February Newsletter

Berea Gardens Agriculture Ministries
February News

Spring is on its way and the growing season is drawing near.  Food  prices are climbing at an alarming rate and the economic climate of the world is becoming increasingly unstable.  Commodity prices at the Chicago Board of Trade for grains and oil seeds scheduled for late summer and fall delivery are hitting all time highs, with some contract prices doubling in just the past few weeks.  In the past six months wheat is up 70%, corn up 60%, soy up 50%, sugar up 35%, palm oil up 142%, sunflower oil up 60%, and the list goes on and on. China, the source of over half of the apples in the American market,  has seen the cost of those apples double in just the past two weeks. The cost of oil is also increasing rapidly. When you consider that it requires 12 calories of fossil fuel to produce 1 calorie of food in this country, it is inevitable that we will be spending a much larger portion of our family budgets to feed ourselves in the very near future. Governments around the world are developing strategies for what can only be described as a food crisis of unprecedented proportions which has already begun and is forecast to worsen throughout 2011.  The time for taking responsibility for our own food production is certainly at hand.  If the financial incentive isn't enough, consider also the diminished quality of the foodstuffs available to us now at our grocers.  The average distance that produce travels from field to fork now exceeds 1670 miles.  That means by the time we receive it most of our food is already three to six weeks dead. It has been harvested at an immature stage before many of the valuable phytonutrients are fully developed, and has been treated post-harvest with fungicides to endure the journey.  Even if we are eating a diet rich in (seemingly) fresh fruits and vegetables, how much nutrition are we getting from such a system? Our solution to this circumstance is to grow the vast majority of the food we eat.  And we would like to show you how to do it also.  Did you know that an average family of four can be fed by one person working in a garden less than one hour per day? If you have realized that the time has come for you to learn more about how agriculture can be of personal and financial benefit to you, please look over our training schedule below and contact us about receiving the training you need to become self-sufficient in your food needs.  On less than an acre, and with a commitment of less than an hour per day with training and skill development, you can do it!   Click here for more information about our 5 day training programs and schedule your session soon.  Space is limited. In the next few weeks, we will also be launching our online Farmer's Market at  www.bereagardens.locallygrown.net The site is now under construction and will allow us to take internet orders for our produce that will be delivered at three locations during the week in our area.  We believe that this will allow us to efficiently distribute our produce in a way that gets much more food into the hands of those that want it with a minimum of distraction from our farming activities. In early January President Obama signed the Food Safety Modernization Act.  I promised you last month that I would be sending out an announcement as to what this legislation will mean to small growers and processors.  At this time the new Republican Congress is deliberating over the funding of this Act, and as a result, no definitive information is yet available about what the FDA intends to require of small growers.  The current mood in Congress may prevent the full implementation of this Act if the funding for it is withheld.  We anticipate that the provisions of  this Act will have an impact on us, but for now we are proceeding full speed ahead with our plans and will deal with the circumstances of regulation as they develop. The FDA already has their requirements drawn up, but they have not yet become available to the public.  That disclosure must take place within 180 days of the enactment of the legislation, and that might mean we will not know exactly what we are dealing with until mid-season after our crops are planted.  As always, we solicit your prayers.  We have a great many challenges and a lot of hard work ahead of us this year and our courage is bolstered by those of you that bolster us with your prayers and support. Blessings, Bob Gregory