NESAWG
FARM BILL UPDATE:
Farm bill in final stages – end in sight
FOOD FOR THOUGHT:
Environmental cost of shipping groceries around the world
NEWS:
Maryland farms share ideas on staying productive
Out of the yard and onto the fork
Costs killing Maine farmers
Jersey seafood initiative expanded
Buzz grows over beekeeping
Delaware law students stand up for laying hens’ freedom
EVENTS:
5/10: Organic Orcharding 101 with Michael Phillips, Unity, ME
6/1-3: Agriculture and the Environment: Achieving Balance, Harrisburg, PA
6/4: Small Ruminant Management, Sterling, MA
6/6: Small Ruminant Production Tour, Bedford County, PA
6/7: The Role of the Horse in the Farm Organism, Chestnut Ridge, NY
6/8-8/15: Vermont Sustainable Agriculture Semester, Craftsbury Common, VT
6/9: Construction of Portable Animal Shelters for Small Ruminants, Cumberland County, PA
6/10-14: International Symposium on Society and Resource Management, Burlington, VT
6/21: Transitioning to Organic Dairy, Hardwick, MA
6/22: Connecticut NOFA Organic Farms Tour, Fairfield County, CT
OPPORTUNITIES:
Food and Society Policy Fellowship call for applications
Marketing and Communications Manager, Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture, Pocantico Hills, NY
Director of Development, Glynwood Center, Cold Spring, NY
Executive Director, Waltham Fields Community Farm, Waltham, MA
Multiple Job Openings, The Food Trust, Philadelphia, PA
Multiple Job Openings, Community Food Resource Center, New York, NY
Connecticut Farm Reinvestment Grant Program
Food and Agricultural Sciences National Needs Graduate and Postgraduate Fellowship Grants Program
NRI: Agricultural Prosperity for Small & Medium Sized Farms
Food and Nutrition Research Program 2008 Competitive Grants and Cooperative Agreement Program
Organic Research and Education Grants
*******************
FARM BILL UPDATE
*******************
Farm Bill in Final Stages – End in Sight
(Sustainable Agriculture Coalition’s Weekly Update) – After just one public farm bill conferee meeting last week on Tuesday, the primary action went back behind closed doors and appeared by last week’s end to be close to final resolution. In the meantime, Congress approved and the President signed another one week extension of the current farm bill. Private meetings last week settled most of the farm bill funding issues. A few items remain open, perhaps most significantly the Adjusted Gross Income commodity program eligibility test. With some deal making still in process, we would caution that this is preliminary (or as they say in Congress, nothing is final until everything is final), but the pronouncements from yesterday and today include:
-The $10 billion increase in total net farm bill spending agreed to in principle weeks and weeks ago will be paid for through custom user fees and, rumor has it, the White House has signed off on that offset.
-The Senate ag tax break/ag tax reform package will be included in the final bill, but at $1.4 billion total, $1 billion less than the Senate included in its offer from last week (more below). The tax reforms will pay for the new tax breaks.
-The increase in funding for nutrition (primarily though not only food stamps) will increase from $9.5 billion to $10.36 billion.
-There will be a further cut in commodity program spending of slightly more than $1 billion, with the details still being negotiated. Part of the cut will be a $400 million nick to direct payments ($400 million out of $26 billion baseline) and part will be from a $250 million reduction to the so-called permanent disaster fund, reducing it from the $4.1 billion level in the last Senate offer.
Expectations are that Members might meet as early as today to try to wrap up the bill and vote it out of conference. Any issues that are not resolved by the staff, however, will have to come before the Members this week for a vote. For the first time, there are widespread rumors and expectations that the White House will sign the emerging bill, though they have not said that directly. Read the full update online here: http://files.e2ma.net/13831/assets/docs/weekly_update_current.doc
*******************
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
*******************
Environmental Cost of Shipping Groceries Around the World
(New York Times) – Cod caught off Norway is shipped to China to be turned into filets, then shipped back to Norway for sale. Argentine lemons fill supermarket shelves on the Citrus Coast of Spain, as local lemons rot on the ground. Half of Europe’s peas are grown and packaged in Kenya. The Sanifrutta company in Italy ships kiwis from its plant in Costigliore Saluzzo, traveling by sea in refrigerated containers. In the United States, FreshDirect proclaims kiwi season has expanded to “All year!” now that Italy has become the world’s leading supplier of New Zealand’s national fruit, taking over in the Southern Hemisphere’s winter. Food has moved around the world since Europeans brought tea from China, but never at the speed or in the amounts it has over the last few years. Consumers in not only the richest nations but, increasingly, the developing world expect food whenever they crave it, with no concession to season or geography. Increasingly efficient global transport networks make it practical to bring food before it spoils from distant places where labor costs are lower. And the penetration of mega-markets in nations from China to Mexico with supply and distribution chains that gird the globe — like Wal-Mart, Carrefour and Tesco — has accelerated the trend. But the movable feast comes at a cost: pollution — especially carbon dioxide, the main global warming gas — from transporting the food. Full article here: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/26/business/worldbusiness/26food.html
*******************
NEWS
*******************
Maryland farms share ideas on staying productive
(Baltimore Sun) – When Bobby Prigel took over his family’s Glen Arm dairy farm some years back, he shooed the cows out of the barn, cut his milk production by about 30 percent and planted grass on the cornfields. Prigel is considered a leader in Maryland among dairy farmers who have turned to what people in the industry call “grazers.” His cows feed on grass out in the pasture instead of being kept in barns and fed a diet of grain. He says that turning back the pages of history to an earlier form of dairy farming has boosted his profits and reduced his workload. Prigel will share his experiences with other farmers as part of an educational field day series offered by Future Harvest — Chesapeake Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture. This is the fourth year that the nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting profitable and sustainable food and farming systems in the Chesapeake Bay region has held a series of workshops. Full article here: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/harford/bal-ha.farm27apr27,0,5929479.story
Out of the Yard and Onto the Fork
(New York Times) – MY peas are coming up — sugar snaps and snow peas — and the seeds I scattered out in my cold frame a month ago are now a blanket of baby greens. A few mornings ago, while weeding, I popped a tiny bok choy seedling into my mouth and let its peppery, sweet flavor explode on my tongue. It’s hard to describe the flavor of something so alive, hardly 10 seconds out of the earth. I want to say that it tastes green, but a grass blade does not taste like bok choy. It’s something you have to experience yourself, after doing something as simple as planting basil in a window box, or salad greens in one big pot and a no-fail cherry tomato plant in another. Kitchen gardens are as old as the first hunter-gatherers who decided to settle down and watch the seeds grow. Walled medieval gardens protected carefully tended herbs, greens and fruit trees from marauders, both human and animal. The American colonists planted gardens as soon as they could, sowing seeds brought from Europe. Call them survivor gardens. Now, they are being discovered by a new generation of people who worry about just what is in that bag of spinach and how much fuel was consumed to grow it and to fly it a thousand miles. Full article here: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/17/garden/17garden.html
Costs killing Maine farmers
(Bangor Daily News) – Dairy farmer Brian Call doesn’t have a fancy milking parlor. He hand-carries the portable milking machine to each of his 30 cows, wiping their teats with pages ripped from an old telephone book. “Another way to save money,” he comments. It’s backbreaking work and it never stops. Call’s barn is as it was when his grandfather used it: wooden stanchions, no automatic waste gutters, no computer chips in his cow’s ears. This is farming the way it has been done for generations on the Call farm — since 1820 — and, at least for Brian Call and his wife, Joan Gibson, it appears to be headed for extinction. “The saturation point has been reached,” Gibson said this week. “The enormous prices now for fuel and fertilizer and grain are just going to push family farms over the horizon, and quickly. America won’t even hear the thud.” Picture this, Gibson said. “I stand in a vestibule. On one side is a huge, growing demand for local organic goods, swelled by millions of consumers, yearning and beckoning for affordable good food. On the other side is a gaunt weary farmer, surrounded by decaying buildings, run-down land, another long day of drudgery and the only hope of compensation the sale of his heritage: his land, as he bites his arm off to feed himself. This is the reality of dairy farming in Maine. It’s brutal.” Full article here: http://www.bangornews.com/news/t/news.aspx?articleid=163463&zoneid=500
Jersey Seafood initiative expanded
(Gannett New Jersey) – Last week’s launch of an expanded branding and marketing campaign for New Jersey seafood underlines a close relationship between the commercial fishing industry and the state Department of Agriculture — a partnership that fishermen see threatened by budget turmoil in Trenton. “We may not plant seeds, but we do harvest,” said James Lovgren of the Fishermen’s Dock Cooperative here, a group that was instrumental in bringing fishermen together with the Agriculture Department and New Jersey Farm Bureau nearly 30 years ago. So captains are alarmed at cost-cutting proposals to shutter the department and transfer missions to the Department of Environmental Protection. Since the 1980s, fishermen have in fact argued for giving agriculture officials jurisdiction over the $146 million seafood industry, said fisherman Jimmy Harry, a participant in those early discussions. While Gov. Jon S. Corzine has recently acknowledged that the farm bureaucracy probably won’t be dismantled, Harry and Lovgren say this could be a good time to renew their suggestion to transfer more fishing regulation into the agriculture department. Full article here: http://www.thedailyjournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080428/NEWS01/804280337/1002/NEWS01
Buzz grows over beekeeping
(Boston Globe) – All morning one cool, drizzly April Sunday, cars pull up to the Reseska Apiaries warehouse in Holliston – one driven by an attorney, one carrying a plumber and a machinist, another a yoga studio owner. The occasion is the arrival by truck of 270 three-pound boxes of honeybees from Georgia, all ready for pick-up by a diverse and burgeoning cadre of backyard beekeepers. “When I signed up for bee school, I thought there would be six people,” says Kristina Ward, a 38-year-old landscape designer from Norfolk. “It turned out there’s a whole subculture.” Subculture indeed. Ward is among almost four dozen aspiring beekeepers who recently completed the Norfolk County Beekeepers Association introductory “bee school,” up from 17 two years ago. Full article here: http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/articles/2008/04/28/buzz_grows_over_beekeeping/
Delaware law students stand up for laying hens’ freedom
(The News Journal) – Some lawyers judge success by how many people they’ve kept out of the lockup. Apparently, that now applies to chickens as well. Thanks to a consciousness-raising campaign by budding attorneys, Widener Law school has joined a rising number of schools in banning eggs laid by caged chickens from its dining halls. It might not be quite like winning a case in court, but to the students who rallied to the caged chickens’ cause, it feels good nonetheless. “It’s actually starting to pick up a lot of steam,” Widener student Andrew Fabian, who helped lead the cage-free campaign by the Widener Student Animal Legal Defense Fund, said of the issue on campus. In the world of animal rights, the realm of law is increasingly coming to bear, even outside the leafy expanse of Widener’s Concord Pike campus. In Widener’s case, all it took was a chat with the dining hall’s manager and a few caged-chicken videos to achieve their aim — but such efforts do stand a chance of someday ending up in the nation’s courts. “It’s mushrooming and snowballing all the time,” said Widener’s Assistant Dean Verne R. Smith, who teaches a course on animal law. “It’s pretty exciting to be in.” Full article here: http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080425/BUSINESS/804250325/1003
*******************
EVENTS
*******************
5/10
Organic Orcharding 101 with Michael Phillips, Unity, ME
MOFGA offers this full-day workshop as part of its Organic Orcharding series for 2008. The author of The Apple Grower will teach about everything under the sun as concerns the apple tree. Come learn about pruning, pest dynamics, soil health, good varieties, and apple pleasures. For more info, see: http://www.mofga.org/Programs/Events/OrganicOrchardingClasses/tabid/300/Default.aspx
6/1-3
Agriculture and the Environment: Achieving Balance, Harrisburg, PA
Join the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences and leaders from throughout Pennsylvania’s agricultural and environmental community for a conference designed to tap the collective wisdom in identifying opportunities for improving the state’s water quality. This two-day conference will bring together the state’s foremost experts to identify opportunities and solutions for better stewardship of the land and waters. For more info, see: http://guest.cvent.com/EVENTS/Info/Summary.aspx?e=4f1e1583-849f-43ef-b3d2-430085b75427
6/4
Small Ruminant Management, Sterling, MA
NOFA/Mass, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and the University of Massachusetts Extension have organized a series of Grazing Workshops as a continuing education resource for Massachusetts farmers. Topics at each event will vary, but will include pasture management, organic transition and herd health, forage species, soil fertility, fencing and water systems, and summer and winter grazing. Pasture walks will take place from 10:00 – 1:00. For more info, see: http://www.umass.edu/cdl/MassGrass.html
6/6
Small Ruminant Production Tour, Bedford County, PA
Join PA-Women’s Ag Network representative Melanie Barkley for a tour of two Bedford County farms that are producing meat goats and sheep. Melanie will guide a tour of the farms and discuss pasture species, fencing, and water systems. The tour will compare the farms’ different marketing strategies—direct marketing meat goats on the farm, sales to New Holland, and sales of breeding stock. For more info, see: http://wagn.cas.psu.edu/Calendar.html
6/7
The Role of the Horse in the Farm Organism, Chestnut Ridge, NY
In this one-day workshop, farmer Mac Mead will present a comprehensive picture of the role of the horse in the farm organism. After reviewing the basic nature and care of the draft horse and its harness and equipment, we will move from the classroom to the barn, where attendees will get hands-on instruction and practice in the tasks of grooming and harnessing. In the field, attendees will try their hands at several practical tasks, such as logging, plowing, discing and working raised beds. For more info, see: http://www.pfeiffercenter.org/workshops/index.asp
6/8-8/15
Vermont Sustainable Agriculture Semester, Craftsbury Common, VT
The Sterling College Sustainable Agriculture Semester immerses students in the daily rhythms and realities of farming. The Sustainable Agriculture Semester is a 8-11 credit integrated program of work and study exploring ecological management of plants, animals, and land. Classroom instruction, hands-on training, and work on the farm are combined to teach sustainable practices and to foster discussion about agricultural issues. The deadline for application for the 2008 summer semester is April 14, 2008.For more information, see:
http://www.sterlingcollege.edu/AD.summerfarm.html
6/9
Construction of Portable Animal Shelters for Small Ruminants, Cumberland County, PA
Join Pennsylvania Women’s Ag Network representative Sandra Miller at Painted Hand Farm in Cumberland County for a hands-on construction workshop. At this event, the third in a series of construction workshops, participants will build small, light, and inexpensive shelters for sheep and goats. For more info, see: http://wagn.cas.psu.edu/Calendar.html
6/10-14
International Symposium on Society and Resource Management, Burlington, VT
ISSRM is the official meeting of the International Association for Society and Natural Resources, and is the largest international meeting of social scientists who focus on environmental and natural resources issues. The theme for this year’s symposium is “People and Place: Linking Culture and Nature.” For more info, see: http://www.issrm2008.org/
6/21
Transitioning to Organic Dairy, Hardwick, MA
NOFA/Mass, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and the University of Massachusetts Extension have organized a series of Grazing Workshops as a continuing education resource for Massachusetts farmers. Topics at each event will vary, but will include pasture management, organic transition and herd health, forage species, soil fertility, fencing and water systems, and summer and winter grazing. For more info, see: http://www.umass.edu/cdl/MassGrass.html
6/22
Connecticut NOFA Organic Farms Tour, Fairfield County, CT
Tour three organic farms in Fairfield County with the Northeast Organic Farming Association of Connecticut. For more info, see: http://www.ctnofa.org/
*******************
OPPORTUNITIES
*******************
Food and Society Policy Fellowship call for applications
The Thomas Jefferson Agricultural Institute is pleased to announce a request for applications for the 2009-2010 class of Food & Society Policy Fellows.
Due date: 26 June 2008. Download application information here: http://www.foodandsocietyfellows.org/publications.cfm?refID=102200
Download the application cover sheet here: http://www.foodandsocietyfellows.org/publications.cfm?refID=102199
Marketing and Communications Manager, Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture, Pocantico Hills, NY
Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture is a farm, a kitchen, a classroom—an exhibit, a laboratory, a campus. The mission of this unique, nonprofit, member-driven collaboration is to celebrate, teach and advance community-based food production and enjoyment, from farm to classroom to plate. Stone Barns has an immediate opening for a full-time Marketing and Communications Manager. Supervised by the Managing Director, the Marketing and Communications Manager will have primary responsibility for all marketing projects, overseeing development, design and production of all internal and external materials. Working with the Managing Director, the Marketing and Communications Manager will develop and implement an integrated marketing and communications strategy for this growing organization. Last day to apply: June 20, 2008 For more info, see: http://www.idealist.org/en/job/275759-287
Director of Development, Glynwood Center, Cold Spring, NY
The Director is responsible for all fundraising programs for Glynwood Center. This position reports to the President and the Board of Directors on fundraising goals and achievement. The Director will head a comprehensive fundraising program to meet the short and long-term needs of Glynwood Center. This will include gifts from foundations, corporations and individuals to support annual unrestricted needs, special projects and endowment. Last day to apply: June 22, 2008 For more info, see: http://www.idealist.org/en/job/276320-2
Executive Director, Waltham Fields Community Farm, Waltham, MA
Waltham Fields Community Farm promotes local agriculture through growing and distribution practices that are socially, ecologically, and economically sustainable. We forge relationships between people, their food supply, and the land from which it grows. The Executive Director (ED) has overall responsibility for implementing the goals of Waltham Fields Community Farm as expressed in its mission and strategic plan. The ED works closely with the staff and the Board of Directors, as well as with partner agencies, donors, and the local community in general. He or she is responsible for fundraising, drafting and implementing the annual budget, and conducting the financial and administrative activities of the organization. Last day to apply: May 11, 2008 For more info, see: http://www.idealist.org/en/job/269208-262
Multiple openings, Greater Boston Food Bank, Boston, MA
The Greater Boston Food Bank is the largest hunger-relief organization in New England, and one of the largest food banks in the country, distributing more than 25 million pounds of food annually to a network of more than 600 member hunger-relief agencies. For more info, see: http://www.gbfb.org/aboutUs/CurrentOpenings.cfm
MULTIPLE JOB OPENINGS, THE FOOD TRUST, PHILADELPHIA, PA
The Food Trust is a nationally recognized nonprofit organization improving the supply of affordable food and good nutrition in the mid-Atlantic region. The mission of The Food Trust is to ensure that everyone has access to affordable, nutritious food. For more info, see: http://www.thefoodtrust.org/php/about/jobs.php
MULTIPLE JOB OPENINGS, FOODCHANGE, NEW YORK, NY
FoodChange (formerly known as the Community Food Resource Center) is dedicated to helping low-income New Yorkers gain and maintain access to nutritious food, income support and decent housing. For more info, see: http://www.foodchange.org/employment/employment.html
Connecticut Farm Reinvestment Grant Program
By providing money for capital enhancement to farms, it is the Department of Agriculture’s hope to help preserve Connecticut’s agricultural base and improve farm production. These competitive matching grants will be awarded on the basis of the quality of the business plan that is a part of their application. The farmer applicant must match or exceed the amount of the grant being requested. These funds must be used for projects that are defined as capital fixed assets and have a life expectancy of 10 years or more. The funds may be used for the expansion of existing agricultural facilities, or diversification—expansion into new production areas and site improvements related to such expansion or diversification. Due date: April 30, 2008 For more info, see: http://www.ct.gov/doag/cwp/view.asp?a=1368&q=273968
Food and Agricultural Sciences National Needs Graduate and Postgraduate Fellowship Grants Program
These grants support fellowship programs that encourage outstanding students to pursue and complete their degrees or obtain postdoctoral training in areas where there is a national need for the development of scientific and professional expertise. Applications are being solicited in the following Targeted Expertise Shortage Areas: 1) agricultural genomics and bioinformatics; 2) natural resources and the environment; 3) agricultural systems and natural resource engineering; 4) agricultural management and economics; 5) food science; 6) human nutrition; 7) sciences for agricultural biosecurity; and 8) training in sustainable sciences. Applications may be submitted by: 1) Land-Grant Institutions, 2) colleges & universities having significant minority enrollments & a demonstrable capacity to carry out the teaching of food & agricultural sciences, & 3) other colleges & universities having a demonstrable capacity to carry out the teaching of food & agricultural sciences. Due date: May 8, 2008. For more info, see: http://www.csrees.usda.gov/fo/graduateandpostgraduatefellowshipsserd.cfm
NRI: Agricultural Prosperity for Small & Medium Sized Farms
One component of the National Research Initiative is the Agricultural Prosperity for Small & Medium Sized Farms Program. Proposals for this program must be “integrated,” i.e. contain at least two of three functions: research, outreach, and education. This year the program is highlighting involvement of Extension personnel & curriculum development that involves K-12 teachers. The program also encourages applications on sustainable biofuel production. Due date: June 5, 2008. For more info, see: http://www.csrees.usda.gov/funding/rfas/nri_rfa.html
Food and Nutrition Research Program 2008 Competitive Grants and Cooperative Agreement Program
USDA Economic Research Service’s Food Assistance and Nutrition Research Program is now accepting proposals for grants and cooperative agreements for fiscal 2008. The three priority research areas are (1) Food Choices: Economic Determinants and Consequences, (2) Economic Incentives in Food Assistance Programs, and (3) Food Assistance as an Economic Safety Net. Funding for competitive awards in fiscal 2008 is approximately $2 million Due date: May 19, 2008. For more info, see: http://www.ers.usda.gov/Publications/AP/ap027/DBGen.htm
Organic Research and Education Grants
The Organic Farming Research Foundation (OFRF) has issued its Request for Proposals for organic research and education projects for Spring and Fall 2008 grants. OFRF offers funds for research on any topic that will improve organic production systems, and for education and outreach projects to share organic farming information with current organic producers and to farmers and ranchers considering transitioning their operations to organic. Proposals may request awards of up to $15,000 per year ($20,000 for fruit projects). Multi-year funding will be considered for fruit projects. Due date: July 15, 2008 For more info, see:http://ofrf.org/pressroom/releases/071116_stretchislandfunding.html
+*~*+~*~!~+*~+*~+*~+~++*~*+~*~!~+*~+*~+*~+~++*~*+~*~!~+*~+*~+*~+~++*~*+~
Potluck is a monthly e-newsletter sponsored by the Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Working Group (NESAWG) and is supported in part by the Lawson Valentine Foundation and the Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation. It is distributed via NEFOOD-L, the listserv for sustainable food systems in the Northeast generously hosted by Tufts University. In case you know of someone who you think would be interested in receiving Potluck, please invite them to subscribe to NEFOOD-L by going here: https://elist.tufts.edu/wws/info/nefood
* * * * * * *
Roger Doiron, NEFOOD Listserve administrator, [email protected]