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VVH-TV News Special
Organic Farming: Can It Feed Us? Part 1

Karl Grossman Chief Investigative Reporter examines Organic Farming on Eastern Long Island.

What is organic farming?
Organic farming can be defined as an approach to agriculture where the aim is to create integrated, humane, environmentally and economically sustainable agricultural production systems. Maximum reliance is placed on locally or farm-derived renewable resources and the management of self-regulating ecological and biological processes and interactions in order to provide acceptable levels of crop, livestock and human nutrition, protection from pests and diseases, and an appropriate return to the human and other resources employed. Reliance on external inputs, whether chemical or organic, is reduced as far as possible. In many European countries, organic agriculture is known as ecological agriculture, reflecting this reliance on ecosystem management rather than external inputs.

The objective of sustainability lies at the heart of organic farming and is one of the major factors determining the acceptability or otherwise of specific production practices. The term ’sustainable’ is used in its widest sense, to encompass not just conservation of non-renewable resources (soil, energy, minerals) but also issues of environmental, economic and social sustainability. The term ‘organic’ is best thought of as referring to the concept of the farm as an organism, in which all the component parts - the soil minerals, organic matter, micro-organisms, insects, plants, animals and humans - interact to create a coherent and stable whole.

The key characteristics of organic farming include:

protecting the long term fertility of soils by maintaining organic matter levels, encouraging soil biological activity, and careful mechanical intervention;

providing crop nutrients indirectly using relatively insoluble nutrient sources which are made available to the plant by the action of soil micro-organisms;

nitrogen self-sufficiency through the use of legumes and biological nitrogen fixation, as well as effective recycling of organic materials including crop residues and livestock manures;

weed, disease and pest control relying primarily on crop rotations, natural predators, diversity, organic manuring, resistant varieties and limited (preferably minimal) thermal, biological and chemical intervention;

the extensive management of livestock, paying full regard to their evolutionary adaptations, behavioural needs and animal welfare issues with respect to nutrition, housing, health, breeding and rearing;

careful attention to the impact of the farming system on the wider environment and the conservation of wildlife and natural habitats.

(c) WVVH-TV 2007 all rights reserved

Duration : 0:35:13

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Technorati Tags: Cancer, Care, farming, food, Fruits, Hamptons, health, organic, vegetables, Vitamins, VVH-TV

Homegrown Revolution (2008) is a film short that gives a brief introduction to the Dervaes Family’s urban homestead which they call “Path to Freedom.” On this tiny city lot, a beautiful and productive oasis was created, producing 6,000 lbs of food annually and is a model of urban sustainability.

Film premiers at the WILD & SCENIC FILM FESTIVAL (Jan 9-11, 2009)

http://www.wildandscenicfilmfestival.org

——About Path to Freedom——

Since the mid 1980s, members of the Dervaes family have steadily worked at transforming their ordinary city lot in Pasadena into a thriving organic micro farm that supplies them with food all year round. These eco-pioneers also run a successful home business providing their surplus produce to local restaurants. Through their adventures in growing and preserving their own food, installing a solar power system, home-brewing biodiesel for fuel, raising backyard farm animals, and learning back-to-basics skills, these modern-day pioneers have revived the old-fashioned spirit of self-reliance and resourcefulness.

Since 2001, their website has inspired hundreds of thousands to take steps towards a sustainable future and has generated a 21st century urban homestead movement.

visit their blog at http://www.urbanhomestead.org/journal

Duration : 0:1:54

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Technorati Tags: Dervaes, farming, food, growing, homegrown, homestead, homesteading, own, revolution, urban, your

Celebrity Chef Jon Ashton Interviews The Food TV Celebrity Chefs Cat Cora at the Food Network’s South Beach Wine and Food Festival.

About CAT CORA
It’s no surprise Cat Cora became a world renowned chef. Her culinary aspirations began at an early age, and by 15, she had developed a business plan for her own restaurant. In 2005, she made television history on Food Network’s Iron Chef America as the first and only female Iron Chef, and in November 2006 Bon Appétit Magazine bestowed her with their Teacher of the Year Award, an award she calls, “the greatest recognition she could achieve as a chef.” That month, she was also honored with another great culinary distinction when she was named executive chef of the magazine.

There is no doubt Cat’s upbringing had an influence on her career. She was raised in a small Greek community in Jackson, Mississippi, by a family for whom cooking and eating were the center of life. At the Cora house, it was common to eat spices from the south, as well as fresh sheep and goat cheeses and home-cured olives sent by relatives from the island of Skopelos. Her first cookbook, Cat Cora’s Kitchen was inspired by her Greek and southern heritage and contains many of her families’ favorite recipes.

With advice from of her famous mentor Julia Child, Cat left Mississippi for New York, where she received the education of her dreams at The Culinary Institute of America. While in New York, she apprenticed with and then worked for chef Anne Rozenweig at Arcadia and worked at the Beekman Tavern under chef Larry Forgione of An American Place.

Cat’s culinary education continued in Europe with apprenticeships with two of France’s three-star Michelin chefs. From George Blanc of Vonnas, she learned a great deal about tolerance, extreme cooking and the cuisine of the French countryside. With Roger Verge, she learned not only about classical French cuisine, but also about embracing life and living it to the fullest.

After returning to New York, Cat honed her skills as a sous chef at The Old Chatham Shepherding Company under chef Melissa Kelly. She soon headed west to plant her roots in Northern California, where she served as chef de cuisine at Napa Valley’s Bistro Don Giovanni.

Cat made her TV debut in 1999, as co-host of Food Network’s, Melting Pot with Rocco Di Spirito. She went on to host My Country My Kitchen: Greece, Date Plate and was one of the featured hosts on Fine Living’s Simplify Your Life. A documentary, Cat’s In The Kitchen was also made about her first James Beard dinner in April, 2002.

Prior to Iron Chef America, Cat was co-host of Food Network show, Kitchen Accomplished where she worked with a design expert and contractor to surprise a homeowner with a 3-day kitchen makeover. In 2006, Cat appeared alongside Wolfgang Puck in NBC’s primetime miniseries, Celebrity Cooking Showdown, where celebrities were paired with famous chefs and competed in a timed cook-off à la Iron Chef.

Cat is part of Macy’s Culinary Council, a national culinary authority, comprising 15 of the world’s most prominent chefs. The Council serves as the face of Macy’s Culinary and Housewares divisions, impacting how customers are inspired to shop, cook and eat at home.

Outside of the kitchen, Cat is known for her philanthropy. She is president and founder of Chefs for Humanity, an organization which was founded in response to the 2004 tsunami disaster. Modeled after Doctors Without Borders, the not-for-profit gathers the culinary community together to raise funds and provide resources for important emergency, educational and hunger-related causes. In addition to this, she recently became the nutritional spokesperson for UNICEF.

With her recently launched second book,

Duration : 0:2:32

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Technorati Tags: BBQ, best, cat, chef, Chefs, Cora, Famous, food, google, Interview, Network, recipe, TV

KCBS anchor Ann Martin visits the Dervaes family amazing edible estate.

Living off the land doesn’t mean moving to the country. The Dervaes family has taken it upon themselves to grow as much of their diet right on a typical urban lot. Over a decade ago, the family smothered their traditional lawn and transformed their city lot into an amazingly productive edible estate. The family’s 1/10 acre garden provides them with all the vegetables, herbs and fruit needed for their vegetarian diet, as well as a viable income. In the summer, their “100 foot diet” consists of nearly 80%-90% of homegrown produce. Even though their garden may be small, it’s hugely productive, yielding over 3 tons (6,000 lbs) of food.

Visit their website and be inspired to grow your own at www.PathtoFreedom.com

Since the early 80’s the Dervaes family has slowly transformed their ordinary city lot into a self sufficient urban homestead.

Duration : 0:3:19

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Technorati Tags: edibles, food, locavore, miles, reduce

Supreme Master TV ‘Healthy Living’ series has featured interviews with John Robbins & Angelina Jolie and other health and community activists.

On this 3-week-long series of episodes of Healthy Living they visit the eco pioneers of the Dervaes family who reside in Pasadena California and try to maintain a healthy and earthfriendly lifestyle.

Episode 2 / Part 3
To view Episode 2 Part 2 http://youtube.com/watch?v=WxwsJx1A4HA

Visit these eco pioneers at http://www.PathtoFreedom.com (more)

Duration : 0:8:27

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Technorati Tags: biointensive, food, grow, homesteading, own, polyculture, urban

Notes by host J. Keith van Straaten

*On the streets, we talked to dozens of people from all over the world. I don’t think we found a single person who said organic food wasn’t a better way to go.

*The very crafty Jules Dervaes runs the Path To Freedom Urban Homestead with his family. They’ve created a genuine farm on their plain ol’ city lot in Pasadena. They were gracious hosts to us for our shoot. And they didn’t give us a hard time for misspelling their family name in the video.

*Christine Bybee is indeed a certified nutritionist –and a nutritionist to the stars! The Rutgers University study she cites is actually still a topic of debate in the nutrition community. Judge for yourself.

*Anna Getty has already judged and is definitely pro-organic! She’s a spokesperson for The Organic Center and understandably I felt a little uncomfortable taking a Big Bite of hot dog in front of her. No worries; I more than made up for it a few weeks later.

*The lady serving me my pizza and salad is Mani, our fabulous PA. I call her Libbie as a way of saying hi to my grandmother.

What got cut… The salad Mani/Libbie put down was put together by the Dervaes family. It was made entirely from their farm, was 100% organic, and was topped by edible flowers. Yum! Still, the original ending had me getting into a tug-of-war over the non-organic pizza with our cameraman! (He won.)

For more info on who I am and what I’m up to, check out my Yahoo! 360 page or my personal site.

And who knows, maybe next time we’re out talking to people on the street, we’ll run into YOU!

Visit these urban farmers and urban homesteaders at their website www.PathtoFreedom.com

Duration : 0:3:34

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Technorati Tags: farmer, food, organic, urban

TreeHugger TV visits the revolutionary Dervaes family’s urban homestead in Pasadena CA. This family has taken urban sustainability to the extreme, pioneering a modern urban homesteading movement which is spreading in peoples back and front yards across the country.

Be inspired to create your very own homegrown revolution at www.PathtoFreedom.com

Since the early 80’s the Dervaes family has slowly transformed their ordinary city lot into a self sufficient urban homestead.

Duration : 0:5:4

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Technorati Tags: food, grow, ovens, shower, solar, sun

HOMEGROWN REVOLUTION T-SHIRTS NOW AVAILABLE:

MEN’S: http://www.peddlerswagon.com/p-260-homegrown-revolution-t-shirt-mens.aspx

WOMEN’S: http://www.peddlerswagon.com/p-258-homegrown-revolution-t-shirt-womens.aspx

Path to Freedom presents ‘A Homegrown Revolution’ A collaboration of selective media clips which feature their urban homestead and farm which focus on the need of radical action — growing food in the city.

This self produced, short music video was shown at Peter Seller’s Cultural Art’s class at UCLA followed by a short presentation by urban farmer, Jules Dervaes founder of Path to Freedom. The class focus was on the art of slow food and among other guests invited were Michael Pollan, Alice Waters and Eric Schlosser.

Like Victory Gardens of yesteryear, start your own homegrown revolution, grow your own food in your back or front yard — for more information visit the urban homesteaders at http://www.PathtoFreedom.com

Or on their online journal at: http://www.urbanhomestead.org/journal

Since the early 80’s the Dervaes family has slowly transformed their ordinary city lot into a self sufficient urban homestead.

(NOTE: This video’s creation, concept, layout, sound pickups and editing was done in a marathon session of just three days so please excuse any choppy editing! )

VIDEO FOOTAGE COURTESY OF
Path to Freedom
Treehugger TV
CBS2 / KCAL9
SPA8 / Chris Klonecke
Gina Angelique / Chris Hall
EARTH RISE Dance Performance

INTERVIEWS COURTESY
Path to Freedom
Christopher Klonecke
Gina Angelique / Chris Hall
CBS2 / KCAL9

MUSIC COURTESY
“Revolution Cry”
Lifehouse / Blyss

“World”
Five for Fighting

“Paths of Victory”
Bob Dylan

“Looking Out My Backdoor”
Creedence Clearwater Revival

“Smoothie Song”"
Nickel Creek

“Drive”
REM

“Green Grows the Rushes”
REM

“Footprints in the Snow”
Songs of the Hills

“Seneca Square Dance”
Songs of the Hills

Duration : 0:9:59

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Technorati Tags: advice, blog, food, garden, homegrown, homestead, issues, permaculture, revolution, sustainability, urban, victory, video, wisdom