In celebration of Earth Day, Nebraska Governor Dave Heineman announced the Beel family  as the recipient of the 2013 Leopold Conservation Award, the state’s premier award for private lands conservation, during a ceremony at the State Capitol on Friday.

The award, which is presented by Nebraska Cattlemen, Cargill, and Wisconsin-based Sand County Foundation, recognizes outstanding, positive contributions to natural resources by agricultural families.

Third generation ranchers Frank, Henry, and Adam and their wives, Jennifer, Mary, and Jenny operate the nearly 22,000-acre ranch located in north-central Nebraska. Carrying on a tradition of conservation begun by their ancestors, the Beel brothers and their families, among other efforts, implement practices that improve wildlife habitat and water quality and quantity, which has helped them withstand the second driest season on record.

Congratulations to the Beel family!

Photo courtesy of Omaha World-Herald

Johnstown family receives conservation award

By Martha Stoddard, Omaha World-Herald

Nebraska ranch family that has handed down an ethic of conservation from father to son was honored Friday for its stewardship.

Gov. Dave Heineman announced the Beel family of Johnstown as the recipients of the 2013 Leopold Conservation Award.

The award, named in honor of world-renowned conservationist Aldo Leopold, is presented to agricultural families in Nebraska who practice responsible land stewardship and management.

“Conservation on private land is something Nebraskans do very well,” the governor said.

The Beel brothers, Frank, Henry and Adam, along with wives Jennifer, Mary and Jenny, operate a nearly 22,000-acre cattle operation along the border between Brown and Cherry Counties. Read more …

Wisconsin-based Sand County Foundation and the Kentucky Agricultural Council have announced the launch of the Leopold Conservation Award in Kentucky. Kentucky is the ninth state to offer the $10,000 award, which honors farmers, ranchers, and foresters who do outstanding work to enhance natural resources as part of their agricultural operations. 

Applications are being accepted until July 31, 2013 and the award will be presented at the Kentucky Ag Summit in November. Read the full press release below.

New Leopold Conservation Award program seeks nominees in Kentucky

PRWeb

Sand County Foundation and Kentucky Agricultural Councilhave announced the launch of the Leopold Conservation Award program in Kentucky, and are accepting applications for the award.

The $10,000 Leopold Conservation Award will honor Kentucky farmers, ranchers and other private landowners who voluntarily demonstrate responsible stewardship and management of natural resources.

“Private landowners across the State of Kentucky are doing exceptional land conservation work,” said Brent Haglund, Ph.D., Sand County Foundation President. “We look forward to honoring these good stewards of the land who are committed to the enhancement of Kentucky’s rich and diverse agricultural landscape.”

Given in honor of renowned conservationist Aldo Leopold, the Leopold Conservation Award recognizes extraordinary achievement in voluntary conservation. It inspires other landowners through these examples and provides a visible forum where farmers, ranchers and other private landowners are recognized as conservation leaders. In his influential 1949 book, “A Sand County Almanac,” Leopold called for an ethical relationship between people and the land they own and manage, which he called “an evolutionary possibility and an ecological necessity.”

“The Kentucky Agricultural Council is proud to be part of the Leopold Conservation Award program,” said Kentucky Agricultural Council Chairman, Tony Brannon. “From the beginnings of pioneering no-till farming in the 1960’s through today’s many and varied farm sustainability efforts to leave this place better than they found it, Kentucky farmers have a proud tradition of feeding, clothing, sheltering and fueling our nation and our world. This award will allow us to celebrate and learn from the examples of Kentucky farmers who have taken a thoughtful approach to conservation and stewardship of our land.”

The Kentucky Agricultural Council will be seeking sponsorships to host the award and will present a celebration of the award recipients at the Kentucky Ag Summit, to be held in November 2013.

Nominations must be postmarked by July 31, 2013, and mailed to Leopold Conservation Award c/o Kentucky Agricultural Council, P.O. Box 5478 Louisville, Kentucky 40255-0478.

For application information, please visit www.leopoldconservationaward.org or www.kyagcouncil.net

A recent article, by William R. Wootton, linked below, argues that too many American colleges, especially liberal arts institutions, which typically advocate for issues like sustainability, environmentalism, and social justice, often turn to large corporate agribusiness to handle their food service. In fact 50-60% of college food service is handled by large corporations and three – Aramark, Sodexo, and the Compass Group – dominate the market.

Colleges and universities have the ability to positively contribute to American agriculture by directly supporting local and regional producers. Not surprisingly, students and faculty at some institutions are working to do just that. First, they are pushing to develop independent, college operated food services, that primarily utilize locally-sourced food. Second, they’re demanding more agriculture-focused degree programs.

In terms of independent, locally sourced food service, a national, student-led organization called Real Food Challenge advocates for colleges and universities to source 20% of their food options locally by 2020. Thus far, they’ve gotten 9 colleges to commit to this effort and 31 others are in the process of making the commitment. This is an effort that can only benefit these educational institutions and the farmers and ranchers that are nearby.

The other piece of this puzzle is the lack of agricultural education at liberal arts colleges and universities, which is very surprising given the size of the agricultural industry in the United States. In fact, according to Mr. Wootton, only a handful of liberal arts colleges across the nation have degree programs devoted to or related to agriculture and food systems. Available agricultural programs will have to increase significantly to meet the USDA’s goal of 100,000 new farmers and ranchers.

Given academic institutions’ presence and influence in the United States, they have the opportunity to, in Mr. Wootton’s words, “harness the wealth of talent and energy that will be needed to build and fill the food basket for tomorrow’s world.”

Fire your food service and grow your own

By William R. Wootton, The Chronicle of Higher Education

American colleges, especially undergraduate liberal-arts institutions that profess a deep commitment to sustainability, environmentalism, and social justice—which, of course, they all do—cannot continue to turn a blind eye to the unsustainable and environmentally harmful practices of corporate agribusiness and its on-campus partners, college food services.

Instead, colleges can and should be playing a significant part in reshaping American agriculture, first by figuring out the exciting, complex, and potentially daunting process of developing an independent, college-operated food service, reliant upon locally and regionally sourced food, and firing their corporate food services. And second by building new, baccalaureate-level programs in agriculture.

Those two steps will allow colleges to get themselves out of an ethical pickle that’s been sitting in brine for a decade or more. In the same way that many colleges crow about their LEED-certified buildings, their low carbon footprints, the importance of their communities, and their commitments to everything green, sustainable, and just, they talk about their food. They show beautiful pictures of salads, fruits, and plated meals on their Web sites. They show gardens at harvest and chefs in white hats. The impression is that all this good stuff is somehow directly reflective of the institution itself; that it is part of the ethos and practice of the place.

It is anything but. Read more …

The United States has been experiencing an anti-meat movement as of late. Critics have deemed meat to be a contributor to obesity, illness, and negative environmental impacts.

However, as the article below points out, rarely do we hear about the meat producers across the nation who care deeply about their animals, products, and the effects their farming and ranching practices are having on the environment.

Documentarian Graham Meriweather has set out to help turn the tide through his documentary, American Meat, which examines the meat production industry from the perspective of organic and conventional farmers and ranchers.

Not only did Meriweather meet and interview several farmers and ranchers for the film, he’s also taken the film around the country to encourage dialogue about agriculture. Be sure to listen to the interview that’s at the end of the article.

There are at least two takeaways from this film that immediately come to mind.  First, maybe it’s not the meat industry that needs a restart, maybe it’s the way we communicate about it. Second, there are PLENTY of agricultural families across the United States who care deeply about and take immense pride in the quality of food they are putting on American tables. Many of these families have been recognized through the Leopold Conservation Award and National Cattlemen’s Beef Association’s Environmental Stewardship Award programs.

Stick a fork in it: The American meat industry is ripe for a restart 

By Leslie Chang, Grist

We’ve heard it 38,942,038,417 times* before: The system we use to produce meat in the U.S. is really eff-ed up. Feedlots = horror movies, all this carnivory is making us fat, and to make matters worse, meat consumption contributes to climate change. Right, all good arguments for eating less meat.

What we rarely hear is a fair, honest conversation with the actual farmers raising the animals that produce the meat that most of America consumes. That’s what Graham Meriwether wanted to do with his documentary, American Meat. The film explores meat production from the farmer’s perspective — and not just those who do it the free-range, organic, grass-fed way.

Meriwether initially set out to make a movie just about the alternative farms springing up across the country. He started off by talking to Joel Salatin of Polyface Farm, made famous by Michael Pollan’s book The Omnivore’s Dilemma. But when he started using stock footage of slaughterhouses, something didn’t feel right.

“I think the most important decision we made in the production of the film was not to put any hidden camera footage in the film,” Meriwether says, “because then that set us off on a journey where we got to talk to [conventional farmers], the people that, for the most part, feed most of our country.” Read more …

Texas ranchers Gary and Sue Price have been named the recipients of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association’s (NCBA) Environmental Stewardship Award. The Prices own and operate 77 Ranch, located near Blooming Grove.

Gary and Sue have a long tradition of enhancing land, water, and wildlife habitat on their ranch. Their efforts on and off of their ranch earned them the 2007 Leopold Conservation Award in Texas, which is the state’s premier award in recognition of conservation on private lands.

Congratulations to Gary, Sue, and the rest of their family!

The full press release, courtesy of NCBA, appears below.

Photos courtesy of Texas Parks & Wildlife

Texas Ranch Earns Wins NCBA Environmental Stewardship Award

Gary & Sue Price

Gary and Sue Price, 77 Ranch, Blooming Grove, Texas, were recognized today as the national winner of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association’s (NCBA) Environmental Stewardship Award Program. The award, presented during the 2013 Cattle Industry Convention and National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) Trade Show, recognizes the family’s outstanding environmental stewardship of their ranch. The land under their stewardship is under tremendous pressure from urban and suburban development because it is just 53 miles from the ever-growing Dallas/Fort Worth metropolitan area. Thanks to their efforts, a jewel of prairie still exists, complete with native grasses and habitat.

“Cattlemen and women across the country understand the pressures of urban encroachment. At 77 Ranch the Prices have shown how stewardship and continuous improvement can benefit the environment while also improving the productivity of our lands,” said NCBA Chief Executive Officer Forrest Roberts. “For example, as a result of the extensive wetland conservation work of the Prices, Gary and Sue Price had enough standing forage to sustain their entire herd through all of 2011– with no additional hay or feed purchases.”

Roberts pointed out that although the majority of producers in their area were destocking their ranches and marketing their calves early, the Prices were able to maintain their entire herd and their normal production schedule for the year.

“Their ability to maintain their natural resources while also maintaining their ranch speaks volumes about the management techniques and stewardship of the Prices,” said Roberts.

The Prices began assembling their ranch as a young couple 36 years ago. Over the years, they have carefully purchased land that joins their original ranch, or that is nearby. The land under their management ranges from farmed-out cotton fields to untouched remnants of the Blackland Prairie. As a result of their extensive improvements and efforts to preserve wildlife habitat, Gary and Sue Price have been honored by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department with the statewide Lone Star Land Steward award. They welcome students of all ages – youth to adult – to their ranch for tours, field days and outings. Gary is a sought-after speaker on the topic of range management and cattle production in a native range environment. They tell their story about their partnerships with Ducks Unlimited and U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (USDA-NRCS), and how these partnerships help them find creative solutions to land management problems such as flood control and maintaining water quality while providing wildlife habitat.

ESAP, now in its 22nd year, was created to recognize beef producers who make environmental stewardship a priority on their farms and ranches while they also improve production and profitability. The ESAP award is sponsored by Dow AgroSciences; USDA-NRCS; U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; NCBA; and the National Cattlemen’s Foundation. Dave Owens, the range and pasture portfolio leader for Dow AgroSciences, said the award recognizes the work beef producers do to conserve and improve the land and its resources. Dow AgroSciences has sponsored the program for the last 13 years.

“The regional winners and this year’s national winner 77 Ranch, exemplify the outstanding innovation of American farmers and Ranchers,” Owens said. “The work that the nominees do to improve and conserve the natural resources in their care will benefit their ranches and the surrounding community for generations to come.”

77 Ranch was nominated by the Texas Section, Society for Range Management and Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association and was recognized as one of seven regional ESAP winners during the 2012 Cattle Industry Summer Conference.

Sand County Foundation‘s work on behalf of the land ethic relies on good science.  Deeply as philosophical and political beliefs may move us, our work involves us inescapably with the physical world, specifically what Aldo Leopold liked to call the biosphere:  that part of our world that affects life.  We are therefore led to consider carefully what the best science tells us is happening, and what might happen in the future, to the biosphere, independently of all other considerations.

Earlier this week the U. S. Department of Agriculture released a survey of the literature concerning the actual and potential effect on American agriculture of climate change.  This report, to which dozens of experts from inside and outside of the government contributed, predicted a “drastic and harmful effect” on agriculture, with very serious implications for the farm economy as well as the environment.  We commend it to our readers; it certainly has gotten our attention.

- Joseph Britt, Sand County Foundation

Report: Climate change could devastate agriculture

By Christopher Doering, Gannett Washington Bureau

Climate change could have a drastic and harmful effect on U.S. agriculture, forcing farmers and ranchers to alter where they grow crops and costing them millions of dollars in additional costs to tackle weeds, pests and diseases that threaten their operations, a sweeping government report said Tuesday.

An analysis released by the Agriculture Department said that although U.S. crops and livestock have been able to adapt to changes in their surroundings for close to 150 years, the accelerating pace and intensity of global warming during the next few decades may soon be too much for the once-resilient sector to overcome.

Read more …

Dodge used the iconic voice of Paul Harvey to pay tribute to the American farmer in a Super Bowl ad that aired during the fourth quarter of the game. The commercial, clocking in at over 2 minutes, which is rare for Super Bowl ads, showed several images of hardworking farmers as Mr. Harvey’s “So God Made a Farmer” played in the background.

Paul Harvey gave this speech in 1978 at a Future Farmers of America (FFA) convention in 1978. It has been praised by the agricultural community ever since and rightly so.

The ad is taking some criticism for, essentially, lifting the idea from a YouTube video, from 2011, that utilizes the same concept without the flashy production values and pitch for Ram trucks at the end. But, the important takeaway here is that, although Chrysler/Dodge’s intention is to sell more trucks, it used a very expensive ad slot, watched by over 100 million people in the U.S. alone, to spread the message of the importance of agriculture. In addition, thanks to YouTube and other social channels, the ad will live on for quite some time.

Ram’s 2013 Super Bowl commercial is this year’s Clint Eastwood

By Gabe Zaldivar, Bleacher Report

If you were waiting for a commercial that would be the talk of every office in America on Monday morning, you had to wait until the fourth quarter of the Super Bowl to spot the epic ad from Dodge Ram featuring the words of Paul Harvey.

This one went out to the farmers of the country, those who are underappreciated but hard-working.

The voice over is provided by the late, great American broadcaster Harvey, whose “God Made a Farmer” speech is made all the more poignant with humbling images of this nation’s farmers.

Read more …

An Australian farm and retailer is using a unique approach to sell its products. Harris Farm Markets has teamed up with a marketing firm to develop an agriculturally-themed game that users can play through Facebook.

“The Crop,” launched today, encourages Facebook users to become involved in the “first fan-grown harvest.” Participants have the opportunity to select what crop is grown and take part in farming decisions as the crop is cultivated. The interesting, and, possibly brilliant, part of this approach is participants are then encouraged to visit their nearest Harris Farm Market store to purchase the fruits and/or vegetables they “helped” to produce.

Of course, Harris Farm Market is claiming that this is simply a way to educate consumers about where their food comes from. But, organizations do not hire marketing firms to fly under the radar. There’s a profit motive behind this, too.

If their goal is to educate AND make a profit, this has the potential to be a brilliant move. Food is a very personal thing for consumers. If they feel like they have a stake in how it’s produced and feel like they’re developing a relationship, and most importantly, trust with the producer, it’s likely that they will be a frequent customer. The question is whether or not this sort of trusting relationship can be built via social channels such as Facebook.

Harris Farm Markets takes facebook folk farming in new social media campaign via workshop

By Campaign Brief

Harris Farm Markets and Sydney-based creative agency Workshop Australia are inviting people to have their say in how fresh vegetables are grown via a new social media campaign that claims to be a world first.

Titled “The Crop”, the campaign launches today on Facebook and creates the first fan-grown harvest. “The Crop” is intended to help people understand the whole farm to store process, so they can choose the freshest fruit and vegetables available to them. People who join the Facebook page can help cultivate a real crop of vegetables and be involved in making choices from what crop is grown to actual farming decisions. The campaign will culminate with fans being able to go to their nominated Harris Farm Market store to collect the vegetables they’ve helped to grow.

Read more …

If you classify bacon as one of the world’s great treasures, I second that notion. Now, people who love their bacon … and ribs … and pork chops are  learning more about where their food comes from by taking butchering classes. Once restricted to the coasts, these classes are now offered at several locations in the Midwest.

Through these classes, students, mostly urban, from a range of professional backgrounds, are gaining an appreciation for the quality of products produced by America’s agricultural families.

Bacon, and how it came to be

By Ben Paynter, The New York Times

For Alex Swanstrom, an auditor at a financial firm, cutting into the dead pig wasn’t hard. It was what happened next that made him rethink whether whole-animal butchery was something he was ready to dive into.

Decked out in a black apron on a recent Sunday afternoon, Mr. Swanstrom, 27, slipped a six-inch boning knife into the carcass of a 275-pound Berkshire-Duroc hog that was splayed out in two large hemispheres on a table inside Local Pig, a butcher shop in this city’s industrial East Bottoms area. He was supposed to carve off the front shank, which requires separating the flesh and tendons around the lower shoulder to remove the limb. But even after dislocating a joint — it popped with the shrill squeak of compressed air escaping — the shoulder still hung together fibrously, causing Mr. Swanstrom to have to pull it over the side of the table for better leverage.

“Don’t force it,” said Alex Pope, one of the shop’s owners. “If you are in a spot that feels like it’s not going well, just move the knife around a little bit.”

When the limb detached, Mr. Swanstrom handed it over and took a swig of his beer.

“That was tougher than I thought,” he said.

Hands-on classes in butchering meat, created to give diners carnal familiarity with their food, emerged as a fad in the late 2000s, one confined largely to the coasts. That has since changed, with shops in places like Chicago and Milwaukee inviting students.

Mr. Pope, who opened his shop smack dab in the middle of the heartland a year ago, decided to offer hands-on classes after hearing about another shop that charged customers just to watch a demonstration.

“That’s ridiculous,” he said. “If you are going to learn to break down a pig, you should be able to actually do it.”

Read more …

A small grocery chain in northern California is teaming up with an organization called FoodStar to sell “imperfect” fruit that would normally be passed over as “below grade” by many supermarkets. The parters hope that this initiative will lead to less wasted food, as well as reduce costs for grocery stores. According to the article linked below, U.S. supermarkets lose $15 billion per year in wasted fruit and vegetables.

This story  follows the United Nations’ recent  announcement that it is developing a plan to combat global food waste. 

No bad apples: Grocery store cuts waste and cost by selling imperfect fruit

By Dana Gunders, Grist

On the surface, it’s a common display. A bin of apples with a sale sign greets customers as they enter the grocery store. Behind the scenes, however, it’s unchartered territory. Those apples are too small to be considered sufficient quality, or grade, for retail grocery stores. They were destined to be juice, cattle feed, or maybe even landfill waste until a few crafty folks and a bold supermarket decided to break the grade barrier.

Meet FoodStar and its courageous partner Andronico’s Community Market, a small Northern California grocery chain. Together, they are taking a chance on the idea that maybe we consumers aren’t as picky as most supermarkets seem to think we are. Maybe we’d be willing to buy a slightly smaller apple that only has 37 percent red coverage instead of the requisite 40 percent needed to qualify as the “fancy” grade that stores usually buy (yes, it’s actually measured). Maybe we consumers would even consider it a score to get a bag of Pink Lady apples for just 69 cents per pound.

Read more …