Ajo Center for Sustainable Agriculture

Sustainable Agriculture:

An integrated system of plant and animal production practices having a site-specific application that will over the long term:

• Satisfy human food and fiber needs
• Enhance environmental quality and the natural resource base upon which the agriculture economy depends
• Make the most efficient use of nonrenewable resources and on-farm resources and integrate, where appropriate, natural biological cycles and controls
• Sustain the economic viability of farm operations
• Enhance the quality of life for farmers and society as a whole

-- U.S. Code Title 7, Section 3103

Border Food Summit

Sylvia Tatman-Burruss of ISDA and Peter Altshul of Ajo CSA recently attended the Border Food Summit, held by the Southwest Marketing Network, which was founded in 2002 in order to increase regional marketing expertise and opportunities for small-scale, alternative and minority farmers and ranchers in the Four Corners states.

The conference was held in the beautiful Esplendor Resort in Rio Rico, near Nogales, AZ. Sunday featured three separate tours: Tucson’s Local Food System, Traditional Foods of the Sonoran Desert, and Rural Farms and Ranches in the Borderlands. Monday morning began with a short film which offered the little-known fact that over sixty percent of the fresh fruit and vegetables sold in the United States in the winter and spring is grown in Mexico. This was followed by an ecumenical blessing and then the keynote speech by Ricardo Salvador, senior scientist and director of the Food & Environment program at Union of Concerned Scientists. Dr. Salvador kept the crowd of 200 enthralled with his presentation. He explained the origins of the present food system (did you know that the USDA was founded in 1862 by Abraham Lincoln?) and described how all US food policy since the 1920s was designed to keep boom and bust cycles in check, which has unintentionally led to numerous negative impacts on the population and the food supply. He also proposed a potential solution of networks of small producers centered around “food hubs”, based on the organizational structure of the internet.

The conference then split into breakout sessions divided into four tracks: support for small farmers, community building, place-based approaches, and new collaborations in food and farming. In the evening a group from the Texas panhandle played songs about cowboy life and farming in the Southwest. On Tuesday morning there was another session which featured informal presentations and sharing of experiences, followed by a priorities and next steps session at which all of the tracks were tied together.

The food for the conference was provided by local organic farms in Arizona and New Mexico, and was noticeably different from the usual fare provided at such events. Another feature of the conference was “pitch to your peers”, where local food producers presented their operations and sought investments for their expansion plans. This tended to make mealtime conversation difficult, but we did learn a lot about the local farming scene!

This week's planned harvest:

• Armenian cucumbers
• Heirloom tomato mix
• Eggplants
• Squash
• Chili mix

Upcoming Events:

• Saturday, June 8: Second Saturday Farmers Market, 9-11 am in the Ajo Plaza
  

• Saturday, June 15: Ajo CSA 3rd Saturday Workshop - Monsoon Planting for Backyard Gardeners, 9 am at the CSA Farm in the Curley School Courtyard
  Learn how to plant summer crops for the monsoon season.