The farmer Trace Ramsey, who is part of the Mob core as well as its documentarian, has watched the young-farmer phenomenon explode. ‘People are interested in authentic work,’ he said. ‘I think they’re tired of what they’ve been told they should accomplish in their life, and they’re starting to realize that it’s not all that exciting or beneficial from a community perspective or an individual perspective.’ At 36, Ramsey joked that he’s the old man of the project — remarkable considering the average American farmer is 57. But as people of all ages become involved, he said, ‘what started as a young-farmer movement is just becoming a farmer movement.’

Full story – Field Report: Plow Shares by Christine Muhlke

Tidal Creek Co-op produce manager Trace Ramsey bills himself as an anarchist, but his desire to pull up stakes and help build a self-sustaining farm with four friends is part of an organized plan.

Ramsey left his Tidal Creek position last week to the dismay of customers who, for the past five years, relied on him to keep the cooperative stocked with fresh local fruit and vegetables. Now, on 12 acres in Chatham County, he’ll raise animals and grow organic vegetables, working the land without mechanical tools.

- Continued -

I also added an “interviews” category in the site map.

“Kristin Henry, 28, and Trace Ramsey, 34, seamlessly weave their ideals into the cloth of their lives.”

Full story

Photo by Kate Lord – Wilmington Star News

Today was a big day for Cricket Bread in the media. There was a story about eating locally in Winter featured on the front page of the Today section of the Wilmington Star News. Although they didn’t use the cool picture (everyone in the store that saw it thought it was cool) of me standing in the produce department, they did get some good information out there about local food sources.

“‘I think the false perception about eating locally is that it can be really hard to get into it,’ Ramsey says.”

I love it when you are referred to by your last name…so very news-like.

“Ramsey substitutes root vegetables in soups and stews that call for potatoes only, and he uses all kinds of winter vegetables in salads. When he’s on a sweet-potato roll, Ramsey puts them in soup one night, makes fries the next, adds them to stir-fry for another dinner, and turns them into one of his favorite side dishes – sweet potatoes mashed with chopped pecans and a bit of honey.”

The other story came out in Encore, the arts and entertainment weekly, otherwise known as “Your Alternative Voice in Wilmington, NC.” Emily Rea did an awesome job putting my ideas and ideals down on paper, making both accessible to the readership.

“If this kind of thinking could only spread like wildfire, if each of us adopted a ‘Trace mentality,’ a better future could be upon us sooner than we think. For now, Trace’s view of the future, while still hopeful at its core, is tough love in its truest form: realism. “

To give some background on the above quote, Emily asked me if I had hope for the future of the world. My basic answer was “no”. I feel that, from my perspective, that answer is a wake up word to folks who think that politicians or environmental groups or NGOs are going to solve anything, ever. In many ways, we as activists can’t worry about the world. We need to bring the focus back to our communities and the idea that we can make life better for people and plants and animals that we see, touch and speak to every day. This is not a discount on the lives of people in far off places; their problems are very, very real. But unless we are traveling to and working directly in their communities (with them, not around them – hope you understand my distinction), the best we can do is hope that the donations we send do some real good and aren’t wasted.

I can visit the farmers who supply my food. I can talk with my heroes. I can start and finish projects here and now that directly benefit the people I look in the eye every morning on the way to work. Those projects inspire other people to get involved in their community and make it stronger, more self-reliant. This is the main idea – through various incarnations – that I have been trying to spread for almost a decade.

Photo from Encore Magazine

From the online edition of Encore -

Trace Ramsey’s suggestions for taking simple and specific first steps toward going green, going local and building community:

“Start with just one all-local meal a week—one meal is extremely easy. We have so much available locally. Even in January we have all kinds of meat, greens, potatoes, root crops—all kinds of stuff is available.”

“Some of the hardest stuff [about trying a 100-mile diet project] is identifying where your lines are going to be. You can’t be so restricted that you aren’t able to function in your community. If I go to eat at someone’s house, I’m not going to go, ‘Well, where did that come from?’ If you’re getting together to eat, it’s more about the community aspect [anyway].”

“Definitely try to get involved in some sort of community action plan, like a group that you identify with. There’s so much community involvement to be had.”

“Increase your reuse of stuff instead of buying new stuff all the time. Try to buy stuff in bulk so you’re using less packaging.”

“Drive less… That would help me out.”

“Start interacting with your neighbors more; find out what they’re about. See if you can get together and share some garden space. Growing your own food reduces your impact.”

“Get rid of your TV; that’s always good.”

“Local food in season is going to be cheaper than what’s at the grocery out of season. You’re cutting out that transportation, all that refridgeration, all that abusive labor abroad. You’re having a definite impact on a farmer’s life. You’re also eating a healthier product because it hasn’t been in storage. The benefits are economic, nutritional AND community-focused.”

Thanks Emily!

Movement to eat locally grown food gains momentum in Wilmington

By Sam Scott
Staff Writer
sam.scott@starnewsonline.com

Her kingdom for a carrot – so long as it’s locally grown.

For the past four months, Jessica Probst and her husband, Sal Marsico, have been on a culinary quest – to live on local foods as much as possible.

More…

I feel that written stories are much better as they are usually pretty well researched. I did an interview this spring about mushrooms that turned out very well. I also did an interview about Community Supported Agriculture that has yet to be printed. The reporter was very interested, and I feel that the story will be well presented and researched. That interview led to another story idea about local foods that I am excited to be a part of, as one of the primary objectives of this project is to get the word out about local foods and community building. All of this is serving as a catalyst for local foods presentations, foraging workshops and simply getting folks interested in a community that offers so many food choices and the opportunity to support growing production.

There is hope that younger people are getting interested in local and organic food. This is evidenced by a high school senior’s project on organic food systems to which I gave the following interview:

1. How far back does organic farming/food go?

Organic agriculture is tens of thousands of years old. The widespread practice of using petroleum derived fertilizers and synthetic chemical pesticides is only seventy or so years old. The heavy use of these products came about almost exclusively from the need to retool the war time products of World War Two (mainly ammonium nitrate for bombs) into something else. That is when ammonium nitrate (nitrogen based fertilizer) became an input for increasing yields in agriculture.

2. Do you know organic farming’s origins? If so, what is it?

As I said, organic agriculture came about when hunter/gatherers began forming more permanent communities thousands of years ago. But the modern organic movement as we know it had its start in the early 1940s with Rodale and more roots in the counter-culture and back-to-the-land communes of the 1960s. In 1979 the organic movement was codified in California with its first official definition and legal guidelines for calling something organic. The Federal Organic Foods Production Act of 1990 established a federal standard and in the early 2000s the USDA published what is known as the “Final Rule” which strictly defines what is organic.

3. How long have you been apart of the Tidal Creek crew?

I have worked for Tidal Creek for four years.

4. What exactly is your job and what type of tasks do you prefer to do?

I am the Produce Manager for the store. I am involved in all aspects of purchasing, pricing and displaying produce as well as supervising the other produce employees. I am an involved manager so I take part in stocking, cleaning and other tasks that the other produce people do.

5. Why are organic foods more expensive than store brand food at a grocery store?

There are several reasons. The supply of organic products is often not enough for the growing demand. Also, organic agriculture receives no government subsidy assistance like conventional agriculture. Organic production also tends to have more hands-on labor, which can add to the costs of the produce.

Currently organic produce pricing is very competitive with conventional produce. The pricing of our in-season produce is often cheaper than at the larger grocery stores.

American consumers have become far too used to cheap food and the problems with that paradigm manifest themselves in how we look at farming and how separated we are from our food. Constant consumption of highly processed cheap food also manifest in health problems. There are also the issues of long distance transportation, diminished vitamin and mineral content of hybridized produce and just a complete lack of understanding of how farmers are affected by our buying decisions. Food should be something that we buy the very best that we can afford. We spend our money on non-essential things like cable television, candy bars, fast food value meals and electronic gadgets and then wonder why we are so unhealthy.

6. What are some benefits of buying organic food?

Organic agriculture nurtures and builds the soil and ecosystems contained within the farm. Buying organic supports that process. Buying organic also provides farms with incentives to transition to organic, and it also pays the farmer what they deserve to be paid for their work.

7. What is the process of importing organic foods to your store?

I buy from two national distributors, one in New Jersey and the other in Florida. I also buy from many, many local and regional farmers who I deal with directly.

8. Would you rather import foods locally or from else where? Why?

I absolutely prefer to buy local. I personally only eat locally produced food, so I always have it in mind to support local first. I also like to get to know farmers personally, get to know them by visiting their farms and seeing how they do their work. Also, the local food that I buy is the freshest it can be, as it is often picked the same day that I put in on display. As soon as produce is picked, its nutritional content begins to diminish significantly.

The closeness of the farm translates into higher vitamin and mineral content as the produce has not had a chance to break down in transit and also because it is picked at peak ripeness. Most produce in grocery stores is picked when unripe and allowed to ripen during the one to two week transport process.

9. Is the money that a consumer uses to buy organic food really worth it in the long
run? Why or why not?

Yes. Buying organic reinforces the decision of the farmer to grow organically. Buying local is even better, as more of the money used to purchase the food goes directly to the farmer and stays in the community.

10. What do you think the biggest misconception people make about organic food and its process?

People think that organic is some extra special way of dealing with the production of food, and they don’t realize that growing organically is something that farmers have been doing for thousands of years. People don’t realize that conventional agriculture uses things like un-composted animal waste and sewage sludge, irradiation and genetically modified organisms. These things are not used in organics – animal waste must be composted for 120 days, and sewage sludge, irradiation and GMOs are not permitted.