Farm Story Follow-up: Climate and Land Use

Today's "day in the life of" feature on a local farm was pretty neat, and nice to read.

Front page today

The genre has its own demands, and newspaper space considerations impose still others. But there is so much more to say.

A story just last month, and a different farm

As we read about new protection for farm laborers, and also about the tremendous heat wave in Europe, the micro-scale of a single day on a farm misses a more historical macro perspective. 

The farm enjoyed new irrigation equipment, but there was no discussion of historical trends in water and temperature. Beyond irrigation technology, how has irrigation changed in the last few decades, and how is it likely to change? Farm records are a source of climate data! What about harvest dates? Everything is late this year because of our wet and cool spring, but that's a outlier and blip, not likely a trend.

SF Chronicle, front page today

LA Times, front page today, focus near and far

The farm is also a pretty easy bike ride out Sunnyview Road, not even midway between Salem and Silverton.

Farmers advocating for compact cities

This month the American Farmland Trust released a report on threats to farmland, and it was interesting to read calls for "compact" urban forms.

The farms here in the band between Cordon Road and Howell Prairie Road are not immediately imperiled, but they face long-term pressure from those who would like to expand the Urban Growth Boundary, or even just subdivide farms into smaller hobby farms for large-lot single homes and semi-rural life.

If we value our local food supply, we need to think about the ways single homes and NIMBYism impact farming. A story on close-in farms links easily to discussion of our housing, our land use, and our climate. 

Hopefully there will be more!