Dirt — Read The Dirt Read The Dirt

Re-Imagining Local Public Space, From Parks to Post Offices

This Read the Dirt production was published by The Leap. As austerity and privatization spread around the globe, there has never been [read more …]

Google Cache Snapshot-Oregonlandco.com, 9/15/13

Testimony

To the reviewers of the ConnectOregon IV grant applications: Norm and Mel Mc Dougal, in the form of Lost Creek Rock Products, [read more …]

Sustainable Forestry Initiative Confirms

Why Label Genetically Modified Food?

Editor’s Note: We spoke with Elizabeth Larter, the official spokesperson for the Yes on Washington State Initiative 522 campaign. If passed in [read more …]

Why Not Label Genetically Modified Food?

Editor’s Note: We were privileged to ask the campaign opposing Washington State’s Initiative 522 a few questions. If passed in November 2013, [read more …]

When Industrial Slaughterhouses Are Proposed

Editor’s Note: The industrialization and corporatization of slaughterhouses has spread to many regions of the nation. Whatcom County, WA offers a case [read more …]

¡HUELGA! Mixteco and Triqui Farmworkers commence second Work Stoppage at Sakuma Brothers Farms, Inc.

Editor’s Note: Why are workers striking? Read their grievances. Burlington, WA, July 22, 2013: Over two hundred Triqui and Mixteco farmworkers authorized [read more …]

Bolivia: Building Resilience To Climate Change Through Indigenous Knowledge – The Case Of Bolivia

By Climate and Development Knowledge Network, Indigenous Peoples Issues and Resources Indigenous knowledge plays an important role in the way communities interact [read more …]

A Conversation about School Lunches, a Student and a Farmer

Editor’s Note: In a letter Anabel Magee, 9, expresses her frustration about the state of her school lunches. Clayton Burrows of Growing [read more …]

On Kids and Food

By Laura Plaut, Founder and Director of Common Threads Farm, a nonprofit on a mission to connect young people with healthy food [read more …]

Empowered Latino Farmers (Spanish & English Translations Included)

Photo: Clayton Burrows Editor’s Note: Eden Lopez is a farmer on Growing Washington’s Alm Hill Gardens in Everson, WA. Born in Michoacan, [read more …]

Whatcom Farm-to-School: Tackling Food System Challenges One Lunch at a Time

Photo: David Westerlund By Mardi Solomon & Holly O’Neil, Coordinators, Whatcom Farm-to School Support Team Editor’s Note: Eating healthy foods should not [read more …]

Sludge, Whose Jurisdiction? (Part 2)

Photo: Sustainable Sanitation, Flickr Editor’s Note: Last year Wahkiakum County passed an ordinance to regulate the spreading of sludge/biosolids on agricultural land. [read more …]

Sludge, Whose Jurisdiction? (Part 1)

Photo: Sustainable Sanitation, Flickr Editor’s Note: Last year Wahkiakum County passed an ordinance to regulate the spreading of sludge/biosolids on agricultural land. [read more …]

Rethinking the Peasant

Photo: Andrew Rodman By Andrew Rodman, Editor, In Good Tilth magazine, a bi-monthly publication from Oregon Tilth Editor’s Note: Are we seeing [read more …]

The Beginning of Regional Food Governance?

Photo: “Fawn Peak Complex Fire, Washington”, NASA Visible Earth Collection By Alon Bassok, Senior Planner, and Olivia Robinson, Regional Affairs Coordinator, Puget [read more …]

Urban and Suburban Agriculture Empowers Environmental Stewards

Photo: Seattle Tilth By Andrea Dwyer, Executive Director of Seattle Tilth Editor’s Note: An idea worth replicating. Read below to see how [read more …]

Northwest Soil Science: Nitrogen Mineralization

Photo: Simon Davis-Cohen By Doug Collins, WSU Extension, Statewide Small Farms Educator Editor’s Note: Get a Soil Science lesson from a man [read more …]

WA Conservation Districts: An Introduction

By Craig Nelson, Okanogan Conservation District Manager Editor’s Note: Those interested in the power structures concerning Washington’s natural resources should be acquainted [read more …]

Planning For A Future: Protecting The Ground

By Bob Emmons, President, LandWatch Lane County Editor’s Note: We are privileged to have Emmons guide us through some of the history [read more …]

Recirculating Farms

Photo: Sahib’s Florida Aquaponic Farm, courtesy of Recirculating Farms Coalition By Shaylyn Berlew, Communications Intern, Recirculating Farms Coalition Editor’s Note: The Recirculating [read more …]

Columbia Basin Water Development

By Vicky Scharlau, Executive Director, Columbia Basin Development League Editor’s Note: How America has chosen to control its water impacts our lives [read more …]

No Fisherman Deserves a Toxic River

Editor’s Note: This piece appears in our “Dirt” section because the current unhealthy condition of the Duwamish River has been and continues [read more …]

Conserving Working Lands, Native Species, and Fertile Soil

By Mary Kiesau It’s not on the endangered species list, it’s not listed in a field guide, it doesn’t fly or swim, [read more …]

Protecting Dirt, Among Other Things

By Connie Clement, Outreach Coordinator of Whatcom Land Trust 27 years ago, Whatcom County farmers were concerned about agricultural land being converted [read more …]

Coming Soon

We recognize the irony of an incomplete dirt section in a publication devoted to reading the dirt.  We acknowledge this fact, but [read more …]