healthy food - Smith Farm Chicken - a local success story - SIBEJO

SLU student and summer intern Amanda Korb will be spending part of her time visiting farmers and profiling them here on the GardenShare blog.  Here's her first entry:

�Fajita spiced Smith Farm Chicken Breast on a crisp house made blue and yellow corn tortilla with queso fresco, shaved lettuce, toasted cumin sour cream and fresh cilantro.� Sounds delicious right? So describes a dish prepared by the 1844 House, an American bistro in Potsdam, made with chicken raised and processed by Massena locals Ron and Cathy Smith.

On Farmers Market days, Ron and Cathy get up at 6am
to prepare their trailer with fresh poultry for customers

Smith raises approximately 800 chickens, a handful of turkeys, beef, and occasionally pigs. Their primary focus is chicken; a USDA inspected and certified processing unit stands within yards of their chicken barns. The chickens have 24/7 access to an outside yard from their clean and spacious coops. Each chicken receives an abundant of food, water, sunlight and socialization.

The Ron and Cathy�s bottom line is the humane treatment of animals. Ron said he knows many farmers who dislike their livestock, or find their daily farm life a chore. He believes if one doesn�t like an animal, then one shouldn�t raise it. Cathy asserted. �It�s not about how long the animals lives, but the quality of life we give them�. Evidence of Ron and Cathy�s words was abundant as I took a tour of their facility. The impeccable cleanliness of the slaughterhouse would impress even my Grandma. What is more, Cathy nurtures any sick animal on the farm personally. They currently have two pet turkeys and four pet laying hens.

This is Ron�s retirement job. Cathy works full time as a dog groomer in a shop right next to the slaughterhouse. When I asked Ron if he could have the same quality of life if poultry farming was his lifetime occupation, his answer was clear a �no.� Sustainability, Ron believes, is the capability to break even on expenditures while still making some sort of income.

Ron sits next to his daughter and granddaughter
at the Canton Farmers Market

That income can be found in the freezers clustered around the farm. Ron said he had intentions of installing a walk-in freezer, but the cost did not outweigh the benefits. Instead, a horse trailer filled with freezers of chicken processed the night before is one of the first to make an appearance at the Canton and Potsdam farmers markets. Aside from the markets, the Ron and Cathy also profit from the aforementioned 1844 House as well as Jake�s on the Water. The couple both survives and relies on local business alone. When I asked which subsidized them more- markets or restaurants- Ron replied it is a balance of both. One challenge they face is competing against the cheap chicken prices Wal-Mart and Aldi�s offer, which is a quick 15-minute drive down the road from their farm. For families receiving SNAP, a $1.65/lb chicken breast is the more affordable option than Smith Farm $3.00/lb. Ron even admitted he would shop at WalMart if the roles were reversed.

The question of cheap food v. the added cost local food then comes into play. At GardenShare, we focus on raising the region�s economy by encouraging families to buy local food. For every $10 spent at Wal-Mart or Aldis, a farmer only receives $1.58 in return. Contrasting, a farmer collects $8-9 for every $10 spent at a local farmers market. GardenShare recognizes buying local as a point of paramount significance; therefore, we try to promote programs such as CSA Bonus Bucks and SNAP Double Up, which make choosing local the more promising option. EBT machines are available both the Potsdam and Canton Farmers Market, where Ron and Cathy can be found selling their fresh poultry. Taking the same $10 spent at the farmers market, about $7.80 is re-spent into the region. Paying a few more cents for local food supports the farmers who raise the product, the community surrounding the farmers and in turn the next generation.

healthy food - Agriculture and sustainability - SIBEJO

Austin Miles, a college student, wrote an interesting piece about sustainability and scale, which ran in Ohio University�s student newspaper, The Post.  The article states that no measure of distance, no simple definition of local or global is an indicator of either inherent sustainability or environmental degradation.  Here's the conclusion:

"To zealously support local food systems themselves may be unsustainable. That defensive localism, often characterized as elitist or bourgeois, stresses the importance of a sort of purist local food system in opposition to the global, capitalist system. In Athens, for instance, the 30 Mile Meal promotes local food as a sustainable response to the influence of corporate interests over the food system. But the local food system in Athens could not be characterized as sustainable because it is not necessarily equitable.

"A truly sustainable food system may require consideration of multiple scales because they are all connected. The local scale is nested within the national scale, which is in turn nested within the global scale. The world, globalized as it is, will require an food system that can operate on all of those scales. The local food system surely is important, but the road to sustainability will require that we move beyond localism and regionalism and figure out how we can use the various scales as means to create a sustainable food system."

Read full article

healthy food - BEST PRACTICES FOR AN EQUITABLE & SUSTAINABLE FOOD SYSTEM - SIBEJO

A new report outlines the state of food insecurity in the United States and highlights successful tools to bring healthy and sustainable food sources to underserved communities. The reportnotes that people of color, low-income communities, and families with children are most likely to live in �food deserts� with limited or no access to consistent sources of healthy food. The authors illustrate successful policies and approaches to address food insecurity through case studies of programs to (1) create healthy corner and nonprofit grocery stores and food cooperatives; (2) develop farm-to-school networks; and (3) use and improve state and local governments procurement policies, land use ordinances, and permitting processes to improve residents� diets and bring more local, fresh, and unprocessed food into low-income neighborhoods.

Source: Center for American Progress, 5/12/16, Best Practices 

healthy food - Earth Day is tomorrow - lots going on in Canton! - SIBEJO

This year, people around the world will be celebrating the 46^th Earth Day on Friday, April 22.  There will be public rallies, protests against fossil fuels, and demonstrations about mass extinctions all over the globe.  But what�s happening in our neck of the woods?

Students at St. Lawrence University have taken it upon themselves to make sure that Earth Day does not go unnoticed.  Thursday night kicks off the �Earth Day Extravaganza� with an event called EARTHx � a spinoff of the international podcast series, TED Talks.  Professors and community members have been invited to answer the question, in a time of environmental crisis, how can we live right now?, from each of their unique perspectives.  Homesteaders, outdoor recreationalists, economists, farmers, and environmentalists are just some of the speakers who will have five minutes to share their personal stories.  EARTHx will take place on campus at Pub 56 at 7:OO PM, on Thursday, April 21.  The event is free and open to the public.  A map of St. Lawrence�s campus can be found here.

On Friday, the focus shifts to more community engagement and participation with the issues surrounding Earth Day, as students join together to stand up for the environment.

Plastic water bottles that were salvaged from trashcans will be strung together and hung up in Sullivan Student Center to showcase the ridiculous amount of waste produced by not using reusable water bottles.  White Spruce saplings will be planted in rusty oil barrels and placed on display in the Student Center to urge the St. Lawrence community to question our energy investments.  �On behalf of Mother Earth, let�s uproot society from the false security of fossil fuel dependency,� reads the sign that will accompany the trees.  Over one hundred people plan to �drop dead� during the lunch rush to represent the number of species that face extinction every day.  And the food miles of all of our exotic favorites will be calculated, as well as the carbon that their travel emits into the atmosphere, so that we might be less inclined to pick up that banana, and opt for the local apple instead.

Students have chosen to focus on the issues because they want to demonstrate that complacency is not an option.  The earth that we live on is experiencing huge amounts of environmental stress, and our actions have a direct impact on it.

From 12PM to 2PM, there will be a tie dying station outside the Student Center.  The dyes will be made from natural ingredients instead of chemicals, and will use locally grown products.  Beets, onion skins, and black beans � all grown by students at the Sustainability House on Rt. 68 in Canton � produce beautiful, earthy colors that aren�t toxic if they spill into the soil. Materials will be provided.  At 3PM, anyone is invited to the ice cream social behind Commons College at 78 Park Street in exchange for a few seeds sowed.  Seed to Table, a club on campus that grows food for the dining halls, needs help starting seeds for their upcoming season, and anyone can take a stab at making soil blocks or getting their hands dirty in the permaculture garden.  All of these events are free and open to the public.

But students aren�t the only ones celebrating Earth Day.  Nature Up North, another local non-profit, is hosting an #EncounterEarth campaign all day Friday which calls on participants to post a picture on their website of something they did outside.  Nature Up North hopes that the contest will urge people to get outdoors and appreciate their local environments � one lucky Encounter poster will win a prize!  You can find more information on how to participate here.

The festivities continue into the weekend, with Nature Up North�s Earth Day 7K at 9:30 on Saturday morning at the Wachtmeister Field Station.  After the race, runners can make their way to Folk Fest at St. Lawrence University, where bands from near and far will be playing music from noon to nearly midnight outside on the Java Quad.  Local vendors will be at the festival from 12PM until 6PM, so make sure to stop by and check them out � both GardenShare and Nature Up North will have tables there!

There are many ways to celebrate Earth Day, and many ways to make a difference.  Here at GardenShare, we hope that you will choose to think about where your food comes from and how it was grown � not just on Earth Day, but everyday.  Your choices have an impact on our environment and our community!  How will you be appreciating nature?