Posts Tagged ‘farmers’

My Milk Story

January 22nd, 2010

I don’t often post stories about my childhood, but this NPR story, titled “Got (Good) Milk? Ask The Dairy Evangelist,” had me reminiscing about what has grown to be a fond childhood memory of mine. 

 

My Story

Growing up, I hated milk.  In fact, one of the few concessions my parents made involved allowing me to add a little Nestle chocolate mix to my milk. A little chocolate milk mix meant I’d down a glass of milk at each meal without complaining. But that changed one day when we went over to our neighbors for dinner.

Whenever eating at someone else’s house, I knew better than to throw a tantrum about having to drink plain milk.  So on this occasion, I dutifully downed the glass presented to me with my meal, and the strangest thing happened — I liked it!  (Yes, Life cereal fans, it’s true: “Hey Mikey.  He likes it.”)

The milk, which somehow tasted different than what I was used to drinking, came from a cow that our neighbors milked. Feeling somewhat full of myself for drinking my milk without a fuss, I later admitted to my parents that “I liked that milk, and I’d drink more if it always tasted that way.”

Not too many months went by before my dad returned home with a cow in the trailer.  Turns out, he actually purchased that very cow from our neighbor, and I earned a new chore.  It was my job to milk the cow every evening.  No kidding: admitting that I liked fresh milk cost me about 30 minutes of my free time each day.

Milking was an interesting experience.  As school activities began infringing on my evening chores, I earned morning milk duty.  Getting up at 6:00 am so that I could make swing choir and stage band practice at 7:30 taught me a lot about responsibilities.  It also probably explains why I enjoy getting up at 5:00 am.

We soon had more milk than we knew what to do with and my original distain for milk soon turned to a weakness for all things dairy:  whole cream on my Corn Flakes for breakfast, and homemade ice cream for the holidays.  My parents even “shared” extra milk with the neighbors, creating a little local economy. 

While growing up, I never felt that milking chores was a fair tradeoff for the benefits of being able to enjoy milk.  But over the years, I’ve grown fond of the experience. It wasn’t until reading the NPR story, however, that I realized I don’t really like milk anymore.

 

Warren Taylor’s story

Warren Taylor is an Ohio dairyman, who as the NPR story states, “is on a crusade to put cows back on pastures and bring the flavor back to milk.” (source:  John Burnet,  “Got (Good) Milk?  Ask The Dairy Evangelist,” NPR, Dec. 10, 2009)

“Bring back flavor to milk?”  That is something I hadn’t considered in a long time. 

Taylor believes the process for changing the taste of milk starts with changing what cows eat.  This means letting them chomp on grass, rather than the typical feed stock of corn and soybeans.  (Feeding corn & soybeans means dairy farmers need less pasture ground, and it increases milk production.) 

Taylor also believes milk tastes better when it is:

Unwittingly, my family followed all of Taylor’s practices, and I’ve got to believe that it’s a big reason milk tasted better to me as a kid.  I must admit, however, that I have no scientific research to back up this belief.  As the article and ensuing comments indicate, not everyone agrees with Taylor: quality, cost, and food safety seem to be the issues at play. 

I’m sure we will hear more about this issue in the future, and I hope to learn from the debate that’s sure to emerge.  Until then, I’ll just ask, “So how does milk taste to you?”

 

Photo Credit:- David Jones - Flickr

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ReImagining the CCC: Could it train rural residents?

December 8th, 2009

David Becker at the Friend of the Farmer blog recently issued a call for a “reimagined” Civilian Conservation Corp that focuses on helping farmers learn how to use technology.  His idea essentially calls for unemployed college grads to assist farmers in acquiring the technology skills necessary for the 21st Century.  He explains:

The Rural Electrification Act of the 1930s brought power to rural areas. Today’s farmers, especially small farmers, need similar help not only tapping into the fire hose of information and opportunities available to them, but getting connected to guidance on maximizing its usefulness. Imagine the options: real-time access to weather and crop reports, databases of local and national agricultural extension programs, ordering parts and supplies, acquiring new skills through distance learning, even building an online marketing presence using low bandwidth social media tools.”

I think the idea makes a lot of sense. Just two weeks ago over the Thanksgiving weekend, I heard my father-in-law (a 73-year-old farmer) lament his lack of computer skills.  Becker’s idea would address just that need. I would, however, recommend that Becker’s concept be expanded to include training for all rural businesses and people– not just farmers. 

At the Rural Learning Center, we’ve been noodling around the idea of how we can develop some training activities for rural residents that helps individuals understand the marketing opportunities presented by Web 2.0 tools (like Facebook, blogging, and Flickr).  We firmly believe all rural communities and businesses could benefit from a basic understanding of social media marketing.  

There is, however, one question that training programs like the above must overcome to be successful:  How far do people with virtually no computer skills have to go before they are able to see real benefit from the training?

Take my father-in-law as an example.  He’s a successful farmer in production agriculture, but I’m pretty sure he’s never used e-mail, and I doubt he could effectively navigate the Internet to find information, including the local weather he is always interested in.   Are we biting off more than we can handle in trying to bring these skills to computer novices?

I doubt we will ever see the rebirth of a CCC program that focuses on technology training, at least not at the level it operated in the 1930s.  But that shouldn’t stop those of us with a passion for rural from developing programs that accomplish the goal of training rural residents to use technology.  After all, what’s the use of investing in broadband internet connections if we don’t also teach individuals how to use it in their businesses and daily lives? 

Photo Note: This statue, named “Work Call” is dedicated to the men of the Civilian Conservation Corps. I is located outside the Visitors Center in Hill City, SD, which also houses a CCC exhibit.

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Posted in Community Development, Economic Development, Rural, Training and Events | Comments (1)

“Farm Beginnings” now offered in Brookings

July 14th, 2009

I’ve been impressed lately with how Deuel Area Development, Inc.  has been using their blog to connect with the residents of Deuel County, SD.  As you can see on their blog (www.deuelco.wordpress.com), they use it to provide updates on meetings, social events, and resources. 

 Today, I’m reposted one their posts (Thanks Briana) of a resource titled “Farm Beginnings now offered in Brookings” because I think it applies to people across the region.  When you are done reading, I’d encourage you to look into the other cool stuff going on over in Deuel. And if you are in community/economic development work, I hope you consider using a blog as a way to connect with your constituents. 

“Farm Beginnings” now offered in Brookings

Has it always been your dream to be a farmer, but you just aren’t sure how to get started? Well, an amazing opportunity is now available to help those dreams come true! Farm Beginnings, a farmer-led training and support program, will be available in Brookings this year.

Brought to you by Dakota Rural Action, Farm Beginnings is a program with a curriculum developed by a Minnesota-based Land Stewardship Project over a decade ago. Minnesota, Illinois, Nebraska, North Dakota, and New York are already taking advantage of the program, and now with the help of DRA, the curriculum has been adapted to fit the needs of South Dakota!

The Farm Beginnings curriculum expands far beyond the basic start-up steps to creating a new operation. Subjects covered by Farm Beginnings include:

Goal setting

Financial planning

Business plan creation

Alternative marketing

Innovative production techniques

 All of the classes are taught by experienced, local farmers and agricultural professionals.  If you are busy during the year, don’t worry. Farm Beginnings is not a time consuming project. From October 2009 to March 2012, classes are held twice a month in Brookings. On-farm education components are held from April to August, and participants may connect with other farmers for additional mentorship if desired.

If you are interested in this program and would like to learn more or fill out an application, contact:

Dakota Rural Action at (605) 697-5204 or heidiku@dakotarural.org.

The application deadline is August 31, 2009, so don’t wait! Class size is limited!

~Post written by Angela Kjenstad

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The Twittering Farmer

July 3rd, 2009

We often assume that Twitter is a “Gen Y thing” and that rural places haven’t gotten into the social media craze.  But a CNN article titled “Twittering from the tractor” provides a glimpse of how some Midwest Farmers are embracing technology. 

So what’s the value Twitter and other social networking tools offer farmers?  The article discusses some knowledge sharing applications currently being used by farmers, but I think the article captures the real value these technologies offer people in rural places with the following:

The biggest draw of smartphones and online social networks is that they provide human connections to people for whom farm life can be lonely, said Chuck Zimmerman, publisher of an agriculture news blog called agwired.com.

Yes, farmers are social creatures.  That’s why rural community cafés are often filled with farmers who come to town each morning for a cup of coffee.  I’m not sure that the majority of farmers are going to embrace this type of communication, but we’ll probably see more of it in the future. 

And let’s keep in mind, nobody tweets without broadband internet, and blackberries are a waste of money if the closest cell tower is 45 miles away.  Those are real issues limiting technology’s use in some rural communities.

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Posted in Agriculture, Community Development, Quality of Life, Rural | Comments (0)

A reminder to thank the farmers

November 27th, 2008

As we sit down at the Thanksgiving table, tradition requires many of us to offer a prayer of thankgiving for the food we are about to eat and the farmers who produced it.   In these tough economic times, however, I’m afraid that people are often blaming farmers rather than thanking them.

And why shouldn’t the public blame farmers?  For most of the year, the media has publicized record corn prices, creating the perception that farmers are rolling in the dough while the rest of us struggle.  This perception is reinforced every time we go to the grocery store and experience higher food prices first-hand.  It’s tough not to feel that farmers are flourishing while many American are struggling.

Any feelings of jealousy I might have been harboring towards farmers were washed away this morning as the Daily Yonder reminded me of how little of the costs of my thanksgiving meal reaches the farmer’s bank account.  Citing the National Farmers Union and the US Department of Agriculture, the Yonder tells us that:

80% of the cost of food goes for off farm costs, such as marketing, processing, wholesaling, retailing and the cost of those feeding stations that crop up in food stores these days.

There it is in a simple, plain language:  If 80% of food costs go to non-farm activities, then farmers don’t deserve all of the blame for rising food prices.  It’s a lot more complicated than that.

So before digging into your meal today, I ask you to say a prayer of thanks for farmers.  And if anyone at your table complains about the rising cost of food and blames the farmers, I hope you will tune them in Daily Yonder’s article and other links I offer below. 

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