There are always at least 2 sides to every story

Yesterday our local newspaper printed an Associated Press article titled "The secret, dirty cost of ethanol, Obama's green power push" This morning I came across this article from AgWeb (Farm Journal) AP ethanol report: 'Its just not true'  You can read each of these by clicking on the titles.

When it comes to potentially controversial issues, it is always wise to get different points of view. Though after reading both of these articles, I think there is probably a third article that could be written addressing the facts that both sides present.

Flying in Cover Crops

Yesterday was an exciting day in Coshocton County. The Coshocton County Soil and Water Conservation District offered a cost share program to plant cover crops in an effort to promote soil health and conservation. Three airplanes from Fisher Ag Service of Cardington sowed oats and rye onto 1500 acres of soybean fields in the county. You can learn more about this cover crop program at the Coshocton County Soil and Water Conservation District website.

 

Land Use and the American Diet

I received this very interesting article from Brent Sohngen, OSU Department of Agricultural and Environmental and Development Economics. You can find this post on his blog at Ohio Environment.
It is an interesting analysis of how our food consumption has changed in recent years and the response of agricultural production capabilities.

   Recent high prices for energy and food leave many concerned that we are pushing the limits of the earth's system with too many people and too much consumption. One example of our over-indulgence is meat eating.  Estimates vary, but in general, a cow has to eat 12 calories of food for us to get one calorie of edible meat.  Surely we would use less land and be better off if we just ate less red meat, right?

   Let's look more carefully at this question. Just how much land does our meat eating use?  Beef is intensive, and the typical American's annual beef intake is 58 pounds.  It takes about 2400 square feet of cropland to produce that beef, or the size of the average house.  As a whole, we use about 6% of our cropland to grow our annual beef intake.

   Other sources of meat are more efficient than beef.  It takes 2 calories of input for a calorie of pork, and 4 calories of input for a calorie of chicken.  This translates into 400-600 square feet of land, or an area of land about the size of our living rooms, for us to eat the equivalent number of calories as 58 pounds of beef. If we want to use soybeans, tofu, other kinds of beans, or tree nuts like almonds instead, we would use up more land than if we were to get the same number of calories from pigs and chickens. 

   Well, if we are not using that much land now, aren't we constantly using more land, and consuming more food? One economic "certainty" from the past is that the wealthier people are, the more meat they eat.  In the US, meat consumption grew substantially after World War II as per capita income rose, and the middle class grew.  People in other parts of the world are less wealthy than we are, and they eat far less meat right now. As their incomes rise, they will consume more meat.

   The food reality here in America, though, is not one of endlessly increasing consumption.  Over the past 30 years, our diet has actually become a lot less land consuming. Actually, it's pretty amazing what we have done.  Based on our typical diet today, we eat the equivalent of about half an acre each year.  Back in 1980 we used two-thirds of an acre, or about 35% more land per person, for our food consumption.  How have we managed to economize like this? 

   First, we seem to have turned the corner on overall food consumption.  Between 1980 and 2004 per person food consumption in the US rose by 0.6% per year, but it has fallen ever since.  This recent reduction probably results from higher real food prices, but it may also have to do with the influence of our national dialogue on obesity.  Second, we've changed our diet by consuming more poultry and tree nuts, and less beef.  We have traded off more land consuming foods for less land consuming foods. 

   Third, we have dramatically increased the productivity of our agriculture.  Food production in the US, as measured by cereal yields, has increased by 1.6% per year since 1980.  About half of the reduction in land needed for our consumption is due to a change in our diet, and the other half is due to an improvement in land productivity.

   We are 38% richer in real terms, and population has grown by 36% since 1980, but today we only need 145 million acres to feed ourselves, down from 147 million in 1980. We nevertheless still use about 335 million acres of productive cropland, and an additional 700 million acres of less productive land. The excess food we produce is exported or turned into ethanol.

   Eating less meat will not necessarily cause us to use less farmland – exports and ethanol are just too lucrative. But eating less meat, when combined with productivity improvements, does help us use the land we have more effectively.  Given a rising global middle class in Latin America and Asia that will demand more food and meat, this will be a good lesson for other countries to learn.

Sheep Grazing Management Tour

Last Friday I had the chance to see 4 great Amish grazing farms in northern Coshocton and southern Holmes counties. The Sheep Grazing Management Tour was a joint effort of Ohio Heartland Sheep Improvement Association, Ohio Forage and Grasslands Council, Ohio Sheep Improvement Association, and Ohio State University Extension. The theme for the day was certainly that we all learn when we share ideas and experiences with one another. Here are some photos below from the tour. Also, if you are interested in learning more about grazing, this series of online modules covers everything from understanding forage growth to pasture layout and design. Click here to learn more: Pastures for Profit Grazing School- online modules


Bob Hendershot shares advice about
establishing and maintaining pasture grasses
 and legumes for grazing at the first stop in
Coshocton County near New Bedford. OSU Extension educators
Rory Lewandowski and Jeff McCutcheon look on.

Katahdin and Dorper sheep.

Participants admire the spring on this farm



Electric netting fence

Our bus drivers did a tremendous job
 navigating the county and township
 roads of Coshocton and Holmes county.

 

Jeff McCutcheon, OSU Extension, teaches how to calculate the amount of dry matter available to livestock in a pasture.

 

Local Foods Cooking Class for Children

OSU Extension and Local Bounty Coshocton have been offering Cooking Classes for children age 4-10 this summer. The purpose of the classes are to teach children how fun and delicious cooking can be- especially with food you grow yourself. It also shows them foods that are grown and sold locally here in Coshocton County. During today's class we grilled pizzas made with vegetables from all colors of the rainbow - red tomatoes, orange and yellow peppers, green zucchini, purple (red) onions- not to mention cheese, pepperoni and sausage all on pitas made by a local baker. The children were even able to add fresh herbs that we planted during the first class in May. Here are some highlights of the day:

Instructor Kristi Adelsberger helps the children select fresh herbs to add to their pizza creations.

Instructor Marissa Mullett passes out the pitas for children to add toppings.



 

 

Flooded fields

What a storm last night! We got a lot of rain in Coshocton County in the last 12 hours. Anyone with produce may be wondering if it is safe to harvest vegetables (primarily leafy greens) that are in flooded fields. Please read this Fact Sheet from OSU Extension Produce Safety and Flooded Fields.

If the water that has flooded the field is from the flooding of a water source like a river or stream, then the vegetables should not be consumed. This is considered high risk, because there is no way to know what contamination could have been introduced into the field with that water. However, if the flooding is due to ponding, just too much rain on saturated soil, and no edible portion has contacted the water, then vegetables could be harvested. This is considered lower risk, but still requires a thorough risk assessment.

The Fact Sheet will walk you through a risk assessment to determine recommended actions.

Viewing food prices from a global perspective

Since I like to think about agriculture from both a global and local (and everything in between) perspective, I thought that this article was very interesting. World bodies say global food prices to rise

I found this fact from the article astounding - "Food consumption in developing countries has grown by up to 30 percent a year over the past decade as incomes rose, while consumption in developed countries changed little, the agencies [U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development] said."

We focus on obesity and reducing food consumption in the US, but food consumption is increasing in the world. And this is not due to shear numbers of people alone. People in developing countries are using their increased income to purchase more food.

Even as many in our rural communities support local farming operations, the world is still very much connected and market prices will continue to be driven by forces beyond our community.

Agricultural Technology in Coshocton County

Our local newspaper, the Coshocton Tribune, had a great feature article on Sunday titled Technology takes local farming to the future. Leonard Hayhurst interviewed local farmers David Lapp and Greg Waters about utilizing precision agriculture in their operations. Using equipment with GPS technology allows them to more efficiently manage seed, fertilizer and pesticide usage. This helps them to be better environmental stewards and improve yields and profit. Precision farming is not new technology for agriculture, but improvements with precision equipment and data collection and analysis are advancing every year.

To learn more about precision farming in all parts of the U.S., please visit farmnet.osu.edu/links/precisag.html. An OSU Extension and Department of Food, Agricultural and Environmental  Engineering precision agriculture workshop is scheduled for July 9. There will also be an OSU Extension precision farming field day in the Centerburg area in late June/ early July.

Photo from OSU Department of Food, Agricultural and Environmental Engineering website, www.fabe.osu.edu

Starting a Home-based Food Business

On March 26, twenty-five local entrepreneurs attended at workshop on Direct Marketing and Cottage Foods Development. Eric Barrett, agriculture and natural resources educator in Mahoning County, made the trip down to Coshocton to teach about the importance of branding and pricing when directly selling agricultural products to the consumer. You can learn more from Eric on his blog: Mahoning Valley & Mid-Ohio Valley: Veg & Fruit. And here is some of the useful branding information that Eric shared with participants the night of our program: Developing and growing a brand for your farm



Eric Barrett teaching branding and pricing strategy for direct marketing agricultural products.

I taught the remainder of the workshop on Cottage Foods Development. Cottage Foods are foods that can be made in your home and sold without a required inspection from Ohio Department of Agriculture. There is a specific list of foods that can be made. These foods are non-hazardous, meaning that the risk is low for causing foodborne illness. Some of these foods include baked products (like cookies, cakes, and pies that do not require refrigeration), jams and jellies, granola, popcorn, dry baking mixes. For a complete list please visit: ODA - Cottage Foods.

The food packages must contain specific information on the labels including Statement of Identity, Ingredient List, Statement of Responsibility (business name and contact information), Net Quantity of Contents, and the Cottage Food Declaration - "This product is home produced."

It is possible to bake cream pies or cheesecakes in your home for sale, but you are required to obtain a Home Bakery license through ODA which requires an inspection of your home and a $10 fee. For more information on the Home Bakery license please visit: ODA - Home Bakery.

Stay posted for more information about making foods that don't fit the Cottage Foods category (like salsa or salad dressing) and possible ways to manufacture these products at approved facilities for sale.

 

Winter Programming Highlights

I think... I hope... that spring is finally here! As tractors start heading out to the fields, my winter programs are beginning to slow down a bit. Over the next few weeks I will highlight the happenings from OSU Extension here in Coshocton County since January.

The first program is Annie's Project. I am so proud of the participants and all the presenters that taught during this 6-week series. Twenty area women (eighteen from Coshocton County and two from bordering counties) met for six consecutive Tuesday evenings (January 29 - March 5) to enjoy a meal together and learn about agricultural risk management topics. These themes included financial, marketing, production, legal/institutional, human resources and health & wellness. A total of 15 speakers taught the women over the six weeks.

Annie's Project is named after the mother of an Extension educator. Annie was a successful farm wife, and her daughter wanted to honor her by creating a program for women to empower them to be better business partners.

Look for information about future women in agriculture programs later this summer.

Coshocton County OSU Extension Annie's Project Class of 2013!

Back Row: Andrea Finton, Kristy Leindecker, Gayle Stevens, Carolyn Jones, Michelle Johnson,

Gloria Mosholder, Heidi Soules, Tracey Beavers, Mary Wright, Cheri Jones, Sandy Kennedy, Emily Adams

Front Row: Lin Hamric, Jenna Gregorich, Deb Gaumer, Kelly Miller, Alana Lapp,

Jackie Wilkins, Beth Mullen, Amy Porteus, Kayla Chapman

The food was delicious every night.

 

Shari Gallup, Extension Educator in Licking County, leads participants in

stress relieving exercises during a health and wellness section of the last evening for the class.