MetaFilter posts tagged with farmers

Pimp my (board) game

arcticwoman — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 13:40:30 -0800

Geeky? Crafty? Got some time on your hands? Make your own boardgame pieces! Tutorials for making custom 3-d Settlers of Catan tiles (and gorgeous custom sets here, and here, although with no instructions,alas). Agricola more your style? Grab some polymer clay and get making resources, more resources, food, sheep, more sheep, boars, cattle, and (of course) farmers, farmers, farmers, farmers, farmers, and farmers. Don't forget fences, tiles, and a starting player piece. Lots more in the image gallery at BoardGameGeek.

Because city folk just don't get it

onlyconnect — Thu, 20 Jul 2006 13:42:37 -0800

Farmers across the US are increasingly isolated and work brutally long hours. It can be pretty hard to get a date when you work sixteen hour days and live in the middle of nowhere. Happily, now there is farmersonly.com, a dating site for "farmers, ranchers, country folks" and the people who want to love them. As one patron explains, "I don't want to baby-sit some city boy who is afraid of stepping in poop."

Save the South Central Farm!

usedwigs — Thu, 25 May 2006 06:30:49 -0800

Save the South Central Farm! (video) Sure, Daryl Hannah is a little nutty, but she got behind a good cause here, helping urban farmers in LA.

"I grew up on a farm and have been farming all my life. I believe the man upstairs looked over this farm and my family"

matteo — Tue, 14 Mar 2006 11:18:24 -0800

Black Farmers in America: video presentation (Quicktime) and photo essay by John Ficara

Forty Acres and a Mule

dgaicun — Fri, 24 Feb 2006 02:55:36 -0800

Twilight for Black Farms. An interesting topic at NPR. Photos. Audio. Essay.

get to know your farmer

김치 — Tue, 16 Aug 2005 12:17:02 -0800

This journal is intended to share my love and appreciation for the hard work farmers and their families do to create such beautiful places and beautiful food. Tana Butler visists small farms near Santa Cruz, CA, sharing her thoughts and photographs [ farms | farmers | markets | food ].

Monsanto vs. US Farmers

digaman — Sat, 15 Jan 2005 11:32:01 -0800

Farmer Homer McFarland is being sued for hundreds of thousands of dollars by the Monsanto corporation. His crime? Replanting his crops' own seed, as farmers have done for millennia, which violates the biotech giant's intellectual property rights, the company claims. Quietly, Monsanto's aggressive "seed police" have been suing farmers in 25 states for years, often settling out of court for huge sums, according to the Center for Food Safety's new report, Monsanto vs. US farmers [PDF link]. For more information, also see a new documentary called The Future of Food.

Party like it's 1892

nakedcodemonkey — Wed, 05 Jan 2005 17:14:29 -0800

Party like it's 1892! "Executive power and patronage have been used to corrupt our legislatures and defeat the will of the people, and plutocracy has thereby been enthroned upon the ruins of democracy."* In the late 1800s, the Populist Party, or People's Party, formed to merge the Farmers Alliance message of economic empowerment for growers with the Knights of Labor's movement to check the growing power and corrupt practices of big business (along with the Greenbacks Party critiques of monetary policy). With a strong base in the midwest and south, the party earned 9% of the 1892 popular vote, won the presidential electoral votes of four states (not to mention electing 10 congressmen, 5 senators, 3 governors, and 1,500 state legislators). However the party's power quickly faded as the Democratic Party co-opted much of the Populist platform while internal disputes culminated in the Populists placing the Dems' 1896 nominee at the head of their own ticket. Nevertheless, the populist movement's influence continued to be felt through various 20th century reforms including direct election of senators, presidential term limits, and abandonment of the gold standard.

Manure pit.

Keyser Soze — Fri, 09 Jul 2004 00:00:31 -0800

While attempting to climb out of the pit, the initial victim was overcome and fell to the bottom. The grandson then entered the pit to attempt a rescue. He too was overcome and collapsed. What produces Methance, Hydrogen Sulfide, Carbon Dioxide, and Ammonia at the same time, naturally? Your friendly center for disease control will be happy to explain.

Got Milk?

SandeepKrishnamurthy — Wed, 25 Feb 2004 08:01:44 -0800

Should dairy farmers be forced to contribute to the "Got Milk?" campaign? At this point, all dairy farmers contribute a per-unit fee to help fund the dairy marketing campaign. Is this just? A recent court decision does not think so. What do you think?

kickAAS!

Ufez Jones — Mon, 18 Aug 2003 07:32:20 -0800

Opining that third-world farmers "need a better deal", the Guardian has launched kickAAS, a blog to abolish all agricultural subsidies.

putzface_dickman — Fri, 08 Nov 2002 08:42:44 -0800

Bet the Farm. Friday Flash Fun! Do you have what it takes to run a modern farm? This online game pits your decision making against the forces of nature and the market in a simple, clever, educational flash game. I made $9.33 an hour! Who will be MetaFilter's master farmer?

vesper — Thu, 31 Oct 2002 17:45:49 -0800

This isn't about agriculture. Today, twelve prairie farmers have surrendered themselves to RCMP, rather than pay a fine for their illegal activities. Their mutual crime was choosing to export their wheat crop independently, rather than through the Canadian Wheat Board. Are state-run agricultural monopolies appropriate, especially when their authority is exerted unevenly throughout the country? Do you think the action taken by these farmers is justified?

insomnyuk — Mon, 12 Aug 2002 12:04:55 -0800

Zimbabwe dictator Robert Mugabe reiterates his threat to re-distribute land. "One farmer, one farm policy." What this fool doesn't realize (or perhaps more terribly, really does), is that this policy will cause a devastating famine, and bring about economic chaos: "Commercial agriculture is Zimbabwe’s biggest private employer, providing work — and, almost invariably, accommodation — for about 350,000 people. If Mr Mugabe carries out his threat to evict 2,900 white farmers, the workers and their families — a total of 1.2 million people — will join the ranks of the dispossessed..." Not only that, but his government has been terrorizing black farm hands and others thought to have opposed him in the recent "election." What can be done about Zimbabwe? The EU seems willing to help in case of famine, but there is no guarantee their money will get past Mugabe's pockets.

o2b — Wed, 30 Jan 2002 15:49:37 -0800

US Department of Agriculture under pressure to purchase surplus crops. One solution is to use the crops in school lunches, so they are testing things like sweet potato pancakes and hamburgers with prune puree in them (which makes them healthier by replacing some of the fat).

Carol Anne — Wed, 19 Dec 2001 06:31:15 -0800

Farm Subsidy Web Site Sows Discord: "Suppose you could go to a Web site, type in the names of co-workers--or maybe your boss--and find out how much money they make. Be honest--you would. And farmers, it seems, are no less curious than the rest of us. Since its public debut on Nov. 6, a new Internet-accessible database that ranks farmers by name according to the amount of federal subsidies they receive has recorded 10.1 million searches. The payments often constitute the bulk of farmers' income, and many of the hits have been by farmers eager to know how they compare with the guy growing corn or soybeans down the road." (Washington Post story, which C-SPAN pointed me to.)

tpoh.org — Mon, 24 Sep 2001 18:57:25 -0800

Taliban Magic Trick: $43m...now you see it, now you don't! "Afghan farmers are ready to swamp world markets with heroin amid signs that the Taleban has dropped its ban on opium growing."

Okay...can we please end the War on Plants now?

dagny — Sun, 26 Aug 2001 02:22:00 -0800

Mugabe's secret plan to evict all whites Robert Mugabe plans to expel all white farmers from Zimbabwe before next year's elections, according to a secret document obtained by The Telegraph. [...] Entitled Operation Give up and Leave, it reads: The operation should be thoroughly planned so that farmers are systematically harassed and mentally tortured and their farms destabilised until they give in and give up.

foist — Thu, 12 Jul 2001 15:30:48 -0800

Combining two freakish legends in one story ... Farm accident and self-surgery with uncoventional tools! All it needed was a little sex and it'd be CNN material fer sure. The highlight:

"He said he thinks he'll be able to continue farming, 'but not like I really want to.'"

gimli — Fri, 30 Mar 2001 15:19:09 -0800

Monsanto wins case against Canadian farmer. Percy Schmeiser, who has attained folk-hero status, was held liable for growing genetically modified canola without paying the royalty. The decision in a federal court in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, was a significant setback for farmers who fear they will be held liable if pollen from neighboring farms blows onto their fields, transmitting patented genes to their crops without their knowledge or consent.

da5id — Fri, 19 May 2000 09:20:07 -0800

Big Business vs. the little guy. After you read the story, go check out the Website of the pig farmer. The only question I have is: Can they find a Judge who doesn't golf?

jbushnell — Wed, 26 Apr 2000 19:30:57 -0800

Monsanto, the megacorp who brought you terminator seed technology, and who is known for suing farmers who harvest seeds from crops grown from patented Monsanto seeds, has had a busy couple of weeks. On April 4, they merged with pharmaceutical giant Upjohn to form meta-megacorp Pharmacia. That same day, in a spurt of overactivity, they decoded the genetic sequence of rice.

Uh oh.