Buy Fresh, Buy Local PA

Johns Hopkins Magazine on Antibiotic Use in Agriculture

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The June issue of Johns Hopkins Magazine has a comprehensive -- and disturbing -- article on the links which JHU researchers have found between industrial farming and drug-resistant pathogens. Here's an excerpt:

While still at the University of Maryland, Silbergeld decided her first farm project would be to study whether poultry workers and people in farm communities were at risk of carrying the same strains of drug-resistant bacteria found in chickens, a study she finished after she came to Johns Hopkins in 2001. In Eastern Shore communities like Pocomoke City, Princess Anne, Smyrna, and Salisbury, she enrolled three groups of subjects: workers whose job was to catch chickens in the barns to load onto trucks for transport to processing plants, chicken hangers who attached live birds to the mechanized line at the plant, and community residents who did not work in the industry but lived near it. She found that 41 percent of the chicken catchers had been colonized by Campylobacter jejuni, which is commensal in poultry — it derives benefit from the chicken without harming it — but pathogenic in people, where it's the second-leading cause of gastrointestinal disease in the United States. Among the workers at the poultry processing plant, the rate of colonization was 63 percent. Of the nine people who lived near but did not work in the industry, 100 percent had been colonized.

Read the whole story here.

Kennett Square Market Opening

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More upbeat news about a market opening up for the season: this time Examiner.com reports on Kennett Square Farmers' Market in Chester County. Claire Murray, coordinator of the Chester County Buy Fresh Buy Local chapter, is one of the founders and has been a vendor from year one right through this year, year TEN! Excerpt:

The market, which opened for the season on Friday, May 15, provides plenty of something even hotter: top-quality local food. A visit there will give you a quick introduction to some two dozen of the Chester County area's top producers of local vegetables, other foods, and a variety of handcrafted artisanal products.

Go direct to the source to read the whole story. And don't miss the slide show...

Do you want cash back or the Goat?

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Speaking of goats (see previous post): Mitsubishi Motors in New Zealand is attempting to lure new pick-up buyers with the promise of a bonus goat with your purchase.

Read On if you think we're making this up!

Pleased to Meet You, Dinner

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A recent NYTimes article shed some light on a largely under-the-radar shopping experience. This is DEFINITELY not Whole Foods...

Here's an excerpt:

The lucky cow that escaped another slaughterhouse in Jamaica this month was only the tip of the horn. There are about 90 live-poultry markets in the metropolitan area. That number has doubled since the mid-1990s, state officials say, because of the demands of immigrants from countries where eyeballing your meat while it is alive is considered common sense.
About a quarter of the markets are also licensed to slaughter larger livestock.

New York has probably the country's highest concentration of live-animal markets, though there are pockets in New Jersey, New England, Philadelphia, California and the Midwest, said Susan Trock, a veterinarian who manages poultry health inspections for the State Department of Agriculture and Markets.

Read the whole story (which includes a great slide show, featuring the goat above -- who is most likely by now in someone's fridge).

Anyone know of any specific live-animal markets here in Pennsylvania?

East Liberty Farmers Market Opening Day

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The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette posted a nice, short (2.5 minute) video which was shot on the opening day of the East Liberty Farmers' Market, prominently featuring Art King of Harvest Valley Farms, a Buy Fresh Buy Local Partner business in Western PA.

Watch it now.

I heard about this because the market happens to be one of my favorites, less than a mile from my house. But if anyone know of other short videos posted online featuring other Pennsylvania market opening days, please let us know!

Food Safety - Whose Responsibility?

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Two articles just dropped into our inbox here at BuyLocalPA.org. They're from two very different publications but both touching on an increasingly common theme: the safety of our food supply. One discusses whether consumers should have to cook every food to a "kill" temperature to insure safe ingestion. The other highlights a growing area of concern for small-scale livestock producers here in PA and beyond: whether proposed regulations meant to make meat products more traceable could present an unfair (or even unwarranted) burden. Here are excerpts from each:

The frozen pot pies that sickened an estimated 15,000 people with salmonella in 2007 left federal inspectors mystified... The pie maker, ConAgra Foods... could not find the culprit. It also tried cooking the vegetables at high temperatures, a strategy the industry calls a "kill step," to wipe out any lingering microbes. But the vegetables turned to mush in the process.

So ConAgra - which sold more than 100 million pot pies last year under its popular Banquet label - decided to make the consumer responsible for the kill step. The "food safety" instructions and four-step diagram on the 69-cent pies offer this guidance: "Internal temperature needs to reach 165° F as measured by a food thermometer in several spots."

Increasingly, the corporations that supply Americans with processed foods are unable to guarantee the safety of their ingredients. In this case, ConAgra could not pinpoint which of the more than 25 ingredients in its pies was carrying salmonella. Other companies do not even know who is supplying their ingredients, let alone if those suppliers are screening the items for microbes and other potential dangers, interviews and documents show.

Yet the supply chain for ingredients in processed foods - from flavorings to flour to fruits and vegetables - is becoming more complex and global as the drive to keep food costs down intensifies. As a result, almost every element, not just red meat and poultry, is now a potential carrier of pathogens, government and industry officials concede.

Read the Full Article at NYTimes.com

HARRISBURG, Pa. - If Thursday's meeting on the National Animal Identification System (NAIS) at the Farm Show Complex was any indication, then finding a solution to the question on a workable system is far from over. Dozens of passionate and at times angry farmers and industry people showed up for the day-long meeting... While it was the hope of USDA officials to get some consensus on the program, they instead got an earful from people who feel the agency has lost touch with their concerns and feel it will overburden them with paperwork and costs...

Most speakers, who identified themselves as either small farmers or supporting small farms, said the system is a potential infringement on civil liberties while others feel it violates religious freedoms of Plain Sect groups such as the Amish and Mennonites...

"I understand the supposed benefit of being able to track where diseased animals have been," said Maureen Diaz of Gettysburg, Pa. But she added that it won't make a difference if the fundamental problems of good animal husbandry are not addressed first. "Animal disease is not the problem of the small farmer. It is the problem of the factory farm, not the local farmer," she said.

Read the Full Article at LancasterFarming.com

Here at BuyLocalPA.org, we think the most important thing anyone - whether a farmer, government official or mere "eater" - can do to reduce risk is to make the food system as locally-based as possible. A safe food system is built on trust, and trust is built on actual human relationships. Such relationships are harder to maintain the larger and more diffuse the food system becomes. With a local approach to eating, these relationships just naturally come as part of the package, adding interest, information, and yes, even safety to your shopping experience. Comments, anyone?

Frito-Lay and Locavores

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A story in the New York Times yesterday highlighted some bigger players jumping on the Buy Local Bandwagon (or should we say "Potato Wagon?"), with a focus on a new marketing campaign for Lay's potato chips:

Five different ads will highlight farmers who grow some of the two billion pounds of starchy chipping potatoes the Frito-Lay company uses each year. One is Steve Singleton, who tends 800 acres in Hastings, Fla.

"We grow potatoes in Florida, and Lays makes potato chips in Florida," he says in the ad. "It's a pretty good fit."

Mr. Singleton's ad and the other four will be shown only in the farmer's home state. A national spot featuring all five potato farmers begins next week.

Frito-Lay is one of several big companies that, along with some large-scale farming concerns, are embracing a broad interpretation of what eating locally means. This mission creep has the original locavores choking on their yerba mate. But food executives who measure marketing budgets in the millions say they are mining the concept because consumers care more than ever about where their food comes from.

Read the full story at NYTimes.com

And then let us know what you think. Is this a step in the right direction or a ridculous spin job?

Locavores

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Hot Travel Destinations: Marrakesh, Kazakhstan, and a Pennsylvania Farm

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This weekend's New York Times Travel Section featured the 44 Places to Go in 2009.

From the Aegean Sea to Zambia, this year’s most compelling destinations are awash in sublime landscapes, cutting-edge art, gala music festivals, and stylish new resorts.

Ranked #43 among these jet-setter destinations is a Pennsylvania Farm, one of the smartest places to be seen this year. For all you trendsetters out there who can't make it to Cologne, do a little sleuthing and find your nearest "ag" outpost, get your boots in the muck and shake a PA farmer's hand!

NYT Article : The 44 Places to Go in 2009

Local Thanksgiving

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Local Thanksgiving was all the rage in 2008!

We are eager to hear your stories about Thanksgiving! Was anything on your table locally grown? Got a recipe to share? Contribute your thoughts, ideas and culinary passion by commenting on this blog and let us know how that local turkey tasted!

Check out some of the following articles chronicaling why and how folks chose to eat locally this past Thanksgiving too:

Pittsburgh Post Gazette

Pittsburgh Tribune Review

NY TIMES

NY MAG

SW PA Apple Festival

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A great time was had by all at last weekend's Apple Festival in SW PA. The Buy Fresh Buy Local team was on hand to share information and encourage folks to eat more local food.

Mia Farber & Greg Boulos & the BFBL table

Photographer Larry Rippel was able to capture the event in photos!

Do you take MILK?

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We are excited to share this excerpt of what can happen when folks from different walks of life get together and how the local food movement can change perspectives!

During Local Food Week, a coffee shop that makes a huge effort to source locally, Enrico's Tazza d'Oro in Highland Park hosted Turner Dairy Farms farmer Mary Stoner of Stoners Dairy in Latrobe, PA. After having a wonderful visit and the opportunity to discuss farming and the process of milk arriving at the coffee shop, new friends and plans for future visits were made!

To hear more about this wonderful exchange, read Amy Enrico's blog post.

We feel that seeing events and relationships come full circle is the exact goal of the Buy Fresh Buy Local® program, which aims to help consumers find, choose and appreciate great local foods and the Good Food Neighborhood network which links local foods, farms and people.

Toward a greener foodservice

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University dining options are notorious for packing on the pounds, but Kate Leahy’s Special Report: The Era of Sustainability explores local sourcing initiatives across the country.

While restaurants chefs and cooks have all been leaning toward greener food in the past years, it is nice to see institutions catching up and making a commitment to sourcing local food. It is good to know that not only are our sports fans & college-bound eating well, but most importantly its satisfying to learn that many universities have begun to incorporate this important knowledge into their curriculum. Schools now boast student-led organic farms, cooperatives and on-farm work programs teaching our young leaders early on about the growing importance of sustainability.

We are always eager to recognize those making the local commitment, so if you know about local sourcing initiatives on the part of institutions in Pennsylvania, feel free to post a comment here and give them due recognition.

Read the Article

CSA Benefits Local Fresh Food Lovers, Farms

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PITTSBURGH (KDKA) ― From tomatoes, to scallions, to spinach and now jalapeño peppers – E. Coli and salmonella scares have us taking a closer look at what we feed our families.

But if you want to know where your food is coming from then a fairly new concept called "Community Supported Agriculture" may be just the ticket...

Click here to read KDKA's full story on CSAs

Study: Organic Milk from Pasture-Fed Cows

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June 4, 2008

Study: Organic Milk from Pasture-Fed Cows Contains Higher Levels of Beneficial Nutrients

CORNUCOPIA, WI – Cows that graze on fresh pasture produce milk with higher levels of antioxidants and beneficial fatty acids, such as conjugated linoleic acid and omega-3’s, as shown by a recently published study from Newcastle University in the UK.

“Grazing dairy cows on grass or grass and clover swards produces milk with a healthier fatty acid profile and higher levels of fat soluble vitamins and antioxidants,” notes Gillian Butler, livestock project manager for the Nafferton Ecological Farming Group at Newcastle University, who led the study.

Previous studies have already shown that organic milk has higher levels of favorable nutrients. This study points to the diet of organic cows—fresh grass and clover—as the major reason for these nutritional benefits.

“This study joins a growing body of science indicating strong links between what we feed our farm animals and the nutritional quality of what they feed us. Not only are you what you eat, but you are what what you eat eats too,” says Michael Pollan, author of the best sellers The Omnivore’s Dilemma and In Defense of Food.

Consumers who purchase organic foods often do so for various reasons, ranging from a desire to support an ecologically sustainable agricultural system, the humane treatment of livestock, to wanting to reduce their exposure to dangerous pesticide residues. Studies showing that organically produced foods are also of higher nutritional quality offer another reason for consumers to buy organic.

The study is part of the ongoing Cross-European Quality Low Input Food project, which looks into animal health and welfare, milk quality, and working toward minimizing the use of antibiotics in dairy production. “This paper clearly shows that if you manage livestock naturally then it’s a win-win situation for both us and them,” says Professor Carlo Leifert, the project coordinator.

Butler, the lead author of the study, also noted that cows don’t have to be certified organic, but that organic certification can give the assurance that grazing makes a major contribution to their diet. “If more herds made more use of grazing, butter and cream would have a healthier fatty acid profile,” she says.

“Organic consumers can be very confident that the vast majority of brand name organic milk comes from cows that were given the opportunity to graze on fresh pasture whenever possible,” says Mark Kastel, codirector of The Cornucopia Institute, a farm and food policy research group based in Cornucopia, Wisconsin.

Some large industrial-scale organic dairies, or "factory farms," milking thousands of cows each, however, have come under fire from watchdog groups like The Cornucopia Institute for not adequately pasturing their cows, as the federal organic regulations require.

Aurora Organic Dairy, which provides private-label organic milk for stores such as Wal-Mart and Target, was found by USDA inspectors to be in willful “violation” of numerous organic standards, including the failure to adequately pasture their cows. The Cornucopia Institute also alleges that the milk from some of Dean Foods’ farms, which is marketed under the Horizon brand, comes from cows that were not given adequate access to fresh pasture.

“These scofflaw dairies, which are a small minority in the organic community, but supply large retailers, are cheating organic consumers out of the nutritional benefits that they expect and deserve when they purchase organic milk,” adds Kastel. Cornucopia has published a report and scorecard ranking of all organic dairy brands on their web site: www.cornucopia.org.

Organic farmers such as Kevin and Lisa Engelbert from Nichols, NY are among the hundreds of family farmers who supply organic milk from pastured cows. “We’re glad to know that there is now a growing body of scientific evidence to support what we’ve always believed, which is that allowing our cows to eat their natural diet and exhibit their natural behavior on pasture has real benefits for consumers as well,” says Lisa Engelbert.

MORE:

The conclusions reached in the Newcastle University’s organic dairy study parallel the findings of a broad analysis of recent studies examining the comparative nutritional properties of organic and conventional fruits and vegetables.

A recent report from The Organic Center, State of Science Review: Nutritional Superiority of Organic Foods, determined that organic plant-based foods in general have higher nutrient values. The report examined the findings of nearly 100 studies looking at nutritional differences between organic and conventional fruits and vegetables in reaching its conclusion that, on average, “organic plant-based foods are more nutritious.”

"Based on a growing body of scientific literature it isn't surprising that the milk and meat from cattle who enjoy a 100% organic, pasture-based diet has the potential to enhance human health, Kastel stated."

Can A Tomato Revive a Community ... And Save the PLANET?

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On Saturday, May 17, 2008 the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette featured an exciting article about Mindy Joy Schwartz and her urban farm and nursery in Wilkinsburg. The article put a spotlight on local, community development projects which are ever-increasing in the Western PA region. People like Mindy help us to remember to focus on the earth's abundance and our local opportunities.

Click here to read the article

On-Farm Research

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On-Farm Research "Farmers constantly experiment. We try new products, new methods, new management styles, all within the domain of an ever-changing mother nature." The On-Farm Research Program at PASA offers producers an opportunity to conduct applied research on their farms. Results of this farm-based research directly benefit producers by answering questions related to increasing overall sustainability and profitability of their farms. Design and implementation of these research trials is uncomplicated and intended to enable research to be farmer-directed. Since 2003, PASA, in conjunction with The Pennsylvania State University, have been working to identify producer research interests. Two previous surveys of the membership have shown strong interest in the several topics, including proper cover crop management, animal parasite control (specifically in small ruminants) and methods to improve soil fertility. For more information concerning the On-Farm Research Program at PASA contact Michele Gauger at 814-349-9856 or e-mail at michele@pasafarming.org. You can also learn more about Penn State's On-Farm Research Program by visiting http://onfarm.cas.psu.edu, or by contacting Ron Hoover, On-Farm Research Program Coordinator at 814-865-6672 or e-mail at rjh7@psu.edu. Recent On-Farm Research Trials Weed Control in Small Grains Assessing the Status of Small to Mid-Size Cider Press Operations in Pennsylvania Early Blight Control in Organic “Valencia” Tomato with Copper Hydroxide Increased Soil Fertility and Aeration to Reduce Buttercup in Pastures Small Ruminant Management Current On-Farm Research Projects Cover Crop Management Row Covers & Control of Squash Bug and Cucumber Beetle in Winter Squash Varieties Spring Seeded Cover Crop Rolling Demonstration

About PASA

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The Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture (PASA) is a nonprofit organization working to improve the economic prosperity, environmental soundness and social propriety of Pennsylvania food and agricultural systems. We work with farmers who grow our food, consumers who eat the food, and those concerned with the ecological wellbeing of our environment and natural resources, among many other interest groups.

PASA is the only statewide, member-based, sustainable farming organization in Pennsylvania and the Northeast, and is one of the largest in the nation. The Association seeks to address the sustainability of the entire food and agriculture industry, and places great value on efforts to build bridges between various and disparate participants in the food system.

PASA creates networks and markets to strengthen the ties between concerned consumers and family farmers. PASA is building statewide channels that link farmers with farmers, farmers with consumers, and consumers with markets. As our organization has grown, we've had some real successes with a variety of educational programs - both on and off the farm, that are shaping new partnerships that enhance the lives and livelihoods of producers and consumers.

PASA is a network of people who care - we all have a role in assuring the health and longevity of our regional farms and food supply. PASA is the catalyst that brings together those dedicated to advancing sustainable food and farming systems. PASA is a dynamic new model for partnerships between traditional agricultural and our ever-changing society and has worked to forge positive and needed changes in the way food is grown, harvested, distributed, and marketed in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Our family farms face enormous threats and whether we can save farming in time is up to all of us. They can and will be saved - if they have enough friends (and farmers). Please be one of them. Please join us.