I wrote three profiles on farms that are using or creating alternative energy this summer. They are available in .pdf form on the program website.
Hunt Country Vineyards in Branchport has implemented a host of energy conservation and generation strategies; most recently they installed a vertical wind turbine.
Grass pellets are one of the most exciting new energy technologies because of their potential to be produced and marketed locally. May and Bob Miller of Unadilla are making pellets and doing busines as EnviroEnergy LLC.
Grindstone Farm in Pulaski is making good use of greenhouse radiant heat systems for season-extension. Picture as well as writing credit for this profile is mine.
I have almost completed two profiles of small dairies and am in the midst of a third. The small dairy series is an ongoing effort this semester: I hope to complete 6 by December.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Friday, August 21, 2009
Videos up on YouTube
The Scheffler field day videos have been uploaded to the Small Farms Program YouTube channel!
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Renewable Energy Field Days Draw Statewide Crowd
The four field days hosted over 90 attendees total! I was able to attend 2 of the 4 field days that I helped to organize: Warren's off-the-grid systems on August 5 and Bondi's solar livestock watering on August 6. I enjoyed meeting the hosts and learning about the systems myself, but the best part was watching the attendees get to know each other and exchange ideas and information.
Sam Warren of On Warren Pond Farm in Trumansburg has been homesteading since the early 1990s. He's installed his energy systems over fifteen years for less than the utility companies wanted to charge him to run power down to the farm. Violet was worried that attendees would lose interest, but Sam's systems kept everybody enthralled. After a brief introduction everyone had the opportunity to see the windmills, solar panels, and waterwheel up close and ask questions. The waterwheel was a curiosity for most people; they saw more practical application in the solar and wind technologies. However, the waterwheel runs many of Sam's tools (e.g., a drill press) directly and simultaneously, which means that there's no need to store electricity for later use. This field day hosted the largest group: we counted 36 people in attendance!
Bob and Mary Lou Bondi are just getting started with a small beef operation - fulfilling Bob's lifelong dream - in a historic barn in Pultaney, NY. 19 people turned out to learn about Bob's solar pump system for livestock watering, which was installed with grant assistance from the Finger Lakes Resource Conservation and Development Council. Dick Winnett of FLRC&D talked about funding options and Bob explained how the system works. Bob and Mary Lou were gracious hosts, which was a big help for me and Violet since MapQuest steered us wrong and we arrived later than planned. Though this field day was a success, for me the best part was touring the barn, which was restored with grant aid a few years ago. Bob also showed us a pond built on the high point of his farm, which will provide gravity-fed water to more remote pastures.
There were many differences between these two events, but the similarities strike me as being much more important. Each farmer is exploring several different technologies to find what combination works best. The attendees were a diverse group, including farmers, journalists, extension agents, homeowners, students, and would-be homesteaders; everyone was attentive and curious and they learned as much from each other as they did from the hosts. "Green" might be the buzzword of the day, but passion for renewable energy is present in such a diverse population that I will be surprised if interest declines anytime soon.
It was truly a rewarding experience to see so many people show up partly because of my efforts.
Sam Warren of On Warren Pond Farm in Trumansburg has been homesteading since the early 1990s. He's installed his energy systems over fifteen years for less than the utility companies wanted to charge him to run power down to the farm. Violet was worried that attendees would lose interest, but Sam's systems kept everybody enthralled. After a brief introduction everyone had the opportunity to see the windmills, solar panels, and waterwheel up close and ask questions. The waterwheel was a curiosity for most people; they saw more practical application in the solar and wind technologies. However, the waterwheel runs many of Sam's tools (e.g., a drill press) directly and simultaneously, which means that there's no need to store electricity for later use. This field day hosted the largest group: we counted 36 people in attendance!
Bob and Mary Lou Bondi are just getting started with a small beef operation - fulfilling Bob's lifelong dream - in a historic barn in Pultaney, NY. 19 people turned out to learn about Bob's solar pump system for livestock watering, which was installed with grant assistance from the Finger Lakes Resource Conservation and Development Council. Dick Winnett of FLRC&D talked about funding options and Bob explained how the system works. Bob and Mary Lou were gracious hosts, which was a big help for me and Violet since MapQuest steered us wrong and we arrived later than planned. Though this field day was a success, for me the best part was touring the barn, which was restored with grant aid a few years ago. Bob also showed us a pond built on the high point of his farm, which will provide gravity-fed water to more remote pastures.
There were many differences between these two events, but the similarities strike me as being much more important. Each farmer is exploring several different technologies to find what combination works best. The attendees were a diverse group, including farmers, journalists, extension agents, homeowners, students, and would-be homesteaders; everyone was attentive and curious and they learned as much from each other as they did from the hosts. "Green" might be the buzzword of the day, but passion for renewable energy is present in such a diverse population that I will be surprised if interest declines anytime soon.
It was truly a rewarding experience to see so many people show up partly because of my efforts.
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Organic Dairy Field Day Videos!
I haven't meant to be absent from the blog for so long, but I'll take it as a good sign that I've been too busy at work to update here. Let's take it back to the end of July...
The Organic Dairy Initiative and NOFA-NY co-hosted an "Organic Dairy Farming and Raw Milk Marketing!" field day on July 23. Ed and Eileen Scheffler have a small dairy in Groton; they completed their transition to organic in 2003 and got a permit from the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets to sell raw milk this year. The field day drew a good-sized crowd, including Assemblywoman Barbara Lifton; Professor Gary Fick, with whom I took Sustainable Agriculture in Fall '08, gave a talk during lunch.
I had a chance to experiment with the office's new Flip video camera and produced a grand total of 14 video clips of the day's discussions and speakers. I found that I had more editing options and was happier with the results using iMovie rather than the built-in FlipShare software.
Here are a couple examples:
The Organic Dairy Initiative and NOFA-NY co-hosted an "Organic Dairy Farming and Raw Milk Marketing!" field day on July 23. Ed and Eileen Scheffler have a small dairy in Groton; they completed their transition to organic in 2003 and got a permit from the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets to sell raw milk this year. The field day drew a good-sized crowd, including Assemblywoman Barbara Lifton; Professor Gary Fick, with whom I took Sustainable Agriculture in Fall '08, gave a talk during lunch.
I had a chance to experiment with the office's new Flip video camera and produced a grand total of 14 video clips of the day's discussions and speakers. I found that I had more editing options and was happier with the results using iMovie rather than the built-in FlipShare software.
Here are a couple examples:
Friday, July 10, 2009
Renewable Energy Field Days!
The field days I wrote about are finally scheduled! When I posted about the process before I wasn't sure how long it would take. It turned into one of those situations in which you work and work and work and think you're making no progress, but one day, without warning, you find yourself with your goal in hand! Our networking efforts produced some great results: three of the field days are co-sponsored. Sincere thanks are due to Richard Gast of Franklin County Cooperative Extension, Molly Ames of Jefferson County CCE, and Dick Winnett of the Finger Lakes Resource Conservation & Development Council. Richard and Molly are members of the Small Farms Energy Work Team.
There are four field days scheduled. See the Small Farms Program website for more information.
July 25, 2009: Photovoltaic electric system at Happy Haven Farm, Mooers.
July 30, 2009: Photovoltaic electric system at Lilac Lawns Farm, Mannsville.
August 5, 2009: Off-grid solar, wind, and water energy at On Warren Pond Farm, Trumansburg.
August 6, 2009: Solar-powered livestock watering at Bob Bondi's farm, Pulteney.
The current challenge is publicizing the field days. Violet realized that our press list was last updated three years ago, so she's asked me to make sure that the contacts are current and to expand the list. While working on that project, I've brainstormed some other ideas for getting the word out. My favorites: posting fliers at county fairs, asking farmers' market managers to tell their vendors, and listing the field days on the Ithaca Journal events calendar. Publicity has already gone out through the newsletters of several organizations and people are starting to sign up!
There are four field days scheduled. See the Small Farms Program website for more information.
July 25, 2009: Photovoltaic electric system at Happy Haven Farm, Mooers.
July 30, 2009: Photovoltaic electric system at Lilac Lawns Farm, Mannsville.
August 5, 2009: Off-grid solar, wind, and water energy at On Warren Pond Farm, Trumansburg.
August 6, 2009: Solar-powered livestock watering at Bob Bondi's farm, Pulteney.
The current challenge is publicizing the field days. Violet realized that our press list was last updated three years ago, so she's asked me to make sure that the contacts are current and to expand the list. While working on that project, I've brainstormed some other ideas for getting the word out. My favorites: posting fliers at county fairs, asking farmers' market managers to tell their vendors, and listing the field days on the Ithaca Journal events calendar. Publicity has already gone out through the newsletters of several organizations and people are starting to sign up!
Monday, July 6, 2009
Welcome to Your Small Farm
The 2009 4-H Career Explorations were held here on campus from June 30 through July 2. Violet and I were asked to lead one of the focus groups, called Exploring the Small Farm Dream. We led 13 teens and 4 chaperones in a discussion of the many farm-related careers and different possibilities for farming on a small scale on Tuesday afternoon. On Wednesday, we visited Dilmun Hill (Cornell's student-run farm), Finger Lakes Farmstead Cheese, and Reisinger's Apple Country. We finished on Thursday morning by discussing the field trip and asking the group to reflect on their experiences.
Since everyone was so quiet in the vans on Wednesday, I was surprised and grateful when Thursday's discussion turned out to be lively. Visiting farms with different business models worked out well: it was easy and educational to compare their strengths and weaknesses. One group of teens recorded a video of the field trip. The highlight (of course) was getting the vans stuck in the mud.
If you're unfamiliar with 4-H, check this out.
Dilmun Hill put us to work:
The cheese was amazing!
Mr. Reisinger explains about thinning the fruit.
Since everyone was so quiet in the vans on Wednesday, I was surprised and grateful when Thursday's discussion turned out to be lively. Visiting farms with different business models worked out well: it was easy and educational to compare their strengths and weaknesses. One group of teens recorded a video of the field trip. The highlight (of course) was getting the vans stuck in the mud.
If you're unfamiliar with 4-H, check this out.
Dilmun Hill put us to work:
The cheese was amazing!
Mr. Reisinger explains about thinning the fruit.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Organic/Government Collaboration
Through the NRCS (Natural Resources Conservation Service), organic farms now have access to grant money through Organic EQIP (Environmental Quality Incentives Program). Since NRCS staff aren't used to dealing with organic farms and since organic farms face different issues and regulations than conventional farms, members of the two communities met yesterday to develop a working relationship. As the official note-taker, I was in the ultimate fly-on-the-wall position.
This meeting was a great example of what I'd like to see happening in regards to renewable energy in New York. A gap - or should I say, an opportunity for improved communication and collaboration was identified... and people got together to take advantage of it! Organic representatives, including a NOFA-NY Certified Organic LLC certifier and a Cornell researcher, presented the organic certification process (which is much different from the conventional-farm paperwork NRCS staff are used to) and illustrated how many activities on organic farms can realize or contribute to multiple goals. The latter point will be particularly important for NRCS staff as they try to determine which projects can receive EQIP funding. Then NRCS representatives took their turns: they walked their field staff through the Organic EQIP application and approval process and conducted a role play with an organic farmer to highlight Organic EQIP's differences from the established EQIP process. (I should note that organic farms may apply through the original EQIP program; Organic EQIP is designed to create a smaller applicant pool and offer more benefit to organic farms.)
Though the program was well-organized and executed, there were signs that the NRCS staff wanted more training and information. Since the Organic EQIP program is new, some regulations and requirements aren't as exact or as stringent as perhaps they should be, and answers to some very good questions weren't available. Often the questions posed by NRCS staff went beyond the scope of the training or the ability of senior staff or organic representatives to address them. Still, it seemed to me that the meeting succeeded in orienting the participants to the new program and that all of them are now better equipped to assist farmers with the Organic EQIP process.
In addition to these observations, I came away with some questions of my own. I was stunned by the amount and specificity of the information required from a farm to become certified organic and to maintain certification. Fay Benson, my Organic Dairy Initiative supervisor and a host of the NRCS meeting, assured me that the paperwork required is far above and beyond that required for conventional farms. I'm used to thinking of farmers as independent; why would an increasing number of farmers voluntarily submit to this kind of oversight? I can speculate: perhaps it's the money they can make as organic, a desire to please consumers, or motivation to farm in a particular manner. How much of the consumer food dollar goes to the organic certifiers and the certification process? Perhaps it's this kind of regulation that some consumers are looking for. Consumers have been increasingly separated from the food production process since World War II and it seems that many have lost trust as well as touch when it comes to food producers. I'm not sure that farmers deserve the brunt of this sentiment (food processors have certainly affected the system at all points), but if consumers are reassured by stringent organic regulations I can certainly understand the appeal. There's much musing, discussing, and studying to be done here!
This meeting was a great example of what I'd like to see happening in regards to renewable energy in New York. A gap - or should I say, an opportunity for improved communication and collaboration was identified... and people got together to take advantage of it! Organic representatives, including a NOFA-NY Certified Organic LLC certifier and a Cornell researcher, presented the organic certification process (which is much different from the conventional-farm paperwork NRCS staff are used to) and illustrated how many activities on organic farms can realize or contribute to multiple goals. The latter point will be particularly important for NRCS staff as they try to determine which projects can receive EQIP funding. Then NRCS representatives took their turns: they walked their field staff through the Organic EQIP application and approval process and conducted a role play with an organic farmer to highlight Organic EQIP's differences from the established EQIP process. (I should note that organic farms may apply through the original EQIP program; Organic EQIP is designed to create a smaller applicant pool and offer more benefit to organic farms.)
Though the program was well-organized and executed, there were signs that the NRCS staff wanted more training and information. Since the Organic EQIP program is new, some regulations and requirements aren't as exact or as stringent as perhaps they should be, and answers to some very good questions weren't available. Often the questions posed by NRCS staff went beyond the scope of the training or the ability of senior staff or organic representatives to address them. Still, it seemed to me that the meeting succeeded in orienting the participants to the new program and that all of them are now better equipped to assist farmers with the Organic EQIP process.
In addition to these observations, I came away with some questions of my own. I was stunned by the amount and specificity of the information required from a farm to become certified organic and to maintain certification. Fay Benson, my Organic Dairy Initiative supervisor and a host of the NRCS meeting, assured me that the paperwork required is far above and beyond that required for conventional farms. I'm used to thinking of farmers as independent; why would an increasing number of farmers voluntarily submit to this kind of oversight? I can speculate: perhaps it's the money they can make as organic, a desire to please consumers, or motivation to farm in a particular manner. How much of the consumer food dollar goes to the organic certifiers and the certification process? Perhaps it's this kind of regulation that some consumers are looking for. Consumers have been increasingly separated from the food production process since World War II and it seems that many have lost trust as well as touch when it comes to food producers. I'm not sure that farmers deserve the brunt of this sentiment (food processors have certainly affected the system at all points), but if consumers are reassured by stringent organic regulations I can certainly understand the appeal. There's much musing, discussing, and studying to be done here!
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