Writing for the Guarding in London, Helen Browning declares that organic food is here to stay, in spite of declining sales. 

The Lake County Post-Tribune wrote yesterday about the recently-passed US Farm Bill, with interviews from local farmers who got nothing and those on the receiving end of the subsidies.  While the farmers are specific to the Lake County region, this story is playing out all across America, and has a huge impact on all of us - especially those who are struggling to make ends meet farming small plots of land.

An interesting article on WorldChanging inspecting the downsides to urban vertical farming:

Construction requires a lot of energy. Keeping vegetables warm in winter requires a lot of energy. Recycling water requires a lot of energy. Generating artificial sunlight requires a lot of energy. In other words, the secret ingredient that makes vertical farms work (assuming they work at all) is boatloads of energy.

The general tone of the article seems to imply we all need to be in urban centers. Given the premise that humans somehow are required to be packed together his point seems to follow naturally.

Environmentally speaking, it makes more sense to move another person into a city than it does to make way for a berry patch.

In my case, I keep moving farther and father away from anything that could be considered a city.

And even in densely-packed cities, there's always a lot of unused or otherwise "wasted" space.  It's not about demolishing a building to plant corn.  It's about growing crops in the margins.  Sometimes the margins are walls.

A few weeks back CNN-Money reported about George Irwin:

George Irwin builds green structures for a living, but his latest project aspires to rebuild lives. This summer, Irwin is donating a vertical urban farm for residents of Los Angeles' graffiti-scarred Central City East.

Part art, part urban renewal, part local eating.  He's also CEO of Green Living Technologies, who does this professionally.  They have a gallery of other green walls they've done.

Alan Bjerga writes for Bloomberg about the soaring cost of farmland.

U.S. farmland values are at a record high even as the rest of the country suffers the worst housing crisis since the Great Depression, with the highest crop prices ever pushing up agricultural real estate.

Once again, this is simple economics.  Demand for food products has risen, particularly as we have decided to start using food for non-food uses, like ethanol.  Rising prices always attracts more producers, wanting to get a slice of the profit pie.

The resources that produce the profit will increase in cost also, as everyone along the chain of capitalism tries to capitalize.

While investigating local food options, often you find yourself with a choice of CSAs.  It can be difficult to pick which to join, as each supplies different produce throughout the season. Plus, you have to pony up a chunk of change up-front, which can be harder to swallow than lettuce gone to seed.

Enter the "food club", as described by Plenty magazine:

The way it works is fairly simple: Customers sign up to be members for a low fee of $5 a month that helps to cover overhead. Each week, a group of organic and sustainable farmers provide a list of their available products to an order coordinator. All of the products are listed in an e-mail that goes out to members. Members respond with what they want to order for the week and buy from the farmers they choose. Farmers drop their goods off and pick up a check from the ASN.

As a consumer, that sounds awesome.  But, what if you're a farmer who has a lot of kale this week, but no one orders it?  Sure, the free-market's invisible hand will teach you not to grow so much kale next time.  Maybe next week folks will buy your collards.  Or not.

The CSA farmer, on the other hand, still has has $500, which was pre-paid, at the beginning of the season.

And the middleman takes a portion of the proceeds.

The author of the article claims:

The food club system is also a better business model than farmers markets because it concentrates the most important kind of buyers.

Then again, the farmer is trading certainty (pre-paid CSA shares) and revenue (direct-to-farmer) for uncertainty and a reduced take.  The upside is hopefully broader exposure to a larger market.