A34-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, February 22, 2003 Community Workers, Dairy Farmer Join In Food Discussion DAVE LEFEVER Lancaster Farming Staff STATE COLLEGE (Centre Co.) Hank Herrera has a sim ple goal. He wants to see a small percentage of the food supply in his neighborhood come from local farms, with local people in control of processing and distrib uting it. Herrera spoke on a panel re cently at the annual conference of the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture (PASA). Joining Herrera on the panel were Kim Seeley of Milky Way Farms, a grass-based dairy and bottling operation in Brad ford County, and Ken Regal, di rector of Just Harvest, a commu nity group that works on hunger issues in the state. “Community Food Security Who Is in Charge of the Food Supply?” was the theme of the discussion. Herrera, a planner with the North East Neighborhood Alli ance, works in a low-income neighborhood in the city of Roch ester, N.Y. His concern with food issues there grew when the local supermarket closed, and resi dents were left without a nearby, secure source of food. Herrera worked to help bring a family run supermarket chain into the area, which eventually resulted in the return of a number of food outlets into the city. Herrera created a charter school in the area for teaching about local food systems. Through this initiative, the group began to “use food production Central Susquehanna Valley Beef Meeting Set NEW COLUMBIA (Union Co.) The annual Central Sus quehanna Valley beef producers winter educational meeting will take place Thursday, Feb. 27 at 7 p.m. at the Bonanza Restaurant near New Columbia. Those who want to eat at the restaurant can join the group at 5:30 p.m. for supper. Guest speakers for the meeting Call toll-free 1-100-FED-INFO to find out about government pro grams, benefits, and services * —TT; ¥ Up To $2OO OFF Select Gas Stoves 1060 Division Highway 322 East, Ephrata, PA 17522 1 Block East of Rt. 222 (717) 733-4973 800-642-0310 www.bowmansstove.com Mon., Tues., Wed. 10 to 6; Thurs., Fri. 10 to 8; ' * ■ Bat.i#lo ♦ and distribution as an economic development engine,” he said. The alliance is “democratic and very resident-driven.” As Herrera put it, “I work for the neighbor hood.” The most important thing the alliance learned, he said, is that Rochester and the 15 rural coun ties surrounding it have a com bined population of 1.46 million people who spend nearly $4 bil lion a year on food. That comes out to about $2,500 per person. “Food is the biggest sector of our economy, bar none,” Herrera said. The 15-county area surround ing Rochester includes 10,000 farms with enough land to po tentially supply 75 percent of the food supply to the population, according to Herrera. He estimat ed this model could increase per farm income by $200,000 per year. But the idea is not an easy sell, especially to producers. “The problem is convincing our farm ers,” according to Herrera. The community-based food network also needs “master chefs to cre ate local cuisines that excite peo ple. “We have to become masterful at preparing food our way,” he said. Herrera and the North East Neighborhood Alliance have been at work developing farm markets that sell food from local farms. His goal is for this rural-urban al liance to grow to the point where it is self-sustaining. The short-term goal is for local farmers, processors, and retailers will be Dr. Harold Harpster and Dr. Michael O’Connor, both from the Department of Dairy and An imal Science at Penn State. Harpster will speak on packag ing, storing, and feeding systems for forages to reduce wintering costs for beef cattle in Pennsylva nia. O’Connor will speak on new developments in estrus syn chronization for cattle. HEATMOR OUTDOOR WOOD FURNACES Wood-Oil & Corn-Burning Options Outback Heating Inc. 888-763-8617 800-743-5883 Stainless Steel Jamestown, NY Staunton,VA J... MAGISTRAL™ - For Men Only! ( H23S5ZnB9E!5I3l!l3il^Hi '*i Hove You Noticed Any of Thoso Signs - Yof? • Imposed Unnaiy Frequency and Urgency - fspecotVo* N.gft'f pj^etto > • Vo’dmg 5 Slow, 'ncampiete, and Sometimes Po-nW or Bunmq ? Palm 60% of Men Over 40 Have an Enlarged Prostate - and may not know it< An enlarged prostate con turn into something more serious ACT NOW, rather than later l Magistral is a fast acting safe Herbal Tonic token by ConcJions to alleviate or prevent prostate problems. Coll Canada Health for Fro# InfoPadt 800-775-1335 to get “a couple million dollars” of the $4 billion share a frac tion of one percent that the re gion spends on food. Panelist amd PASA board member Kim Seeley runs a dairy grazing and milk-processing business in partnership with his family on Milky Way Farms. At 40 years, the bottling operation is one of the oldest in Pennsylvania. According to Seeley, a top pri ority in creating secure, local food systems should be support ing farmers who are already pro ducing food in sustainable ways. “We need to work really hard to save the farms that are doing what we believe in,” he said. Seeley gave examples of food processing companies and retail ers taking increasing control of the food system in ways that are costly to both farmers and con sumers. “We’ve had more meat recalls in the last 24 months than we’ve had in the past 24 years,” Seeley said. He also gave an example of how a major milk processor is now making “butter blend” that consists of 50 percent vegetable oil. This product is mostly used in restaurants and institutions where consumers don’t see the label, Seeley said. Food coloring is added to most butters to create a uniform prod uct appearance a practice that is so common that it has become the “industry standard” and is not required to be listed on labels, according to Seeley. Seeley brought along samples Persons who would like to eat with the group need to call Dave Hartman at the Penn State Ex tension office in Columbia Coun ty at (570) 784-6660 or e-mail HYPERLINK “mailto:dwh2@psu.edu” dwh2@psu.edu to register. The Bonanza Restaurant is lo cated at the New Columbia exit of Rt. 15 just south of interstate 80. 5 Sizes - 19 Colors - Wood ot Coal Grates Forced Draft - Ash Auger Clean Out COMPARISON WITH OTHER OUTDOOR UNITS • Burns up to 1/2 less wood • Emits up to 1/2 less smoke • Corrosion Warranty up to 10 times longer of store-bought butter and butter produced from grass-fed cows on his farm. He asked the audience which sample they thought con tained added food-coloring. Most of the group wrongly picked the deep-yellow stick of butter, when it is actually butter whitened by food coloring has be come the industry standard, See ley said. His point was that some foods contain unlisted ingredi ents. “We need to come up with our own definition of pure food,” he said. For conventional dairy farmers who want to begin direct-market ing their products, the first step From left, Kim Seeley, dairy farmer; Ken Regal, director of Just Harvest; and Hank Herrera of the North East Neighborhood Alliance discuss food security at the recent RASA conference. PMMB To Conduct Hearing On Price Issues HARRISBURG (Dauphin Persons wishing to testify at Co.) The Pennsylvania Milk the hearing must file with the Marketing Board (PMMB) has PMMB on or before Feb. 24 at 4 scheduled a March 5 hearing for p m all Pennsylvania milk marketing X he PMMB flling address is: ar nnk' f k Milk Marketing Board, Room The purpose of the hearing is _ .... ~A 1 to receive testimony and exhibits ? T 10 ’ A f? culture ® u,ld ' ng ’ 2301 to consider increases in minimum North Cameron Street, Harris wholesale prices, container costs, burg, PA 17110. and the Class I over-order premi- The hearing will take place at um because of rising fuel and 9 a.m. in Room 202 of the Agri resin costs. culture Building. Lancaster ***r l T = T s * Poured I Walls • Agriculture I • Commercial •Residential It I I —^ Call for Prices On: • NRCS approved Manure Storage Pits • Concrete • Basements • Retaining Walls Pumping • Footers • Foundation Walls Customer Satisfaction Is Our Goal Lancaster Poured Walls, Inc. 2542 Horseshoe Rd.» Lancaster, PA 17601 {7l7) 656-737» Pax (7-17) -666-7360 should be changing the way they farm, according to Seeley. They need to develop a “unique prod uct” such as cheese, ice cream, and milk from grass-fed cows. “Fluid milk is the most stress ful (to market directly),” he said. For that reason, dairy farmers should start by selling products with long shelf life, such as cheese. Ken Regal, Pittsburgh, has worked with community food is sues for the past 20 years. “Real security is not just about the bountifulness of supply,” Regal said, pointing out that community involvement, food quality, local control, and culture are all part of the puzzle.
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