Community Supported Agriculture Investigation Group

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Comment by Pip Wonacott on June 7, 2011 at 12:21am

Any interest in/around Whakatane?

Comment by Toni on April 2, 2009 at 11:04pm

Hi there, did you get any further ? I have no land but am willing to be a purchaser and could see if anyone else I know would like to buy too. Have you spoken to any of the farmers in Canterbury? cheers Toni

Comment by Laura too on December 23, 2008 at 9:22am

Kama and Jo - have you started a trial crop yet? It would be good to compare notes on this, even though I realise that the soils and also the climate is very different further south.

Comment by Jo Duff on July 10, 2008 at 12:13pm

Hi Kama
We're just starting to think about growing grain too, probably on 1 or 2 acres only. We are looking into getting pigs to prepare the land first, and then go in on rotation after the grain comes out. Not dure what goes in after the grain over winter? We're looking at planting oaks and other pig forage trees (which ones?) around the perimeter for supplementary feed. The pigs will need somewhere else to go during the grain growing season. Not sure what they would need at that time. Still researching. Any ideas?

Comment by Kama Burwell on July 4, 2008 at 12:21pm

Hey fellas, just joined the group and am keen to explore these ideas .... I've a spare 3 acres that could grow a bit of grain.
I'm really interested in how to do practically that without tractors and plows.
Cheers, Kama
TT Inglewood

Comment by Richard Lee on July 3, 2008 at 10:19pm

Thanks to some great research by Betsy, Natalie and Rimu on the Google Group. It would appear that NZ exports more than we import of just about every food commodity except staple grains.

This has major implications for NZ considering the skyrocketing cost of rice and other staples. I believe that a market for home grown staples will emerge as the costs associated with global grain production continue to increase, making local production more viable.

By using the CSA model, I think this is an opportunity for Transition Towns to engage with the farming sector and develop sustainable city farm relationships whilst working to increase the production of basic staple foods within this country.