Today's Headlines

Iraqis forced to abandon farming
By Ahmed Janabi

"Iraq has started to import vegetables for the first time in its modern history despite ample water, fertile land and a rich farming heritage stretching back to 6,000 years.

The war, lack of resources and new market realities in post-Saddam Iraq are to be blamed for this break from tradition.

A post-war free market system is pushing Iraqi farmers out of competition. Cheaper goods, such as Syrian vegetables, have flooded local markets.

Hasan al-Shammari, a farmer from al-Latifiya, 40km south-west of Baghdad, said: "Traders looking for larger profit have destroyed our business, because they make more money when they import vegetables and the government is doing nothing to protect the Iraqi farmer."

Officials at the Iraqi ministry of agriculture were unavailable for comment."...

..."Iraqis are known to be finicky about their food and the imported farm products have left many an Iraqi housewife frustrated.

'Loss of taste'

Shaima, who refused to disclose her last name when contacted over phone, said using imported vegeteables had not only strained the family budget but also affected their taste buds.

"Everybody here misses our local fresh vegetables. I think it is about soil and quality of water, the vegetables we are getting from outside Iraq do not taste the same. My cooking is not like before because of that."

Suad, 52, a retired teacher who again did not want to disclose her last name, bemoans the loss of a way of life: "Apart from their taste which is not anything like our local vegetables, imported vegetables are expensive."

"We buy them in boxes, and most of the times their bottoms are damaged. What was good about our local vegetables was that we got to pick each piece by our own hands; and it used to be direct from farm to the local vendor."

Source: http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/F9923461-3DF7-4256-82DD-C402F8FE01E0.htm
UPDATED ON:
TUESDAY, APRIL 15, 2008
14:27 MECCA TIME, 11:27 GMT

Urban Farmers’ Crops Go From Vacant Lot to Market

"In the shadows of the elevated tracks toward the end of the No. 3 line in East New York, Brooklyn, with an April chill still in the air, Denniston and Marlene Wilks gently pulled clusters of slender green shoots from the earth, revealing a blush of tiny red shallots at the base."...

..."The Wilkses now cultivate plots at four sites in East New York, paying as little as $2 a bed (usually 4 feet by 8 feet) in addition to modest membership fees. Last year the couple sold $3,116 in produce at a market run by the community group East New York Farms, more than any of their neighbors.

Florence Russell is looking forward to this year’s offerings. On a recent Saturday she watched from the end of Alabama Avenue as gardeners worked compost into beds at Hands and Hearts Garden, one of the sites where the Wilkses keep beds, along with 24 other growers. Fresh greens, she said, would be a welcome alternative to tough collards from the local grocery.

“This is something good happening here,” Ms. Russell said.

The city’s cultivators are a varied lot. The high school students at the Added Value community farm in Red Hook, Brooklyn, last year supplied Italian arugula, Asian greens and heirloom tomatoes to three restaurants, a community-supported agriculture buying club and two farmers’ markets."...

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/07/dining/07urban.html?ref=nyregion%26pagewanted=all
By TRACIE McMILLAN
Published: May 7, 2008