photo credit: epredator

In this new world of eco-consciousness, concern of global warming, home business and entrepreneurship, a gourmet treasury of backyard mini-farm opportunities are being born. They range from substantial extra streams of income to full-time income, and from rooftops, even apartments (!) to farms on small acreage. Out of the ashes of the farming disaster in the 1980s came a new form of organic small acreage or backyard farm, the “micro eco-farm.” The Center for the Micro Eco-Farming Movement, there are reports of angora rabbits being raised in apartments, organic herb gardens in backyards selling herbal crafts over the internet, miniature sheep, miniature dairy cows, organic flower farms on small acreage, heirloom vegetable farms on small acreage, garlic farms on small acreage, flower seed farms from backyards, and the list goes on.

Often, they are matched with a home cottage industry, such as spinning wool products from the angora rabbits’ wool or teaching cooking classes on the heirloom vegetable farm.

While most of these home businesses are farms from backyards to small acreages, some of these very small farms are within bigger farms. One operates a full time business from two acres, but lives on a 130 acre farm. Another’s husband farms huge acreage owned by a corporate farm, but their own seven acres hosts her full time business of growing beautiful herb and flower gardens, growing unusual bedding plants and making gifts from her garden crops for sale in her on-farm gift shop, and hosting weddings and other special events on the farm.

Here’s how it works.

In the 80s, as just one example, hundreds of smaller dairy farmers had to go out of business. Cows were injected with hormones to produce massive amounts of milk, and wholesale prices got so cheap, smaller dairy farms just couldn’t earn enough from sales anymore. It was get big or get out. Each cow cost more to keep than what was returned. Plus, many of those who used to see milk as nature’s most wholesome food began to question its health, and sales dropped even further.

So, how would a micro eco-dairy farm today make money with five cows on a little more than five acres? They raise the cows organically or certified naturally grown on green pasture (the health benefits of this to humans are well-documented, and astounding). With that milk, they handcraft artisan cheese, and sell this premium product often retail to upscale markets for eager buyers seeking healthy, humanely raised, grass-fed artisan cheese… cheese in which customers can even name the cows it came from! The cost to keep each cow is returned many times over. Times have changed. Today, hand-tending, handcrafting and allowing customers to reconnect with animals and nature don’t work for large-scale agribusinesses, but they work for smaller parcels and have an eager market waiting.

For more information about these family-friendly home businesses that help rejuvenate the earth and our connection to it, visit the Center for the Micro Eco-Farming Movement at Micro Eco-Farming

http://www.MicroEcoFarming.com

photo credit: kashyap_hc

Farm owners and local citizens involved in boosting the success of their own local and regional economy and local farms may want to take agritourism very seriously.

Agritourism is a branch of eco-tourism. Interestingly, when done right, it flourishes when funds for travel are up, as well as when funds for travel are very low (explained more below).

It’s obvious why local farms would want to attract world travelers to their farms. Why not allow the revenue that would have gone to a petro-guzzling chain resort instead be offered for a stay in an extra farmhouse bedroom? Why not take some of the otherwise cruise ship tourist trap-destined travel bucks by hosting a regionally branded harvest festival or garden tour for the travelers who harbor nearby and want to come onto land for authentic attractions?

But in tough times for travelers, the new agritourism is a form of responsible or eco-travel that still works.

Agritourism is growing quickly around the world, and one exceptional model is in Skagit Valley, Washington State as well as on the valley’s nearby San Juan Islands. In the book, The New Agritourism (available at the Skagit Valley Food Co-op, bookstores, and Amazon among other sources), I included a sampler of exemplary agritourism systems and destinations from around the world. But it wasn’t merely coincidence that my home region was strongly represented. And here it serves as just one concrete example for those seeking ways to support local food independence while helping to reverse global warming and traveling to sights yet unseen closer to home.

As the renaissance for local small farms grows, and the cost of food and travel heightens, folks have hit the jackpot if they can combine local entertainment with a sense of connection to abundant local food sources. And in the Skagit Valley and nearby islands, there are so many choices year-round for agritourism day trips, workshops, tours, tastings, festivals or overnight stays, one could live a lifetime here, and never see them all. The diverse natural surroundings from stunning alp-like mountains to fertile valleys to old-growth forests and emerald islands boast a huge array of agritourism events that other locations – whether desert or rolling hills or flat plains — can model after. Here, locals can join CSA (community supported agriculture), stop off at micro grass-fed raw goat dairies to get their own milk, pull over to a variety of tiny flower carts for a bouquet, milk dairy animals and enjoy u-pick autumn flower, pumpkin, ornamental gourd and apple harvests, tour organic vineyards, ranches and free-range laying hen farms, view artisan cheese-making, take courses on making your own cheese, gather your own filberts, pick your own holly and Christmas from small eco-responsible evergreen farms, take classes for cooking with lavender in the midst of lavender fields bursting with purple aroma, and of course, enjoy the stunning fields and fun events during the world-famous tulip festival.

The new agritourism, for many, is a potential gem rising from the ashes.

The New Agritourism: Hosting Community and Tourists on Your Farm is available in the Skagit Valley, Washington State at the Skagit Valley Food Co-op, http://www.skagitfoodcoop.com

And nationally and internationally through most bookstore outlets.

http://www.newagritourism.com

photo credit: Felix Francis

The green economy is developing whole new sections of business. One section that is just beginning to get some attention is the skin and cosmetics industry. There is lots of information available about skin care, however not enough about the importance of safety, health and how to find and purchase clean, green and healthy products. The certified organic skin care business is just beginning and will be growing along with the organic market which is expanding at an astounding rate every year.

‘Organic’ and ‘Natural’ have been used to describe skin care products and those words feel safe. As the natural skin care business grows there is also the need to become more educated so you can interpret terms that could be misleading.

People have many reasons for searching out more organic and natural products. They could be using products that are safe and non-toxic, caring for the planet, a specific health problem or not using any animal products. If your are among the people making this choice you are to be applauded for treating your body and the planet with the best products you can find.

As safe as the words ‘organic’ and ‘natural’ sound, they can be misleading. Regulations are scarce and the cosmetic and body care industry is a self-regulated industry so they can, basically, make up their own rules.

When you make the choice to fuel your body with certified organic ingredients you are assured that the ingredients have gone through a recognized independent third party organization that has stringent certified organic standards. These standards are adhered to by the formulators, suppliers, manufacturers and transportation. Everyone in this system has an obligation to meet.

Five benefits of using Certified Organic:

1. Good for the Soil – Organic systems rely on a modern and scientific understanding of ecology and soil science, while also depending on traditional methods of crop rotations to ensure fertility, weed and pest control.
2. Good for the Environment – Organic systems aim to reduce dependence on non-renewable resources. Organic production aims at all times towards sustainability and upholds the best management of the environment and wildlife as a priority.
3. Good for People – Organic based ingredients have been shown in a number of studies to contain more vitamins, nutrients and cancer-fighting antioxidants than non-organic ingredients.
4. No Synthetic Chemicals – Organic systems prohibit the use of artificial chemicals, pesticides and fertilizers.
5. No GMOs – Certified Organic products are produced without GMOs (genetically modified organisms), which are prohibited in the standards for organic food and farming. You may purchase something that says organic or natural however without the certified organic status they may use ingredients that are genetically modified.

Certified organic comes with a shorter shelf life and the ingredient names on the label are familiar, you will recognize what they are. Each ingredient will be listed as certified organic. The label of the certifying organization is printed on the label to assure you of the independent third party endorsement.

Your choice to purchase organic foods is bringing health to you, your family and the planet. Now you can expand that to certified organic skin care and cosmetics products. Another step to adding to your green living lifestyle.

Tana Dean is an author, speaker and a green entrepreneur. Her book, Your Money, Your Power: 10 Ideas for Mindful Spending to Create a Healthy Green Planet empowers us to create a more healthy, peaceful planet using our daily financial decisions and actions. She designed and developed her green internet business TanaDean.com focusing on Abundant Lifestyle, Green Living and Healthy Body. The website includes articles, links to her blogs, her book and personally selected products, including Certified Organic Body Care. She shares her growing knowledge through a website Resources page for education and personal growth. She is a Reiki Master in the Usui Shiki Ryoho tradition. Her personal and business mission is to help Create Abundance, and a more Peaceful, Green Planet, One Person at a time.

photo credit: OakleyOriginals

With everyone and their mother jumping onto the Green Movement bandwagon, words like Organic, Natural, Safe, are tossed around like water balloons at a county fair. If you’re the one catching the balloon, make sure it doesn’t unexpectedly go SPLAT all over you. The key to successfully navigating the New Green World and knowing whether you are purchasing safe, healthy and nutritious products is having a solid understanding of how to read the labels, and what the words Organic and Natural really mean.

Fertilizer Increases Yields

Widespread, frequent and excessive use of synthetic organophosphate fertilizers began in the 1930s, when such fertilizers became affordable and accessible to the masses. Food production quickly increased as a result of fertilizer use. Unfortunately, the effects of widespread organophosphates would not be realized for many years. It takes much longer for synthetic chemicals to break down, and by the 1950s and 1960s, phosphates from the overuse of fertilizers clogged streams, lakes, rivers and deltas, causing algal blooms and other environmental problems.

Silent Spring Arouses Concern

The publication of Silent Spring in 1962, focused attention on the toxicity of chemical pesticides, and by extension, the practices of chemical companies producing synthetic pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers. Before Carson’s book, the general public was not well aware of such problems with modern agricultural practices. Once published, the book sparked a movement by government officials and the public to ban DDT and scrutinize production, labeling and distributing of pesticides and fertilizers.

Silent Spring marked the beginning of awareness for government officials about the harmful nature of broad, indiscriminate use of synthetic chemicals. Baby steps were taken in the direction of better pesticide and herbicide regulation. Until pressured in the 1970s and 1980s by environmental groups and everyday grocery-shoppers, there were few regulations in place to prevent wholesale dumping of synthetic fertilizer and pesticides all over the food marketed to consumers. European farmers led the way in bringing natural farming methods and organic farming mainstream.

Government Takes Over Organics

The USDA began its Organic labeling program in 2002. The program has different levels, all of which can be confusing if you don’t read the fine print. The Green Movement trend has exploded exponentially since 2006, when An Inconvenient Truth, a film about global warming featuring Al Gore was released. Suddenly, everyone wanted on the Green bandwagon and now the wagon is mighty crowded. Green is the new Gold. Green business practices or at least the insinuation of green business practices, results in higher revenues for multi-national companies.

Safe, Natural Products

With Green becoming little more than a marketing label, how can consumers know what is really safe to eat, or nutritious for the body? When growing your own produce, how can you tell if a fertilizer is helpful or harmful? Just as synthetic chemical companies marketed heavily to farmers, companies producing clothing, food, and cosmetics clamor to have the official organic seal on their products. They claim everything possible to be Natural. To cut the wheat from the chaff, several resources explain the mysteries behind the labels and marketing claims and help consumers make beneficial and healthy choices.

The Mayo Clinic website debunks some of the myths about organic versus natural versus nutrition in food products: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/organic-food/NU00255

The website www.safe-fertilizer-reviews.com contains information, reviews and survey results about natural fertilizers-or fertilizers that are not man-made.

The USDA website with information on the Organic Program is: www.ams.usda.gov/nop
There, you can read the fine print.

Proactive Consuming

The key to finding, purchasing and growing the healthiest produce with the least impact on the earth is understanding the meaning of natural and organic, and using that knowledge when making product purchasing decisions. Together, as earth-conscious consumers, we can make sure that the Green Business Claims made by mass-marketers are truly beneficial to health and to the earth.

Natural Fertilizer Guy started the website http://www.safe-fertilizer-reviews.com in order to provide gardeners, homeowners and landscapers with the tools and information they need to make informed, environmentally responsible purchases for gardening.

Natural fertilizers and Seaweed fertilizers are Natural Fertilizer Guy’s area of expertise. Each fertilizer reviewed on the site has been tested by Natural Fertilizer Guy, and has proved to increase plant growth as much, if not more than conventional, synthetic fertilizers.

For more information on natural fertilizers and seaweed fertilizers, please visit http://www.safe-fertilizer-reviews.com

photo credit: aeroSoul

Once the areas major agricultural product, hemp is making a comeback in the Altiplano area of Granada, Spain. Until the late nineteen sixties industrial hemp growing formed the backbone of this wholly agricultural area of Spain. Towards the end of the Franco era, with the invention of nylon and the mechanisation of agriculture most of the population was forced off the land to find work on the coast and major cities.

With the advent of the eco-age the interest in industrial hemp is being revived as it is a major constituent of eco-bricks, a vital component of sustainable housing.

Hemp comes from the Anglo Saxon word ‘haemp’ and is the popular name for plants of the cannabis genus. Hemp usually refers to the strains of the plant cultivated exclusively for industrial use as opposed to cannabis which is associated with pot and similar drugs.

Hemp has a huge variety of uses but continues to be overshadowed by the cannabis connotation of illegal drugs, with which it is often confused. However hemp can legally be grown, under licence, in many countries, including the European Union countries and Canada.

Cannabis sativa L. is the variety primarily grown for industrial purposes, it is a fast growing plant and has been cultivated for many thousand of years being used to make rope, clothing, paper, hemp oil and medicines. Growing hemp improves the condition of the ground and reduces ambient contamination. It is a robust plant that requires neither herbicides nor pesticides during its cultivation.

Hemp as an industrial material has a ten thousand year history. The first recorded use of hemp was as a cloth fabric, found in China as far back as 8000BC.C. Circa 4000B.C. hemp started to be used, again in China, to make ropes and as food. 2000 years later, the Chinese hemp oils and medicine were in use. By 1000B.C. its use had spread to India and Greece where the first instances of hemp paper were found.

By the 6th century hemp was being used in Europe in some amazing ways, in France a hemp reinforced bridge was built and it is still in use today. The hemp fibre also found uses in sailmaking, caulking materials, fishing nets and lines. In later years hemp was used to make a variety of foodstuffs including butter and beer. By the 15th century Renaissance painters were using hemp canvases.

Today industrial hemp is used to make a staggering variety of products ranging from medicines, body care products, building and insulating materials, clothing, textiles, food, fuel, livestock food and bedding, plastics and paper.

In the building industry hemp bricks, because of their sustainability and excellent insulation properties, are being used to construct external and internal walls of ecological homes. In this area of Spain the external walls of an eco house will consist of a eco-bricks, manufactured in Guadix with the proprietary name of Cannabric®.

Cannabric® derives its properties from industrial hemp fibres (cáñamo). The hemp bricks are made up of industrial hemp fibres, slaked lime and a mixture of innert mineral materials. The bricks combine the functions of a load bearing wall that is fire-resistant and does not require the addition of thermal or acoustic insulation.

The most important component of the eco-brick is industrial hemp which has a very low thermal conductivity (0.048W/m²k) producing a brick with vastly superior insulation properties against both cold and heat. The mineral component of the bricks gives them their mechanical strength. Being a solid brick, with a high specific heat, it has the optimal thermal properties to protect against heat.

These characteristics make hemp bricks the ideal choice in areas of southern Europe where there are extremes in temperature through summer and winter.

The mechanical strength of the block starts with formation of insoluble hydrates. The strength increases over time with the carbonation of the free lime, (a constituent of slaked lime) by moisture and carbon dioxide present in the air. Another important factor in the progressive curing of the eco-bricks is the gradual petrifaction of the industrial hemp by the lime and minerals present in the bricks.

Due to its unique composition the hemp bricks allow the transpiration and diffusion of water vapour between the inside and outside of the building equalising humidity within the building thus avoiding humid and cold areas and minimising condensation on the inside wall surfaces.

Slaked lime acts as the binder, basically holding the brick together, but it has other uses. The slaked lime acts as a filler protecting the brick against water entry via the external surfaces exposed to rain and snow. On the other hand it provides a protection for the industrial hemp fibres against fungal and parasite attack.

The hemp bricks when laid endwise are used for the construction of external walls thirty centimeters thick. The internal walls built with hemp bricks are thinner being half the thickness. The delightful, popular cave homes of this area of Andalusia are naturally ecological in that they are re-developed from ancient derelict cave houses. As far as practical re-cycled materials are utilised and, as such, their environmental impact and carbon footprints are minimal.

It is ironic that this area of Spain, the Altiplano, until the late nineteen sixties, was renown as an industrial hemp growing area. The hemp growing era came to an end with the introduction of nylon, farm mechanisation and the growing freedom of movement coinciding with the end of the Franco regime. The combination of these factors threw large numbers of agricultural workers out of work. As a result the village populations sufferred a catastrophic decline with those leaving migrationg to the Costas and principal cities in search of employment.

As a result of these traumatic changes in demographic the remaining population was mainly aged, the villages incomes dropped to near poverty level and many empty houses fell into disrepair.

Most of the land workers who moved away lived in cave houses which are now being revitalised by the growing demand for eco-properties.

Les Edwards runs a real estate business specialising in cave houses and country properties in the Altiplano region of Granada Province in Spain. To learn more about estate agents and rural property in Spain go to: http://www.spanish-inland-properties.com