Farming

[Bonobo]

Farmers wait for harvest green light
27.07.2010 10:08

Despite recent floods and then a heatwave, Poland’s harvest yield will amount to a yearly average of 27-27.5 million tons.

Agriculture minister Marek Sawicki told Polish Radio that winter crops are in a better condition than previous years, although spring crops are in a worse state.

Sawicki said that not many crops have lodged, and that crops have not been destroyed by being beaten down flat due to heavy rain.

Minister Sawicki said that he hopes the weather will turn for the better and that the harvests will start soon.

Before the harvest there is always heated discussion as to the yield and the price for crops, Minister Sawicki told Polish Radio, adding that farmers want to sell their old grain stores, and flour producers deliberate either buying up the crop, or wait for this year’s yield.

Grain prices are unlikely to go up this year, Sawicki said, following a global tendency that may be reflected in the Polish market.

[Bonobo]

EU subisidies for Polish farmers’ exotic crops
15.10.2010 16:08

Polish farmers have started cultivating exotic crops in order to coax more subsidies from the EU.

Walnuts and lentils, which do not yield a good crop in Poland’s climate, wild cherries and even goldenrod, which in Poland is widely regarded as a weed, have recently become popular crops in Poland.

“Polish farmers grow exotic crops in order to coax subsidies from the European Union,” claims Professor Jozef Tyburski from the University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn.

When Poland entered the EU in 2004, each farmer who planted walnuts in at least one hectare of land and registered the conversion of his farm to organic production had a chance to receive EU subsidies.

For the first three years after seeding, a farmer received 1,600 zloty (409 euro) per hectare and in the next two years 1,540 zloty (394 euro) per hectare. Farmers who started growing walnuts later received 800 zloty (205 euro), 650 zloty (166 euro) or 160 zloty (41 euro) subsidies per hectare. In 2009, new farmers were not admitted to the programme.

The largest walnut plantations, up to 300 hectares, are situated in the northern regions of Warmia and Mazury and Western Pomerania, where conditions for cultivating the subtle plant are poor.

According to the EU programme, however, a farmer who grows walnuts is not obliged to yield any crops. Five years after seeding a farmer can plow the field without losing EU subsidies. Many Polish farmers decided to use the loophole and wheedle EU subsidies on the pretext of growing organic plants.

[valpomike]

Are they growing Mexican weed yet? Pot, or Mary Jane ? I am sure, someplace in Poland they are. That is Mexico's large cash crop.

Mike

[Bonobo]

Oct 16, 2010 2:01:09 GMT 1 valpomike said:

Are they growing Mexican weed yet? Pot, or Mary Jane ? I am sure, someplace in Poland they are. That is Mexico's large cash crop.
Mike

Yes, they grow marijuana in basement greenhouses.

But the police are quite effective in tracking down illegal plantations. Every month I can read about a police raid and detention of "farmers."

[uncltim]

I am a bit suprised at a subsidy to grow Walnuts. I have planted afew and they don't produce fruit for about fifty years. Maybe I am mis-reading something.

[Bonobo]

Oct 17, 2010 3:12:42 GMT 1 uncltim said:

I am a bit suprised at a subsidy to grow Walnuts. I have planted afew and they don't produce fruit for about fifty years. Maybe I am mis-reading something.

The problem is that EU doesn`t sponsor cropping.

It sponsors planting and growing.

After a few years you can cut down all saplings you planted and still keep the dotation.

You are right, you are misreading sth. So am I.

[tufta]

Oct 18, 2010 21:46:57 GMT 1 Bonobo said:

Oct 17, 2010 3:12:42 GMT 1 uncltim said:

I am a bit suprised at a subsidy to grow Walnuts. I have planted afew and they don't produce fruit for about fifty years. Maybe I am mis-reading something.

The problem is that EU doesn`t sponsor cropping.

It sponsors planting and growing.

After a few years you can cut down all saplings you planted and still keep the dotation.

You are right, you are misreading sth. So am I.

What is meant by walnut? Is it something like this

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juglans_regia

I have planted one (1) in the garden - it was around 1.2 meters high. After five years it started to gives the nuts. And it actually grows on the clearing in the forest (but a lot of garden soil was put in the tree's place before planting). Maybe there are different subspecies?

[uncltim]

I was thinking this en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juglans_nigra

[tufta]

This explains the differenc. Thanks

[Bonobo]

Organic Farming in Poland
Agnes Sekowski | 24th November 2010

An interview with organic farmers Jadwiga Łopata and Sir Julian Rose

In October, the Krakow Post had an opportunity to talk to the founders of the International Coalition to Protect the Polish Countryside (ICPPC), Jadwiga Łopata and Sir Julian Rose (of the UK), about the prospects and impediments to small family organic farming in Poland.

Both Jadwiga and Julian have a long history of promoting ecotourism and ecological lifestyles. When Sir Julian Rose received his organic farming certification in 1975, he was only the seventh licensed organic farmer in the UK. Jadwiga Łopata’s long-time efforts were most notably recognized in 2002, when she won the Goldman Prize, which is the equivalent of the Nobel Prize for environmentalists.

This past weekend (November 20-22), the ICPPC celebrated its 10-year anniversary as an NGO organization working to protect the “wild nature, beautiful landscapes, well-preserved cultural traditions, and many good farmers who love their work” in the Polish countryside. The organisation is based at the Ekocentre ICPPC complex in Stryszów in the Małopolska region, where on two hectares of land, they have a small farm and a straw-bale building that runs off solar energy and a passive energy greenhouse in an effort to popularize such ecological technologies and lifestyles.

Krakow Post: What advice would you give to small family farmers in Poland?

Julian Rose: We need to think small scale, not be too ambitious about selling food on the global market, but rather as close as possible to the place where it was produced… so selling from a farm directly to the consumer, bypassing the middle man [ie. supermarkets].

Jadwiga Łopata: My advice to Polish farmers: just keep doing what you’re doing. Maybe it’s a difficult time, but with more and more people becoming aware and wanting quality food, we just have to be strong and keep going. We are telling them to protect their rights, their culture, and their tradition to be able to produce good food. All this is based on the wisdom of generations. The new regulations, the new ways of production have only been around 20-60 years maximum, while we are relying on wisdom from generations and generations. It is simply about protecting the people, their way of production, their rights, what they want to eat, and pass it on to their children afterwards.

KP: What kinds of mechanisms can help organic farming in Poland?

JŁ: Of course, community-supported agriculture (CSA) boxes and ecotourism are good, but they have to be a government policy to be able to work on a broader scale. We as an NGO can organise ourselves to a certain level and on a small scale. We’ve already proven this is working… its very economical, good for the environment, good for our culture. It just needs to be taken as a policy for government, and if government is not doing this, hopefully the masses will just take over. Regulations are currently supporting big enterprises and corporations, and we need to change this approach, to make regulations which will support small-scale family farming, which will benefit our society in these many aspects.

KP: What are the current impediments to selling local produce in town?

JR: The biggest impediment is that the world we live in is run by a supermarket, and people think it’s modern and clever and fashionable to buy the cheapest food available, no matter the quality or how far it travelled, or how little the farmer was paid who produced it. So our biggest problem is probably a lack of consumer awareness of how food is produced, how to eat it in its most optimal condition (meaning when it is fresh, and not the opposite, as in the supermarkets).

JŁ: What is on the plate determines the kind of agriculture… in this way, you could say we, as consumers, farm three times a day. We consumers have big power, if we decide we want to eat local quality food, this is what would be in the shops.

KP: What are the successes the ICPPC has achieved in Poland?

JR: We are currently engaged in a mighty battle to keep genetically modified organisms (GMO) out of Poland… we’ve spent most of the last six years actually trying to stop these genetic modifications from getting into Poland. The biggest success has been the way the local people have responded to our efforts, appealing to local authorities and regional authorities … eventually on a national level to create an awareness that led [then-President Lech] Kaczyński to actually ban GM food imports in Poland back in 2006. Of course, the situation is deteriorating again under the current government and they’re playing with the idea of opening Poland up again to commercial GMO production. So we are called on again to raise awareness, to stop it.

JŁ: To specify, the present government is working on a regulation called the GMO Act, to open Poland to commercial GMO planting. If such actions and appeals had not been taken, this legislation would have probably already passed. But so far, it’s still hanging on and not yet passed. It went to a reading before the Parliament and then to a public reading where 98 percent of the people there, including scientists, farmers, different enterprise representatives, spoke out against the regulation. So the government has hushed up… for now.

People are getting more aware and they show this by their activities. For example, the GMO-free picnic took place recently in 120 different sites all over Poland, organised by local people and local organisations, small and big, in cities and on farms, whether it was an actual picnic or a symbolic happening, thousands of people were involved. The same with the Feast for GMO-free Potatoes, which happened two weeks ago. People showed that they like good quality traditional Polish food.

KP: Tell us about the size of the farms you operate.

JŁ: My farm [in Stryszów] is two hectares. It is a self-sufficient farm, meaning it covers about 60 percent of our food needs, and we also give produce to friends and people who are visiting.

JR: My farm in England is much larger, about 400 ha, though half is forestry. This farm was converted to organic in 1975, and according to my license, I was the seventh organic farmer in England at the time. Today, organic food has taken a bit of a detour by going into the supermarkets, instead of finding its way to consumers locally.

JŁ: What’s interesting is we recently went to a workshop in England on the renaissance of agriculture. What was interesting for me was what the English people wanted to see as agriculture - and it was exactly where Poland is now, with the traditional and small-scale farming.

JR: Yes, that’s true. It’s quite amazing actually. My job here is to say to Polish people, try to avoid following what we did - and that’s difficult for Polish people, as they seem to think the grass is much greener on the other side. Essentially the message is going back to one’s roots.

KP: You mention in your workshops that the price of organic food approximates the typical supermarket price, can you explain this?

JR: If you buy from the farmer, you can pay practically the same price of the typical food in a supermarket, but receive much better quality. Most farmers look for a fair price, it’s the middle man who looks to make the profit.
JŁ: If you buy on the farm, sometimes the price is very cheap, almost too cheap… farmers know the situation, they don’t want to make big money, just get a fair price.

[uncltim]

A very sensible approach. I practice buying locally whenever possible.

[valpomike]

Farm market is a great thing, we use them whenever we can, fresh stuff, great price.

Mike

[Bonobo]

Feb 3, 2011 9:37:28 GMT 1 Bonobo said:

Jan 31, 2011 15:55:38 GMT 1 valpomike said:

I myself find that the people of Poland, living in Poland age better than those, from Poland who now live in the USA, most off the women, why is this? Those in Poland dress better, act better, and look younger, why is this? Could it be the weather, the food, the life style, or just that living in America changes all for them? Those from Poland, living in America act like they just don't care, and most of all the women, act they want to control things for the men. Why is this?
What do you think on this?
I hope to get answers from both Poland and here in the USA.
My research is from Chicago area, where many came to from Poland, and with those who just got here, and many who have been here for years.

Mike

First explanation.

In Poland we have managed to maintain our healthy life style, especially Polish food.
In America Poles eat too much fast food as they imagine it will make them more American sooner.

Special Section: Polska.... tastes good! Polish Food: Tasty and Healthy
Article's tools:

By Marek Sawicki, PhD, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development

For several years consumers in Europe have been going back to food produced in traditional ways. The same is happening in Poland. Poles above all want to buy Polish food. This was true before Poland joined the European Union in 2004 and the trend is continuing after the EU’s internal borders opened, with the free movement of goods and services now standard.

It is worth noting that even foreign retail chains operating in Poland advertise the foodstuffs they offer as produced in Poland or with the use of Polish products. The aim is to provide the consumer with an additional guarantee of quality—that is, excellent taste and food safety.

“Healthy food” is a frequently used term. But foodstuffs should not be termed “healthy” or “unhealthy” since no food product admitted to trade can be harmful. The law prevents that. The notion “healthy food” is often overused for marketing purposes, in order to boost sales. So what determines the exceptional value and market success of Polish foodstuffs?
The quality, including the excellent taste and culinary value of Polish foodstuffs are appreciated by Polish buyers as well as large numbers of foreign customers. This is demonstrated by the success of the Polish food sector at trade fairs, as well as by the prestigious awards Polish producers receive on other occasions.

At any trade fair or exhibition involving Polish participants, Polish stands feature information on quality Polish food distinguished by the Try Fine Food (Poznaj Dobrą Żywność) label, and organic, traditional and regional products.

The constantly growing exports of Polish agricultural produce prove that Europe and other international markets are increasingly interested in Polish foodstuffs. Poland is promoting its products more and more dynamically, expanding to new markets. For example, annual exports of Polish poultry have reached a record 400,000 metric tons. We hope that young Polish oat-fed geese, produced in line with EU and the Polish National Poultry Council regulations, will soon be as popular as American turkey.

Poland is also a producer of other types of meat. Despite the widespread opinion that red meat has a lower nutritional value, which has led to a significant drop in the consumption of pork or beef products, producers decided to prove that these products can be of high quality, tasty and easy to cook.

In October 2008 Poland adopted the Quality Meat Program (QMP) as the national food quality system that meets the conditions for granting support within the Rural Development Program 2007-2013. The QMP is the first recognized system in the meat industry, the second national system developed by business associations and the third national food quality system, after “Integrated Production” and “Quality and Tradition.”

Owing to the new standards, it is easier to recognize the QMP logo, and consumers may rest assured that all the products labeled this way meet strict quality criteria and are easily identified.

The system of high quality beef production (QMP) was developed and implemented by the Polish Association of Beef Cattle Breeders and Producers in collaboration with researchers from the Warsaw University of Life Sciences (SGGW) and the University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn. The QMP system starts from the pen and production standards apply to cattle, feed, transport and meat.


Beef obtained from Polish cattle is of high quality and its promotion and proper labeling will ensure competitive prices for Polish producers. In September 2010 the Agricultural Market Agency signed a contract with the Polish Meat Association for running an information campaign on pork meat produced in line with the national Pork Quality System (PQS). The Polish Pig Breeders’ and Producers’ Association POLSUS is a partner for the system. Domestic funds have been assigned to this purpose, including from the Pork Meat Promotion Fund, as well as EU financial support. Participants in the integrated high quality pork meat production system have undertaken to produce meat of exceptional taste and culinary and processing value. The system guarantees supervision over the entire production process, from the farm to the final product.

Meat bearing the PQS label is intended for demanding customers. High quality foodstuffs are distinguished by the Try Fine Food label. The label is intended to help customers choose the products that are best suited to them. At the same time, Poland is meeting an EU goal in terms of food production—expanding the pool of high quality products and diversity of food products on the Common Market.

The success of Polish producers was determined by the skillful combination of traditional tastes resulting from the rich Polish culinary tradition with top quality achieved with the use of state-of-the-art technology. The market itself forces manufacturers to respect tradition. Poles know what is good and look for good, healthy foodstuffs produced using traditional recipes. And Polish producers have to meet consumer expectations if they want to stay on the market and develop their business. That is why on the one hand, Polish producers have been investing intensely in the latest food processing technology and, on the other, they are particularly careful not to lose sight of the exceptional value of Polish food in the era of technological modernization. It is worth noting that owing to modernization efforts in meat and milk processing plants before Poland’s EU accession, these businesses are now among the most advanced in Europe and the world.

The recognition and confirmation of the exceptional value of Polish foodstuffs is demonstrated by the fact that Poland has registered 23 products in the EU system of protected designation of origin, protected geographical indication and traditional speciality guaranteed. Thirteen more Polish products are awaiting registration by the European Commission.

Organic farming is yet another sector of the Polish agrifood industry that is steadily gaining importance. These products are aimed at the growing number of consumers who seek top quality products produced using methods that significantly reduce the industry’s negative impact on the environment. Owing to a major effort by numerous bodies and to financial support from the domestic and EU budgets, the organic product sector has developed significantly. When Poland joined the EU in 2004, it had fewer than 4,000 accredited organic producers. That number had grown to some 20,000 by the end of 2010.

It is worth noting that, apart from accredited organic farms, Poland has many small farms that do not use industrial-scale technology or apply chemical agents intensively. That also impacts on the quality of Polish foodstuffs.

The work of Polish food market supervising bodies also contributes to the reputation of Polish food.

In order to make better use of the experience gained by these services and of their research facilities, we plan to consolidate them this year. The move will involve the Agricultural and Food Quality Inspectorate, the Inspectorate of Plant Health and Seed Protection and the Main Veterinary Inspectorate. The emerging Food Safety and Veterinary Inspectorate will be a single, more efficient and effective service ensuring top food safety standards.




Oscypek cheese barbecued/grilled with vegetables
Ingredients:
250 g oscypek cheese, 1 tomato, 1 onion, 1 tbsp black olives, fresh basil

Cut oscypek into 6 thick slices. Dice the tomato, finely chop the onion. Finely chop the olives. Line the barbecue grate with tin foil, shiny side up. Lay down the oscypek slices, sprinkle with the diced vegetables, cover with a second piece of tin foil. Barbecue/grill for 8-10 minutes. Sprinkle with fresh basil before serving.


Placki ziemniaczane / Potato pancakes
Ingredients:
500 g potatoes, 1 egg, 1 tbsp flour, 1 onion, 4 tbsp milk, salt, pepper, fat for frying

Grate the washed and peeled potatoes, pour off the liquid and squeeze the pulp through a piece of linen. To the pulp, add the egg, flour, the floury part from the bottom of the potato liquid, the grated onion and the milk; season with salt and pepper and mix well. Heat fat in a frying pan, spoon the batter into the pan and press down as flat as possible. Fry on both sides until golden brown; the pancakes should be crisp.


Zupa fasolowa / Bean soup
Ingredients:
250 g dried beans (or a can of beans for those who hate wasting time in the kitchen), 3 carrots, 1 parsnip, 4-5 potatoes, 1 vegetable stock cube, 150 g smoked bacon, 2 onions, butter for frying, marjoram, salt, pepper, garlic

Preparation depends on the kind of beans you use. If using beans from a can, just add them 10 minutes before the end of cooking. If using dried beans, the recipe goes like this: rinse the beans, cover with cold water, leave overnight. Strain, cover with fresh water, add vegetable stock cube and cook until tender (quite a long time, unfortunately). Slice carrots and parsnip, dice potatoes. Add to the beans when they are almost tender. Fry chopped onion in butter; add diced bacon and fry until golden brown, add both to soup. When the vegetables and beans are tender, season generously with marjoram, add salt and pepper to taste. Crushed garlic is also recommended.

Zrazy wołowe / Beef roulades
Ingredients:
600 g lean beef, 50 g gherkins, 2 tbsp mustard, 300 g onion, salt and pepper to taste, 2 tbsp chopped sage, parsley and basil

Cut away from the meat any membranes or sinews, wash, pat dry and slice. Flatten the slices by pounding with a meat mallet. Setting one onion aside, cut the onions in half and slice. Chop the last onion very finely with the gherkins, mix with the mustard, season with salt and pepper. Spread the mixture evenly on each slice of meat, roll up tightly, pin together with toothpicks or tie with cotton thread (not an essential step). Brown in a non-stick frying pan, then transfer to a pot. Add the onion and a little water, sprinkle with salt and pepper. Stew in the covered pot on low heat, adding boiling water if necessary. Taste the gravy and add salt and pepper if necessary. Place on a platter, pouring the gravy over the meat and sprinkling with the chopped herbs; serve with boiled potatoes (1-2 per person) and a salad.

[justine26]

I think that farming is extremely difficult and it's really hard work. Crops are dependent on so many things: weather conditions, market demands, wealth of the customers and many more. Every year is different and you cannot foresee anything. The pity is that farmers receive so little help from the state.