on Vimeo. (You need to let it buffer for a...
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A great time on the Santa Clara County Farm Tour
Just reporting in that CGF’s Farm Tour went really well on Saturday. Around 40 people attended, we went to four locations (an orchard with cherry tastings, an organic vegetable farm, a cattle ranch, and winery), had lots of great food, and heard the farmers’ concerns. Jan Garrod, president of the Santa Clara County Farm Bureau,...
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CGF is everywhere during Earth Week
CGF has four tabling events for Earth Week, which I think might be a CGF record for the most appearances in a few days. I manned one table at Full Circle Farm, a community effort to bring farming back to Sunnyvale on an 11-acre parcel that is just getting going. This type of community farming...
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Some good legal news in California about global warming, air pollution, and maybe about buying local food
Both of these news items are via Warming Law, a blog focusing on legal issues related to climate change. California Attorney General Jerry Brown has settled a CEQA/global warming lawsuit against San Bernardino County (settlement here). This is relevant to Coyote Valley, where the EIR used the same legal theory as San Bernardino to avoid...