As spring brings welcome changes of new growth, warm sunshine, and longer days, we herald a season of change at Southern SAWG as well. We bid farewell to two board members, Alex Hitt and Jim Lukens, and welcome four new members, Stephan Walker, Susan Anderson, Charlie Maloney, and Jeanette Abi-Nader. We also welcome Scott Marlow, long-time Southern SAWG leader, as the new board president, as we thank Peggy Sechrist, outgoing president, for her outstanding stewardship.
The Southern SAWG e-newsletter is experiencing a change as well. Andrew Smiley, who has served as editor since we launched this publication in August of 2005, is now working full time in his capacity as Farm Marketing Program Manager at the Sustainable Food Center in Austin, TX. Andrew has handed over the reins to our very capable Karen Adler of Decatur, GA, who brings to the task extensive expertise in writing and publishing. Thank you, Andrew, for shepherding the launch of our e-newsletter and for your dedication, talent, and creativity. Good wishes to you in your new endeavors. And...welcome Karen.
Changes to the Farm Bill are also in the air as we continue to gear up to find ways to have lasting impact on the farm and food policies that affect the lives of all of us. This month we share the latest on an important new resource to help you stay connected to the issues.
One thing that will remain the same, by popular demand, is the location for the next Southern SAWG Practical Tools and Solutions for Sustaining Family Farms. The Galt House, in Louisville, KY, was such a great venue for this expanding conference that we’re going back. Dates are now available (see below), so mark your calendars, and watch for updates as they develop.
We welcome your feedback and suggestions—please write to us at ssawg@aol.com.
-Your friends at Southern SAWG
| Southern SAWG to Three-Peat in Louisville |
The votes are in! Our Practical Tools and Solutions for Sustaining Family Farms conference will again be held at the Galt House in Louisville, January 16-19, 2008. We’re excited to be returning to the spacious Galt House because we’ll be able to offer a bigger and better event than ever for our growing number of participants.
We will shift our schedule in 2008 to start a half day earlier so that we conclude the event Saturday evening. A variety of whole-day intensive short courses will be offered Wednesday afternoon through Thursday noon. Field trips and new hands-on activities will be offered Thursday afternoon. The two full days of regular conference sessions will start Friday morning and conclude after the big banquet dinner Saturday evening. Watch for the complete program announcement to be released the first week of October.
|
Stay
Connected with the
Farm Bill (or the Food Bill, as some are calling it): SAC's Farm Bill Action Center is Up and Running |
The Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (SAC), with whom Southern SAWG collaborates to educate and engage our constituents, is an alliance of groups that takes common positions on critical federal agricultural and environmental policy concerns and provides financial and in-kind support for collective representation before Congress and federal administrative agencies.
SAC's website has a new feature on its homepage to help folks stay current with 2007 Farm Bill issues. Visit www.sustainableagriculturecoalition.org, and you will see, front and center, the Farm Bill Action Center. The Action Center provides a central location to learn about the farm bill and sustainable agriculture policies, as well as the tools needed to translate that understanding into action. Features include action alerts, current and archived updates, as well as an advocacy toolkit, with tips on framing messages, conducting a visit with a member of Congress, and writing an effective Op-ed.
You can also connect with Farm Bill updates and activities on the Southern SAWG website. Visit http://www.ssawg.org/farmpolicy.html for important resources on the Farm Bill, and to learn about Southern SAWG’s monthly Policy Committee conference calls.
| North Carolina Farming Couple Finds Success Adding Poultry to Horticulture |
| This
month we remind you of all the
great farmer stories we have on the Southern SAWG website, http://www.ssawg.org/farmstories.html,
by featuring one. | |
| Cathy Jones and her husband/ farm partner Mike Perry manage Perry-winkle Farm, a small and diverse enterprise in Chapel Hill. Cathy is a North Carolina farmer with over sixteen years of experience in commercial vegetable, flower, and culinary herb production and marketing. With Mike and the help of their farm crew, Cathy sells at three farmers’ markets and various local restaurants. She says the farm “pulls its weight.” With 3 acres in production, the farm brings in about three-quarters of the family’s income. |  Cathy shows off Sylvester, one of four roosters, and the only chicken on the farm who lets her pick him up! |
 Mixed flower bouquets at the
market. It's always fun to see how the different colors change
throughout the season! | Cathy and company produce a mix of about 240 different varieties of vegetables and cut flowers with minimal pest problems. They manage pests through succession planting, use of beneficial insects, manual removal techniques, and fencing. To improve soil fertility, Cathy uses a diverse mix of warm- and cold-weather cover crops and extended fallow periods. She also uses passive composting and animal manure. |
| In
2002, Cathy and Mike added pastured
poultry to their farm. The chickens add value by providing animal
manure, eating insects and weeds, breaking up soil organic matter,
and cleaning up recently harvested or mowed fields. The eggs, which
are always in demand, provide supplemental income. For night
protection, they constructed two moveable hen houses capable of
housing up to seventy-five birds each. For day protection, they use
electric poultry netting, though they do not electrify it. |  Early April view of mulched cool-season vegetable crops - from left to right, collards, broccoli, garlic, broccoli, and lettuce. Cathy and Mike sell at the farmers' markets from March through December and aim to have a diversity of crops to harvest 9-10 months of the year! |
 Snap beans are direct-seeded in
between rows of a rye and vetch cover
crop in late April. | A more detailed profile of Perry-winkle Farm can be found at www.ssawg.org/jones.html. Also, an extensive virtual farm tour and profile of Perry-winkle Farm can be found at http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/ chatham/ag/SustAg/ perrywinkle.html. Photos and captions courtesy of Debbie Roos. |
| Keep an eye on our Farm Stories page for new additions throughout the year. | |
| Landmark
Black
Environmental Thought (BET) Conference: Land, Power, and Sustainability at Tuskegee University in May |
Andrew Young, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and former mayor of Atlanta, will deliver the keynote address at the first conference ever held on the topic of Black Environmental Thought, May 22-24 at the Kellogg Conference Center, Tuskegee University, Alabama.
A myriad of papers will be presented on the theme of land, power and sustainability as they relate to the African American experience. Topics cover such varied issues as a social history of African American agrarianism to the effects of New Deal Resettlement policy to chemical waste sites near minority communities and environmental justice struggles.
Discussion groups will follow each session. Jazz and blues performances along with a visual art exhibit will explore how art informs and reflects a culture's relationship to the environment.
The conference is sponsored by Southern Region Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program, Tuskegee University, the Federation of Southern Cooperatives, the AfroEco Group, Fort Valley State University, and the University of Georgia.
For more information inquire at info@blackenvirothought.org. See a detailed list of presentations along with registration information at http://www.blackenvirothought.org
| Grazing Georgia Grass Class |
An all-day training on the basics of grass-fed systems will take place on May 16 in Watkinsville, GA, at the J. Phil Campbell Sr. Natural Resource Center. Collaborators for this training session include Southern SAWG, the University of Georgia, SARE (Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education), the American Grass-fed Association, and the Animal Compassion Foundation, a Whole Foods Market Foundation.
Presenters include Dennis Hancock of the University of Georgia, Dennis Chessman of Natural Resource Conservation Service, Will Getz of Fort Valley State University, and farmers Will Harris and Bill Hodge. They will cover topics such as:
* Forage and Grass Management
* Paddock Design and Fencing
* Water Sources and Riparian Management
* Animal Health, Animal Handling, and Body Condition Scoring
* Integrated Livestock Systems
* Emergency Pasture Supplementation
* Economics of Grass-fed Production
Location: J. Phil Campbell Sr. Natural Resource Center,
1420 Experiment Station Road, Watkinsville, GA 30677
Time: 8:30 am-4:30 pm (Registration 7:30-8:30 am)
Cost: $25, includes lunch and course materials
To register visit www.americangrassfed.org and scroll down to Grazing Georgia. Fax the completed form to: 303.777.3401, or e-mail to course@americangrassfed.org
Additional contact info: 877.77GRASS (877.774.7277); www.americangrassfed.org
| New
Board President Takes Southern SAWG Forward |
Southern SAWG welcomes Scott Marlow as our new Board President. Scott is the Director of Farm Sustainability at Rural Advancement Foundation International-USA (RAFI-USA), where he works with struggling mid-scale farmers in central North Carolina, helping them find ways to restore their farm viability. RAFI-USA, a private non-profit organization based in Pittsboro, NC and dedicated to community, equity and diversity in agriculture, was a founding organization of Southern SAWG.
Scott has served Southern SAWG in many ways through the years, beginning as a member of the State Representative Council (precursor to our board of directors). He also serves as Chair of the Southern SAWG Policy Committee and has been a key Southern representative to critical national initiatives such as the Commodity Policy Dialogue (convened by the National Campaign for Sustainable Agriculture; www.sustainableagriculture.net) and the Agriculture of the Middle Project (focused on strategies to renew the disappearing sector of mid-scale farms/ranches; http://www.agofthemiddle.org/).
We are delighted to have Scott’s experience, passion, and infectious humor leading Southern SAWG as we continue to bring change to our regional food and agriculture system and help family farmers become more sustainable.
| A Few
Words from Our New
President |
Dear Friends,
These are exciting times for Southern SAWG. Many areas that we have pioneered, such as farmer-friendly education on sustainable agriculture enterprises, advocacy for Southern sustainable farmers in the policy arena, and putting farmer leadership out front in developing more sustainable agriculture for the south, are gaining in popularity and acceptance, and Southern SAWG's leadership is being recognized across the region. More and more people are looking for the story that we, as a community, have to tell. Our conference smashed attendance records each year for the last three years, with over 1,250 people participating in our conference in Louisville, KY last January, making it one of the largest in the country. I am honored and a bit humbled to take over the board presidency at such a dynamic time.
I am also humbled to follow Peggy Sechrist, our outgoing president and continuing board member, who has done such a fantastic job during her years of leadership. Since Peggy became President three years ago she has stepped up to serve Southern SAWG in so many ways; it is impossible to count through all of the crises that came with an organization growing by leaps and bounds. We are the organization we are today because of her leadership, and all of us are eternally grateful. We are even more grateful that she is continuing to serve as a board member, and we will continue to benefit from her wisdom and energy.
I would also like to take this opportunity to welcome four new members to the Southern SAWG board of directors: Susan Anderson, Stephan Walker, Charlie Maloney, and Jeanette Abi-Nader. Identifying skilled people to participate in guiding our organization is always a challenge; each year we work to balance the skills we need with representation of our diverse Southern region.
This year, we could not be more pleased with our set of new board members. Notice that three of them are currently farming, and all have farming experience, re-affirming our principle that change takes place best when it is led by the participants. In addition to their farming knowledge, each of our new board members brings a fantastic set of skills to this board, and we are looking forward to their contributions.
Susan Anderson is from Florida, where she and her husband run Native Naturals Farm, a 200-acre operation with organic vegetables, pastured poultry, beef, and herbs. Susan has extensive administration and development experience with a series of environmental and arts organizations, and is active in Native American advocacy.
Stephan Walker is a mixed vegetables, soybean and rice farmer from Arkansas, and works with the University of Arkansas Pine Bluff assisting minority and limited-resource farmers in gaining access to Federal agriculture programs. Stephan has participated in the Southern SAWG Conference for years, and this past year he made the arrangements for a whole busload of Arkansas farmers to participate in the conference. He has represented Southern SAWG at the National Campaign for Sustainable Agriculture's Commodity Policy Dialogue, and was a member of the National Task Force to Reinvigorate Agriculture of the Middle.
Charlie Maloney is a small-scale fruit and vegetable producer in eastern Virginia, where he and his family run Dayspring Farm. In operation for nearly twenty years, they market crops through a 150-member CSA and to restaurants. Charlie is a long-time Southern SAWG supporter who has participated in our experienced organic growers projects, presented at our conferences, and is featured in the farm profile section of our website (http://www.ssawg.org/maloney.html). He has also been a collaborator on a series of SARE-funded on-farm research projects, and is an adjunct faculty member at the College of William and Mary, where he teaches a course in Sustainable Agriculture.
Jeanette Abi-Nader is a specialist in program evaluation and development for the Community Food Security Coalition. Jeanette has been active in Southern SAWG's community food systems project for two and one-half years and is an active participant in planning the community food systems track at the Southern SAWG conference. Prior to working with CFSC, Jeanette farmed for fourteen years in rural and urban settings, and has extensive knowledge of sustainable agriculture.
We welcome them all to the board, and are very excited by the new ideas and new energy that they bring.
I also want to remind us that we are all the Southern Sustainable Agriculture Working Group. Whether you attend the conference, participate in one of our many programs, or just keep tabs on what is happening in sustainable agriculture in your community and across the South, you are a part of this working group. And I want to invite you to deepen that participation, in whatever way helps you do what you do more effectively. For more information, visit our website at www.ssawg.org. These truly are exciting times around here.
For healthy farms, healthy farmers and healthy communities,
Scott Marlow
For information about the role of Southern SAWG’s Board of Directors, and a list of members, visit http://www.ssawg.org/board.html
| Alex
Hitt and Jim Lukens:
We Thank You |
During the normal board member rotations this year, Southern SAWG said farewell to two long-standing members of the SSAWG leadership. Alex Hitt, farmer from North Carolina, and Jim Lukens from Arkansas, who has provided leadership to numerous sustainable agriculture non-profits, have departed from the board after many years of valuable service. It is due to the leadership from Alex and Jim, along with a core of dedicated individuals, that Southern SAWG grew and evolved into the highly respected organization that we are today.
The Southern SAWG board and staff wish to acknowledge our deepest appreciation for their uncompromised commitment, leadership of the deepest integrity, and for their vision of the highest calling for Southern SAWG. We will miss their presence at our board meetings, but know that we will all remain connected at the heart level. Our love and best wishes go out to Alex and Jim.
Visit Southern SAWG
online at
http://www.ssawg.org
Southern Sustainable Agriculture Working Group, Inc. (Southern SAWG) is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization founded in 1991 to promote sustainable agriculture in the Southern United States.
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