THE OMEGA DAIRY ENERGY RESEARCH FACILITY
The time for clean, localized energy production is now, and the cows at Omega Dairy agree. They’re helping to fuel waste-to-energy systems, including manure bio-digesters and algae-to-biodiesel production. The results of Omega Energy research are public domain.

Click here to say “Moooo . . . ve over, Big Oil!”<br clear=“all”>

TAOS SUNDAY FARMER’S MARKET
A new Farmer’s Market has been organized in Taos! Get ready for a delicious summer season and a chance to support all the growers and producers in our community:

• Farmers
• Ranchers
• Market gardeners
• Resellers
• Others involved with agricultural pursuits

Click here to find out more, or get involved!<br clear=“all”>

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2001-2007

THE HOME GARDENS PROJECT
Wow! Look at that harvest! Tierra Lucero has built over 50 raised-bed gardens in Taos for disabled low income residents, elders, schools and other non-profit organizations.

Click here and get inspired to start a Home Gardens Project in your community!

Also, check out our Green Thumb Gardening Handbook for simple home growing instructions.
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TAOS PUEBLO AGRICULTURAL PROJECTS
The staff of Tierra Lucero have been honored to work with the Taos Pueblo on many agricultural projects over the years. The Taos Pueblo is the oldest continuously inhabited village in the Northern Hemisphere.

Click here for a description of past work, and how you can get involved with the Red Willow Sustainable Education Center.<br clear=“all”>

TIERRA LUCERO COMMUNITY FARM AND CSA
Our four season farm in El Prado provided countless people with the opportunity to experience the whole cycle of food production; from seed and soil to kitchen and plate!

Click here to find out why local agriculture is so important and why fresh, organic food JUST TASTES BETTER.
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PERMACULTURE EDUCATION
What is Permaculture? A sustainable design system, a philosophy, a way of life. One of the most beautiful Permaculture demonstration sites was the home of Tierra Lucero for many years.

Click here to learn more and enjoy photos of this hidden oasis.<br clear=“all”>

WORKSHOPS<br clear=“all”>

VOLUNTEER, SERVICE LEARNING and INTERNSHIP OPPORTUNITIES

Michael Pollan

In Defense of Food — by Michael Pollan
When is food really food, and when is it just “foodlike”? Is the nutrition industry making us sicker? If a packaged product says it’s “healthy” — should we put it back on the shelf?? These strange-but-true questions and more are answered by Michael Pollan in his latest book, a must-read for anyone interested in why our diet is killing us, and what we can do about it. The answer is simple; eat food.

The Omnivore’s Dilemma — by Michael Pollan
From the Michael Pollan website:
What should we have for dinner? The question has confronted us since man discovered fire, but according to Michael Pollan, how we answer it today, at the dawn of the twenty-first century, may well determine our very survival as a species.

Eric Schlosser

Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All American Meal — by Eric Schlosser
Fast food. It’s a multi-billion dollar American empire and a global menace. What is it doing to our health, our cultures, our economies? Award winning investigative journalist Eric Schlosser dives head first into the grease and toxic chemicals (and that yummy flavoring), emerging with the shocking truth about what most Americans — children in particular — are eating every day, and why the rest of the world has good reason to worry.

Click here to read an excerpt from Fast Food Nation.
Click here to read the book online.

Vandana Shiva

Earth Democracy: Justice, Sustainability and Peace
A leading voice in the struggle for global justice and sustainability, here Shiva describes what earth democracy could look like, outlining the bedrock principles for building living economies, living cultures, and living democracies. These ideals, which Shiva calls Earth Democracy, will serve as unifying points in our current movements, an urgent call to peace, and the basis for a just and sustainable future.

Click here to read the book online.

Wendell Berry

The Books of Wendell Berry
Naturalist, farmer, thinker, writer. Wendell Berry’s prolific output includes essays, poems and books, many of which contain the seeds of a gentle radicalism that can change the way see ourselves in the world. (See links to some of his essays below).

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ARTICLES

What is Food Sovereignty?
Food sovereignty is increasingly being promoted as an alternative framework to the narrower concept of food security, which mostly focuses on the technical problem of providing adequate nutrition. For instance, a food security agenda that simply provides surplus grain to hungry people would probably be strongly criticised by food sovereignty advocates as just another form of commodity dumping, facilitating corporate penetration of foreign markets, undermining local food production, and possibly leading to irreversible biotech contamination of indigenous crops with patented varieties. U.S. taxpayer subsidized exports of Bt corn to Mexico since the passage of NAFTA is a case in point.

The Long Emergency — by James Howard Kunstler
“What’s going to happen as we start running out of cheap gas to guzzle? A few weeks ago, the price of oil ratcheted above fifty-five dollars a barrel, which is about twenty dollars a barrel more than a year ago. The next day, the oil story was buried on page six of the New York Times business section. Apparently, the price of oil is not considered significant news, even when it goes up five bucks a barrel in the span of ten days. That same day, the stock market shot up more than a hundred points because, CNN said, government data showed no signs of inflation. Note to clueless nation: Call planet Earth.”

The Pleasures of Eating — by Wendell Berry
Many times, after I have finished a lecture on the decline of American farming and rural life, someone in the audience has asked, “What can city people do?”
“Eat responsibly,” I have usually answered. Of course, I have tried to explain what I mean by that, but afterwards I have invariably felt there was more to be said than I had been able to say. Now I would like to attempt a better explanation.”

Food Freedom vs. Food Slavery — by Vandana Shiva
Monsanto through the U.S. government, is trying desperately to reverse its failing fortunes by creating markets for its genetically engineered crops (GMOs) through coercion and corruption.

Global Problems, Local Solutions — by Wendell Berry
If governments fail to protect their citizens, then those citizens must protect themselves by developing local economies.

Instant-Mix Imperial Democracy: Buy One Get One Free — by Arundhati Roy
In these times when we have to race to keep abreast of the speed at which our freedoms are being snatched from us, and when few can afford the luxury of retreating from the streets for a while in order to return with an exquisite, fully formed political thesis replete with footnotes and references, what profound gift can I offer you tonight? ( *Ed Note:This is a terrific speech)

In Distrust of Movements — by Wendell Berry
I HAVE HAD WITH MY friend Wes Jackson a number of useful conversations about the necessity of getting out of movements — even movements that have seemed necessary and dear to us — when they have lapsed into self-righteousness and self-betrayal, as movements seem almost invariably to do. People in movements too readily learn to deny to others the rights and privileges they demand for themselves. They too easily become unable to mean their own language, as when a “peace movement” becomes violent. They often become too specialized, as if finally they cannot help taking refuge in the pinhole vision of the institutional intellectuals. They almost always fail to be radical enough, dealing finally in effects rather than causes. Or they deal with single issues or single solutions, as if to assure themselves that they will not be radical enough.

Profits for Justice — by Michael Shuman and Merrian Fuller
“Now that the religious right dominates all three branches of the federal government, one of the few avenues still open for creative progressive initiative is business. . . Gandhi understood that the key to freeing India was to transform his fellow citizens into economically productive agents by spinning their own cloth and taking their own salt from the sea. Martin Luther King Jr. implored African-Americans to form their own credit unions and community development corporations. The secret to being as radical as we want to be — and as radical as we need to be — is to finance the revolution ourselves.”

The Future of Food, the Future of Taos — by Victoria Linden and Bob Pedersen
“There is reason to believe that a time may be coming when we, you and I, will need to grow our own food. Or at least to live in a community where a significant quantity of food is being grown locally, and consumed locally. Why? Because there are real and present dangers to our national food supplies that are not being addressed by our government.”

Tierra Lucero was founded in 2001 in Taos, New Mexico, on the western slope of the magnificent Sangre de Cristo range of the Rocky Mountains.

Over the years our projects have evolved in line with our mission; to create energy sovereignty for our community through the local production of food and fuel. We seek to develop and demonstrate models that can be used by communities in the U.S. and around the world.

The problems our work address include:

• The decline of small scale sustainable farming and agricultural knowledge passed on to future generations

• The consequent decline of human health through lack of access to nutritious, organic foods

• Depletion of agriculturally viable soil through the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides

• Environmental pollution from large scale dairies and feedlots, including groundwater contamination and greenhouse gas production

• Lack of personal and community strength and autonomy due to dependence on unsustainable, environmentally damaging energy production

As the current energy, health and economic crises deepen, the world will be increasingly searching for answers. We want to be prepared to provide them by putting in the time and effort now — not when it’s too late to make peaceful transitions to the use of new technologies and economic systems. Additionally, we don’t want to rely on a top-down structure for the solutions we need. In other words, we don’t believe anyone is going to “save” us — we all need to create a path forward, toward a sane and sustainable future.

Co-Founders
Bob Pedersen and Victoria Linden

Executive Director
Bob Pedersen

Board of Directors

Victoria Linden

Ryan Rose

Chris Pieper

Shawn Duran

Tierra Lucero Supporters, Partners and Volunteers

The vision behind launching Mountain Rich Soils, LLC, in 2005 as a seperate for-profit entity was not only to provide the the highest quality soil products available, but also to secure personal financial support for the directors of Tierra Lucero, so that we can put all our non-profit funds directly into our programs.

When we read “Profits for Justice” by Michael Shuman and Merrian Fuller, we decided to take it one step further.

25% of profits from sales of Mountain Rich Soil’s organic soil products will directly support Tierra Lucero’s sustainable community agriculture projects.

How else does Mountain Rich Soils support a sustainable community?

• We offer a 30% discount on product to local commercial organic growers to further support sustainable agriculture.
• We use Bio-diesel, a renewable fuel, in our production and distribution equipment
• We pay a living wage to our employees
• We do not use toxic chemicals in any of our products

<br clear=“all”> LOOK FOR THE MOUNTAIN RICH SOILS LABEL IN REGIONAL GARDEN CENTERS!

Click here for a full list of Mountain Rich Soils products and services

Or, stop by our retail outlet in Taos and say hi!

*Asparagus *pole and bush beans *broccoli *cabbage *chiles *cucumbers *garlic *radishes *spinach *corn *summer and winter squash *beets *turnips *carrots *tomatoes *salad green *cooking greens *peas *onions *potatoes *zucchini *flowers and culinary and medicinal herbs.

Our gardens have incorporated a tree nursery with over 300 fruit, evergreen and deciduous trees.

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Modern sustainable methods include:
<ul compact type=“disc”> <li>Micro-irrigation for water conservation on all of our permanent no-till raised beds.</li> <li>Traditional flood irrigation in our “three sisters” (corn, beans and squash) field. </li> <li>Non-fossil fueled, solar heated greenhouse for four season growing.</li> <li>Non-chemical solutions to pest problems.</li> <li>Composting.</li> <li>Increasing use of traditional farming methods such as waffle gardens, and cultivation of native food varieties.</li>
</ul>

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Where does the produce go?
In 2003, we hosted a Community Supported Agriculture work-trade program. In 2004 we split our produce three ways: What we kept for ourselves, what we sold, and what we gave away. We supplied fresh produce to local free food programs such as Taos Feeds Taos and The Shared Table.

In 2005 our gardens were put on hold while we developed our Mountain Rich Soils business in Taos.

In 2006 we developed new community gardens at Apple Hill Farm on the Hondo/Seco Road, and at various other farm sites in in Arroyo Seco.

Why do we do this?
We believe that local food production is essential for every community. Cid’s, our health food store in Taos, estimates that only about 1% of their produce is grown locally. Most communities, including ours, have little more than two days worth of food on the supermarket shelves. Any serious disruption in our national food production, transportation or distribution system would be devastating.

Like many others, our rural community was long self-sufficient and able to provide its own food until very recently. It is not too late — but it may be soon — to restore our agricultural security and begin rebuilding agriculturally based community networks.

Restoring local organic growing is also the only way to effectively combat the dangers of industrial mega-farming, and the threat of untested genetically modified foods.

Last but not least — growing food is fun! Yes, it’s hard work, but the rewards are amazing. It’s a wonderful way to meet your neighbors, to get good exercise, and to experience the incredible satisfaction of eating your own gorgeous fruits and vegetables.

Have you ever tasted an organic sun-warmed, rain washed, yellow pear tomato fresh off the vine? Then you know what we’re talking about!

We encourage everyone to participate in community gardens. Every helping hand is worth a whole lot, especially during weeding season!

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Taos Food Not Bombs Needs These Items

Volunteers to cook and share vegan meals
Plates, bowls and cups
Storage space
Kitchen
Drivers
Cooks
Rice and beans
Produce

Call 505-776-3880 if you can help.