May 2012

  NAME: Josh Morgenthau FARM: fishkill Farms AGE: 28 Tell us a more about your farm and how you got into farming:I grew up in New York City. After college, I moved a little bit upstate, to the farm my grandfather started in 1913. My father had kept it running at a loss over the years. What did you do before you started farming? Have you found it be an easy transition from your previous job?I was a painter. I studied art in school, and I originally moved back to the family farm to paint. Once I started planting vegetables, and raising chickens, I could not go back. The farm was like a living, changing work of art, and it took me captive. What made you choose New York?It was my heritage...

An interesting article from the Austin (TX) Statesman sheds light on some of the challenges of running an urban farming operation. As if growing great produce in confined areas wasn’t difficult enough! Why would urban farms be subject to higher tax rates than their more rural brethren? That’s because, in Texas at least, an exemption from property taxes was enacted in the 1970’s to keep rural farm land in production, well before the days of urban homesteading and the proliferation of farmers markets.  The catch? While tax regulations vary by county and state, more stringent rules apply almost universally in urban areas. In some ways, relieving the burden means updating the law to...

For the last few years, the Green page on the Huffington Post has put out a ranking of the ten best cities for local food. It’s a good list, but there's no real criteria given for how they decided on which cities to include. More than that, how do you find great farm-to-table restaurants, farmers' markets, and other local fare once you get to one of these bastions of the local and artisanal? That’s where FarmPlate, the largest directory of sustainable food businesses on the Web, comes in. We decided to make it easy for you to find great local food in all of the top 10 cities by giving you a great place to start—check out the list below of great restaurants—then letting you loose to explore...

Have you heard that Saturday, May 19, is Food Revolution Day? Started by the Jamie Oliver Foundation, it's a worldwide event designed to celebrate healthy eating and bring people together at dinner tables and local events. Here's from their mission: "Food Revolution Day is about connecting with your community through events at schools, restaurants, local businesses, dinner parties and farmers' markets. We want to inspire change in people’s food habits and to promote the mission for better food and education for everyone." As individuals, we can do something about the issues revolving around health, culture and the environment. There's a feeling of power, even revolution, about our food...