Some of the farms highlighted in the article show the diversity of goods you can invest in, including flowers, fruits and veggies, and even grass-fed beef:

The Golden Earthworm Organic Farm, on 80 acres on the North Fork of Long Island, grew from 10 members in 2000 to about 1,300 this year, according to Matthew Kurek, one of the owners. About half of the members live in Queens, he said, and the farm delivers their weekly shares to six different sites there, mainly churches and community centers, 26 weeks a year. The farm grows arugula, strawberries and sugar snap peas in the spring; watermelon, eggplant and tomatoes in the summer; and broccoli, potatoes and carrots in the fall.

At the Cattleana Ranch in Omro, Wis., Thomas and Susan Wrchota offer grass-fed meat and organic produce through a community-supported arrangement. They have 55 members, and a seven-month meat membership costs $715.

Don't expect to save money on these memberships, warns the article—the people who do it are looking for verifiable organic food, or want to help participate in sustainable agriculture, or just want to get their hands dirty.

Some shareholders said they found the arrangement a bargain compared to grocery shopping, while others considered it a worthwhile indulgence. Most agreed that the urge to buy and spend locally — to avoid the costs and environmental degradation that come with shipping and storage — was behind the decision to join. Shareholders can pick up their goods at the farm or at a store across the street.

"Shoppers Buy Slices of Farms " [New York Times]

RELATED
LocalHarvest
"Community Supported Agriculture" [USDA]
(Photo: Unhindered by Talent)

From the Charleston Daily Mail:

The Milton Middle School student jerked her hand out of the produce box to find a stinger in her finger and a tan, 1-inch-long creature still attached, William said.

The girl turned to her father and said something he at first didn't believe.

"She said a scorpion stung her on the finger," William, 36, said. "I didn't believe her at first, but then I saw it run underneath (the box)."

William said he immediately called his wife, Paula, who is a paramedic, and told her what had happened.

Paula drove to the store, picked up Megan and rushed her to nearby Cabell-Huntington Hospital.

William said before his wife had even arrived, Wal-Mart employees were on the scene and helped scoop up the exotic arachnid so it could be taken to the hospital for identification purposes.

William said he also peeled a sticker off a watermelon showing the shipment was from Mexico, which he hoped could help hospital workers treat his daughter.

The sting was harmless, but it caused a stir at the West Virginia hospital where Megan was treated. No one had ever seen a scorpion sting before. "They had to look it up on the Internet because it is so unusual in the area," Megan's father said. "Everybody came down to look at it." Walmart says they'll be checking that watermelon shipment for more scorpions— just in case.

12-year-old W.Va. girl gets scorpion bite in the produce department [Charleston Daily Mail]
(Photo: babasteve )

The internal emails are particularly weird. Back in January, two messages were sent from a single Hotmail account through Burger King's servers, one to a journalist and one to a pro-farm workers group. The emails criticized Burger King and offered to provide assistance and information about the restaurant company's plans. Were the Hotmail messages legit? Is there a traitor within Burger King HQ? Or was somebody trying to set up the farm workers group for future accusations of dirty tricks?

As expected, BK gives the standard corporate spin about the investigation without actually saying anything of substance:

"Senior management of the company had no knowledge of Grover's postings. These comments were not sanctioned by the company and they do not reflect the opinion of the company," Burger King spokeswoman Denise Wilson said in a statement. "We are conducting an internal investigation, and appropriate disciplinary action will be taken."

We'd like to think that means Grover will have to wear the Duke costume at the next corporate retreat, but more likely it just means he'll get a few sympathetic back slaps by his C-level buddies. Oh well—we'll always know you're a jackass, Grover.
 
"Burger King investigates e-mails slamming farmworker group" [Florida Times-Union]
(Photo: malias)

Here's the quick back story: tomato pickers in the U.S. are paid ridiculously low wages and treated badly, and some people are talking to fast food companies about increasing their pay by a penny per pound in order to help solve the problem. There was an agreement on the penny pay increase—McDonald's and Taco Bell were okay with it—but that fell through after Burger King joined up with some Florida tomato growers to claim that the low-wage claims were false and the workers were treated just fine.

It's gotten so bad that earlier this month, farm workers and their advocates testified before the Senate that claims of $12.50/hour wages were false, and that the industry has a history of worker abuse:

"It may not sound like much, but for the tomato pickers, it means the difference between poverty and decent wages," Kennedy said. He invoked Edward R. Murrow's landmark 1960 documentary "Harvest of Shame," which detailed the grim plight of migrant workers in Immokalee and elsewhere.
 
"Too little has changed over the years," he said. The fact that there's a need for hearings today shows "how far we have to go to provide genuine fairness and justice for this vulnerable workforce," he said.
 
"Do the math with me," Durbin said in his opening statement. Workers would have to fill and empty a 32-pound bucket of tomatoes, each worth some 45 cents, about every two minutes all day long to earn the $12.50, he said.
 
"Is that possible?" he asked. "I don't think it is."
 
Sanders also decried conditions in Immokalee, pointing out that when he visited in January, a 17-count indictment was handed down for enslavement of tomato workers.
 
"In America, in the year 2008, it is not acceptable that workers producing the food we eat should live in these conditions," he said.
 
Workers face seven-day work weeks, physical and psychological abuse, and debt bondage to their employers, said Lucas Benitez, co-founder of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers.

At one point, Burger King Vice President Stephen Grover told reporters he was concerned the coalition was pocketing the extra money. After several independent groups that verified the agreements dismissed the allegations, Burger King officials stopped repeating them.
 
But the allegations were repeated on blog posts, according to a story published Monday in The News-Press in Fort Myers. The paper traced those posts to the online user name of Grover's daughter. The girl, who is in middle school, later confirmed to the paper her father had used her online screen name.
 
In a post still available Monday on YouTube, an individual with the girl's screen name wrote: "The CIW is an attack organization lining the leaders pockets by attacking restaurant companies. They make up issues and collect money from dupes that believe their story...."
 
Messages left for Grover at work and at home by The Associated Press on Monday were not immediately returned.

His wife, Susan Grover, confirmed the screen name was their daughter's but said she didn't know if her husband had used it. She accused the News-Press reporter of not identifying herself as a journalist to their daughter.
 
Reporter Amy Bennett Williams said she did identify herself and told the girl she was taking notes. She also said she left all of her contact information, which the girl's mother later used to call and complain.

I thought that the long lines and the produce always being out of stock was bad enough, but then I noticed the small family of birds living at my local Safeway (Nutley St, Fairfax, VA). I wrote a letter to Safeway's corporate offices about a week ago to complain about the poor state of the store, but I guess that management really doesn't care enough to act quickly. My question is, if there's no birdbath inside Safeway, then where do the birds bathe?

We can't imagine a more perfect bird sanctuary than a supermarket: plenty to eat in produce, "rainfall" every day, and no predators. At least not at this Safeway.

(Photos: josecmelia)

From Marketplace:

Just after Thanksgiving, the Florida tomato pickers held a large rally outside Burger King headquarters in Miami.

Now it's surfaced that three weeks later, BK sent a note to suppliers saying it may no longer buy tomatoes from southwestern Florida.

Spokesperson Keva Silversmith says the letter is just a normal part of the company's planning.

Keva Silversmith: Our contingency planning is based on a variety of issues, a freeze being one of them, hurricane issues, which are always an issue, as well as a possible labor conflict.

A cent too far for Burger King [Marketplace]
(Photo:Morton Fox)

You know how it is, picking at knots for minutes, whittling down your fingernails, and then you get frustrated and say forget it, I'm going to eat some cookies from this nice, easy jar.

We're trying to eat more fruits and vegetables, so every little bit helps. We also enjoy reusing our bags and keeping our produce safe from the forces of rot. Watch the "DIY bag hack" video that we made and you'll see what we're talking about. — BEN POPKEN