ssawg newsletter aug05




SOUTHERN SAWG E-NEWSLETTER, VOL. 1, #1 AUGUST 2005

Dear Friends,

This is our first official e-newsletter. We appreciate the opportunity to share news and announcements. We hope you find the information useful. Your comments on this first issue and suggestions for future issues are encouraged. Please provide feedback by email to ssawg@aol.com.
Many thanks,
--Your friends at Southern SAWG

Highlights of This Issue:

New Video Resources

Community Food Systems Handbook

Doubling Your SSAWG Contribution

Regional Event Info

Special Educational Opportunities

Shining Stars in the Southern Region

YOUR CONTRIBUTION CAN COUNT TWICE

Act Now, Here's How

An anonymous contributor has issued a matching grant to Southern SAWG. For every dollar you and other friends of Southern SAWG give between now and October 15, 2005, our generous donor will match it. Please help Southern SAWG take advantage of this exceptional gift. Send a little. Send a lot! Every dollar counts, and counts double!

Donate through the Southern SAWG web site by clicking on the Donate Now button on the Support Us web page: http://www.ssawg.org/support-us.html

Or, send a contribution
by mail to:

Southern SAWG
20627 Hwy 84
Malvern, AR 72104

Special Offer for

Organizations and Educators

As part of an RMA Partnership, Southern SAWG is now offering, for a limited time, the enterprise development packages to a limited number of interested organizations and educators in the Southern Region. These packages, which include the video and manual, are available for the following enterprises: Management Intensive Grazing for Beef, Pastured Turkey Production, Cut Flower Growing and Marketing, and Organic Horticulture. Contact SSAWG for more information at SSAWG@aol.com.

NEW RESOURCES FROM SOUTHERN SAWG

New Video Resources Now Available

Southern SAWG has produced two brand new videos, available in VHS or DVD format, as part of our Natural Farming Systems in the South series. These new videos are Management Intensive Grazing of Beef, featuring Tony and LeVonna Uekman's farm in Quitman, AR, and Pastured Turkeys, that profiles Mike Walters' farm in Stilwell, OK.

The new resources complement the first two videos of this exciting series. These previously produced videos, Organic Horticulture Production & Marketing 1, featuring Alison and Paul Wiediger's farm in Smiths Grove, KY, and Organic Horticulture Production & Marketing 2, highlighting Ken Dawson's farm, in Cedar Grove, NC, are also still available.

Each of these videos provide a lively, educational tour of the featured farm, narrated by the producers themselves. The featured farmers share details of their successful production and marketing strategies including some pioneering tricks of the trade. Beautifully and skillfully produced, these videos are already winning national film awards. You'll be educated, entertained and inspired!

An informative Enterprise Manual accompanies each of the four videos. The manuals include publications on various aspects of the featured farming system, a farm profile, and a teaching guide to help viewers and educators make the best use of these wonderful resources.

Next month another new video in the series will be available. Cut Flower Production and Marketing, featuring the farm of Mark Cain and Michael Crane in Huntsville, AR is the next video to be produced.

Video clips and order forms for all four videos are on the Southern SAWG website: http://www.ssawg.org/virtualfarm.html. You may also order by phone: 501-865-1331.

A Guide to Developing
Community Food Systems in the South

Southern SAWG has developed a comprehensive guide to aid Community Food Systems development in the Southern region. Food Security Begins at Home: Creating Community Food Coalitions in the South ushers readers through the process of forming diverse community collaborations, conducting community food assessments, addressing food policy issues and operating profitable projects that are the driving force of Community Food Security programs.

Included in the 158-page handbook are many profiles of successful community food coalitions, numerous references to community food system organizations, sources for funding, and free or low-cost informational resources.

The handbook can be viewed online, downloaded in PDF format, or ordered as a CD-ROM. To read a description of each chapter and place an order for this valuable resource go to: http://www.ssawg.org/cfs-handbook.html.

UPCOMING SOUTHERN SAWG EVENTS
2006 Southern SAWG Conference Southern SAWG's Practical Tools and Solutions for Sustaining Family Farms Conference will return to the Hilton New Orleans Airport Hotel this year. The conference will be held January 19 - 22, 2006. Visit the conference page on the Southern SAWG web site for updated information: http://www.ssawg.org/conference-.html
New Educational Opportunities at Southern SSAWG Conference New to our annual conference this year are four intensive one-day Short Courses. The concurrent Short Courses are Management Intensive Grazing of Beef, Cut Flowers, Pastured Turkeys, and Organic Vegetables. The $55 fee for the Short Course of your choice includes an enterprise video and manual. Each Short Course is limited to 25 participants, so sign up early. Short Course details and registration forms will be included with conference materials posted on the Southern SAWG website in early October and with those mailed in November.	Leadership Training for CFS Organizers On October 9 - 11, our second Leadership Training for Community Food System Organizers will be held in Atlanta immediately following the Community Food Security Conference. This two-day workshop will provide participants with a thorough understanding of effective community food projects and the tools to develop them in communities across the South. The training is limited to a small number of attendees. For an application or further information, contact: Keith Richards, Community Food Program Manager, 479-587-0888, keith@ssawg.org
Visit the Southern SAWG Events Page for information on other conferences, training opportunities, and events of interest throughout the Southern Region: http://www.ssawg.org/events.html This E-Newsletter was made possible in part through a partnership with USDA Risk Management Agency

SHINING STARS IN THE SOUTH

Natural Dairy Takes Off

Long time Southern SAWG leader and outstanding dairy farmer Tom Trantham was featured in the May issue of the Delta in-flight magazine. Everyone that flew with Delta in May got to read about how he saved his farm from bankruptcy by switching to sustainable practices. And some got right off the plane and drove to his on-farm store to make purchases. Check out the article online at: www.delta-sky.com.

It's a Good Thing

Mike Walters, featured in Southern SAWG's new Pastured Turkey video, and his heirloom turkeys will be the focus of an article in the November issue of Martha Stewart Magazine. Demand for pastured turkeys is bound to soar!

Southern Style

Southern SAWG Board President Peggy Sechrist will be included in an article that highlights the work of six women in agriculture for the September issue of Organic Style Magazine.

Visit Southern SAWG
online at:

http://www.ssawg.org

Archives, Subscribe and Unsubscribe

Southern SAWG E-Newsletters are archived at http://www.ssawg.org/newsletter.html. Please visit this site if you received the text version and would like to see the complete layout or to browse through past issues. Also, use this link to subscribe to receive the monthly newsletter by email.

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.