2 posts tagged “farming”

There are so many questions surrounding the future of our food system that it is difficult to keep track.  We want our customers to be informed but we don't want to flood your with email alerts. In the interest of efficiency, this message will cover two topics 1) Potential closing of the USDA-ARS Pasture Lab located at PennState and  2)  Update on milk labeling.
 

1)   Potential closing of the USDA-ARS Pasture Lab located at PennState
 

The new federal budget submitted to Congress by the Executive Office will eliminate funding for the Pasture Systems and Watershed Management Research Unit operated by the Agricultural Research Service on the PennState campus.  Given the critical importance of pasture systems in helping to improve farm profitability, repair our damaged environment and restore health to our community, it is simply unthinkable that this facility that serves the entire Northeastern United States could close.  
 

A petition to restore the $4.42 million necessary to maintain the University Park facility is being filed by members of Pennsylvania's Congressional delegation.  They need our support to make this petition successful. Please consider joining Slow Foods and the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture by writing letters to Senators Specter and Casey, and the Representative in your district, asking that this petition be supported and funding for the Pasture Lab restored.  Letters should be received in the Washington D.C. offices by Friday, March 7, 2008.  
 

To find our more information or to participate in this effort view http://www.pasafarming.org/ or contactbrian@pasafarming.org
 

 2)   Update on milk labeling
 

The push to ban labels giving consumers important information about how dairy and other food products have been produced is moving across the country.   Fueled by corporate money and a new organization called American Farmers for the Advancement and Conservation of Technology (AFACT) the movement is trying to thwart the interests of informed consumers.  Part of the mission of this group (www.itisafact.org) is to redefine "sustainable agriculture" to suit shortsighted needs.  In their own words, they plan to "educate all in the food chain that 'sustainable' agriculture utilizes technologies to produce safe, nutritious and affordable foods with minimal environmental impact and maximum consumer value."
 

The current fight is centered on the use of labels indicating the lack of synthetic hormones (rBST/rBGH) used in dairy production. As the controversy moves from state to state, it's becoming clear that the intent is to eliminate the ability of truly sustainable farmers to indicate their production choices on any and all food labels.  It is important to note that both the Schneider's and Brunton's Dairy milk carried by our stores do not use rBST or rBGH. We feel that consumers have the right to know about this important topic.
 

To find our more information or to participate in this effort http://www.pasafarming.org/ or contactbrian@pasafarming.org
 

Nothing will ever take the place of a direct relationship between farmers, your community store and eaters.  McGinnis Sisters is committed to supporting local and Pennsylvania farming whenever possible and selling only products that fit our strict standards for quality.
 

If you have questions about products at McGinnis Sisters or the way in which we support local andPennsylvania farming please do not hesitate to contact Jennifer Daurora at jdaurora@mcginnis-sisters.com or 412-884-2323

My t-shirts are looking gross so, I bought a couple of "Farm Aid" t-shirts to replace. -yes I made sure they were American-made and printed...I'll just hope they're from cotton grown in the US by some relatives but who's kidding whom? I had one that says "stop factory farming" from a different org.  One where you can adopt farm animals that were "liberated" from places that neglected them.  Farm aid is for family farmers and I noticed one thing, after perusing their site, I came up with jack-shit for MO.  They help IL and IA but not us?  Meh.  Anyway, maybe nobody kicks in much from MO.  Sadly, MO is home to plenty factory farms : (

Grey-green

I'm not so much into it from the "PETA" side as I am for health/ hygiene/ food source and "small company" vs. large corporation side.  I'm a farmer's daughter, niece and granddaughter.  Several uncles ran family farms (as their #1 income) and the only money I made prior to working "out" in the world (at 15 at a DQ some 30 miles from my home as it was the closest place to get a job back then) was through buying a couple of calves in early spring and caring for them until autumn when I sold them at sale barn.  I made very little if you look at the work put in, special medical things (not often but they can arise), extra food beyond pasture-grazing?  Let's say $200 for 9 months of work and then you take out the extra expenses means NOT a big profit. And so it goes for people who can only run 200 head compared to factory farms that over-medicate, feed animals other animals ground up, have unsanitary conditions, the animals are held in cages and never roam or graze or breath fresh air...This is something I have first-hand experience with and it means a lot to me.  -I'm watching, note the lovely furrow-wrinkle I'm developing? 

It can be different but it means consumers MUST buy from "farmer's markets" where they've investigated the farms where the meat comes from, etc.  It's work.  People just want to have some hamburger helper but they're poisoning themselves and their children with bad meat all the while supporting a system of corporate welfare.

I've heard what's economically "wrong" with family farms vs. factory farms.  I guess it's all about profit.  In short (and with my understanding because I'm obviously not of this opinion), it would be like setting us back to pre-Industrial Revolution days.  That wasn't so good for a lot of folks.  My family, on the other hand did just fine what with growing our own food...My mother's family didn't do quite as well as they didn't grow their own.  They did things like renting out the front porch to itinerant workers as a place to sleep (boards under their backs and a roof between them and the sky) or opening up the "front room" as a diner.  Hey, you're cooking anyway, may as well feed anybody with money and a rumble in their bellies.  Being Jewish, they also did mitzvahs of feeding those who couldn't pay but requested those who could work to do a little something, even if it was only sweeping the front porch whilst those workers were away for the day or shelling hully-pods.

I'm not looking at spreadsheets.  History is written by the victor, so you'll excuse my jaded view of stats codified by those who choose to dole out checks to massive multi-national corporations that have been shifting manpower away from the US to other countries and selling the same products to other countries at lower rates than they sell to us.  When said companies receive these checks (or incentives as "relief" from paying taxes on all that land, all that caged meat, all that property), do you think they put it right into their megalofarms?

No.  They put it in the golden parachute fund for their CEO in case they need to give him the boot in 6 months because he was caught doing insider-trading or fiddling with a fourteen year old.  They send it abroad to lease more land to hire more workers there -- these companies are diversified.  They aren't just infecting meat here, they're making paper in Germany, too.

Do not tell me that the factory farms are better-investigated because we all know that's bullshit.  Pardon the pun.

I get uppity about family farms.  It's emotionally wrenching.  My countryside is being chopped apart to build "new little cities" (urban sprawl) for people who are indebted for everything they "own" when a nice little fixer-upper was to be had in a city that was made grand by their grandparents.  "Use it up, use it up!  Indebt ourselves to pay corporations for the privilege of their shoddy goods!"  Apparently, this is the New American Dream.
-and the old way is going the way of the dinosaurs and I'm but a wooly mammoth caught chewing my cud...they'll study me one day.  I mean aliens because I'm just the first to go.