Categories
Urban Farming

Collaborating in the Name of Food

Eggs

Courtesy Hemera/Thinkstock

Four national agencies collaborated to create the Principles of a Healthy, Sustainable Food System, a shared platform for creating sustainable food systems.

Just as a healthy diet requires a mix of different food groups, a healthy food system requires a mix of different organizations.

In 2009, national leaders from four agencies—the American Planning Association, the American Dietetic Association, the American Nurses Association and the American Public Health Association—met to discuss taking a collective approach to addressing issues in the food system. Principles of a Healthy, Sustainable Food System is the culmination of their work. Released in December 2010, the document outlines a shared platform for system-wide food-policy change.

“All of these organizations have similar and overlapping interests in food systems and the desire to change the status quo by focusing on a community approach to food,” explains Kimberley Hodgson, a registered dietician and manager of Planning and Community Health Research Center at the American Planning Association. “We view this [document] as a jumping-off point for our organizations to work together in the future.”

Hodgson believes that the work of these agencies can be strengthened by a collaborative approach. For example, the American Public Health Association may be more likely to meet its goals of increasing access to fresh fruits and vegetables in food deserts by working alongside members of the American Planning Association who are involved with urban planning and can influence development decisions.

“Our ultimate goal [in bringing these groups together] was to connect members from national organizations to those on the local levels who are working for change,” Hodgson says.

With the help of a grant from the Kellogg Foundation, each organization assigned three representatives to the task force—a staffer, a member and a leader from their special interest group. The team convened in Washington, D.C., to draft a set of guiding principles for working together.

The organizations aren’t the only ones who will benefit from these policies. Both Hodgson and Rebecca Klein, director of the Public Health and Agriculture Policy Project at Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future and coordinator of the American Public Health Association’s Food and Environment Working Group, believe the policies are important to urban farmers, too.

“The policies recognize that there is a very important place for urban agriculture,” says Hodgson. “The pasture-to-plate approach taken by urban farmers sheds light on the fact that we need to look at the whole food system, not just the individual pieces.”

Klein hopes that the collaboration between interdisciplinary agencies encourages urban farmers to consider the possibilities for developing similar relationships.

“In the very same way that our organizations have come together for a common goal, I would encourage urban farmers to reach out to their rural counterparts,” she says. “In the end, we really all want the same thing.”

Principles of a Healthy, Sustainable Food System support socially, economically and ecologically sustainable food systems with a focus on the health of individuals, communities and the natural environment.

The principles support food systems that:

  • Take into account the public health impacts of the entire lifecycle of food production, from processing, packaging and distribution to consumption and disposal
  • Conserve, protect and regenerate natural resources
  • Meet our current food and nutrition needs without compromising the ability of the system to meet the needs of future generations
  • Allow for diversity in size and scale
  • Consider geographic differences in natural resources, climate, customs and heritage
  • Appreciate and support a diversity of cultures, socio-demographics and lifestyles
  • Support fair and just communities and conditions for all farmers, workers and eaters
  • Afford farmers and workers in all sectors of the system a living wage
  • Provide opportunities for farmers, workers and eaters to gain the knowledge necessary to understand how food is produced, transformed, distributed, marketed, consumed and disposed
  • Empower farmers, workers and eaters to actively participate in decision making in all sectors of the system

“These policies provide a lens through which we can look at these issues,” explains Klein “Many of the organizations already had similar policies on their books; coming together as a collective voice helps amplify the message that each organization was [sending]. We can increase our impact by working together.”

While there is no formal requirement or obligation for the groups to work together, collaboration is encouraged.

Categories
Recipes

Orange Yogurt Fruit Dip

Shock your tastebuds with this delicious Orange Yogurt Fruit Dip treat from Hobby Farms
Photo by Stephanie Staton

Ingredients

  • 8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
  • 6 ounces orange or mango yogurt
  • 1/2 cup orange marmalade
  • 1/8 tsp. freshly ground nutmeg
  • 2 T. sliced almonds
  • grated orange zest or curls of orange peel

Preparation
In medium bowl, beat cream cheese with electric mixer until creamy. Beat in yogurt, marmalade and nutmeg until smooth. Spoon into serving bowl. Cover and refrigerate for up to 24 hours. Let stand at room temperature for 30 minutes before serving.

Garnish with almonds and orange zest or curls. Serve with fresh fruit, such as apples, melon, grapes, kiwi, pineapple, oranges or tangerines.

Makes about 2 cups.

Categories
Recipes

Olive Tapenade

Olive tapenade
Photo by Stephanie Staton

Ingredients

  • 1½  cups pitted mixed olives
  • 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
  • 1/4 cup chopped parsley
  • 4 T. extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1 T. capers, drained
  • 1 T. fresh lemon juice
  • 2 tsp. coarsely chopped fresh garlic
  • 1 tsp. minced fresh rosemary leaves
  • 1/4 tsp. dried red pepper flakes
  • chopped red bell pepper and minced parsley

Preparation
Place all ingredients except the bell pepper in food processor and pulse until mixture is slightly coarse. Spoon into serving bowl, and garnish with parsley and chopped red pepper. Serve at room temperature with toasted baguette slices, multigrain crackers or vegetable crudités.

Makes about 2¼ cups.

Categories
Recipes

Smoked Turkey Dip with Pecans and Cherries

Ingredients

  • 8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
  • 4 T. mayonnaise
  • 1 T. raspberry vinegar
  • 1 cup coarsely chopped smoked turkey
  • 1/2 cup chopped toasted pecans
  • 1/4 cup finely chopped dried tart cherries
  • freshly ground pepper, to taste
  • whole pecans and cherries for garnish

Preparation
Place cream cheese, mayonnaise and raspberry vinegar in food processor; blend until smooth. Add turkey and process, pulsing until a chunky paste forms. Transfer to medium bowl, and mix in pecans and cherries. Season with pepper. Spoon into small serving bowl. Cover and refrigerate for up to 24 hours. Let stand at room temperature 30 minutes before serving. Garnish with additional pecans and cherries. Serve with crackers or chunks of sourdough bread.

Makes about 2 1/4 cups.

Categories
Recipes

Spring Dip with Cucumber, Chives and Radishes

Make your own Spring Dip with Hobby Farms

Ingredients

  • 1 cup cottage cheese
  • 1/2 T. prepared horseradish
  • 1/2 tsp. seasoned salt
  • 1 cup peeled, seeded and minced cucumber
  • 1/4 cup finely chopped radishes
  • 4 T. minced fresh chives
  • 4 T. minced fresh parsley
  • 1 T. minced fresh salad burnet

Preparation
Place cottage cheese and horseradish in medium bowl, and use an immersion blender to purée until smooth. Whisk in seasoned salt. Fold in remaining ingredients and transfer to serving bowl. Chill slightly (20 to 30 minutes) before serving. Serve with light, crispy crackers or vegetable crudités.

Makes about 2 1/2 cups.

Categories
Recipes

Thai Peanut-coconut Dip

Thai peanut-coconut dip
Photo by Stephanie Staton

Ingredients

  • 1/3 cup creamy peanut butter
  • 1/4 cup coconut milk, plus additional if needed
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar
  • 3 T. soy sauce
  • 1 T. freshly squeezed lime juice, strained to remove pulp and seeds
  • 1 1/2 tsp. minced fresh garlic
  • 1 tsp. sesame oil
  • ¼ to 1 tsp. cayenne, depending on taste
  • chopped, blanched peanuts and shredded, fresh or dried unsweetened coconut

Preparation
Place all ingredients, except peanuts and coconut, in medium bowl and beat with an electric mixer until smooth. If mixture seems too stiff, add additional coconut milk, 1 tablespoon at a time, until reaching desired consistency. Transfer to serving bowl, cover and refrigerate 24 hours to allow flavors to blend. Garnish with peanuts and coconut. Serve with sesame crackers, fried wonton skins, or strips of red pepper, snow peas and cauliflower pieces.

Makes about 1 cup.

Categories
Animals

Common Livestock Parasites

Each livestock species is vulnerable to different parasites. The world of parasite control is constantly changing, and your veterinarian is your best ally to determine which parasites are impacting your herd and how to deal with them using medications and farm-management techniques.

Read below to find out what worms might be living in your barnyard and what anthelmintics—drugs used to combat internal parasites—might best control them. You’ll find these anthelmintics in different deworming medications. Don’t forget that many of the parasites listed below could be resistant to many of the dewormers listed. Follow veterinary recommendations to have your animals tested and treated accordingly.

Cow

Cattle
Parasite: Stomach worm and lungworm
Anthelmintics: levamisole, fenbendazole, oxfendazole, albendazole, eprinomectin, doramectin, ivermectin, moxidectin

Parasite: Tapeworm
Anthelmintics: oxfendazole, albendazole

Parasite: Common liver fluke
Anthelmintic: clorsulon

Pig

Swine
Parasite: Large roundworm (Ascarids)
Anthelmintics: ivermectin, fenbendazole, levamisole, pyrantel, dichlorvos, piperazine (adult stage); fenbendazole (migrating, infective); fenbendazole, pyrantel (infective)

Parasite: Whipworm
Anthelmintics:  fenbendazole, dichlorvos

Parasite: Nodular worm
Anthelmintics: ivermectin, fenbendazole, levamisole, pyrantel, dichlorvos, piperazine

Parasite: Lungworm
Anthelmintics: fenbendazole, ivermectin, levamisole

Parasite: Kidneyworm (adult)
Anthelmintics: fenbendazole, levamisole

Parasite: Kidneyworm (larvae in liver)
Anthelmintic: fenbendazole

Parasite: Lungworm
Anthelmintic: fenbendazole

Parasite: Strongyloides
Anthelmintics: ivermectin, levamisole

Chicken

Poultry
Parasite: Roundworm (Ascarids)
Anthelmintics: albendazole, ivermectin, levamisole, piperazine 

Parasite: Cecal worms
Anthelmintics: albendazole, ivermectin, levamisole 

Parasite: Threadworms (Capillaria)
Anthelmintics: albendazole, ivermectin, levamisole 

Parasite: Tapeworms
Anthelmintic: albendazole

Parasite: Coccidia (Eimeria)
Anthelmintics: Vaccinate newly-hatched birds.

Note: Piperazine is the only dewormer approved for poultry. Other chemicals may be prescribed off-label by a veterinarian.

Horse

Horses
Parasite: Large strongyle (Strongylus vulgaris, S. equinus and S. endentatus) or bloodworm
Anthelmintics: broad-spectrum dewormers for adult stages, moxidectin, ivermectin and fenbendazol (administered at double dose for five days in a row) for migrating phase

Parasite: Small strongyle (cyathostome)
Anthelmintics: ivermectin and moxidectin for adult stages and moxidectin and fenbendazole (administered at double dose for five days in a row) for the adult and encysted stage. Ninety-five percent of populations have an inherited resistance to benzimidazole and 50 percent to pyrantel, so check with your vet before using a dewormer from this group.

Parasite: Roundworms (Ascarid)
Anthelmintics: ivermectin, moxidectin, fenbendazole, pyrantel pamoate

Parasite: Bot (Gasterophilus intestinalis)
Anthelmintics: ivermectin, moxidectin.

Parasite: Pinworm (Oxyuris equi, common pinworm; Probstmayria vivipara, minute pinworm)
Anthelmintics: ivermectin, moxidectin, fenbendazole

Parasite: Tapeworm (Anoplocephala perfoliata, A. magna)
Anthelmintics: praziquantel

Goat

Small Ruminants
Parasite: Barber pole worm (Haemonchus contortis)
Anthelmintics: ivermectin, moxidectin, levamisole, fenbendazole, albendazole  

Parasite: Small brown stomach worm (Ostertagia circumcinta)
Anthelmintics: ivermectin, moxidectin, levamisole, fenbendazole, albendazole

Parasite: Tapeworm
Anthelmintics: benzimidazoles

Parasite: Lungworm
Anthelmintics: ivermectin, moxidectin

Parasite: Liver fluke
Anthelmintics: albendazole, clorsulon

Parasite: Coccidia
Anthelmintics: sulfa drugs, amprolium

Parasite: Meningeal worm or deer or brain worm (a parasite of the white tail deer; Paralaphostrongylus tenius)
Anthelmintics: anti-inflammatory drugs, levamisol, ivermectin, albendazole, fenbendazole, thiabendazole

Note: Only fenbendazole and rumatel are FDA-approved for use in goats. Other classes must be prescribed off-label by a veterinarian.

About the Author: Sharon Biggs Waller is an award-winning writer and author of Advanced English Riding (BowTie Press, 2007). She lives on a 10-acre farm in northwestern Indiana with her husband, Mark, 75 chickens, two Lamancha goats, two horses and an assortment of cats and dogs.

Categories
Animals

Signs of Spring

Boer goat
Photo by Sue Weaver
Amelia has tufts of cashmere stuck to her horn—a sure sign of spring.

You know how I talked last week about some of the Boers shedding their cashmere undercoats? Now they’re all doing it; that’s a sign of spring! They scratch their itchy backs with their horns and walk around with cashmere stuck on the tips. Mom thinks it looks really cute.

There are lots of signs of spring to see on a farm, depending on where you live. We talked to Hank the Beagle, who lived in Minnesota. Here are some things we learned.

Hank says he lived in Minnesota for lots of years (he’s a really old dog nowadays). He says winters last a lot longer there than they do here. Snow gets deeper than a Beagle is tall and it stays that way all winter long. And it’s cold—super cold—for a very long time.

Up north, some animals hibernate or become less active than their cousins here in the Ozarks, so when you see a groundhog or smell a skunk in the North, that’s a springtime sign. Geese and ducks come winging home. Male woodcocks fly high into the sky and then dive at the earth to impress lady woodcocks. Then come the noisy spring birds, like red-winged blackbirds and eastern phoebes. Woodpeckers drum on trees and fence posts—even on the sides of houses! As soon as ice and snow are off of the ponds and lakes, spring peepers begin chirping and turtles start basking in the sun.

But Hank says the surest signs of spring are when bushels of dog poop emerge from the ice in the dog yard and the ground under the bird feeders gets utterly disgusting.

It’s harder to tell when spring is coming here in the Ozarks because we don’t get much snow, and it’s warmer most of the time. Skunks and woodchucks are active all year. Mom heard a phoebe singing fee-bee, fee-bee in late December and turtles bask on sun-warmed river rocks below the Mammoth Spring State Park dam even on cold winter days.

But there are signs! Like the sun shining higher in the sky, buds swelling on the redbud trees and moths fluttering by the barn lights at night.

Dad says its light when he goes to work and light when he gets off at night—that’s one of his favorite things about early spring. Mom wears fewer layers of clothes to come out and feed us: jeans and a jacket over a sweatshirt is all. And, she puts away her balaclavas and Fudd hats with ear flaps for the year—that’s when we know spring has almost sprung.

So how can you  tell when it’s almost spring on your farm? Uzzi and I want to know!

« More Mondays with Martok »

Categories
Animals Large Animals Urban Farming

Riding The Urban Trails

urban horse trails
Oneterry Aka Terry Kearney/Flickr

I’m fortunate to live in a rare suburb about 50 miles from downtown Los Angeles where animal keeping is not only allowed but encouraged. Horses are king here in Norco, Calif., an incorporated town of about 27,000. In fact, the official city moniker is Horsetown, USA.

Just about everyone in Norco has at least one horse, and trail riding is the No. 1 pastime here. But it’s not trail riding the way most people think of it. When I get on my horse and head out the gate, I’m not riding in to the wilderness where I will see deer and bobcat. Instead, I’m hitting a grid consisting of 90 miles of urban trail.

Taking a horse out on urban trails is more akin to playing a video game than going on a relaxing ride. There is no end to the horse-eating monsters that leap out at you on a nearly constant basis.

On a typical ride around town, my horses regularly have to deal with gardeners wielding weed whackers, moms unloading car seats in driveways, barking dogs running at fences (or worse—ambush dogs that lurk in the bushes and leap out just as you pass), people pulling weeds (a hunched down person looks a lot like a crouching mountain lion to a horse), kids with remote control cars, and a whole host of other assorted scary things.

It takes a special horse to deal with all this stimuli. When I first moved to Norco, I quickly discovered that my Appaloosa gelding could not cope with all this stuff. After a couple of particularly terrifying rides where he came completely unglued, I sold him back to his previous owner, who lived in the country. The next gelding I bought turned out to have even less ability to cope with this insanity than the previous horse. I sold him to a home in a rural area.

Fortunately for me, Milagro came into my life. Spanish Mustangs are known for being smart, sensible and averse to wasting energy spooking at silly stuff, and Milagro is very typical of his breed. As he and I cruise the urban trails of Norco, we face all kinds of challenges. It’s rare when he spooks, and when he does, he usually just jumps in place. Not to say that it was always this way. The first year I had him, a charging dog or crouching weeder would sometimes send him into a 180 spin. In fact, he spun once so hard at a bird that flew out of a bush that he sent me sailing through the air and into the dirt.

But years of dealing with urban trail bogeymen has turned Milagro into a solid, steady mount. And now, he’s helping his little “brother” Rio learn to negotiate all the scary stuff. Because Rio is also a Spanish Mustang, he’s solid by nature. And as I ride Milagro around town with Rio following alongside, my young horse is learning that though there’s a lot going on around here, there really is nothing to fear.

Categories
News

Program Promotes Agricultural Literacy

 

Ag EDbassadors
Courtesy University of Illinois/ David Riecks
Before branching out to their local schools, the Ag EDbassadors attend a series of workshops on agricultural education.

Nearly 100,000 elementary students will benefit from the efforts of 10 high school students throughout the next few months as they promote agricultural education in schools across the state of Illinois.

As part of the Ag EDbassadors program, a select group of Illinois high school students gathered at the University of Illinois in November 2010 to learn effective ways to promote agricultural education in their local elementary schools. The year-long program is designed to provide youth  with early exposure to the field of agricultural education.

Before going into their local schools, high school participants attend a four-day training event conducted by UI faculty and agricultural education students on a variety of topics from basic teaching strategies to the impact of agriculture on the state of Illinois.

“Our goal is to train high school students to promote agricultural literacy,” says James Anderson, UI assistant professor of agricultural education. “It’s a great opportunity for these older students to show younger students how agriculture addresses important issues in their community and how students can make a difference.”

The high school students learned how to create 30-minute lessons that have a two-fold mission: to provide information that is relevant to their target age group and to address an issue impacting their local community using an agricultural topic. They also received supplies and materials to conduct interactive lessons with 10,000 students over the next few months.

The high school participants will be tackling a variety of topics with elementary students, including dairy production, the origin of foods, seed germination and planting, teamwork, agricultural careers, nutrition, the lifecycle of Honey bees, and recycling.

Brittany Hosselton, a senior in UI’s agricultural education program who led one of the event’s workshops, says agricultural educators teach students in real-world settings, allowing them to see many facets of the industry while exposing them to career opportunities that are often overlooked. Agricultural educators are necessary to train and prepare students for increasing opportunities in agricultural careers.

“With our growing urban and suburban populations, agricultural educators are more important than ever,” Hosselton says. “Children need to be inspired, and what is more inspiring than knowing about the world around you and how agriculture affects it?”

Lauren Hawker, a senior at Armstrong Township High School in Armstrong, Ill., graduated from the 2009-10 Ag EDbassadors program. Her experience has helped her accomplish more as a student, she says.

“I regularly reflect on what I learned during this program when I am preparing presentations, giving speeches or assisting my FFA advisor,” Hawker says. “This program has helped me excel in whatever I pursue in life.”

AG EDbassadors is sponsored by the Growing Agricultural Science Teachers Grant, a special project of the Illinois State Board of Education created to get more students interested in teaching.

For more information on the AG EDbassador Program, email James Anderson or call 217-244-0285.