Debating Atrazine

The pesticide atrazine is banned in the European Union and is linked to harm to wildlife and potentially to humans as well.  According to the Natural Resources Defense Council: "Approximately 75 percent of stream water and about 40 percent of all groundwater samples from agricultural areas tested in an extensive U.S. Geological Survey study contained atrazine." and that "Atrazine was found in 80% of drinking water samples taken in 153 public water systems. "

Atrazine Conatmination source: earthactually

The organization "Save the Frogs" has a petition out to ban atrazine in the United States.  They claim that it is one of the world's most widely applied pesticides with 80 million pounds used in America last year.  The herbicide is used to fight weeds in corn, grain sorghum, sugar cane and other crops.  The effect the pesticide has on frogs in particular, is turning malefrogs into female frogs.  The chemical has the effect even at very low concentrations - about 2.5 parts per billion.  Atrazine is also considered a harmful carcinogen.

Save the Frogs argues that frogs share half of their DNA with humans,  pointing out the potential for these chemicals to have harmful effects for people as well.  You can sign the petition here: http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/6000/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=2834

The chemical company that produces atrazine, Syngenta, argues that the rates of amphibian extinction  can be blamed on a number of other factors including habitat destruction, exploitation, pollution, introduced species, climate change and chytrid fungus.  These other natural and human factors are reducing the population of frogs, which makes it all the more important to ban a pesticide shown to effect frogs health so dramatically.

The EPA is seeking public comment on a May 2011 petition from the amphibian conservation group, Save the Frogs, requesting that  the Agency ban the use and production of atrazine.  EPA asks that comments on the Save the Frogs petition be submitted within 60 days, by November 14, 2011, to docket EPA-HQ-OPP-2011-0586 at Regulations.gov. 

Empowering Beginning Women Farmers through Whole Farm Planning Training

USDA/NIFA has funded a Beginning Farmer Grant to teach beginning women farmers the tools of whole farm planning. Groups have been formed in New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, and New York. This year's classes will begin in October 2011. Participants must attend at total of 10 sessions with 6 sessions that will take place over the winter of 2011/2012 and 4 farm tours that will take place during the spring of 2012. The Connecticut sessions will be on weekends, generally Saturdays, and last 7 hours.

The program also includes farm mentors with onsite farm visits. If you are a woman farmer who has been farming less than 10 years, contact the CT coordinator, Deb Legge, at deb@ctnofa.org for an application. If you would like to participate as a farmer mentor, please also contact the program coordinator.

This program includes:

·         One-on-one mentorships

·         On-farm field days

·         Business planning seminars

·         Last but not least, a network of women farmers with concerns similar to yours.

 

We also want to remind everyone that these sessions will rely heavily on planning, analysis, marketing strategies, etc. and less on the nuts-and-bolts of actual farming techniques.  Don’t let this throw you off, as there will be plenty of opportunities to learn from each other, share experiences and more.

The 10 seven-hour training sessions have been tentatively scheduled as follows:

10/22/2011 -Session 1 - Orientation/Overview of Holistic Management

11/12/2011 - Session 2 - Holistic Goal and Testing

12/10/2011 - Session 3 - Financial Planning 1

1/14/2012 - Session 4 - Financial Planning 2

2/11/2012 - Session 5  - Business Planning

3/10/2012- Session 6  - Marketing

TBD - Session 7 - Leadership & Communication

TBD - Session 8 - Land Planning

TBD - Session 9 - Soil Fertility

TBD - Session 10 - Grazing Planning / Graduation

Connecticut Coordinator: Deb Legge, deb@ctnofa.org, 203-888-5146

Right to Know - Demand for GMO Product Labeling

Leading up to the Right 2 Know March this October, there has been an increasing demand for GMO labeling.  These demonstrations are not even calling for a GMO ban, simply a GMO label so that consumers can vote with their dollar.  This document explains the logic behind requiring GMOs to be labeled: http://www.nongmoproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/GM-Crops-just-the-science.pdf

 Sara Snow is one of many high profile R2K speakers

This explains the argument against labeling, which is, to put it in simple terms, that 
The Organic Consumers Association provides the opportunity to find a group in your area which is organizing to demand GMO labeling.  You can send an e-mail to your state legislator demanding state action on the issue, I already sent mine in!
You can also contact President Obama about your desire for national policy demanding for labeling by clicking this link.
The Millions Against Monsanto group is also heading up some labeling compaigns including this one where you can label GMO products yourself
Think about joining the Right2Know March coming up in October. A 313 mile march from the UN to the Whitehouse, this demonstration demands that genetically engineered foods are labeled as they already are in Europe and Japan.  The route is also a prime leaf peeping route if that entices you at all . . .
You can walk the entire 313 miles or only 1 mile.  There will be a large rally at the UN in New York City to kick off the march. 
No matter what you do, if you care about full disclosure about the ingredients of your food (think about if we still did not have calories, or transfat, or whether something was kosher or not on food labels), this is an issue you must take action on.  Consumer's fear of GMO foods is consider "irrational" by GMO proponents, and that is probably because for many people it is an instinctive rejection of consuming something completely unnatural and untested for long-term health threats.  This is a good enough reason to demand labelling, but for many of us this is also a conscious, educated concern about the impact that corporate control of our food system will have on our world food supply and on our future. 

I don't know about you, but when it comes to choosing the food I eat every day for nourishment which plays a central role in my nutrition now, my health in the future and even determines my life expectancy, I would prefer to err on the side of caution. 

Think about rain gardens on your property!

Diagram from Ohio Wesleyan University

All the rain lately has highlighted the value of having rain gardens in your yard.  A rain garden is a depression, filled with shrubs and perennials that collect water runoff from a roof or paved surface allowing it to infiltrate into the soil of your yard. 

Water runoff is a major source of pollution to our nation’s waterways and run off and erosion contributes to the flooding which has really affected the northeast in the past couple weeks.   This fairly simple process (it requires a little more thought than a regular garden, and you need to dig a 6 inch depression).

A really helpful guide to a Do-It-Yourself rain garden is this brochure published by the UConn Cooperative Extension System. 

The brochure recommends that to design your garden you should consider placement of the rain garden – choose a location with good drainage that is fairly level that could catch water flowing from a gutter.  Determine if the soils are suitable at your rain garden site by doing a small percolation test – dig a hole about 6 inches deep and fill it with water, if there is still standing water 24 hours later, this location has inadequate drainage and your rain garden will  become a rain puddle.  The UConn brochure has detailed information about what kinds of plants to include in your rain garden and where to put them.

The Connecticut River Coastal Conservation District, UConn Cooperative Extension System and the town of Old Saybrook are hosting a "Build a Rain Garden" workshop on Sept. 22 from 9am – 1 pm at the Acton Public Library in Old Saybrook. 

Photos from our Fall and Winter Harvest Workshop last week!

Despite some Irene damage and a number of power outages CT NOFA held our workshop, originally postponed due to bad weather, about Fall and Winter Harvests at Common Ground High School in New Haven, CT.  Shannon Raider, Farm Manager at Common Ground, showed workshop attendees what to plant late in the season and how to care for crops which seem to be growing late in the season so that you can keep eating garden-fresh food in the coming months! 

Workshop leader, Shannon Raider, started off in a classroom at Common Ground High School giving workshop attendees the resources to find more information online for planting and purchasing seeds.

Then everyone went outside to discuss fall and winter crops.  Here Shannon shows participants how to make row cover supports by bending pipes into arcs.

 The workshop looks at row-covered turnips. The cloth covering the rows is called reemay, and protects crops from frost while retaining more heat during the day.

 Hardy greens can be planted in the late summer and early fall and grow under row covers until late in the growing season. Beets, carrots, radishes, escarole, radicchio and turnips Hukera are some other plants which can be planted in the fall and grown into the winter.

You probably don't have one of these in your yard . . . but high tunnels are a great way to extend the growing season for farms.  Functioning in the same way a greenhouse does, they retain heat and keep plants warm and growing well into the winter.

For some more information on fall planting, look out for some of CT NOFA's orther workshops and check out this site: http://www.greencycle.net/2011/08/planting-the-fall-vegetable-garden/

look for a seed calendar and other tools on this site: http://www.johnnyseeds.com/t-growguide.aspx

Glyphosate Persistence in the Environment

Photo: http://library.thinkquest.org/03oct/00946/accounts/human.htm

Glyphosate, or Round Up has been found in rain and rivers throughout the Mississippi River watershed.  Glyphosate is the most widely used herbicide in the world, with an increase from 11,000 tons used in 1992 to 88,000 tons in 2007.  However there have been few tests to determine glyphosate contamination, persistence and potential health effects because it is expensive to test for the presence of glyphosate. 

Glyphosate was frequently detected in surface waters, rain and air where it is heavily used in the basin.  It persists in streams throughout the growing season in agricultural hotspots like Iowa and Mississippi, but is not observed in other times of the year.  However the degraded product in glyphosate, aminomethylphosphonic acid or AMPA was frequently detected in streams and even in rain.  These studies were completed as part of the USGS National Water-Quality Assessment Program to study water quality conditions and whether they are getting better or worse over time. 

The EPA has set a deadline of 2015 to determine if glyphosate has been continued to be sold or in some way limited. Round up has been sold consistently to the agricultural sector since it was first marketed in 1974 . . . that will have been over 40 years of unlimited use before regulations or restrictions are considered.  These findings along with with new studies about superweeds raise doubt about industry claims that glyphosate is harmless in our environment.

Sources: 

USGS: http://www.usgs.gov/newsroom/article.asp?ID=2909

Reuters Report: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/31/us-glyphosate-pollution-idUSTRE77U61720110831

Irene's Damage to Small Farms

Flooded farmland in New Jersey
Photo: nj.com

Now a few days after Irene, the damage for farmers on the East Coast is apparent and has serious implications for the farmers themselves, for their land, and for consumers. In New Jersey some newly planted crops were washed away while established crops have been damaged by the flood waters. Further south stronger winds and higher flood waters caused more damage in Virginia and North Carolina. In North Carolina the crop losses were thought to be 10 – 40% of the normal yield.

The University of Connecticut has also issued a publication warning consumers and farmers about the safety of produce from flooded areas. Flood waters can carry contaminants from septic systems, lawns, roads, etc. These contaminants can be chemicals, like pesticides, oil, gas and heavy metals or pathogenic microorganisms from sewage treatment. This increases the damages caused by flooding (with good reason) but must be considered when evaluating the losses for farmers. There has to be a 30 foot buffer between flooded areas of fields and the areas being harvested, and precaution is required to avoid cross-contaminatino of non-flooded fields and those that were inundated.

In New York and Vermont, the crop damage was much worse. “As we all know, many of these farmers lost everything” said the President and CEO of the Vermont Community Foundation, Stuart Comstock-Gay. In Vermont a Farm Disaster Relief Fund has been established through the Vermont Community Foundation. The fund established a partnership with the Vermont Agency of Agriculture in order to provide grant supports to farms that have sustained losses and 100% of donations go to farm disaster relief. (More information here: http://www.vermontcf.org/give-now). The Vermont Farm Fund has established an emergency loan program and is accepting applications for $5,000 loans for farmers (http://hardwickagriculture.org/donate.html)

The storm seriously effected or destroyed farms by killing livestock, submerging crops, flooding barns and making roads impassible. Michael Hurwitz, director of the greenmarket program at GrowNYC estimated that 80% of New York City’s farmer’s market participants experienced damage. Our country’s heavily subsidized federal crop insurance system really only protects large growers, while New York and Vermont farmers are usually smaller farmers growing “specialty crops” (fruits and vegetables instead of cash crops like corn and soy). Nuestras Raices, an organization based in Holyoke, MA saw complete destruction of their farm, La Finca which was flooded by the Connecticut River losing betweein 80 and 90% of their crops and are also looking for solutions to save their farm: http://www.nuestras-raices.org/

If we really do value local agriculture, there needs to be recognition that farmers working on the small scale in coastal areas are operating at a significant risk to produce food for us. They deserve our support even in a recession, because they support our local food system and our local economy. Our national government’s utter lack of support for these small farm operations, even in the midst of a crisis, is alarming, but local farming supporters have the opportunity to show their appreciation for these services when farmers need it the most.

Find more information about the flood damage and response in this Grist article by Tom Laskawy: http://www.grist.org/sustainable-farming/2011-09-01-irenes-damage-not-overrated-for-farmers
And this New York Times Article “Upstate Farmers Find that a Fertile Flood Plain is a Two-Edged Sword” by Lisa Foderaro http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/31/nyregion/after-irene-upstate-new-york-farmers-suffer-in-flood-plain.html?_r=1