National Training Program Teaches Humane Animal Husbandry

The lack of animal-husbandry training programs for animal handlers and managers led American Humane Certified to launch its humane training program.

When raising livestock, hobby farmers who strive to keep up-to-date on best industry practices might be interested in American Human Certified’s new humane training program.

To answer the food industry’s call for better trained animal handlers, the program’s curriculum—the initial development of which was first announced in March 2009—focuses on animal handling best practices and the science-based standards originated by American Humane Certified and its Scientific Advisory Committee. 

The new training is available online and on-site. An important aspect of the program curriculum is the early recognition of behavior or health problems that could be detrimental to an individual animal or the entire flock or herd. It addresses animal-welfare issues and poor animal husbandry that are created by a lack of worker and handler knowledge.

Students enrolled in the program will be tested at the end of the training and will be retrained in any areas in which they exhibit a lack of thorough understanding. The program instructors are animal science professionals who will provide onsite demonstrations and guidance in appropriate handling and treatment, whether in the barn or in the field.

“A significant lack of knowledge of basic, good animal handling and husbandry practices, plus strong requests from the industry, prompted us to develop this very first, hands-on, independent program,” says Tim Amlaw, director of American Humane Certified. “It answers the industry’s need for education of existing and new employees so they can ensure proper and humane animal welfare and avoid potentially negative issues.”

Amlaw notes that while there are other print or video training materials offered by industry trade organizations, there is no curriculum or program that offers basic hands-on humane handling, care or testing for animal handlers and managers by an animal welfare organization.

The program will be beta-tested at egg producer Radlo Farms in Maine, in both Radlo’s certified cage-free operations and in its non-certified caged operations.

 “Our educating of employees, growers and contractors who handle animals will complement and expand American Humane Certified’s existing national program of auditing and certifying the humane handling of animals raised for food,” Amlaw said.  “For both large and small food producers, this training will illustrate a significant, socially responsible undertaking. Other users likely will include universities and government agencies dealing with agriculture.”

Amlaw says that as people have migrated away from rural settings over the years, there have been fewer and fewer well-trained workers to handle and manage farm animals. The need for new employees continues to grow in the food production industry, and the need for training and development of experienced workers is key to the agricultural industry and is paramount for the welfare of farm animals.

UF managing editor Lisa Munniksma and Growing Power founder Will Allen met at the Idea Festival booth for Heine Brothers’ Coffee, a locally owned business that provides coffee grounds for Louisville’s Breaking New Grounds compost project. Read “Growing Urban Farms” about Will Allen’s visit to Lexington, Ky.

What gets me out of bed at 5 a.m. on a Saturday? Nothing that doesn’t have to do with agriculture, horses or urban farming. So when I found out Will Allen, founder of Growing Power and urban farmer extraordinaire, would be speaking on a Saturday morning at Idea Festival in Louisville, Ky., I knew I’d be there, bright and early.

Allen spoke to the crowd about Growing Power’s work to train urban farmers and educate people around the world about sustainable agriculture and nutritious foods.

“It’s not a good food movement anymore. It’s a revolution,” he says. “We all have a responsibility to make sure our neighbors, our friends and especially our young ones are eating nutritious food.”

By 2050, Allen says, 80 percent of the world’s population will live in cities. “We’re losing land as we speak. We’re losing farmers as we speak.”

Learning to grow food in urban environments is more important than ever for feeding people good food. Allen points out that within one week of being taken from the vine, vegetables lose 50 percent of their nutrients. “That’s why local food is so important.”

After his session, Allen took a few minutes to talk to me—making him late for a workshop with Breaking New Grounds (Sorry, folks!), an urban- and sustainable-farming training organization in Louisville—about the urban-farming movement. Here’s a sampling from our conversation:

LM:What are some of the biggest challenges facing people involved with urban farming?

WA: You can go out and get all the land you want, build up all the infrastructure you want, and that really doesn’t mean very much if you haven’t done the first thing, and that’s to engage the community—to get the community on board—and that sometimes takes a long time. I think that is the key piece. Every community is different; some communities are easier to engage than others.

[Start small.]

I hear people say, “The city is offering me 200 vacant lots.”

And I look at them and say, “OK. So, what are you going to do with it?”

And they say, “Oh, we can grow food.”

No, you can’t. “How many people do you have working?”

“It’s just me and somebody else.”

“So how are you going to grow on 200 vacant lots?”

It’s OK to take one vacant lot and put a demonstration there of what [an urban farm] can look like. Bring people there from parts of the community, and show them that this is what you have done, and they can say, “I want one of those on this vacant lot over here.”

To me, that makes sense. It also provides you with a place where you can take politicos, funders and other people to get them on board, because words are just cheap. You can say anything. The reason I show those images [in the presentations] is because that’s the work we do; it’s concrete. People can’t deny it. …

I think that’s really important—the engagement. If you can’t do that piece, you can’t move forward. You can spend all the money in the world. I’ve seen projects where people get $200,000 for a 100- by 100-foot lot, but a year later, it’s all in weeds. What does that mean? You’ve got to have passionate people; you’ve got to have more than one person. See, I was one person starting this group (Growing Power), but I always tell people to get more than one person because I wouldn’t want anybody to do what I did.

Get yourself some passionate partners. … You’ve got to have somebody who’s going to hang in there.

LM:In some cities, ordinances are preventing people from keeping bees, chickens or goats. Do you have any advice for working with government bodies?

WA: That demonstration farm that I was talking about, bring the politicos there. They’re more likely to make policy change when they see something is an asset to the city.
Politicians react to what’s going to give them votes. They don’t react to the right thing, because the right thing might not get them reelected. But if you’re able to garner enough support and you have something that people want to see and you can demonstrate that, they’re going to support it. I move policy further along with our demonstration project than I do with just getting in a line to talk to them like I’m a lobbyist.

LM:How can people who are just getting started in urban farming find the resources they need?

WA: Come to workshops. At Breaking New Grounds [in Louisville, Ky.], we’ll be doing a series of workshops as a regional training center. They can come to Milwaukee for hands-on training from the ground up. That’s how you get started. [Additional Growing Power Regional Outreach Training Centers are listed at www.growingpower.org, and other organizations hold workshops in communities nationwide.]

At those workshops, you meet other people. Many times, people come to a workshop and they meet people in their own region who are doing similar work that they didn’t even know about. That’s another way for them to get engaged, because you need partnerships to do this work. You can’t do it in isolation. … This is communal stuff.

Urban Farm EmpowermentWill Allen, the face of urban farming today, makes his case for local, sustainable foods at Idea Festival.By Lisa Munniksma, Urban Farm managing editor10/06/2009Will Allen, the face of urban farming today, makes his case for local, sustainable foods at Idea Festival.Will Allen, the face of urban farming today, makes his case for local, sustainable foods at Idea Festival.news, ufnewstrain urban farmers, nutritious food, Will Allen

UF managing editor Lisa Munniksma and Growing Power founder Will Allen met at the Idea Festival booth for Heine Brothers’ Coffee, a locally owned business that provides coffee grounds for Louisville’s Breaking New Grounds compost project.   Read “Growing Urban Farms” about Will Allen’s visit to Lexington, Ky.

What gets me out of bed at 5 a.m. on a Saturday? Nothing that doesn’t have to do with agriculture, horses or urban farming. So when I found out Will Allen, founder of Growing Power and urban farmer extraordinaire, would be speaking on a Saturday morning at Idea Festival in Louisville, Ky., I knew I’d be there, bright and early.

Allen spoke to the crowd about Growing Power’s work to train urban farmers and educate people around the world about sustainable agriculture and nutritious foods.

“It’s not a good food movement anymore. It’s a revolution,” he says. “We all have a responsibility to make sure our neighbors, our friends and especially our young ones are eating nutritious food.”

By 2050, Allen says, 80 percent of the world’s population will live in cities. “We’re losing land as we speak. We’re losing farmers as we speak.”

Learning to grow food in urban environments is more important than ever for feeding people good food. Allen points out that within one week of being taken from the vine, vegetables lose 50 percent of their nutrients. “That’s why local food is so important.”

After his session, Allen took a few minutes to talk to me—making him late for a workshop with Breaking New Grounds (Sorry, folks!), an urban- and sustainable-farming training organization in Louisville—about the urban-farming movement. Here’s a sampling from our conversation:

LM:What are some of the biggest challenges facing people involved with urban farming?

WA: You can go out and get all the land you want, build up all the infrastructure you want, and that really doesn’t mean very much if you haven’t done the first thing, and that’s to engage the community—to get the community on board—and that sometimes takes a long time. I think that is the key piece. Every community is different; some communities are easier to engage than others.

[Start small.]

I hear people say, “The city is offering me 200 vacant lots.”

And I look at them and say, “OK. So, what are you going to do with it?”

And they say, “Oh, we can grow food.”

No, you can’t. “How many people do you have working?”

“It’s just me and somebody else.”

“So how are you going to grow on 200 vacant lots?”

It’s OK to take one vacant lot and put a demonstration there of what [an urban farm] can look like. Bring people there from parts of the community, and show them that this is what you have done, and they can say, “I want one of those on this vacant lot over here.”

To me, that makes sense. It also provides you with a place where you can take politicos, funders and other people to get them on board, because words are just cheap. You can say anything. The reason I show those images [in the presentations] is because that’s the work we do; it’s concrete. People can’t deny it. …

I think that’s really important—the engagement. If you can’t do that piece, you can’t move forward. You can spend all the money in the world. I’ve seen projects where people get $200,000 for a 100- by 100-foot lot, but a year later, it’s all in weeds. What does that mean? You’ve got to have passionate people; you’ve got to have more than one person. See, I was one person starting this group (Growing Power), but I always tell people to get more than one person because I wouldn’t want anybody to do what I did.

Get yourself some passionate partners. … You’ve got to have somebody who’s going to hang in there.

LM:In some cities, ordinances are preventing people from keeping bees, chickens or goats. Do you have any advice for working with government bodies?

WA: That demonstration farm that I was talking about, bring the politicos there. They’re more likely to make policy change when they see something is an asset to the city.
Politicians react to what’s going to give them votes. They don’t react to the right thing, because the right thing might not get them reelected. But if you’re able to garner enough support and you have something that people want to see and you can demonstrate that, they’re going to support it. I move policy further along with our demonstration project than I do with just getting in a line to talk to them like I’m a lobbyist.

LM:How can people who are just getting started in urban farming find the resources they need?

WA: Come to workshops. At Breaking New Grounds [in Louisville, Ky.], we’ll be doing a series of workshops as a regional training center. They can come to Milwaukee for hands-on training from the ground up. That’s how you get started. [Additional Growing Power Regional Outreach Training Centers are listed at www.growingpower.org, and other organizations hold workshops in communities nationwide.]

At those workshops, you meet other people. Many times, people come to a workshop and they meet people in their own region who are doing similar work that they didn’t even know about. That’s another way for them to get engaged, because you need partnerships to do this work. You can’t do it in isolation. … This is communal stuff.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack recently announced that Miles McEvoy has been hired to serve as deputy administrator of the National Organic Program (NOP). McEvoy assumes his position on Oct. 1.

Vilsack also announced that the NOP will become an independent program area within the Agricultural Marketing Service because of the increased visibility and emphasis on organic agriculture throughout the farming community, evolving consumer preferences and the enhanced need for governmental oversight of the program.

The NOP will be receiving increased funding and staffing in the new fiscal year.

“Miles McEvoy has worked in the field of organic agriculture for more than two decades and has a solid understanding of the challenges and opportunities facing the organic community,” Vilsack said.

For more than 20 years, McEvoy led the Washington State Department of Agriculture’s Organic Food Program, one of the nation’s first state organic certification programs. In 2001, he helped establish the WSDA Small Farm and Direct Marketing Program.

From 1993 until 1995, McEvoy was the founding director of The Food Alliance, a program that blends sustainable farming practices and social welfare components into an eco-label program.

McEvoy helped establish the National Association of State Organic Programs in 1998 and currently serves as its president. He also assisted the Montana Department of Agriculture to develop the state’s organic certification program and has been helping the Oregon Department of Agriculture in developing its own organic certification program.

The NOP is responsible for regulating the fastest growing segment of U.S. agriculture, the organic industry. U.S. sales of organic foods have grown from $1 billion in 1990, when the Organic Foods Production Act established the NOP, to a projected $23.6 billion in 2009. Congress increased NOP funding to $2.6 million in FY08 and to $3.2 million in FY09.