An Iowa Couple Grows Food, Family and a Community on an Organic Farm

From the USDA:

Posted by Ron Nichols, Natural Resources Conservation Service, on January 20, 2015 at 10:30 AM

Andy and Melissa Dunham, seen here with daughter Leonora, own and operate Grinnell Heritage Farm in Grinnell, Iowa. NRCS photo by Ron Nichols.

Some people are born to farm. Others grow to love it. In Melissa Dunham’s case, she fell in love with a farmer — and now she loves both the farmer and the farm.

“I was happily employed in the Twin Cities, but then I fell in love with this wonderful man who told me he was an organic vegetable farmer,” Melissa said. “I thought, ‘Sure, why not?’ We got married within seven months.”

It was an unexpected career and life change. “Everybody thought I was nuts moving down here to central Iowa to be a farmer,” she said. But now she’s growing food she believes in — and in a way that will leave the land in better condition for the generations to follow.

She and her husband, Andy Dunham, own and operate Grinnell Heritage Farm in Grinnell, Iowa. The certified organic farm has grown from three acres in 2007 to 22 acres today and produces more than 60 varieties of plants and vegetables.

Grinnell Heritage Farm is a certified organic farm that has grown from three acres in 2007, to 22 acres today. NRCS photo by Ron Nichols.

“We grow everything from asparagus to zucchini,” Melissa said.

The Dunhams understand that the health of their soil translates into healthier crops and a more resilient farm. A fifth-generation farmer on the Grinnell farmland, Andy has made improving the health of the farm’s soil a major priority.

“Our philosophy is feed the soil, it will feed your plants, and then it will feed us,” he said.

Judging from the farm’s improvement in yields over time, this approach is working. “We read the ‘Knott’s Handbook for Vegetable Growers,’ which is kind of the vegetable grower’s official handbook, and our yields are almost always well above what their best yields are projected,” said Andy.

Working with USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), the Dunhams have been able to accelerate the adoption of a number of resource-protecting practices through the agency’s Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP).

“There were several practices, like adding hedge rows for wildlife habitat, that we probably wouldn’t have been able to do without the EQIP contract,” Andy said.

The Dunhams were also able to take advantage of EQIP’s Organic Initiative back when they were converting from a conventional farming operation. “We did an awful lot of stuff with cover cropping and we did a lot of things for managing water quality,” he said. “The program was very helpful.”

Cropping diversity plays a central role in improving soil health because plant diversity above ground promotes biological diversity below ground, but it also plays a part in keeping the farming operation resilient.

“We have had some really, really severe weather swings over the last seven years and on numerous occasions. It’s either been too wet or too dry or both,” said Melissa. “Last year we had both flooding and a drought, but by being diverse we have been able to stay in the black. It’s helped us stay afloat when the weather extremes aren’t in our favor.”

While all farmers have to deal with weather-related issues, organic farming has additional challenges — like not being able to use synthetic nutrients or pesticides to control weeds and harmful insects. However, Andy believes it’s worth the extra effort.

“People who are wary of an organic system think it takes a lot of management — and it does,” he said. “But if you stay committed, if you follow the principles — even if you make a few mistakes — and stick with it, things will get better.  The yields will go up and you can rejuvenate tired soils. It can be done.”

Inherent farming challenges notwithstanding, a lot of good things are being raised on the Grinnell Heritage Farm including healthy food, healthy soil, a healthy family and a chance to teach other people about farming. “And I love being able to spend this much time with my family,” Melissa said.

Certified organic cabbage growing on the farm will be sold to local retailers and at farmers’ markets. NRCS photo by Ron Nichols.

USDA Delivers on Ways to Prevent Food Waste

From USDA:

Posted by Elise Golan, Director of Sustainability Development, USDA, on December 15, 2014 at 9:30 AM

Researchers at USDA Agricultural Research Service help reduce food waste by developing new ways to extend food shelf life and by creating new food products, biobased plastics, and animal feed from food waste. USDA photo by Stephen Ausmus.

Less than 2 years ago, the USDA and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) launched the U.S. Food Waste Challenge, with the goal of reducing food waste in the United States.  We set an ambitious goal of having at least 400 businesses, schools, and/or organizations join the challenge by letting us know what they are doing to reduce food waste in their operations.  USDA also committed to finding ways in which its 33 agencies and offices could help reduce food waste through policy, partnerships, and research.

As of today, we have surpassed our membership goal by signing up 1,313 participants in the U.S. Food Waste Challenge.

The number and diversity of participants joining the challenge are indicative of a growing movement to reduce food waste that is spreading across the country.

Founding members, Rio Farms, Unilever, General Mills, and the Food Waste Reduction Alliance have been joined by members from across the food supply chain.  Hannaford, a supermarket chain in the Northeast, recently joined the U.S. Food Waste Challenge and shared the many ways in which it keeps food from ending up in landfills.  Using the “food recovery hierarchy,” Hannaford tries to reduce food waste at the source by having fresh products delivered on a daily basis instead of 3-4 times per week.  Daily deliveries lead to more accurate ordering, less food waste, and improvements in quality.  Safeway, another supermarket chain participating in the U.S. Food Waste Challenge, donates the wholesome, edible food that goes unsold in their stores to feed hungry people.  In 2013, Safeway recovered and donated 72 million pounds of food to hunger relief organizations.

Other participants in our challenge like K-12 schools, universities, and sports teams are also involved in food recovery and donation activities.  With the help of organizations like Campus Kitchens and Food Recovery Network, over 120 colleges and universities have started food recovery efforts in their dining facilities to donate wholesome unsold food to local food pantries.  Sports teams like the Milwaukee Brewers and movie studios like NBC Universal have also signed up for the challenge because of their work with Rock and Wrap It Up!, an organization that recovers and donates unsold food at sporting events and movie shoots.

Moving down the food recovery hierarchy, some participants in our challenge keep food from landfills by converting it to livestock feed.  Four Minnesota schools in the Chisago Lakes School District have their food waste picked up by Barthold Pig Farm, where it is then heated and fed to pigs. The 72 McDonalds’ in Hawaii now sell their used cooking oil to Pacific Biodiesel, where it is then recycled into fuel.

Not to be outdone by all of our U.S. Food Waste Challenge participants, the USDA also delivered on reducing food waste through our policies, partnerships, and research.  USDA Economic Research Service (ERS) continues to study and provide estimates on how much food goes uneaten at the retail and consumer level.  The estimated pounds, monetary value, and calories of food loss that USDA ERS reportshelps policymakers, the food industry, and nonprofits better explain the food waste issue to the public, make recommendations, and set targeted goals.

Through the Agricultural Research Service (ARS), the USDA is researching and developing new products that help 1) reduce food spoilage; 2) reuse waste from food processing to produce new value-added products; and 3) recycle food waste into livestock feed or biobased products such as biodegradable plastics. ARS, for example, helped Gorge Delight, a grower-owned business, develop a 100% fruit bar that uses blemished or damaged apples and pears from their orchards that would have otherwise been discarded.  Not only does ARS’s work help reduce food waste, but it also creates new economic opportunities in rural areas.

For consumers and families, USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has updated the “Ask Karen” website, which is visited over 10 million times a year, to answer people’s questions on how to safely handle, prepare, and store food.  FSIS, which is responsible for ensuring that the nation’s commercial supply of meat, poultry, and egg products is safe and correctly labeled, recently streamlined procedures for donating wholesome misbranded meat and poultry products.  In April 2014, as a result of this directive, FSIS was involved in the donation of approximately 84,310 pounds of misbranded pork sausage.  The misbranded product was donated to the Westmoreland County Food Bank and Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank.

Finally, here at USDA headquarters in Washington, D.C., the cafeteria, which serves up to 3,000 people a day, has found some innovative ways to reduce food waste.  The dining service company, IL Creations, holds “Happy Hour” from 2:30 pm – 3:00 pm, at which food is sold at a 30% discount to reduce the amount of unsold leftovers.  For people with eyes bigger than their stomachs, USDA has promoted composting and made it easy for employees by placing composting bins all over the building.   In 2014, USDA headquarters composted about 2,650 pounds of food waste per week.  This represents about a 10% increase from 2013, which is double our original goal of a 5% increase.

The goal we had for launching the U.S. Food Waste Challenge was to help inspire organizations and individuals across the food supply chain to start reducing, recovering, and recycling food waste in their day-to-day operations.  What we didn’t expect was how much your energy, passion, and support would push us to do more.  Indeed there is so much more work to be done to reduce food waste in America, and we want to continue working on this issue for years to come.

USDA FSIS recently changed guidelines on donation of mislabeled meat and poultry products. In April 2014, this new directive led to 84,310 pounds of misbranded pork sausage being donated to local food pantries instead of being dumped into a landfill.

Earth Team Volunteers Help USDA Soil Scientists Collect Data in Remote Minnesota

USDA Blog Post:

Posted by Julie MacSwain and Michelle Banks, Natural Resources Conservation Service, on April 7, 2014 at 2:00 PM

Earth Team volunteer Meghan Zenner assisted NRCS soil scientists with taking soil samples in a remote forest in Minnesota. Photo from NRCS.

A group of dedicated volunteers helped make it possible for soil scientists with USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) to collect soil samples in remote parts of Minnesota.

Today kicks off National Volunteer Week, and NRCS is celebrating the hard work of Earth Team volunteers like the seven people in Minnesota who aided in the soil survey.

Earth Team volunteers, the agency’s volunteer corps, make a big difference, said Larissa Schmitt, a soil scientist with NRCS. “The volunteers’ wilderness skills were a huge time savings to the soil scientists,” she said.

Seven volunteers logged 510 hours of service in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness for assisting Schmitt and other NRCS staff on five expeditions last year. The volunteers included Aaron Janz, Dennis Meinert, Timothy Nigh, Kyle Lilly, Kim Steffen, Jeffery Albers and Meghan Zenner.

The area is composed of a million acres in northeastern Minnesota and is managed by the U.S. Forest Service. NRCS and the Forest Service partnered to collect soils data for 595,000 acres with more than 200 sample points.

“One of the biggest challenges is the remoteness of the area that can only be reached by either canoe or on foot,” Schmitt said.

The expeditions ranged from five to 10 days with average work days of 10 hours. Earth Team volunteers assisted NRCS soil scientists by navigating, paddling canoes, bushwhacking to sample points, carrying soil sampling tools, digging soil pits and recording soil data.  After work hours, volunteers cooked by campfire, chopped fire wood, hung bear bats and kept the camp clean.

This soil sampling project is a national pilot project for digitally mapping soils to create digital soil survey products. As NRCS moves ahead with more soil products, lessons learned from the project are invaluable, Schmitt said. This is all part of NRCS’ Web Soil Survey, which provides free soils information online.

This group of dedicated volunteers won Earth Team’s Group Volunteer Award for their region. Read about the other award winners.

Individuals from all walks of life donate their time to NRCS. These diverse skill sets help NRCS with its mission of “Helping People Help the Land.”

Volunteers can help with almost any task that an NRCS employee does as part of his or her job duties. From soil sampling in the wilderness to preparing accounting paperwork, volunteers help NRCS get conservation on the ground. Even virtual volunteering is possible.

In the past fiscal year, more than 22,000 Earth Team volunteers donated more than 330,000 hours of their time to Earth Team. These hours are valued at more than $7.3 million.

To learn more about how you can volunteer in your area or to read about other volunteers, visit nrcs.usda.gov/EarthTeam.

High Tunnel, Conservation Planning Help Local Food Mission

USDA Blog Post:

Posted by Julie MacSwain, Natural Resources Conservation Service, Minnesota, on March 25, 2014 at 12:00 PM

Kate Paul operates a community supported agricultural operation in Minnesota. NRCS photo.

When Kate Paul was a girl in northern St. Louis County, Minn., she enjoyed working in the large family garden near her grandfather’s farm. She loved spending time amid the rows of plants, watching seeds germinate and become plants that provided delicious vegetables for her family.

When she left her hometown for college and graduate school, she was able to continue her passion for farming. While living in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, she volunteered at a community supported agriculture operation (a CSA).

“I was inspired by the wherewithal of the family that worked the land,” she said. “I was also inspired by the network of community members who gained more than just healthy, fresh food from the farm but also gained a connection to the farm, the farmers and other farm members.”

In a CSA, people buy shares of a farm, and then they receive a share of what the farm grows or raises.

Fast forward a few years, and now she has her own CSA, called Owl Forest Farms. “Through this experience, I was inspired to start my own CSA farm on my family’s land after I moved back home,” she said.

When she was getting started, she learned of USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service and visited the local service center. That’s where she met Marjorie Sella, a district conservationist with NRCS. Sella helped Paul create a conservation plan for the 120-acre family farm, where four acres are used for the CSA.

In addition to the technical assistance that Paul got from NRCS through conservation planning, she also applied and received financial assistance through the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, one of the core Farm Bill conservation programs.

This financial assistance helped her build a seasonal high tunnel last year. Seasonal high tunnels are plastic-covered structures that enable farmers to have crops ready earlier or later in the season. In high tunnels, plants are grown directly in the ground, and the sun’s heat regulates the temperature inside.

Kate Paul worked with NRCS to install a seasonal high tunnel on her Owl Forest Farms. NRCS photo.

Seasonal high tunnels are important tools for growing food for local customers, and this effort is part of USDA’s Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food initiative.

“As a result of the high tunnel, I can now jump start my growing season and also extend the growing season into October and November,” she said. “This will help to extend the amount of time I can run deliveries for my farm members. I’m incredibly grateful to have the high tunnel and the new potential it provides my farm.”

In her first season, Paul grew tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, cucumbers and a variety of herbs.

“The thing that made this project different was that Paul was a beginning farmer,” Sella said about Paul. “EQIP allowed her to move forward with planning and applying a practice on her land.”

Paul is grateful for NRCS’ technical and financial assistance as this funding enabled her to meet her conservation planning objectives. She looks forward to future growing seasons, especially the produce from her high tunnel.

To get started with NRCS, visit your local USDA Service Center or www.nrcs.usda.gov/GetStarted. Also, be sure to check out NRCS’ resources for small farms.

Tomatoes are some of the many vegetables on Owl Forest Farms. NRCS photo.