Eighty-Seven Acres

Local Food In the Greenbrier Valley, West Virginia, 3

Try something new. Local food grown by farmers down the road from you.

 

See Greenbrier Valley Local Foods

Local Food In the Greenbrier Valley, West Virginia, 2

Trying Something New V2 from WesMonTy RC&D on Vimeo.

See Greenbrier Valley Local Foods

 Promoting the Farmer's Markets for local food.

 

Local Food In the Greenbrier Valley, West Virginia, 1

Three promotional videos that reveal the charm and beauty of Greenbrier Valley farms.

 

See Greenbrier Valley Local Foods website

New Web Ad for Beef Business

I have made a brief movie ad for our fledgling beef business. (All natural, always pastured, grassfed, grass finished Angus.) We're targetting a niche market--the athlete on a training diet. ("Lean and clean protein for the athlete".) The ad will introduce our website, where we will make online sales.

Pastured, Grassfed Beef Healthier For You Than Grain-fed Feed Lot Beef

Research published in the Journal of Animal Science [1993, 71:8, 2079-88] (summarized at EatWild.com) proves that pastured, grassfed beef is leaner and lower in calories than grain-fed beef, even leaner than thigh meat from commercial chicken, and nearly as lean as skinless chicken breast. Furthermore, pastured, grassfed beef has two to four times the Omega-3 fatty acid, three to five times more conjugated linoleic acid, and more than twice the amount of vitamin E as grain-fed grain-fed beef.

Government Ethanol Subsidies Reward A Few Wealthy Commodity Farmers and Punish Other Farmers

Please see my discussion at my Body Parts blog.

Global and US Food Prices Are Rising. What Is the Long Term Future of Prices?

Gary Becker and Richard Posner debate the long term future of commodity food prices. Becker thinks that much of the price rise is due to governmental regulations and policies (such as, in the US, ethanol, which takes corn out of food production), but that if prices have some freedom, food supply should increase in response to increase in prices. Farmers can always plant more and raise more. Posner agrees that food prices will increase, but that eventually supply will catch us with demand and they new equilibriums of low prices will be established. In wealthy countries; but, he argues, that poor countries will suffer greatly.

The Economics of the Hamburger

The money Americans spend on hamburgers and their components, at mint.com. 

West Virginia: Unexpected Geothermal Resources Found

New geological surveys indicate that West Virginia has unexpected geothermal resources, especially in the eastern section of the state. Geothermal energy, at temperatures of 150dc - 200dc at 5 kilometer, is useful for generating electricity and for heating surface buildings.

With natural gas already a recently discovered important natural resource for the state, geothermal energy provides the opportunity for the state to shift from coal to cleaner energy sources.

I foresee a blossoming of huge hot houses growing tropical fruits in Winter for sale to the eastern seaboard.

Our farm sits on land within both the natural gas and geothermal zones. We've already had offers for the natural gas rights on our farmland. Perhaps requests for our geothermal rights are next. 

Eli Kintisch, "West Virginia Is a Geothermal Hot Spot," ScienceNOW AAAS October 4, 2010.

Economists Recalculate the Cost-Benefit Accounting of Local Food

Economists are making the argument that local food is not more energy efficient and less harmful to the environment (e.g., in emitted carbons) than factory food distributed to consumers at great distances. Factory food is distributed wholesale, which is (or might be?) more energy efficient than consumers individually driving to local produce markets. This might be an illustration of the point, I suppose: food for 100,000 consumers could be delivered from Ohio to New York City on one freight train, using less fuel and emitting less carbons, than food obtained by 100,000 consumers driving their cars from New York City to surrounding farmers' markets. But has anyone actually done empirical studies to back up such accounting? For instance, in this illustration, 100 local farmers deliver the food for 100,000 NYC consumers into the Union Square farmers' market, and the 25,000 consumers buy food at the market for themselves and three other persons each; and they  reach the market by taking the subway or walking. Now, redo the accounting.