Whitmore Farm

It doesn't rain in the summer in Maryland anymore...

2011-06-13T06:56:00.000-07:00

As we enter our 5 straight year of summer drought here in Maryland, every day I read about extreme weather all around the country and the world.

I wonder how people can still blindly deny that climate change (or global weirding as I like to call it) doesn't exist when the evidence is all around us? Of course, some of that is this misnomer of 'global warming' which oversimplifies the idea that global weather patterns will become more erratic and extreme.

All around us is news of extreme weather - tornados in Maryland and Massachusetts, flooding up and down the Mississipi River and droughts and wildfires in Texas and Arizona.

Of course for us, rain equals grass, which is what our ruminants eat. Without it, we end up having to feed hay.

This past spring, all we had was rain and more rain. But for the past month, we've had nothing but extremely high temps and no rain.

For the last 3 years, we've fed hay every July and August.

What that means of course is higher costs for us and our customers.

So far, this year looks no different than the previous four - a very wet winter and spring with bitter cold and heavy snowfall, followed by hot, very dry summer months.

This changes our business model into one where supplemental feed is require for 6 or more months out of the year - winter and summer.

Also, because our animals are coming out of a very dry summer season, they eat down the fall flush and we have no 'stockpiled' grass for early winter grazing.

As farmers, we watch the weather every day and right now, we're praying for rain!

We've had nothing but heat and dry weather for over 3 weeks now, the pastures are starting to brown, and the sheep and goats are hungry! I look forward to the months of July and August with a vague sense of dread :(

Organic certification

2011-06-10T06:10:00.000-07:00

Recently, Will and I have been looking at our operation mercilessly to try and find a way to be profitable and more sustainable.

When I say sustainable, what I am specifically referring to is our sustainability as farmers in residence recognizing that the farmer is our most valuable asset. Too many long hours and hard work for little or no profit, and too many things we don't enjoy because they have nothing to do with farming.

One area that has dogged me since day one was our organic certification. Initially, more of an annoyance than anything else, I dutifully filled out the voluminous application each year and sent my $500 check in.

Considering that the whole 'organic' production model was the home of small producers (commonly less than 10 acres) from its birth in the 60's until about 10 years ago when it became a label regulated by the USDA (via the NOP = National Organic Program), I found the application to be incredibly annoying.

'Please record how many tons of each vegetable produced' was a pretty typical entry requirement.

'Just cross out ton and put in bushels', was the advice I gave our gardener Kyle when he asked what to do with a confused look.

Initially, our annual certification inspection involved a pleasant fellow, who would come by, look around a bit, ask some appropriate questions, and usually leave with the comment 'try and improve your record-keeping'.

Since then, there have been several well-known scandals involving large-scale producers caught cheating in their organic production.

Organic production has been increasingly annexed by the likes of WalMart and CISCO, who by their very business model, do not exemplify the ideals of organic production.

Large scale producers have gotten into the equation, trying to meet the demands of ridiculously low-prices and high production volumes of these kinds of retailers.

In response, the volume and voracity of NOP paperwork and oversight has skyrocketed, and Maryland has been no exception. The USDA regulates/sets the rules for organic production via the NOP, but the states are required for administering, regulating, and inspecting their own producers.

Our new inspector and program director for the entire state of Maryland, sort of embodies the very worst that one can associate with the words 'government bureaucrat'. Now don't get me wrong, he's a nice enough person I'm sure, but as an inspector and representative of the organic program in Maryland...well, not so much.

Very little money was provided to the states for the NOP program, despite all of the huge subsidies provided to commercial farming in this country, so there is no real motivation in seeing the success of organic production in Maryland as things currently stand.

The numbers tell the story - after the initial bump of certifications at the initiation of the program about 10 years ago, the numbers of organic producers continues to decline in Maryland even with the introduction of new producers.

In order to improve my quality of life, Will and I have decided to no longer bother with the organic certification process and focus our attention on something that no factory farm/large-scale producer can provide: high quality, locally-produced food for our customers.

Of course, we won't actually be doing anything differently than we currently do, but I figure we'll save several hundred hours of time spent filling out paperwork and ridiculous documentation to meet the NOP monster's insatiable appetite.

This is time I can spend with the animals, working in the garden, and visiting with customers, some of my favorite things!

Best,

Kent & Will

Shearing Day at Whitmore Farm

2011-04-29T05:27:00.000-07:00

While we specialize in Katahdin hair sheep at Whitmore Farm, we recently started experimenting with some wool/hair crosses to see how this would affect the carcass quality of our animals as well as the flavor of our meat.

We decided to start by adding a Texel ram from our friend and well-known Texel breeder, Bev Pearsall. Lucky for us, she had a nice ram born with a big brown spot on his jawline, an unforgivable fault by the Texel breed standard.

Interestingly, we saw a lot of 'colored' Texels (gray, brown, tan, even spotted) during our visit to Holland last Fall, but white is still the standard for the breed both here in the U.S. and Holland. Considering that our flock of katahdins has a TON of color in it, you can surmise how much I like color in sheep.

Anyways, being a wool sheep, Arnold develops a very healthy coat during winter and needs to be sheared in order to maintain his comfort during Maryland's hot summer months. The wool is of a poor quality and has no real value in spinning.

So earlier this month, we held our First Annual Shearing Day at Whitmore Farm to shear one animal...Arnold.

Technically, this was our 2nd annual shearing day as last year I trimmed Arnold. Afterwards, we decided rather than being called 'shearing day', we would call it Bloody Sunday. No arterial bleeders and nothing that couldn't be fixed with some suture and a lot of blood-stop powder.

I offered to do it again this year, but for some reason Will was reluctant....

Luckily for us, Amy Miller, a local shearer, was available and willing to come out and spend a few hours fussing over our ram, and as it turns outs, one of our Great Pyrenees who was in desperate need of a clipping.

'I may just start a dog grooming business on the side' Amy added after clipping Ween down to a soft, clean summer cut.

Life & death on the farm

2011-04-29T04:25:00.000-07:00

When people ask me about what its like to run a farm, one of the things that comes to mind right away is the constant cycle of life and death. Every day, animals die from accidents, disease, or your hand and there are some days when it seems that's all you have - death, death, and more death.

Sometimes it seems the animals spend their days finding creative ways to die.

Here's a fine example that greeted us the other morning - just what you want to see with your morning cup of joe in hand:

Ugghhh.

Sassy, a very sweet 5 year old doe was feeding, and one of our pushier ewes had tried to feed along side each other in the same spot on the feeder. Their heads slid down and locked in between the two bars of the feeder and they strangled each other.

Just like that, two excellent animals were dead. I'm going to carry around this photo for the next time someone says sheep and goats aren't stupid animals!

But then, lo and behold, one of our gilts who had been teetering on farrowing (i.e. pigging or having piglets) popped! 3 squirmy little piglets (and one dead one) were tucked away in one of our shelters on pasture.

We bundled them up with straw and a tarp and left them to get comfy with their dame.

'So how do we get the dead one out?' I asked innocently enough.

NB:Whenever we got near the entrance to her den, the sow literally growled at us like a tiger about to pounce!

'We'll wait until she leaves to poo and Steve, you'll dash in there and grab it!' I suggested.

Steve just swallowed and looked frightened.

Sure enough, a few hours later she was out.

'Quick! Now's our chance! I'll keep lookout....go, go go!' Steve dashed in and frantically searched the bedding for the dead animal.

'Check the sexes on the piglets while you're in there!', I added.

'There's no piglet', he cries out.

'I can't find it', he says.

'Where's that sow?' he asks, his question tinged with apprehension.

'Oh she's far away', I add.

NB: pigs lumber along and seem impossibly large and clumsy, but when they want to, they are greased lightening and can easily outrun a human.

'Well then, she must have ate it', I surmised. Yuck.

A few days later, one of our GOS sows farrowed for 11 healthy piglets, no stillbirths. She was gentle and sweet with the farmer and her piglets, and the thoughts of death from earlier in the week quickly passed as we watched the wee ones play and suckle.

'They are SOOOOO cute!' I say, I say with a smile as I watch them climb over each other.

'And they'll be delicious some day!' adds Will.

HB1261

2011-04-08T05:56:00.000-07:00

If you live in Maryland, please contact your state delegate and senator regarding this issue!

Dear Kent,

Thank you very much for taking the time to contact me regarding, HB1261 - Maryland's Genetically Engineered Food Right to Know Act. It is great to see Frederick County residents getting active in the process with issues that are important to them!

Unfortunately, this bill was submitted to the House Rules Committee on February 22 and has not been assigned another committee in which to receive a hearing. It looks unlikely that it will make it through the legislative process this year. Hopefully, the bill will be reintroduced next year and will get the public hearing that I am sure that it deserves.

Please feel free to contact me with any additional questions or concerns.

With Best Regards,
Kelly
Delegate Kelly Schulz
District 4A, Frederick County Maryland
Kelly.Schulz@house.state.md.us
301-858-3080 or 410-841-3080
6 Bladen Street, Suite 324
Annapolis, MD 21401

Maryland HB 1261, Genetically Engineered Food Right to Know Act

2011-03-30T16:11:00.000-07:00

Delegate Afzali

Delegate Schulz

Maryland House of Delegates

March 31, 2011

Dear Delegate,

I run a small organic farming operation in Frederick County and I am

writing to ask your support and co-sponsorship of H.B. 1261, Maryland's

Genetically Engineered Food Right to Know Act.

This bill simply requires that foods containing more than 1% genetically

engineered ingredients be labeled as such. I think the last study I looked

at showed that 88% of Americans support this kind of labeling.

We label foods containing all kinds of things like MSG, aspartame, and

corn syrup but not so for GMO products.

Recently, experiences in Pennsylvania regarding the use of growth hormone

in cows showed strong public support of labeling of milk produced using

bHCG.

Unfortunately, the federal government has refused to require this kind of

labeling. The U.S.D.A. and the F.D.A. continue to approve new G.M.O.'s

like alfalfa even with inadequate long-term health studies and the risks

of contamination of non-GMO seed banks.

Please co-sponsor this bill and let consumers decide whether they want to

eat GMO-containing products using their pocketbook.

Sincerely,

Kent Ozkum

Whitmore Farm

10720 Dern Road

Emmitsburg, MD 21727

Are the USDA & Monsanto the same organization?

2011-03-25T04:45:00.000-07:00

I would argue 'yes'.

For many years, there has been a very cozy relationship between industrial agriculture and the management of the USDA. The most obvious example of this has been the movement of executives between industrial-farming corporations like Monsanto and the USDA.

Back in 2008, when Tom Vilsack was nominated as the new Secretary of Agriculture, he came with a resume that spoke volumes as to what the USDA might look like under his watch:

1. Former governor of Iowa with a track record of supporting genetically-modified crops.

2. Awarded the 'governor of the year' award by the Biotechnology Industry Organization, an industrial-farming lobbying group.

3. Founder and former chair of the Governor's Biotechnology Partnership.

4. Supporter of cloning of dairy cows as a vehicle for economic development.

5. Originated House Bill 671 and Senate Bill 631 in 2005 whose purpose was aim to prevent towns, counties or cities from passing any ordinance, regulation or resolution to control any kind of plant or plant pest (including invasive plant species).

These bills became known as the 'Monsanto Bills' because they usurped local government's right to try and regulate GMO products if the USDA did not. Representative Sandy Greiner, the Republican sponsor of the bill, bragged that Vilsack had put her up to writing this bill shortly after he was elected governor.

6. Vilsack has always been a strong supporter of Monsanto and commonly traveled on Monsanto jets during his 2006 presidential bid.

7. Vilsack strongly supports the use of corn and soy to produce biofuels, even though their production uses as much fossil fuel as they generate. This is a huge money-maker for factory farming in the U.S. and also drives up food prices unnecessarily. Former chair of the Governors' Ethanol Coalition.

On Thursday of last week, the USDA announced approval for unrestricted planting of GMO alfalfa produced by Monsanto and Forge Genetics throughout the United States. As one of the leading feed crops produced, if you eat meat or dairy, you will indirectly consume alfalfa.

Aside from being the fourth largest feed crop in the U.S., alfalfa is notoriously promiscuous with pollen being carried for up to 5 miles by pollinating insects. This means there will be no functional way to prevent GMO genetics from spreading to non-GMO products, the genetic leak that I have discussed in previous postings.

USDA-certified organic products do not allow the intentional or unintentional use of GMO products in their production.

Recently, Sharon Bomer, an executive vice president with the Biotechnology Industry Organization, stated that while there was a 'deep appreciation' within the industry to minimize the spread of genetic material, 'the burden is on them' (organic producers) to protect their crops.

Previous experience with copyright-protected crops have shown that when genetics leak into adjacent fields thru wind and other natural processes, companies like Monsanto do not hesitate to sue for copyright-infringement and theft of genetic materials.

For two years, Vilsak has been promising a way for organics and GMO plants to coexist.

Earlier, the USDA had said that it was considering one of three options:

(1) complete deregulation of GM alfalfa

(2) allowing its planting but requiring five-mile buffer strips between it and non-GMO alfalfa

(3) allowing unrestricted planting except in seed-growing regions to prevent contamination.

When news of Vilsack's considerations made their way to the halls of Congress, Republican lawmakers and conservative organizations were highly critical. On Jan. 19, congressional Republicans told Vilsack that the idea of restricting GE alfalfa was “troubling" and on Jan. 20, there was more of the same from the House Agriculture Committee.

During the 3 weeks that followed, the USDA approved the use of GMO alfalfa, beets, and corn.

GMO alfalfa has been designed to resist the effects of the herbicide Roundup. Previous experience with this overuse of herbicide has been the proliferation of superweeds, or weeds similarly-resistant to the effects of Roundup, in a relatively short period of time. With the release of GMO alfalfa, it is estimated that an additional 23 million pounds of Roundup will be applied to the environment per annum.

Consumer protection, environmental, organic producer, and food safety organizations have filed suit to prevent the release of these products. However, given the certainty and speed of genetic leak, once GMO-alfalfa is released, there is no way to take back what we have put into the genetic swimming pool of our environment.

The season of mud

2011-03-02T05:55:00.000-08:00

One thing you learn quickly when living and working on the farm is to not only to read the weather but also the soil. The weather, aside from affecting your personal comfort and what you should wear, also affects the soil.

You spend a lot of time deciding what your soil will be doing on any particular day based on the weather and what you are hoping to do.

We are currently entering what we call the 'season of mud'.

The red clay of Frederick County, while rich in micronutrients and minerals, has all the negatives of most clay soils. When wet, the small molecules lay flat and hold water between these layers. This slippery, gooey mess is what most people refer to as mud.

Later in the summer, when the heat and droughts that have plagued us for the past 5 years have removed all the moisture in the soil, we have what most people would refer to as a brick.

We learned this lesson the hard way a few years back when we were trying to drive fence posts in the summer. ' You can't build fences this time of year' said one of our neighbors, 'It's not fence season.'

Fence season !? Huh? Did we need a permit?

Not sure what they were talking about, we merrily went on with our plans to knock off a large section of fencing using an auger and some really nice black locust posts we had to order to West Virginia.

[As an aside, in olden times, posts were commonly made out of local rot resistant woods like black locust, osage orange, and eastern red cedar prior to the advent of pressure treated pine. Pressure-treated lumber has been on the market for about 60 years and for most of that time, was treated with arsenic to preserve the wood, obviously unacceptable to us as organic, all-natural producers. In 2002, to address the dangers of arsenic leaching into soils and exposure from direct contact, pressure treatment was converted to a highly-concentrated copper or ACQ compound. These compounds address the dangers of arsenic poisoning but have other issues related to corrosion of metals coming in direct contact with them]

Two auger bits and about an hour later, we had successfully placed one post - only 2000 more to go! Clearly, this was not going to work!

So we waited, and in the fall, after a few good rainfalls, when the air was crisp and the ground had softened but was dry enough to take heavy machinery on it, we rented a fence post driver and tried again. The pounder, a beautiful piece of machinery, held the post in position behind our tractor and then slammed down onto the top of the post over and over again.

We watched with amazement as the post slid gently and smoothly into place in a matter of about 15 or 20 seconds! A day later and we had placed hundreds of posts without so much as breaking a sweat (or an auger bit).

A few years later, I was talking with one of my sheep customers on a hot August day. 'Anything interesting planned for the weekend?' I asked. 'Oh, I plan on doing some fence posts', he replied.

Farm Bureau and the Chesapeake - good steward of the land?

2011-02-20T04:19:00.000-08:00

I read with dismay the Frederick News Post’s January 23rd article announcing the American Farm Bureau Federation’s (AFBF) lawsuit to block EPA’s plan to restore the Chesapeake Bay. The Farm Burea’s plan: to continue the status quo of voluntary, non-binding best management practices (BMPs), that after 26 years of implementation have resulted in a watershed that only scores a 31 out of 100 in the 2010 State of the Bay report.

What does AFBA’s action say? It illustrates how closely the organization has aligned itself with industrial agriculture and at the same time alienated both consumers of their products and the sustainable agriculture community. As a farmer it is disheartening to see the Farm Bureau distort the facts and stand by industrial farms thereby soiling the reputation of the rest of the agriculture community. The thrust of AFBA’s lawsuit challenges the scientific validity of EPA’s pollution diet. You can tweak the input parameters in EPA’s complex model all you want, but the story won’t change: agriculture is a major contributor of damaging nutrients and agriculture needs to do more.

All you have to do is take a drive in the country to see examples of farms that are not doing their fair share to reduce runoff of nutrients from their fields. This is a good time of year to see barren fields without any green winter cover crop. You can also see some farmers spreading manure on frozen ground. Come spring, the drainage ditches around those fields will run orange/brown, transporting sediments laden with nutrients into the Bay. When summer arrives, take another drive in the country and you’ll likely come across cows standing in streams. Unfortunately, they don’t hold it like humans in a swimming pool would. You’ll also notice some crops growing right next to stream banks with no buffer strips. Buffer strips filter the flow of nutrients into the Bay.

In October of 2010, the U.S. Department of Agriculture issued a draft report on the “Assessment of the Effects of Conservation Practices on Cultivated Cropland in the Chesapeake Region.” This exhaustive report represents the most comprehensive evaluation to date of farm activities as they relate to nutrient loadings to the Bay. This study found that “81 percent of the cultivated cropland acres require additional nutrient management to reduce the loss of nitrogen or phosphorus from fields.” In other words, farmers are implementing all the recommended, voluntary best management practices for only 19% of cropland. Only 1 in 5 acres is being managed responsibly. This is not what I would call “good stewardship” of the land.

I am a farmer in Frederick County, Maryland. Our farm is bordered by a tributary on two sides, which feeds any runoff into the Monocacy, the Potomac, and finally the Bay. Our watershed is one of many in the region that are exceeding water quality standards for nutrients. We have been implementing all the voluntary BMPs recommended by the MD Department of Environment. Although there is some financial and technical assistance from the state, implementing these BMPs still cost us in time, money and some land is taken out of production. We view it as the cost of doing business. All the organic and sustainable farms I know follow similar practices, but then again, we aren’t members of the Farm Bureau.

Editorial Section, Frederick News Post, Sunday, by William.

Action Alert from Organic Consumers Association

2010-12-24T03:45:00.000-08:00

I wanted to encourage everyone who is in favor of protecting small farmers to comment to the USDA on their pending decision to release GMO alfalfa onto the market:

http://capwiz.com/grassrootsnetroots/issues/alert/?alertid=14469696

In an earlier post, I talked a lot about the dangers of GMO products and the inadequacy of safety testing requirments on those products.

In another, problems with the overuse of, dependence on, and persistance of herbicides and pesticides in the environment.

This decision kind of brings all of those ideas to the forefront.

Some people say 'what's the harm' in releasing a product like this onto the market - 'it can always be pulled backed off the market if need be'.

But, what our previous experiences with other GMO products have shown us is that there is 'leakage' of GMO genetics into non-GMO seed banks and even into the natural environment around us.

This is one problem once created that cannot be easily reversed.

Please urge the USDA and your representatives in Congress to ban GMO products in the United States!

Hardy PALMS and CACTI update

2010-12-20T10:51:00.000-08:00

On an earlier post, I described some experiments I've been conducting on the farm testing the cold hardiness of two genuses of plant not normally thought of as cold-hardy in our zone 6 area: the hardy palms and agave.

I brought along an interest in this subject after living in Washington, D.C., where microclimates allowed us to grow plants normally found in more southern climes like ficus pumila, southern jasmine, voodoo lillies, and a host of other plants 'that don't grow here'.

Of course, the hardy palms and agave were part of this tradition.

Last winter was pretty harsh with very cold temperatures and heavy snowfall. We had two trachycarpus fortuneii that wintered over with significant protection and several colonies of echincereus, the claret cup cactus, which did very well with no protection in pots.

Here are two Trachycarpus that wintered over with minimal trouble last winter. This season, I decided to try them with no protection.

The top specimen is a generic plant I picked up at a local garden center here in Maryland.

The lower specimen is smaller and is one of my original 'Bulgaria' Trachycarpus, originally one of 4 growing in my Georgetown garden, and the only one that survived multiple transplants before settling into its current location on the farm.

These Bulgarian palms are offspring of fortuneii palms growing in Sofia, Bulgaria, that have survived very cold temperatures. They are thought to have originated from Soviet-era breeding programs north of the Black Sea working to develop more cold-tolerant strains of palms, citrus, and the like.

As many gardeners who have experimented with these cold-hardy palms, one thing that tends to kill them off is fungal disease, in particular affecting the crown of the plant. So, in theory, they may perform better despite the cold with the better air circulation provided by NO winter protection.

Certainly, the larger the specimen, the greater their cold tolerance appears to be.

In addition to my original specimens, I added several Trachycarpus fortuneii and Chamerops humilis 'cerifera', the Morrocan form of the European Fan Palm, to the front garden of our house. Previously, the standard green European Fan Palm had proven NOT to be hardy in our protected Georgetown garden in Washington, but the cerifera (blue Morrocan) form is felt to be more cold-hardy.

While in Morroco on vacation, we witnessed 20 foot specimens of the Morrocan Blue Palm growing in the Atlas Mountains outside Marrakech at high altitudes in very cold conditions (maybe 20's with heavy snowfall and no protection). I love the blue color and found these to be very cold-tolerant in D.C.. The ones we have grown seem to be more of a clump forming palm, but all the specimens we saw in Morrocco, were single trunked and quite tall.

The last palm we have on the property, the needle palm or Rhapidophyllum hystrix, is native to the Southeastern U.S. and is one of the more well-known cold-hardy palms. It is definitely a clump-former and there are large specimens of this palm in the National Arboretum in Washington, D.C. I expect this species to be very reliably hardy on our farm.

It does require hot, humid summers and does well in our area. It has been reported to tolerate temperatures as low as -15 to -20 degrees celsius (~ 0 to -5 degrees F).

It is also commonly known as the porcupine palm for the 2 inch, needle-like projections around its trunk!

On the Agave side, we are trialing species including Agave parryi and a cultivar, Agave 'sharkskin' (shown immediately below).

So far, we have had a very cold December with lows hitting 14 degrees Fahrenheit. Many of these days have been associated with high-winds and wind-chills around 0 degrees.

I'll keep you posted as to how my little friends do this winter along with minimal temps and other findings.

If you're interested, many of these plants can be ordered through Yucca-Do Nursery http://www.yuccado.com/ and Plant Delights Nursery in North Carolina http://www.plantdelights.com/.

Geography and factory farms.

2010-12-19T09:47:00.000-08:00

I found an awesome website recently that does a really nice job of showing people how the numbers of animals in factory farms has changed over the past 15 years or so:

http://www.factoryfarmmap.org/

Texas, Iowa and California lead the race towards unhealthy food, animal abuse, and just general nastiness in the 1, 2 and 3 positions in terms of absolute numbers.

However, California counties holds 3 of the top 4 spots for sheer numbers overall on a county level.

The website is packed full of interesting factoids such as:

-there are 4 factory farmed broilers (chickens) for every American alive today.

-US beef feedlot operations added ~1100 cattle overall per day to their operations between 2002 and 2007.

- in Maryland, the nearly 31 million broiler chickens, mostly concentrated on the Eastern Shore, produce as much untreated manure as the sewage from 10 million people, nearly twice the state’s population.

The great thing about this website is you can actually zoom in on your own home state (or neighboring states if you live in a bi-, tri- or quad-state area like we do) and find where the concentrations of feedlot/confinement operations are concentrated in your back yard!

Check it out! Nice work!

101 Dalmatians...er, I mean piglets!

2010-11-27T07:48:00.000-08:00

We were anxiously awaiting the arrival of our first round of Gloucester Old Spot piglets in November and I can happily announce that we are proud parents to 14 beautiful, black and white spotted piglets!

All births went smoothly and so far, the piglets have been thriving in their nursery in the barn. We had a total of 4 sows with piglets born including one hereford, within a matter of 5 days. The result has been an absolute mosh pit of legs, snouts, ears and eyes peering up at us! lol

The moms have been doing a wonderful job so far, lying leg to leg in a circle. This has helped to keep the piglets warm as they bounce back and forth from one set of teats to the next!

Too funny!

Here, our hereford sow shows the other girls how its done!

Anyone interested in purchasing registered breeding stock can contact me via the website for more information.

Best,

Kent
www.whitmorefarm.com

HR 2749 - the truth about federal food safety regulation changes

2010-11-21T05:39:00.000-08:00

Food safety has become a more prominent issue in the public eye with the ever increasing incidence and severity of food contamination in the news. This is a natural and expected process as I see it as our industrial and non-sustainable ag system begins to break down at the hands of the mightiest of forces - Mother Nature.

Rather than working with the laws of nature, we have chosen a system for our food production that promotes cheap food at any cost sacrificing human health, environmental health, animal welfare, and the welfare of our workers.

One thing that became clear in all of these food contamination occurrences was that the Food and Drug Administration lacked the ability and authority to inspect, regulate, and enforce safety standards for industrial agriculture. The problem of course, is that many necessary and important rules that would help control food borne illness outbreaks are impractical and detrimental to small producers like ourselves. The government always wants to put in place regulations that cover all parts of our agricultural system without understanding how different these systems are.

Additionally, the really serious food-borne illness outbreaks, from a national public health perspective, really involve the largest and most industrial producers. Its a simple volume and system thing - large producers supply the largest proportion of food products to the American market. Additionally, they use systems that work against nature and then try and compensate for these unsustainable practices through the use of antibiotics as an example.

In an effort to better prevent and control these outbreaks, the Food Safety Modernization Act, HR 2749, has been proposed and is in front of the U.S. Senate as we speak. This bill would give the FDA the authority to:

-recall food products
-increase inspections
-increase regulatory requirements for anyone ( a corporation is considered a person) processing food.
-produce safety standards for food production.

The primary concerns have been how these regulations would affect small producers who are not setup for such a deluge of regulation and paperwork. These rules would also address a problem that doesn't exist in small production models like ours because we work with nature and don't have the same problems with bacterial and other contamination that industrial agriculture experiences with ever increasing frequency.

What kind of regulations are we talking about? These rules would require a 'Hazard Analysis and Risk-Based Preventative Controls' plan involving:

-identifying and evaluating known or reasonable hazards and developing written analysis of said hazards.
-identifying and implementing preventative controls.
-monitoring effectiveness of preventative controls.
-identify processes if such preventative controls are ineffective
-verifying that preventative controls are adequate, that monitoring meets FDA requirements, that appropriate decisions are being made about corrective actions, and that preventative controls are working through the use of environmental and product testing programs.

Of course, all of this would require record-keeping, a written plan and documentation, and would be subject to FDA approval, fees, and inspection/re-inspection.

Ugghhh.

Small producers like us are already highly regulated by state and local health departments, as well as state departments of agriculture. In all case, local requirements are at least as stringent, and often more stringent than USDA requirements. In addition, risks are limited based on the mere size of smaller, local operations. Small producers feel these requirements would be unmanageable and cost/time prohibitive and would force even more small producers out of an ever dwindling market for local food.

To counter this, two U.S. Senators added the Tester-Hagan Amendment (Senator Kay R. Hagan D-NC and Jon Tester D-MT) which was successfully added a few days ago to the Food Safety Modernization Act. This amendment would provide an exemption to small producers who would continue to be regulated at the state and local level. There would be no change in the existing regulatory and inspection systems in place. Small producers would be defined as those who sell most of their food directly to consumers, local restaurants and retailers within a 275 mile radius of their farm, and producers that earn $500,000 or less in annual sales.

Big industrial farming groups have already come out against the Tester-Hagan Amendment. Thirty or so industrial agricultural groups such as the United Fresh Produce Association and the American Meat Institute have cried foul claiming this amendment exempts small farms and business operations from "basic federal food safety requirements."

Of course this is completely not true and fails to identify the source of the problem: current food safety systems in place for small producers (=working) vs. industrial agriculture food safety systems (= completely inadequate and failing repeatedly).

So, as things stand, I can support the Food Safety Modernization Act as long as it contains the Tester-Hagan Amendment that allows an exemption for small producers like us. Of course, Big Ag knows that if they can kill this amendment, they have a greater chance of killing the entire bill. Without the Tester Amendment, the Food Safety Modernization Act becomes untenable to small producers.

So, I would encourage everyone to call their Senators and ask them to support the Food Safety Modernization Act and the Tester-Hagan Amendment. It may be imperfect but I do think its an important step in the right direction to adding more safety to the industrial ag business.

In the meantime, we continue to sell the best-tasting, safest, highest-quality food money can buy!

INCINERATOR plans really burn me up!

2010-11-14T06:11:00.001-08:00

Here is a letter to the editor Will recently wrote in regards to our County's plans to build an incinerator in Frederick County despite the fact that there is no looming crisis for waste disposal.

With the recent tsunami of conservatism that swept the country, all of our local county commissioners opposed to this boondoggle were swept out of office (all Democrats) and an entirely Republican Board of Commissioners was chosen.

Interestingly, despite the cost of this project and the 'fiscal conservatism' boasted by most of these Republican candidates, they are all in favor of this massive expenditure. The outgoing Democratic commissioners were all opposed.

Thus went our best chances for true fiscal responsibility in Frederick County.

Just had to put that out there!

Here's link for mercury poisoning:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury_poisoning

And here's Will:

Most of the candidates running for local office are focused on the economy and growth issues. With unemployment high, commercial space sitting empty, and a stagnant real estate market, that is understandable. But, the reality is Frederick county is caught up in a National, and to some extent, global recession. There is little local politicians can do to jump start the National economy. The only real “local” issue in the upcoming election is whether or not the next board of County Commissioners proceeds with the planned $600 million dollar municipal solid waste incinerator. The single largest debt ever imposed on the citizens of Frederick County.

It only seems logical to see how existing municipal waste incinerators are doing. After all, the past is the best prediction of the future. In the last few weeks alone, 3 incinerators have made headlines. Harrisburg, PA’s incinerator is about to go into receivership because the city can no longer pay for it; Hudson Falls, NY is trying to sell their incinerator; and most troubling, Spokane, WA’s incinerator violated air pollution limits for mercury in June. Why did it take until September for the violation to surface? Apparently, the permit for Spokane’s incinerator only requires continuous monitoring for three pollutants. Nine other pollutants, including mercury, are only tested for annually. Much like the proposed Frederick incinerator, the Spokane incinerator purports to have “state of the art” pollution controls. Officials think that there was something that was going through the system that was high in mercury. That is precisely the problem when permits only require an annual snapshot of emissions for the majority of pollutants of concern. More troubling is that the monitoring requirements in Spokane’s permit are typical for incinerators.

Proponents of incineration like to point out that incinerators are designed to meet EPA Clean Air Act Standards, known as maximum achievable control technology levels (MACT). MACT requires the maximum reduction of hazardous emissions, taking cost and feasibility into account. The MACT must not be less than the average emission level achieved by controls on the best performing 12 percent of existing sources, by industrial category. What this translates to, is “do as good as the best in your field are doing.” In other words, these are technology-based standards and not health-based standards. MACT levels represent what can be reasonably achieved versus what is safe for human health and the environment.

Mercury is a naturally occurring element and a potent neurotoxin. Mercury is hidden in compact fluorescent lamps (the coiled light bulbs everyone has been installing), light switches, thermostats, thermometers, irons, space heaters, security systems, and batteries (yes, even kids shoes that light up have mercury in them). Once released, the mercury travels through the air and is deposited back to earth through precipitation or dry deposition. The mercury is deposited directly into aquatic environments, and also deposited on land surfaces, where it can be transported into aquatic ecosystems through run-off and erosion. Much of this mercury deposition occurs within 50 miles of the smokestack from which it is released.

Maryland Department of Environment currently has a state-wide fish advisory for mercury recommending limits on the consumption of fish and shellfish due to mercury levels found in their tissues. We already have a problem with too much mercury in the environment in MD.

High variability is considered the norm in todays municipal waste stream. Disposable products are increasingly coming from oversees manufacturers that operate under less stringent regulation and oversight (cadmium in childrens jewelry anyone?). In addition, no matter how successful state recycling campaigns are, some batteries and compact florescent light bulbs will always make it into the waste stream. Is transferring a solid waste problem into an air pollution problem really the best solution?

William Morrow
Whitmore Farm
10720 Dern Road
Emmitsburg, MD 21727
www.whitmorefarm.com

100 MILE DIET: local eating for global change

2010-09-30T08:25:00.000-07:00

Sounds intriguing, doesn't it?

But think about it - if we all started eating locally, as in products produced within 100 miles of our home base, think of how things would change, how our diet would change.

Sounds too restrictive, impossible, unrealistic, painful doesn't it! lol

Well, in reality, up until the 1940's, this was the norm for most Americans. It still holds true for many people around the world.

Of course, we always had our luxury items like oranges and lemons, coffee, tea, and chocolate/cacao, but for the most part, we ate what was produced within a reasonable distance of our home. We canned, dried, cured and stored foods to eat throughout the winter.

Since then, we live in a time of the winter tomato - flown halfway around the world, with 1/10th the flavor, and at 5 times the cost of a real, local tomato of summer.

At Whitmore Farm, we take our seconds from our market tomatoes, still picked at the height of their flavor, and freeze whole and pureed tomatoes which is about as easy as it gets. In January, its simple to pull out a block of tomato for wonderful winter soups and sauces and a real taste of summer in January! Fantastic!

Entire food traditions have slowly withered away. Take winter squash, formerly a STAPLE of the winter diet, high in vitamins A, E, fiber, and flavor.

Who eats winter squash anymore? I mean really!?

So here's an interesting idea then, the 100 mile diet.

The authors of this and other similar websites call it the 'new organic' - better for your health, the environment, your local economy, local farms, and the animals and plants involved.

'Plants?' you say - think of all the grief poor spinach took last year with the great spinach scare because a factory farm contaminated their spinach crop with E. coli tainted water, sickening hundreds? Peanuts again the next year! Talk about unsafe foods!

Also, the 100 miled diet helps reconnect the eater with seasonal foods, foods that have fallen out of favor but have so much to offer in terms of flavor, variety, and nutrition.

http://100milediet.org/faqs

While a 6 or 12 month commitment to eating local only might seem overwhelming, consider sponsoring a local dinner for friends and family.

Try something new - pick up a fruit or vegetable you've never used before, take it home, and check online for a tasty recipe to try.

Join a CSA for a season and try to use everything you get - seriously, just TRY! lol Most CSA members complain that they can't come close to finishing everything in their box or basket. A CSA can be a very economical way of feeding your family, all the while supporting local agriculture.

Most city folks are surprised at how much fun they have visiting and working on the farm, and for those of you on a budget, many CSA allow the exchange of labor for food shares.

To get you started, here's a recipe from FOOD&WINE for spicy squash with cavatelli, but I substitute whatever kind of pasta I have - larger pasta like rigatoni work better than spaghetti or linguini:

INGREDIENTS
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
6 large garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1 large red onion, thinly sliced
2 teaspoons crushed red pepper
2 pounds winter squash—peeled, seeded and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1 tablespoon finely chopped thyme
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1 1/2 pounds cavatelli, small shells, rigatoni, etc
3/4 cup freshly grated caciocavallo, pecorino or Parmesan cheese, plus more for serving.
DIRECTIONS
1. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. In a large, deep skillet, heat the olive oil. Add the garlic, onion and crushed red pepper and cook over moderately high heat, stirring occasionally, until the garlic and onion are softened, about 5 minutes. Add the squash and thyme, season with salt and pepper and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Cover and cook over moderately low heat, stirring occasionally, until the squash is tender, about 5 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, add the cavatelli to the boiling water and cook until al dente. Drain, reserving 1 cup of the pasta cooking water. Add the cavatelli to the squash mixture in the skillet, then stir in 1/2 cup of the pasta cooking water and toss gently to combine. Add the 3/4 cup of caciocavallo, season with salt and pepper and stir gently; add a little more pasta water if necessary. Serve the pasta right away, passing more cheese at the table.

ENJOY!

SLOW FOOD in the U.S.

2010-09-29T11:35:00.000-07:00

With all the press recently about food safety and the morbid obesity epidemic, I decided to feature a movement I support, the Slow Food Movement and SLOWfoodUSA.

SLOW FOOD originated in Italy by Carlo Petrini in 1986 in reaction and opposition to the opening of a Mc Donald's in Rome near the Spanish Steps. The name is meant to evoke all that is opposite or contrary to the fast food movement.

Initially focused on preserving traditional and regional cuisine and promoting farming of plants, seeds and livestock characteristic of the local ecosystem, the slow food movement has expanded its scope and offers intriguing ideas about how and what we eat affects our lives.

This would be the French concept of terroir which literally translates into 'land'. In reality, terroir really refers to the unique characteristics of any area (soil, geography, culture) that produce unique foods, and that these unique foods are integral to our culture, the environment, and our food enjoyment, and need to be protected.

While most commonly associated with more celebrated products like champagne (from the Champagne region of France) for example, even a relatively young country like the U.S. has it's own terroir - vidalia onions, vermont cheddar and maple syrup, georgia peaches, and washington apples.

Terroir could also include items like Buffalo chicken wings, spedie meat (Binghampton, N.Y.), or scrapple in the South. Perhaps not as refined as champagne, but ours....all ours nonetheless!

SLOW FOOD has since grown into an organization with over 100,000 members in 132 countries.

The Slow Food movement incorporates a series of objectives within its mission, including:

promoting the preservation of heirloom varieties of plants and heritage breed livestock.
development of the 'Ark of Taste' for foods of exceptional quality or in danger of extinction
preserving and promoting local food traditions
organizing celebrations of local food items and traditions, often in the context of community.
promoting food education including the risks of 'fast food', the antithesis of 'slow food'
education about the risks of large agribusiness and factory
education about the risks of monoculture
promoting the preservation of small and family farms
lobbying for the inclusion and promotion of strong local food systems, increased organic and sustainable farming
lobbying against genetic engineering and GMO products in our food chain
lobbying against the use of pesticides
encouraging ethical buying in the marketplace such as fair trade products

Recent events organized by Slow Food USA include:

Pie on the Porch, Miami, FLA Sept 25th, 2010

Clash Farm to Table, Falmouth, MA Sept 26th, 2010

Whatcom Harvest Dinner, Ferndale, WA Sept 26th 2010

Heirloom Harvest Farm Barbeque, Exeter, RI Sept 26th, 2010

Screening of 'Grown in Detroit', St. Louis, MI Sept 27th, 2010

Pawpaws & Persimmons, Ann Arbor, MI Oct 2nd, 2010

Sounds awesome, doesn't it!

I think slow food represents an organization working towards a food delivery system that we could all live with. A 'slow'-er America would help to reverse some of the damaging affects that our 'modern' agricultural system has had on our health, our environment, and our culture.

As SLOW FOOD puts it: 'supporting good, clean, and fair food'! I couldn't say it better or more simply myself.

Take a minute and look over the Slow Food USA home page and consider becoming active in your local Slow Food Movement!

http://www.slowfoodusa.org/index.php

It's a BOY!

2010-09-29T09:01:00.000-07:00

....and a GIRL!

Well, actually two boys and two girls!

Heidi Ho and Kate both kidded yesterday without incident.

Heidi Ho doeling

Heidi Ho doeling - looks like the same doeling in a different color, doesn't it!

Kate buckling - he's a total firecracker!

AY MATIE! I would be Kate's other pirate buckling!

We offer our congrats to our two awesome mums!

Dutch cheese is lekker!

2010-09-14T07:50:00.000-07:00

Lekker : adjective (slang) delicious, tasty, luscious, choice, savoury, palatable, dainty, delectable, mouthwatering, yummy , scrumptious (informal), appetizing, toothsome, ambrosial

Example: 'We had a really lekker meal.'

Recently, Will and I had the pleasure of visiting Holland for two purposes:

to research a new model for humane egg production on a commercial scale, the Rondeel model
to visit a sheep farm that produces cheese from a traditional, non-dairy breed of sheep, the Texel.

Our trip started in Amsterdam where we were able to visit a couple of neighborhood farmer's markets. Dutch friends were able to confirm a renewed interest in locally-produced products and a resurgence of interest in farmer's markets amongst the Dutch.

We did look for locally-produced products and farms featured at local restaurants, but really didn't see as much of this as is common in the U.S. these days.

After a day in Amsterdam, our first stop was a day trip to Barneveld to visit the poultry museum, the Pluimveemuseum. There was an interesting display on the history of the chicken in Holland including several breeds developed in Holland like the Barneveld and Welsummer. These two breeds are known for their dark brown eggs which may look familiar to those of you enjoying Whitmore Farm eggs - we raise Welsummers!

Barneveld chickens

The primary purpose of our visit however was a visit to a commercial poultry operation using the Rondeel model. This model is offered as a humane option for commercial egg production by the Rondeel organization in Holland. http://www.rondeel.org/

The basic design of the structure was a central service core, with laying areas and 'lounge' areas numbered 1 and 2 below, and then a ring of open space for ranging, scratching and such (area 3).

Unfortunately, as Will explained, chickens typically form 'family groups' compromised of a rooster and a group of hens up to about 20 birds in a more natural environment.

When crowded in commercial production facilities, this normal social structure breaks down and pathologic behavior emerges - pecking and egg-eating being two examples.

Consequently, hens are debeaked to prevent damage from pathologic pecking, eliminating their ability to 'scratch', further worsening this disconnect from normal habitat, behavior, and family structure.

Stress also significantly and negatively impacts the immune system, increasing the chances of disease, decreasing production, and increasing emergence of pathogenic organisms like salmonella and shigella in the end product.

I think both Will and I were disappointed with the end product, although it was clearly was more humane than the current commercial egg production model found in the U.S.

The second part of our trip was a visit to the island of Texel, in the western end of the Friesian Islands, to the north of Amsterdam.

Our primary point of interest was a visit to De Waddel Farm, a traditional farm raising Texel sheep for meat AND dairy. De Waddel was one of only 2 farms left on the island still producing traditional Texel cheese using unpasteurized sheep's milk.

De Waddel 'schapenkass' or cheese shop!

De Waddel, circa 1625

These are some fine examples of Texel sheep. The breed is best known for phenomenal muscling and is generally considered a meat sheep. Their wool is of medium grade and has little value in today's wool market.

Texel's have a distinctive look with a clean head, heavy muscling, and a very BLOCKY head that strikes fear in the heart of most shepherds. When it comes to lambing time, imagine a square peg and a round hole - well, you get the idea.

The Bakker Family and Jan-Willem in particular took 3 hours out of his busy day to discuss his experiences with the Texel breed, management of his sheep, and what life is like for shepherds in Holland these days. It was a pretty incredible day and we enjoyed some unusually nice weather.

The cheese making workshop, attached to the main house

Some of the finished product on display. The Bakkers run a cheese shop from their house and sell locally to residents, tourists, and restaurants.

They sell 3 types of Texel cheese - young, 6 months, and 1 year.

The young cheese has a very creamy texure and all 3 have a natural rind. The 1 year is very similar to a parmesan or other sharp, dry cheese, fantastic for cooking as well as for eating.

Uncle Baker, the local postman, stops for a visit and coffee

We ended our tour with an opportunity to sit with the Bakkers and enjoy some coffee and cookies, and look over the elder Mr. Bakker's book chronicling the development and history of the Texel breed.

Unfortunately, it is only available in Dutch at present - anyone out there interested in translating and publishing an English version?

Will, Jan-Willem, and Mouse (Jan's assistant farmer) examine his best ram recently back from a Texel show. Jan said that his rams typically don't win because his farm specializes in a larger-framed sheep currently out of favor with breeders in Holland.

A wool shop in the main town on the island of Texel, Den Burg.

For the shepherds amongst you, here are a few interesting tid-bits of information and observations from our visit to the Bakker farm:

the wool was definitely of a finer texture than the wool we've examined on American Texels. The wool has very little lustre.
we saw Texels in many shades of blue, black, and grey although only white is allowed for registration.
the Bakkers are experimenting with crosses using the Friesian sheep (a traditional dairy breed from the islands to the east of Texel).
there was limited intensive rotational grazing being used.
Footrot is ubiquitous - all pastures and farmland were very damp with a lot of mud and standing water. The Bakkers vaccinate with the rot vaccine which causes a transient febrile illness in their sheep.
The Bakkers run about 500 ewes on 50 hectares, about 120 acres of sandy soil. They are limited on how much fertilization they can apply to something like 40 #'s per acre.
There appear to be no restrictions on the sale of unpasteurized cheese products.
Most lambs are sold at about 10-12 weeks (?) for about 100-110 euros each!

We recently introduced a Texel from Bev Pearsall's Farm near us in Thurmont and are excited to see what affect this has on our carcass quality in next year's product. Bev's Texels have been winning the carcass competition at the Maryland Sheep & Wool for years and we are very fortunate to have access to stock from such an accomplished breeder in our area!

Texel rams have become the breed of choice for using as a terminal sire for meat production because of their fantastic muscling. At last year's sale in Lanark (Scotland), a Texel ram sold for a world-record price of 231,000 pounds!

http://www.farmersguardian.com/news/world-record-price-at-scottish-national-texel-sale/27381.article

While our new Texel ram, Arnold Schwarzenegger, may not be world-class, we look forward to lambs from him in 2011!

GMO's and frankenfoods

2010-08-17T07:47:00.000-07:00

GMO has become a catch-phrase for many referring to plants, animals or bacteria that have been genetically-modified using recombinant engineering techniques. These techniques typically involve taking DNA molecules from one source and splicing or adding them into a new source creating a new set of genes that now express this introduced DNA.

This technique allows plants, animals or bacteria to then 'express' traits or produce compounds that previously were absent in that orgnism. In its most benign form, this might represent something as simple as rice producing a vitamin previously absent in a normal rice granule. Doesn't sound so bad, right?

Now imagine something a little different: transgenic splicing, i.e. taking something from the DNA of one species (animal or plant) and adding it into the genome of an entirely different species, plant to animal, animal to plant, plant to plant, etc. Now its sounding a little more strange, isn't it?

Well why bother then? I mean, just because we can, does that mean we should?

The large agribusiness companies would say this is to improve the quality of life for humans everywhere by eliminating or decreasing our dependence on insecticides, help protect biodiversity, increase yields, and improved livelihood for family farmers.

https://www.monsanto.com/biotech-gmo/asp/experts.as p

Opponents say the evidence is very much to the contrary on every point and that there hasn't been enough time to see the long-term effects of these products on human health and the environment.

As someone who believes that modern agriculture is flawed in its most basic principles and ideas, you can imagine which side of the fence I fall on in regards to this issue.

My feeling is that most of the problems these genetically-modified plants and animals were created to counter, are the direct result of modern agriculture's desire to grow monocultures of plants and animals under inherently unhealthy or unnatural conditions.

So , what kind of evidence is there that these GMO's are harmful?

One of the more interesting studies was a French study published in the International Journal of Biological Science (2009; 5:706-726, A Comparison of the Effects of Three GM Corn Varieties on Mammalian Health Joël Spiroux de Vendômois¹, François Roullier¹, Dominique Cellier^1,2, Gilles-Eric Séralini^{1,3 ) which looked at Montesanto's own data from their own experiments which they felt proved safe 3 varieties of GM corn, two with bacillus thunbergens insecticidal proteins and one with innnate resistance to Montesanto's herbicide}^ROUNDUP.

http://www.biolsci.org/v05p0706.htm

What they found were statistically-significant deleterious affects on multiple organs, most noticeably the kidney and liver but also evident in the 'heart, adrenal glands, spleen and haematopoietic system.'

This was the same data (forcibly acquired through the courts by the French researchers) Montesanto had used to show the clear safety of these three GMO products.

But, what was perhaps more relevant, significant, and disturbing was the complete inadequacy of the original study which allowed Montesanto to release these products into the marketplace:

'Firstly, the feeding trials in each case have been conducted only once, and with only one mammalian species. The experiments clearly need to be repeated preferably with more than one species of animal.'
'Secondly, the length of feeding was at most only three months, and thus only relatively acute and medium-term effects can be observed if any similar to what can be derived in a process such as carcinogenesis.'
'Thirdly, the statistical power of the tests conducted is low (30%) because the experimental design of Monsanto (see Materials and Methods). However, it is important to note that these short-term (3-month) rat feeding trials are the only tests conducted on the basis of which regulators determine whether these GM crop/food varieties are as safe to eat as conventional types.'

In fact, the French researchers went so far as to say that through study modifications and inconsistencies “increases noticeably the risks of false negative results.”

Montsanto has criticized the French researchers because of legal support provided by Greenpeace and the Danish government and in their research assessment which relied on what they call “a variety of non-standard statistical approaches.” Montsanto also critcized them for dissecting their data in such a way as to drastically inflate the probability of producing statistically significant findings.

The real shocking part of this whole study is the revelation that so little goes into approving a product that has so much potential to do harm. A mere 3 month study on less than 200 rats was all that was required to assess the 'long-term' health effects of these 3 products.

Research not paid for by big agribusiness is almost non-existent in part because agribusiness is unwilling to grant the use of their 'intellectual property' to outside researchers.

So in the end, we're not talking about the hot new tomato variety as in days of old - we're talking about products, 70+ % are incorporating insecticidal agents or herbicidal resistance to their genetic makeup. So much for "decreasing our dependence on insecticides" (or herbicides in this case.

These are intellectual-property products that have the potential to make billions of dollars for big agribusiness, which is controlled by a very small number of companies worldwide.

We have a lot of experience with 'intellectual-property' products in agriculture and its affect on farmers. Montsanto has aggressively pursued legal action against farmers and won in both US and Canadian courts for 'blow over' affects for genetic material from a Montsanto planted field into a neighboring farm as theft of genetic material.

In addition to the contamination issue mentioned above, there are also significant questions about the creation of super-weeds and super-bugs. Think of what has happened with drug resistance in bacteria from the overuse of antibiotics.

For example, one product, the New Leaf potato, was developed by Montsanto through genetic engineering to contain the naturally-occurring insecticidal proteins found in a bacteria called Bacillus thuringgiensis (Bt). These Bt products have been used from decades by organic producers to help fight insects in agriculture.

Montsanto's approach was to splice it into the genome of a mono-culture of potato, so farmers could decrease their use of insecticides in the fight against the colorado potato beetle.

However, it quickly became clear that when used in this way (instead of intermittent application as previously used), the potato beetle quickly began developing resistance to these insecticidal proteins, a phenomenom never described before in decades of responsible use of this valuable tool by organic farmers!

So commercial agribusiness's insistance on using an unnatural and unsustainable practice (monoculture, reliance of insecticides to control pest problems) has potentially threatened to remove a highly effective tool for organic production in a matter of a few years.

Eventually, the New Leaf potato was pulled because of consumer concerns expressed to McDonald's, the potatoes largest customer in America, who said they would no longer buy GM potatoes for their restaurants (and I use that term loosely in this case).

http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-27211335_ITM

Different countries have have handled the regulation of GMO products very differently. The EU, Japan, China, Korea, Australia and New Zealand all have label laws, requiring the identification of GMO products. Others, like Ireland, have outlawed them altogether.

The U.S., on the other hand, has no requirement for labeling of GM products and attempts to get labeling laws passed have failed despite the fact that some 87% of Americans are in favor of it.

Order Bans Planting or Sale of Controversial Crop. Court Denies Monsanto Request to Allow Continued Planting.

Recently, a federal district judge for the Northern District of California, rescinded the USDA’s approval of genetically engineered “Roundup Ready” sugar beets because no environmental impact study had been completed.

What kind of environmental impact could we be worried about? Previous experience with similar Roundup Ready crops have led to increased use of herbicides, proliferation of herbicide resistant weeds, and contamination of conventional and organic crops with GMO genetics. (Remember the significance of intellectual property?)

Well then, how common have GMOs become in the food that we eat?

Here is a summary of crops, foods and food ingredients have been genetically modified as of May, 2010:

(NB: the number in parentheses represents the estimated percentage that is genetically modified.)

Soy(91%) Cotton(71%) Canola(88%) Corn(85%) Sugar Beets(90%) Hawaiian papaya(more than 50%) Alfalfa (at Supreme Court).

Other easy to find sources of GMOs in your diet:

Dairy products (from cows injected with the GM hormone rbGH) - there was a recent fight in Pa when the Pennsylvania Dep't of Agriculture ruled it was 'misleading' consumers to label rBGH-free milk as being hormone-free.
Food additives, enzymes, flavorings, and processing agents, including the sweetener aspartame(NutraSweet®) and rennet used to make hard cheeses
Meat, eggs, and dairy products from animals that have eaten GM feed - corn and soybeans.
Vegetable oil, vegetable fat and margarines (made with soy, corn, cottonseed, and/or canola)
Ingredients derived from soybeans including soy flour, soy protein, soy isolates, soy isoflavones, soy lecithin, vegetable proteins, textured vegetable protein (TVP), tofu, tamari, tempeh, and soy protein supplements.
Ingredients derived from corn including corn flour, corn gluten, corn masa, corn starch, corn syrup, cornmeal, and High-Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS).

If you extrapolate from the above list to processed products, the potential list gets even longer:

Infant formula
Salad dressing
Bread
Cereal
Hamburgers and hotdogs
Margarine
Mayonnaise
Crackers
Cookies
Chocolate
Candy
Fried food
Chips
Veggie burgers
Meat substitutes
Ice cream
Frozen yogurt
Tofu
Tamari and Soy sauce
Tomato sauce
Protein powder
Baking powder
Any sugar not 100% Cane
Confectioner's glaze
Alcohol
Vanilla (may contain corn syrup)
Peanut butter
Enriched flour
Cosmetics
Soaps
Detergents
Shampoo
Bubble bath

Ever heard of Codex Alimentarius Commission? Well, don't feel bad, most people have not!

The Codex Alimentarius Commission was created in 1963 by FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN)and WHO to "develop food standards, guidelines and related texts such as codes of practice under the Joint FAO/WHO Food Standards Programme. The main purposes of this Programme are protecting health of the consumers and ensuring fair trade practices in the food trade, and promoting coordination of all food standards work undertaken by international governmental and non-governmental organizations."

So how does this affect me and where do GMO's come into this?

The FDA and USDA have written a draft for an upcoming international meeting in which they say that requiring labels indicating that a food has genetically modified ingredients would be "false, misleading or deceptive" as it is "likely to create the impression that the labeled food is in some way different." Right now, each country can set its own rules for GMO-food-labeling.

Because the U.S. government's policy is that GMO's are not significantly different from other new varieties of crops (i.e. the same as the prize tomato at county fair), they would like to see this same policy applied worldwide. This is conveniently the same opinions held by the world's major agribusiness companies which is no great surprise when you consider that so many of the USDA's top-brass move freely back and forth as employees, consultants, or lobbyists to these same agribusinesses throughout their careers.

According to the WHO website - question: Are GM foods assessed differently from traditional foods?

"Generally consumers consider that traditional foods (that have often been eaten for thousands of years) are safe. When new foods are developed by natural methods, some of the existing characteristics of foods can be altered, either in a positive or a negative way National food authorities may be called upon to examine traditional foods, but this is not always the case. Indeed, new plants developed through traditional breeding techniques may not be evaluated rigorously using risk assessment techniques."

"With GM foods most national authorities consider that specific assessments are necessary. Specific systems have been set up for the rigorous evaluation of GM organisms and GM foods relative to both human health and the environment. Similar evaluations are generally not performed for traditional foods. Hence there is a significant difference in the evaluation process prior to marketing for these two groups of food."

"Issues of concern include: the capability of the GMO to escape and potentially introduce the engineered genes into wild populations; the persistence of the gene after the GMO has been harvested; the susceptibility of non-target organisms (e.g. insects which are not pests) to the gene product; the stability of the gene; the reduction in the spectrum of other plants including loss of biodiversity; and increased use of chemicals in agriculture. The environmental safety aspects of GM crops vary considerably according to local conditions."

Okay, sort of non-committal politico speak, but generally touches on the concerns that many GMO-opponents voice.

In steps the United States representative who at a more recent meeting of the Codex Committee on Food Labeling in Quebec City: "GM/GE [Genetically Modified/ Genetically Engineered] foods are [not] in any way different from other foods", suggesting that mandatory GMO labeling elsewhere in the world could confuse the consumer and should be prohibited.

So the codex has become one forum in which the GM food battle is being played out, between the United States, Canada and Argentina on the one hand, and Europe on the other. Europeans have been resolute in their opposition to GM foods, despite some more recent softening of the stance of certain governments and trade bodies.

To paraphrase other sources more versed on the workings of the Codex: currently in the EU, food containing more than 0.9% GM ingredients must be labelled as such. Canada and the USA are challenging this in the Codex Committee on Food Labeling, which is hosted by Canada.

The host countries of Codex Committees, which also chair the meetings, have a disproportionate influence over the proceedings. They select the Chair, who is privy to more information than the rest of the Committee, such as declarations of conflicts of interests and relevant documents submitted by external organisations. How this is shared with the rest of the Committee is at the Chair’s discretion.

These chairs are also responsible for guiding the meeting towards a 'consensus'. Health Canada, the dep't responsible for the Codex, has come under fire for its lax approach to testing the safety of GM crops and was at the centre of a scandal in 1999 involving Codex's Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA).

The Observer newspaper uncovered that a scientist on the JECFA panel representing Canada had been 'suggested' by Monsanto and was in fact a registered Monsanto lobbyist. The Canadian Senate Agriculture Committee has heard complaints from government scientists who say they were 'muzzled' after expressing doubts over Monsanto's safety testing in regards to bovine growth hormone.

So, you can see that there remain significant concerns involving the release safety of GMO products and that the government agencies that are responsible for protecting consumers and the environment from these potentially dangerous products are often the same people producing, marketing, and profiting from them.

If you'd like to become more involved in opposing GMO products and strengthening labeling laws worldwide, here are two organizations involved in these issues:

http://www.saynotogmos.org/

http://www.organicconsumers.org/gelink.cfm

Whitmore Farm begins offering 100% certified organic meats

2010-08-15T18:11:00.000-07:00

Finally, after several years of work and a little arm-twisting, we have successfully convinced our USDA-inspected meat processor in Littlestown, PA, to get their organic certification.

For those of you unfamiliar with the USDA rules regarding meat processing, for red meats you are required to use a USDA-inspected meat processing facility if you plan on transporting meat across state lines for resale.

Living in a 5-state area (West Virginia, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland and the District of Columbia) like we do, this was clearly a necessity in getting our product out to the consumer.

Organic certification was formalized by the USDA some 5 or 6 years ago (?). Organic production rules are written by the National Organics Program (NOP), under the USDA, but the program is administered and implemented by the individual states. Each state handles the implementation, administration, and surveillance differently, but the program rules are the same across state lines.

http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/usda/usdahome?navid=ORGANIC_CERTIFICATIO&navtype=RT&parentnav=AGRICULTURE

We have been producing our meats organically now for 5 years which has entailed getting our pastures certified, our vegetable garden certified, tracking any use of antibiotics or deworming agents, and buying organic hay. Most of these things have increased our costs but without a processor that was likewise certified organic, we were unable to sell our products as organic.

The primary requirement for getting a meat processor certified involves using only approved cleaning agents (to clean the equipment) and good record-keeping. We are proud and happy to say that our area (although not our state) now has an organically-certified abbatoir.

Nell's/Stonypoint in Littlestown, Pa (just over the Pa line from us) is perhaps the only USDA-inspected, organically-certified meat processor for a 7 or 8 hour drive from us.

Nell Charles R Quality Meats

1319 Frederick Pike
Littlestown, PA 17340
717-359-7591

We are excited and happy to start selling these high-quality, sustainably-produced, local products to our clients in the 5 state area!

As industrial agriculture has watched the organics movement thrive and prosper, there has been tremendous pressure on the USDA to loosen the rules and requirements for organic-certification.

The Organic Consumers Association is a great watchdog organization that pushes the government on issues related to organic certification and calls out private sector producers for false-advertising and unscrupulous activity.

http://www.organicconsumers.org/

I highly recommend you subscribe to their organics alert newsletter to help stay informed on important issues involving the organics movement in the U.S.

Greg's date night out.

2010-08-02T05:42:00.000-07:00

After getting hogs a few years ago, we were a little hesitant and unsure how this would work - any farmer has to think twice about adding a 600 # animal to the farm that's known to be smarter than many people.

I have to admit that I was a skeptic.

We'd had cattle for 2 years a few years back. Eventually, I was able to get past the fact that I could be squashed pretty easily if I wasn't careful and had actually enjoyed the cattle, although I still think they eat too much! (In the end, the cattle were sold off as we felt our measly 30 acres couldn't support both our sheep & goats and the cows at the same time.)

So 4 little Hereford piglets from Ohio joined our operation at about 8 weeks of age, each a 30 # missile of muscle and energy that I can best describe as a blur of brown and white for the first month or two that we had them. Anyone who thinks hogs are flabby and soft, has not spent time with pigs.

We coexisted quite comfortably for months until one day while standing in the hog pasture, I realized to my horror that 'my,-the-little-ones-had-grown-quite-a-bit' and 'gee,-maybe-I-shouldn't-have-worn-shorts-that-day' crossed my mind.

The email alert of the woman in Virginia that had been attacked by 4 adult females (sows) came to mind. Her mistake - she had thoughtlessly stepped between her girls (hogs she had known for years) and their piglets.

She suffered bilateral forearm fractures, bilateral radial artery lacerations, multiple bites and lacerations, and was in the ICU for days with massive blood loss. The only reason she hadn't died was because she was able to get over two fence lines, broken arms and all, and into the house where she collapsed.

So here I was, arms full of highly-prized house scraps as Laverne and Shirley lumbered towards me. For large animals, pigs can be surprisingly fast and can easily outpace a human.

Our uneasy truce continued through more 'getting to know you' experiences:

1. riding around backwards on the boar's back when he decided it would be 'fun' to run between my legs and play.

2. having to hand deliver multiple piglets when Laverne, the 600# sow, decided she couldn't spit out a dozen potato-sized piglets (I've delivered bigger turds than that and I'm 1/4 her size)...

Ahhh - good times!

But a gradual change occurred prompted by my time spent with Laverne's sole surviving piglet. Laverne was 'indisposed' for weeks after her traumatic delivery and her piglet was not getting milk. She had none and Gloria ('I will survive' Gaynor) became a bottle baby.

She hung out with the sheep and goats, grazing along with the adult ruminants, and would come running when the bottles came out for feeding time. I was really starting to understand the pigs and they seemed to look different to me. When you look into their eyes, pigs more than any other farm animal, seem to have the 'look' you get when gazing into human eyes. They seem to understand more than any other farm animal...

Now pigs are smart for a farm animal, but let's not get carried away - any animal that can't tell the difference between a solid wall and a piece of plywood I'm holding to move them along isn't really all that smart, but they're definitely leagues ahead of your average sheep.

So, it was decided, the pigs could stay! Unfortunately, Laverne went to the 'big pasture in the sky' after her farrowing (having babies) fiasco and Boris was butchered when he rubbed his penis raw on concrete and pissed blood for a month.

So we were left without a Hereford boar. We did bring in 3 Gloucester Old Spot gilts (young sows) and a GOS boar this past spring, so the option of doing all crosses was there, but I kind of enjoyed the Herefords and wanted some purebred animals on our farm. They were leaner than the GOS's, faster growers, and a truly American breed under-represented in the American farm landscape, especially here on the East Coast.

'Let's try insemination', Loran suggested...

'So you want to catch one of the sows, slide a plastic applicator into her and inject semen' I asked increduously.

Well, turns out, when ovulating, sows go into a pretty impressive standing heat and will respond with amazing stillness when you push on the small of their backs and rump! Any other time, and they will scream and run...

Greg's an optimist....

So we spent a few weeks pushing on hog butts, charting ovulation cycles, and ordering semen from the Midwest where Herefords are more commonly raised.

Hey beautiful...come here often?

Nope not ready ;)

Here are some pictures of Greg as we inseminate Shirley with semen from a boar named Lucky! (Lucky seems like an understatement to me). Don't ask how they get the semen...you don't really want to know.

Ahhh! Success!

We should know in a few months whether my girls settled or not - we'll keep you posted!

Whitmore Farm goes 100% wind renewable as of August 1st, 2010

2010-07-30T15:13:00.000-07:00

We're happy to announce that as of August 1st, 2010, Whitmore Farm will be receiving all of our electricity from a renewable wind energy source off of the Chesapeake from clean currents http://www.cleancurrents.com/ green energy solutions.

Surprisingly, our rate will be equal to or lower than our current rate from Allegheny Power!

Next year we hope to add solar panels to our farm op and try and be a zero energy input operation. Despite the tax credits and such available from the government, installing a solar system is still a ten year investment in return on your money.

We are excited to be no longer depending on non-renewable resources like coal energy, especially in light of highly destructive practices like 'mountain-top removal' in our own back yard, West Virginia.

http://www.nrdc.org/energy/coal/mtr/?gclid=CPKWm8mqlKMCFRFMagodEi2csQ

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountaintop_removal_mining

http://mountainjustice.org/facts/steps.php

Native American deciduous magnolias and other American gems...

2010-07-07T09:31:00.000-07:00

When we bought our property, we were surprised at the lack of diversity in the tree population with many species over-represented and some common trees completely absent.

This VERY sad little ragtag collection of plants represents our future collection of uncommon, decidious American magnolia.

I managed to find a small grower of three magnolia varieties I've had trouble finding at local nurseries - Magnolia tripetala, Magnolia macrophylla, and Magnolia acuminata (the cucumber magnolia).

The first two species are well known for their huge leaves and typical white, magnolia-type flowers. The latter, for its cucumber-like fruit and large size.

In addition, we have been adding other American species such as the Franklinia, Vernal Witchhazel, Winterhazel, Ilex opaca, white and burr oak, native viburnum, Asimia (paw paw), Metasequoia, Birch, Tulip poplar, Beech, American persimmon, Sassafras, Catalpa, and Taxodium to name a few.

We also added 3 Princeton elms to flank the main house. 'Princeton' is a true, 100% American elm that was reproduced from a tree found in Princeton, N.J., with innate resistance to Dutch Elm disease.

We look forward to being able to reintroduce American chestnut trees back onto the property as they become available through the work of the American Chestnut Foundation, an organization working to create a blight resistant American elm, by crossing it with the more resistant Asian chestnut tree.

Chestnuts were once the predominate tree in our neck of the woods and our timberframe house is made of huge chestnut logs harvested on the property by Benjamin Whitmore in the mid-18th Century.

In addition, the fruit was a valuable source of food for both the people and livestock alike.

The Franklinia alatamaha tree has an interesting history. It was first described Philadelphia botanists John and William Bartram growing along the Alatamaha River in modern-day Georgia in October 1765.

William Bartram collected Franklinia seeds during this extended trip to the South from 1773 through 1776. Right from the beginning, the tree was noted to have an extremely limited distribution.

"We never saw it grow in any other place, nor have I ever since seen it growing wild, in all my travels, from Pennsylvania to Point Coupe, on the banks of the Mississippi, which must be allowed a very singular and unaccountable circumstance; at this place there are two or 3 acres (12,000 m²) of ground where it grows plentifully." W. Bartram 1791.

The tree was last verified in the wild in 1803, and all current stock was derived from these original seed collections in the 1770's. It falls into the tea family and has been noted to be somewhat hard to establish.

More to come!

Meat Goat Performance Testing

2010-07-05T15:16:00.001-07:00

I recently delivered 3 goats to the Western Maryland Pasture-based Meat Goat Performance Test in Keedysville, Maryland.

Susan Schoenian, the University of Maryland's resident sheep and goat guru and a host of other researchers, breeders, volunteers, and students have created a wonderful test with the help of a SARE grant.

The Western Maryland Pasture-Based Meat Goat Performance Test is sponsored by University of Maryland Extension and is conducted at the Western Maryland Research & Education Center in Keedysville, MD.

The purpose of the test is to measure performance of various goats on a pasture-only diet, something that is near and dear to our hearts here at Whitmore Farm.

As you may already know, all of our animals are raised on pasture for environmental, humanitarian, and pro human-health reasons. In addition, we are very interested in reintroducing better performance into our heritage-American breed of goat, the myotonic or Tennessee fainting goat.

For too long, the myotonic goat has been bred primarily as a pet animal, and we hope to restore and improve on its qualities as a 'meat' goat.

So you can see how this performance test would provide an excellent forum for us to test our animals and see how we're doing on our breeding program.

For those of you interested in following the performance test, please feel free to check in with Susan Schoenian's blog and follow the progress of our little goatlings as they compete with goats from all around the country...go TEAM WHITMORE!

We are listed on the spreadsheets under OZKUM and I have 3 goats entered.

At the end of the test, the best animals are put up for auction as stud animals and go on to happily create many more goatlings! lol

http://mdgoattest.blogspot.com/

What is a fainting goat?

2010-06-28T08:44:00.000-07:00

When I tell people we sell goats, the next question is usually 'what kind?'. When I tell them I sell Tennessee Fainting goats, I usually get a blank stare or a faint recollection of 'having heard' of that kind of goat before. Other common names used to describe this unique American breed include nervous goats, wooden-legged or stiff-legged, and scare-dy goats.

The goats originated in 19th Century Tennessee when an itinerant farm hand, said to originate from Canada, showed up in Marshall County, Tennessee, with 3 does and a buck that were noted to 'faint' when startled. A year later this mysterious man moved on but only after selling his goats to a local country doctor, who was interested in examining this unusual neuromuscular disorder, Dr. Mayberry.

Tennessee Fainting goat is a bit of a misnomer - they actually have a congenital myotonic disorder, commonly referred to as Myotonia congenita, which in medical latin, is pretty non-specific. These goats don't actually faint, they stiffen and often fall over, hence the association to 'fainting'.

I usually refer to them as myotonic goats, as I feel this most accurately describes their condition.

When in a stiffened or down position, these goats are completely awake and aware of what's going on around them.

The molecular exact nature of their neuromuscular disorder has been studied and is not well-understood. Myotonia congenita in goats appears similar in many ways to diseases in humans and other animals sometimes referred to as channelopathies, including Thomsen's Disease and Becker's Myotonia congenita. These human disorders are characterized by painless, persistant muscular contraction following voluntary muscle contraction, and muscle hypertrophy. Cardiac and smooth muscle is not affected. We have more information on the exact nature of these disorders because humans that have these disorders can describe what and how they feel. We do not have this luxury in our goats.

Myotonic goats are highly variable in appearance and come in all sizes, shapes, hair lengths, and eye color. The breed standard boils down to two important qualities - the presence of some degree of myotonia and the proper ear set, what I typically call 'helicopter ears'. A certain bug-eyed appearance is also considered classic for the breed but is not required.

A classic description might describe a black & white goat with spotting or a belt, 'helicopter' ears, bug-eyed, and myotonia. Myotonics could be described as both a composite and a landrace breed. In other words, they are a mixed breed originating from those initial four animals but bred with other local breeds of the time, most significantly the Spanish goat, another heritage American breed.

Landrace refers to a breed that developed in geographic isolation. Those formative years in the hot, humid summers and mild winters of Tennessee means that myotonics now have a relatively high resistance to parasites like the barber pole worm as compared to other breeds like the Boer.

Myotonics are classified as a meat goat because of their tendency to have hypertrophied musculature giving them a higher meat-to-bone ratio (3:1) than a normal meat goat (2:1). This translates into more meat on a smaller skeletal frame than what would be normally expected for the size of the animal. Some chefs say they have exceptional flavor and texture as well, which might also be related to their myotonia. They are listed on the ALBC's Arc of Good Taste.

Myotonic goats also make excellent pets. They do not climb fences and have a sweet, friendly disposition.

ROUND UP - the DDT of our generation?

2010-06-20T06:33:00.000-07:00

Recently, I've been reading more about the chemical herbicide ROUND UP and its dangerous and detrimental side effects on the environment and human health.

I'm a child of the 60's and 70's and I remember a time when a trip to the hardware store usually meant only finding a small area dedicated to herbicides and pesticides.

We certainly did not rely on these chemicals to maintain a healthy garden and it was rare that my father would even travel down that aisle, much less stop and buy something.

The smell was awful and I was told to wash my hands thoroughly if I touched one of the bags because these were clearly 'dangerous chemicals' (my father's words, not mine).

My first recollections of an intrusion into the status quo was the proliferation of fertilizer and herbicides in lawn mixes designed to keep you lawn 'healthy, green, and weed free'.

My father naively added these products to his summer routine in a futile attempt to keep up with our neighbors who were much more diligent and compulsive about their lawns, and as it turns out, much more damaging to the environment and possibly their own health.

Fast-forward to modern day. We are now bombarded with ads touting the benefits of a 'healthy' lawn and a weed-free yard. Based on the images of a 'healthy' lawn as defined by the chemical industry, it is a monoculture of one type of grass, deep dark green and completely devoid of 'weeds' and life.

So, lets ask the question - how many times in nature does one see a monoculture such as this? The fact is nature abhors monocultures and it is very UNnatural and I suggest damaging to try and create one.

Getting back to the brainwashing of America - 'smart' homeowners are shown 'shooting it out' with obviously less intelligent neighbors to destroy unwanted 'weeds' by using stronger and stronger, and more persistant chemicals.

The option of doing nothing or using a more environmentally friendly form of weed control never comes up.

Here is an excerpt from an Organic Consumers' Association interview with researcher, Don Huber, a retired Purdue Researcher, who discusses some of his findings when looking at ROUND UP and its effects on the environment and human/animal health:

http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_21039.cfm

Another French study found problems with ROUND UP's toxicity towards human (and presumably other animal) cells, in particular embryonic and stem type cells.

http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ehs/news/roundup-weed-killer-is-toxic-to-human-cells.-study-intensifies-debate-over-inert-ingredients

A joint study in Canada and at Harvard School of Public Health found children with higher than median levels of the pesticide malathion in their urine were 55% more likely to develop ADHD than children with lower levels of malathion in their urine.

Malathion is an organophosphate compound and is the most commonly used insecticide in the U.S. It can be found in significant levels on many fruits and vegetables commonly eaten by children and has been associated with developmental delay in children of migrant workers who pick fruit.

Malathion, like ROUND UP, is described as being rapidly degraded in the environment and having little residual effect. Hmmmm.....

http://www.aolnews.com/health/article/study-links-common-pesticides-such-as-malathion-to-childhood-adhd/19479933

Unfortunately, as outlined in the movie The World According To Montsanto, our government agencies responsible for regulating these industries and protecting us from dangerous products, have become compromised.

Compromised both by the power and wealth of these huge corporations and their lobbyists, and by the infiltration of these very same agencies by former lobbyists/corporate executives/attorneys who are then appointed to important positions within the USDA and other federal agencies because of their experience in modern agriculture. Talk about putting the fox in charge of the chicken house!

http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/the-world-according-to-monsanto/

So what other options exist for handling true 'weed' and pest problems in the garden?

1. First of all, I would urge everyone to redefine their idea of what a 'weed' or a pest is and whether a monoculture of grass for example should be the desired endpoint for the perfect lawn.

Remember, 'pesticides' are equally deadly to beneficial insects in the garden. I prefer the word insecticide, because you must remember that whenever you reach for an insecticide, whether organic or not, you will be killing both beneficial and damaging insects.

So, it reminds me to think twice, three-times and to rethink my options - are there any other ways of controlling this problem? Am I contributing to the problem i.e. wrong plant, wrong place, wrong time of year?

2. There are many options for weed control that do not involve the use of dangerous chemicals such as:

HOES: stirrup/glaser or dutch-type hoes are highly effective at cultivation large areas and keeping them weed free and are really easy to use. By regular hoeing, weeds eventually die and and the soil becomes soft and friable. Quick and easy passes of these hoes will clear large areas and render them weed-free, also improving water penetration and compaction problems.

SMOTHERING TECHNIQUES: highly effective at creating new beds, killing turf, and sterilizing large areas.

Newspaper can be used around the base of plants to smother weeds. Overlap thick layers, water into place, and cover with mulch to create an attractive, environmentally-friendly weed free area for new plantings.

'Biodegradable' plastics made from cornstarch are starting to appear on the market and can also be used to smother out larger areas, composting directly into soil over one season, then tilled in in the fall. There are some problems with these new products but my point is as demand builds and people BUY-COTT products, they will improve and hopefully replace more damaging products already in heavy use.

Here's an article from Mother Earth News discussing some of the problems with current degrable products on the market at present:

http://www.motherearthnews.com/nature-community/the-truth-about-biodegradable-plastics.aspx

10% vinegar, available very inexpensively at most asian grocery stores, can be used as a spot treatment and will also 'burn' larger areas prior to the use of smothering techniques. You should plan on liming after tilling prior to planting these areas unless planting acid loving plants like hollies and azaleas. These vinegar acids will be degraded quickly and buffered by the soil.

We use a Weed Dragon for areas around the barn and house. Highly-effective but obviously relies on natural gas to burn plants:

http://www.flameengineering.com/Weed_Dragon.html

And of course, the old-fashioned hand digging techniques of weed control.

3. Solarization & 4. Bio-fumigation.

I'm not going to spend a lot of time on these two techniques other than to say that they are very effective in particular for organic vegetable gardeners or sterilizing large beds prior to planting, but are not particularly useful for spot-weeding.

5. Natural substances for pest control:

There are a wide array of organic subtances that can be highly effective in controlling pest and disease problems such as: liquid detergent (dishwashing soap), oils (canola, olive, mineral), capsacin/hot pepper powder, liquid garlic (sold as garlic barrier brand at garden centers), sabadilla, pyrtherin, neem oil, kaolin clay, karanja oil, and the list goes on and on.

While you should not automatically assume these compounds to be benign, they are naturally-derived and have low-persistance in the environment. This requires more frequent application but seems to be associated with less environment toxicity and a more targeted effect on the desired plant and pest problem.

6. Beneficials: Parasitic and beneficial insects are becoming much more readily available and can be highly effective on controlling or eliminating pest problems. Many do not need to be introduced but will simply return if the gardener stops spraying chemicals that are equally-toxic to beneficial and damaging insects alike.

Two that we have used with great success on our farm have been beneficial nematodes (for japanese bettles) and parasitic wasps, for fly control.

Another beneficial = chickens: We had terrible problems with ticks when we first moved to the farm. Now, we rarely find a tick and we walk through brush, tall grass and under trees daily. Guinea hens are thought to be even more effective than chickens at tick control.

I could go on and on about avoiding or eliminating the use of chemical herbicides, pesticides, and fertilizers in the garden. My point in making this post is to:

make consumers aware that these benign chemicals may not be as benign as we are led to believe,
that you cannot rely on the government to deny market access to companies like Montsanto,
and that there are good alternatives to the use of chemicals in the garden that will leave us all happier, healthier and richer in the end.

This is where the idea of a BUY-COTT comes in - the best way we have of effecting a change is by changing where and what we spend our money on.

So remember, buy wisely, ask questions, and don't believe anything you hear from corporate America!

The cost of sprawl.

2010-06-16T07:54:00.000-07:00

Hello fellow bloggers! I wanted to post a letter Will recently wrote for the Frederick News Post regarding a recent push to rezone two large farms north of Frederick (Maryland) city limits for development.

This rezoning was an initiative pushed through at the last minute by the outgoing mayor with very little public input and a LOT of misinformation.

Will's letter was in response to a letter in the editorial section of the Frederick paper from a lawyer attacking those opposed to this rezoning and the County's new Comprehensive Plan, a blueprint for how the county should develop land to meet anticipated needs over the next decade.

Many people don't realize or think about the implications of suburban sprawl, but its affects are profound and far-reaching:

1. Loss of farmland and hence, increased centralization, homogenization, and industrialization of our food supply.

2. Adverse environmental impacts associated with loss of habitat, more hard surfaces, more chemicals being applied to lawns, etc - this is a VERY long list.

3. Increased carbon footprint to heat, cool, and maintain large homes with large lots.

4. High expense to municipalities to provide services to these sprawling communities.

5. Dependence on fossil fuels and automobiles as walking no longer becomes an option.

And so on, and so on....my point is sprawl affects us all in profound and sometimes unexpected ways. It touches on our lives, usually in a negative way, both as individuals and as a society.

I would encourage anyone looking to buy a home, to consider the advantages of smart growth and urban living as an alternative to sprawl.

Here is Will's letter:

Balance and perspective . . .

In his May 23rd commentary, Thomas Lynch attempts to cast illusions, build straw men and further polarize growth and development issues. The very things he suggests we rise above. Lynch unfairly characterized the recently adopted comprehensive plan, and Frederick County government in general, as being unfriendly towards the business community. As a business owner who moved to Frederick County specifically to start a business, I can tell you that nothing could be further from the truth.

The hundreds of properties that Lynch refers to as being “downgraded” constitute less than 1% of the properties covered under the comprehensive plan. In addition, within that 1%, a large number of the properties were re-evaluated as a result of new, updated flood zone maps issued by FEMA. Most reasonable would agree that properties in a flood zone are not good candidates for development. Furthermore, the county commissioners specifically acknowledged that some of the rezoned properties could still be developed if annexed by the adjacent municipalities as part of their growth plans. This ensures that new development can be serviced by adjacent municipal infrastructure. In the end, there were only a handful of property owners out of the ~230,000 residents in Frederick County that were adversely affected. Little consolation for those individuals for sure, but not a bad track record for elected officials trying to balance the desire of individuals with the best interests of the community at large.

The business community in Frederick County is diverse and made up of more than just developers. For example, Frederick County has more farms than any other county in Maryland. The number of farms in Frederick County is also up 13% from 2002, unlike many other counties. Those counties that focused on development as the main engine of growth have suffered the most as a result of the bust in the construction industry. The industry was premised on people continually upgrading to the next most fashionable neighborhood or floor plan. Studies have shown that land zoned agriculture puts money in the bank for local governments. They pay more in taxes than they consume in services. The opposite is true for new development. They cost existing taxpayers more than they bring in.

The County Commissioners spent two years and countless public meetings updating the comprehensive plan. The process was open and fair. All voices were heard. The final comprehensive plan does exactly what it is supposed to do. It accommodates the population growth that is projected to occur in Frederick County over the next 20 years. It aligns growth with existing infrastructure, minimizing the cost to existing residents and taxpayers. If developers are looking for something to do, look no further than the Golden Mile or any other half dozen communities in Frederick County that are in desperate need of redevelopment.

William Morrow

Whitmore Farm

Emmitsburg, MD

The bees are back in town, the bees are back in town!

2010-05-27T16:03:00.000-07:00

Okay. When Will expressed some interest in getting bees last summer, I was a little skeptical. After all, this was a man who expresses interest in many things, usually within a 24 hour period, and then moves on with regularity. I also knew that he is insanely busy managing our farm business and often overcommits.

But, he persisted, and when he agreed to enroll in a beginning beekeepers course offered through our local beekeeping community, I was convinced.

Fast forward 6 months, and we now have two active hives on our property.

Busy with the day-to-day running of the farm, days and then weeks passed without much attention being paid to the bees.

One day, Will and I returned to find the workmen hiding in their trucks in front of our farmhouse. (We spent most of last summer living through a renovation/addition - more to come at another time when I've gotten past my post-traumatic stress disorder).

Anyways, back to my story.

'The bees were swarming like a giant cloud above those white things they live in' is what we heard. Like scary, 'they're-going-to-come-and-sting-me-to-death', killer bee kind of swarming thing you hear about in the media.

Now these are European honeybees, and not the least bit aggressive, but they swarm when overcrowded in their hives and supers.

Sure enough, we had neglected them for too long and not given them enough space, and they were gone. They left behind a small contigent, a pathetic, non-viable hive.

A few months later, the other hive went and swarmed.

After our hard winter, we were left with two empty hives, two sad relics as a reminder of our failures at beekeeping. 'We should put them on craigslist' Will suggested the other night.

So...imagine my surprise when I came back from checking for new baby goats at the water-front, anticipating dinner, and found Will on the front porch.

As I approached, I could detect a familiar sound. What was it? It sounded so familiar....

And then it hit me as I rounded the corner - a loud buzzing sound and the crazy, frenetic movement of a large swarm of bees covering our two hives!

'You missed the best of it' Will exclaimed. 'They were really swarming thick a minute ago!'. We practically had to raise our voices to be heard above the buzzing sound.

I guess I'll have to start being a little careful when mowing again.

And then a strange feeling came over me, kind of like the jilted lover - 'I wonder if they'll stay this time?' I asked myself.

HOOP house heaven! (or why cold greenhouses are COOL!)

2010-05-24T16:46:00.000-07:00

I wanted to update everyone on the status of our cold frame program to expand our produce production for year-round veggies.

We were approved for the USDA-approved program (previously outlined in one of my earlier posts), ordered our framing kit, and 3 days later, a huge pile of galvanized steel and plastic appeared on the farm.

The next 3 weeks of Loran's and Corey's lives were spent pounding posts, installing a baseboard, and finally, the 4 year plastic covering overlying our hoop house.

'Hoop house' is kind of a generic term referring to a rounded top structure that can be used for hay storage, animal housing, or as a greenhouse. Technically, we are building a cold greenhouse, or unheated greenhouse.

This type of year-round production was commonly practiced in Europe and the United States before the advent of transcontinental, and more recently, INTER-continental transport of vegetables.

By harvesting the solar radiation during the day, and covering beds at night to hold the heat into the soil ( a double-layer system), one can grow vegetables year-round, even in cold climates.

Elliot Coleman has forwarded this technique perhaps more than anyone else in the United States, and successfully grows vegetables year-round in his zone 5 (?) Maine cold greenhouse.

Granted, you aren't growing tomatoes in january, but rather, eating seasonally. Rather than dying off, some vegetables thrive and actually prefer the cool temperatures of winter gardening. Plants like carrots, beets, lettuce, chard, spinach, arugula, and radish all prefer cool to cold temperatures.

Naysayers comment that you can't feed the world using local production.

The fact of the matter is this is exactly how we did feed the world in a sustainable manner before the advent of 'modern' agriculture.

These type of production models (double insulated cold frames, unheated greenhouses, and garden cloches) were exactly how people produced healthy food throughout the season in colder climes and ate seasonally.

This allowed them to eat only what was at its best, not some sad resemblance of a cardboard tomato in January.

We are excited and happy to be providing our customers more and more options to factory-farming and their harmful ways to human health, the environment, animal welfare, and sustainability.

Best,

K

Selling chicken in Maryland

2010-05-20T13:36:00.000-07:00

I've previously touched on some of the barriers that prevent free access to fresh farm products and up until recently, selling poultry was a fine example of this.

USDA rules allowed an exemption for small producers (less than 20,000 birds per year) that allowed them to process and sell their chicken broilers without using a USDA-inspected facility.

However, back in the 70's Maryland set a higher standard than federal regulations, and required poultry to be processed at either a state or federally (USDA)-regulated facility if it was to be sold off-farm.

Fast-forward 30 years, and Maryland (as do many places in the United States) finds itself without a state-inspection program for meat-processing and NO USDA-inspected poultry processors that accept 'other farmers' birds.

Functionally, this means that a farmer could still sell chickens direct-to-consumer on the farm, but could not drive down the road to his regular farmer's market and sell to his local customers clamoring for this product.

After some hard work on the part of Maryland farmers and our state Senator and Delegate, a new state program was established that now allows farmers to sell direct to consumers at farmer's markets and grocery stores, and direct to restaurants.

This really opens up the marketplace to farmers wanting to supply farm-fresh, local products to their community. Chicken is the most popular meat consumed by Americans and previously, local producers were shut-out by these antiquated, out-dated laws.

It was hard to explain to our customers why we weren't able to provide them with the products they wanted to buy and it was unreasonable to expect a consumer to drive 20 or 30 miles just to buy a chicken.

In direct response to this program, we have restarted our small-scale poultry operation for broiler chickens raised on pasture, a program we had previously abandoned because of these unreasonable laws.

Here are some of our broilers being raised on pasture for harvest in a few more weeks.

You should start seeing Whitmore Farm chickens, turkeys and rabbit for sale at Maryland Farmers' Markets and in restaurants like VOLT and NOLA in Frederick Maryland.

Special thanks go to:

Senator David Brinkley and his Chief of Staff, Mike O'Halloran.

Delegate Chris Shank

Farmers Julie Bolton (Groff's Content Farm), Julie Stinar (Evensong Farm), & Mike Akey (Green Akeys Farm)

Liz Reitzig, MICFA

Ryan Cunningham, The Glover Park Group.

Zonal denial - hardy palms and cacti in Maryland.

2010-05-03T10:01:00.000-07:00

Well, this was a very cold, snowy winter for our area of Maryland with a minimum low temp of -2 degrees F and about 2 feet of snow in December and 4 feet of snow in February. We are somewhere in the gray zone between zone 6B and 7A and it has been a hard adjustment for this gardener after our zone 8 garden in Washington, D.C.

As you may recall from earlier posts, I've been experimenting with various types of cold-hardy palms and cacti.

Last summer, I planted several palm species/cultivars of Trachycarpus (Chinese windmill palm) including T. fortuneii 'Bulgaria', T. wagneranius, and T. fortuneii 'Tennessee form'.

Most forms of hardy palms have improved cold hardiness with increasing size and age, but finding mature specimens in our area can be a challenge and shipping from the South can be very expensive.

Of the small, starter palms I planted last summer, none survived. Well, okay ONE did, but I mowed it by mistake because it was so scrawny and pathetic it deserved to die.

The only real survivors were a 3 foot specimen of generic windmill palm I bought at a local nursery and one 18 inch specimen of Trachycarpus fortuneii 'Bulgaria' that I transplanted from our garden in Washington, D.C. 3 years ago. That specimen, originally came from a strain of Trachycarpus growing in Bulgaria that had reportedly withstood temps well below zero degrees fahrenheit. The Bulgarian strain was imported as seed into the U.S. and is intermittently available through Plant Delights Nursery in North Carolina.

There are many nice examples of Trachycarpus growing without difficulty in protected spots in and around Washington, D.C., but we are an hour north of the city, have essentially wide open spaces without much wind protection, and lack the microclimates you see in many city gardens.

This year, I planted THREE 5-7 foot specimens of Trachycarpus fortuneii in the front garden of our farm house, south facing and out of the prevailing winter winds.

I also planted 2 need palms, which are probably the most cold hardy of all palms. There are some very large specimens of needle palm growing nicely in the National Arboretum in Washington, D.C.

Thirdly, I planted 3 small Morrocan blue fan palms, Chaemerops humilis cerifera. While European fan palms are not famous for their cold hardiness, the moroccan blue palm grows at high altitudes and probably has significantly more cold tolerance than its standard Mediterranean cousin. I prefer the blue hue of the Moroccan form, so from my perspective, its a win-win!

I know it doesn't look like much right now, but we saw some beautiful examples growing at high altitude on the road leading out of Marrekesh into the Atlas Mountains in heavy snow and bitter cold.

Moving on in our tour of plants likely to die this coming winter are the 'winter-hardy' cacti and succulents.

For the nay-sayers out there, here's an example of Echinocereus and Agave parryi I planted in some concrete planters on our porch last summer.

These small starter plants spent weeks under 2-3 feet of snow and endured temps into the minus single digits. As you probably already know, plants in pots and other containers above-ground typically endure temperatures the equivalent of a full zone colder than in-ground plants, making these babies tolerant to at least zone 6A or even zone 5B. And they are thriving with many side shoots and new growth!

The secret with the cacti and succulents seems to be absolutely perfect drainage. After several failed attempts, I started planting in straight gravel/stone (i.e. no soil) and have had good results ever since.

Here's an installation of Agave parryi going in with pea gravel - to be top-dressed with another gravel that fits into the bed a little more seamlessly.

I know this is hardly farm related but I thought you might be interested and I will keep you posted next spring as to how my experiment has worked out.

LARD - a love story

2010-04-12T03:20:00.000-07:00

aka, LARD & human health.

What is lard?

Real Lard is rendered pork fat (also called tallow if it comes from a ruminant such as beef cattle).

Rendering is gently heating the fat to separate out the protein strands, the ‘cracklings’.

Real lard is a beautiful, white, naturally-partially-hydrogenated solid fat. Most of its carbon sites are filled with hydrogen in their natural and normal cis position just as it comes from the hog.

Good lard is only

• 40% SATURATED fat,
• 48% MONOUNSATURATED and
• 12% POLYUNSATURATED fat.

Lard is stable and is the preferred fat for frying because it does not easily turn into trans fats when heated. Foods fried in lard can therefore be cooked for a shorter time at a higher temperature resulting in a better taste, texture and less embedded oil.

Lard is a HEALTH FOOD that needs to be returned to its rightful place in the American diet!

There are two essential fatty acids (essential because our bodies cannot make them) and both are polyunsaturated, 18 carbon molecules. These are the OMEGA 3 and OMEGA 6 fatty acids, and there has been a lot in the media in recent years about them and their relation to human health.

OMEGA 6 is double unsaturated LINOLEIC acid and OMEGA 3 is the triple unsaturated LINOLENIC acid. The omega number refers to the location of the first double bond. Like other polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA’s) they are unstable, go rancid easily and should never be heated.

The healthful Omega 3 fats include:

1. CONJUGATED LINOLEIC ACID 9 conjugated linolenic acid (which is found in grass-fed animals especially ruminants).
2. DHA (the brain fat).
3. EPA which are found primarily in deep ocean fish.
4. GLA found in some plant oils.

Organically-raised, foraging, pasture-raised outdoor range hogs have the healthiest lard.

Commercially-raised, factory-farmed pork get virtually no exercise, live indoors (often in squalor) and eat no greens. Because of their diet, their lard is of equally low quality. The diet and lifestyle of the hog radically affects the quality of the lard! What a concept.

People always seem to be surprised by this, but I compare it to two humans, one of whom lives a livestyle as a couch potato, eating highly-processed, starchy foods and getting very little exercise and fresh air. In comparison, the second human is an exercise buff, who eats a diet rich in natural foods and spends much of his/her time out-of-doors. How do you think these two humans would fair in terms of their cholesterol levels and fat to meat ratio?

Confinement pork lard has similar OMEGA 6:3 ratios to feedlot beef with a 100gm serving containing about 8 grams of Omega-6 and 0.8 grams of Omega-3. That works out to a ratio of 10 to 1!

A much more healthful ratio of O-6:O-3 can be achieved by increasing the amount of fresh green forages. The O-3 content can be greatly enhanced by feeding flax seed, sea greens, green algae or fish oils but simply putting animals back on pasture can profoundly change their omega fatty acid to something approaching the quality of fish oils!

It should come as no surprise that hogs fed garbage will incorporate all the toxic trans fats, heavy metals or other toxins into their fat. By-products of commercial, processed food operations (think potato ship crumbs from the factory floor) are often touted as a ‘great source’ of cheap feed for hogs and even ruminants like sheep.

Over the past 100 years, the rates of heart disease and atherosclerosis have climbed significantly despite our move away from ‘bad fats’ like lard to ‘healthier’ fats like margarine. This despite the fact that our traditional diet contained high levels of fat (lard) and we had low-rates of heart disease. This has been further supported by the paradox of French cooking which combined high-levels of animal and other traditional fats with low-rates of heart disease.

Meanwhile, the health of Americans plummeted as dieticians recommended vegetable oils for cooking, especially partially-hydrogenated oils.

Shortening, for example, is a liquid oil until manufacturers heat it up under pressure and bubble hydrogen gas into it ! Can you imagine!!

Why do they do this you might ask? Because hydrogen added in the trans configuration increases shelf life of the oil and allows vegetable oils and corn oil not to go rancid in large, clear containers exposed to light and heat on the store shelves.

A lot of hydrogen added in the trans configuration solidifies the liquid oil, creating stick margarine or solid vegetable shortening, such as Crisco.

Polyunsaturated oils go rancid easily due to unstable double bonds.

Fats are made of FATTY ACIDS which are carbon-hydrogen chains (C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C) that latch on in groups of three to a glycerol backbone to make a TRIGLYCERIDE molecule, which are the basic molecules of which all fats are made. The length of the carbon chains and where, if any, double bonds (i.e. missing hydrogen molecules) occur differentiate the fatty acids one from another.

The more double bonds, the more unsaturated. One double bond gives you monounsaturated, many double bonds gives you a polyunsaturated, and no double bonds gives you a saturated fatty acid.

The main saturated fatty acids (from shortest to longest chains):

1. CAPRIC
2. LAURIC
3. MYRISTIC
4. PALMITIC
5. STERIC acids.

The main monounsaturated is OLEIC acid.

Olive oil contains 71% OLEIC acid and is heart-healthy, monounsaturated fat that we’re supposed to get more of.

Lard contains 44 % oleic acid, sesame oil (41%), corn oil (28%), walnut oil (28%), flaxseed oil (21%), cottonseed oil (19%) and sunflower oil (19%), grapeseed oil (15%) and safflower oil (13%), beef tallow (43%), butterfat (29%) and human butterfat (ie the fat of breast milk at 35%).

Like olive oil, lard contains 10% of the omega-6 fatty acid LINOLEIC acid, again, roughly the same as human butterfat (breast milk) at 9%.

1. Lard also contains 14%) of the 18-C saturated fat STEARIC acid, which has been shown in clinical testing to lower cholesterol.

2. Lard contains 2% MYRISTIC acid, a 14-C saturated fat that has been shown to have immune enhancing properties. Human butterfat is 8% myristic acid, cottonseed oil (1%) and the tropical vegetable oils (coconut oil and palm kernel) have zero.

3. Lard contains 26% PALMITIC acid (a 16-C saturated fatty acid) olive oil only 13%, and human butterfat contains 25%. Palmitic acid is antimicrobial.

So Lard’s basic fatty acid composition is comparable to the butterfat of human breast milk, with even less saturated and more monounsaturated fatty acids.

Breast Milk

Saturated 48%
Monounsaturated 35%
Polyunsaturated 10%

Lard

Saturated 42%
Monounsaturated 44%
Polyunsaturated 10%

Our bodies need saturated fats.

• Saturated fats make up over half of all cell membranes and give cell membranes stiffness and integrity.
• Bones require about 50% of the dietary fat to be saturated so calcium can be absorbed.
• Saturated fats lowers Lipoprotein-a in the bloodstream, an inflammatory marker directly associated with the risk of heart disease.
• Saturated fat protects the liver from alcohol, toxins and drugs and they enhance the immune system.

Omega 3 fats are retained in the tissue when the diet is rich in healthy saturated fats. Heart muscle contains rich deposits of stearic acid and palmitic fatty acids as energy sources during times of stress.

Many saturated fats have antimicrobial properties and protect us from harmful pathogens in the intestine.

There is no good scientific evidence to back up claims that saturated fat causes clogging of arteries per se.

In fact arterial plaque is only 26% saturated fat – the other 50+ % being polyunsaturated fat!

Our bodies need some cholesterol and it is only found in animal fat.

Cholesterol makes up a large portion of brain tissue and is the building block of all corticosteroids and hormones in the body, and is a precursor to vitamin D.

Cholesterol keeps our skin soft and moist, and makes the bile which we need to digest fat.

Human breast milk is very high in it.

Our bodies make over 2000mg of cholesterol daily whereas a maximum of only 100mg can be absorbed from the diet.

Cholesterol is required for proper function of serotonin (the ‘feel good’ brain chemical) such that low cholesterol levels are associated with aggression, violence, depression and suicidal tendencies.

TRANS FATS are one of the most dangerous foods in the world. They serve no purpose in the body except to cause inflammation, cancer and degenerative disease.

Trans Fats began to enter the diet of Americans in the early 20th Century which coincided with a new problem of heart disease in America. Nowadays, most Americans consume up to or more than 20% of their fat intake as trans fats.

Tranfats cross the placenta and are incorporated into fetal tissue, even the brain. Cell membranes are a bi-layer (two-sided) of fat with a thin protein coating on both sides.

Some people feel that if Trans Fats gets are incorporated into cell membranes, they become defective and won’t resist infection and are more cancer prone.

Trans Fats may cause problems in the brain as DHA or other brain fats cannot be made from it, and the stiff and straight abnormal molecule creates overly rigid membranes.

Consequently, some people feel there may be an association between a diet in Trans Fats and the incidence and clinical course of brain disease like MS, ALS, Alzheimers, Parkinsons and maybe even depression, schizophrenia, and other mental illnesses.

Lard can be obtained from any part of the pig as long as there is a high concentration of fatty tissue.

The highest grade of lard, known as leaf lard, is obtained from the "flare" visceral fat deposit surrounding the kidneys and inside the loin. Leaf lard has little pork flavor, making it ideal for use in baked goods, where it is treasured for its ability to produce flaky, moist pie crusts.

The next highest grade of lard is obtained from fatback, the hard subcutaneous fat between the back skin and muscle of the pig.

The lowest grade (for purposes of rendering into lard) is obtained from the soft caul fat surrounding digestive organs (the omentum), such as small intestines. Caul fat is often used directly as a wrapping for roasting lean meats or in the manufacture of pâtés.

Lard in history and its use in food.

Lard has always been an important cooking and baking staple in cultures where pork is an important dietary item, the fat of pigs often being as valuable a product as their meat. Obviously, it is also prohibited by dietary laws that forbid the consumption of pork, such as kashrut and halal.

During the 19th and first-half of the 20th Centuries, lard was used in a similar fashion as butter in North America.

As a readily available by-product of modern pork production, lard was previously cheaper than most vegetable oils, and it was common in many people's diet. During the industrial revolution, new techniques were developed for the production of vegetable oils and they became more common and more affordable.

NB: Bear in mind, this would have been for the first time in human history!

Vegetable shortenings were developed in the early 1900s, which made it possible to use vegetable-based fats in baking and in other uses where solid fats were called for.

Toward the late 20th century, lard began to be regarded as less healthy than vegetable oils (such as olive and sunflower oil) because of its high saturated fatty acid and cholesterol content.

NB: Despite its reputation, lard has less saturated fat, more unsaturated fat, and less cholesterol than an equal amount of butter by weight.

Unlike many margarines and vegetable shortenings, lard contains no trans fat.

Lard’s lost popularity as it became viewed old-fashioned, unhealthy, and something poor people ate.

Many restaurants in the western nations eliminated the use of lard in their kitchens because of the religious and health-related dietary restrictions many of their customers demanded in an effort to ‘eat healthy’.

Many industrial bakers began substituting corn-fed beef tallow for lard in order to compensate for the lack of mouthfeel in many baked goods and free their food products from pork-based dietary restrictions.

Luckily, following this disasterous switch to high-trans and hydrogenated fats in the 1960’s and 70’s, the unique culinary properties of lard were rediscovered (never having been forgotten by French chefs) leading to a partial rehabilitation of this fat among "foodies" and chefs in this country. This trend has been partially driven by negative publicity about the trans fat content of the partially hydrogenated vegetable oils and in vegetable shortening.

It is also again becoming popular in many countries as people have explored and rediscovered the virtues of traditional cuisine over modern ‘healthy food’.

Lard is one of the few edible oils with a relatively high smoke point, attributable to its high saturated fatty acids content. Pure lard is especially useful for cooking since it produces little smoke when heated and has a distinct taste when combined with other foods. Many chefs and bakers deem lard a superior cooking fat or shortening because of lard's wide range of applications and taste.

Because of the relatively large fat globules found in lard, it is extremely effective as a shortening in baking. Pie crusts made with lard tend to be more flaky than those made with butter.

Lard was once widely used in the cuisines of Europe, China, and the New World and still plays a significant role in British, Central European, Mexican, and Chinese cuisines.

Lard consumed as a spread on bread was once very common, especially those areas where dairy fats and vegetable oils were rare. A slice of bread spread with lard was a typical staple in traditional rural cuisine of many countries.

As the demand for lard grows, many small farmers have begun to specialize in heritage hog breeds with higher body fat contents than the leaner, modern hog. These were the traditional ‘lard pigs’ of history that were raised just as much for their valuable lard as for their wonderful, flavorful meats.

http://lardlovers.ning.com/

www.westonaprice.org

www.eatwild.com

The British are Coming! The British are Coming!

2010-04-10T10:43:00.001-07:00

Well, British hogs that is...and well, they've already arrived!

Do you think it would to obvious to call her 'spot'?

The Gloucester Old Spot Hogs have arrived at Whitmore Farm!

Thanks to Rich Tilyou, a breeder and real champion of this rare English breed of hog for providing us with breeding stock for what we hope to be the epicenter of rare breed hog-dom in Maryland.

Check out Rich's home page featuring his excellent Tamworth and Gloucester Old Spots (from hereon to be referred to as GOS's) at http://www.heritagebreedsusa.com/TMeadow.html

Commonly called the orchard pig, they were often finished on fallen fruit and other agricultural byproducts like whey. Old-time farm stories from Britain describe their black spots as bruises from falling apples.

The breed originated around the Berkeley Vale in Southwest of England and is thought to have been derived from the original Gloucestershire pig (a large white pig with wattles) and the unimproved berkshire (a sandy colored, prick-eared pig with spots), both of which forms are extinct at present.

Old Spots are hardy and do well on pasture, are known to have an easy disposition, and at one time, came close to extinction. The breed hit its high point in popularity in Great Britain just after World War I when its lean meat was preferred.

This is how we raise our pork...on pasture as nature intended it! Here we have our herefords from December and our new stock of GOS's.

Old Spots continued as the pork of choice for discerning pork-ophiles and in livestock shows throughout the 1920’s and early 1930’s. However, after World War II, the breed became increasingly rare with a shift to intensive pig production and reduced interest in pigs that could thrive out of doors. The remaining population nearly became extinct in the 1960s, though it has been increasing slowly since then, thanks to the work of people like Mr. Tilyou. Even now, the genetic pool is quite shallow especially in the United States and breeders in this country look to introduce new genetics from the U.K.

Gloucestershire Old Spots pigs were first imported to the United States during the 1900s, and they made genetic contributions to several American breeds, including the American Spot and the Chester White. The breed never became numerous in the United States, however, and was practically extinct by the 1990s when twenty Gloucestershire piglets were imported to reestablish a purebred population in America. A breed society was founded, and the number of animals in the United States is increasing.

As of 2009, there are less than 1000 Gloucestershire Old Spots in Great Britain and fewer than 200 breeding animals in the US. The breed notably benefits from continued support of the British Royal Family who favors pork from these pigs for their table.

The Gloucestershire Old Spot pig is known for its docility, intelligence, and prolificacy. Boars reach a mature weight of 300 lbs (136 kg) and sows 275 lbs (125 kg). The pigs are white with clearly defined black (not blue) spots. There must be at least one spot on the body to be accepted in the registry. The breed’s maternal skills make it able to raise large litters of piglets on pasture. Its easy disposition and self‑sufficiency make it an attractive hog for small farmers raising pigs on pasture.

The pigs are so darn friendly...its impossible to get a good picture! They love to be scratched and talked to...

The Gloucester Old Spot is listed as critical by the American Livestock Breeding Conservancy, an organization dedicated to the preservation of rare breed livestock animals.

http://albc-usa.org/

As with many other areas of the world economy, the consolidation and industrialization of agriculture has led to a move towards monocultures of livestock. This has proven to be disastrous for traditional and landrace varieties of livestock, many of which developed over many centuries and created unique qualities, disease resistance, or traits that are not easily recreated if lost.

Much as with wild animals, the ALBC and heritage livestock breeders work to protect these unique lines of animals from extinction. That is one of our goals at Whitmore Farm in breeding rare breeds and educating farmers as to the many advantages they have over industrial stock.

Oftentimes, the ONLY disadvantage they have over commercial livestock is they don't perform well in confinement, cages, and other unhealthy environments that have become the norm for factory farms.

This is how we raise our animals...fresh air, sunshine, shade on hot days and a natural wallow. The wallow (a mudpuddle) allows the pigs to coat themselves with mud which protects them from biting flies and a sunburn.

What the heritage breeds DO typically excel at are traits like:

1. Extreme hardiness to cold, bad weather and other adverse conditions.

2. Good natural resistance to disease.

3. Strong maternal traits.

4. Calm disposition making them easy to work with.

5. Excellent flavor.

6. Good feed conversion on pasture and an ability to survive on relatively 'thin' rations (i.e. poor quality grass for example).

7. A sense of what the French call terroir, where unique foods come from unique places. Think of the vidalia onion or a coney island hot dog.

This sense of terroir is one of the things that make foods exciting and interesting. We are happy to be working to protect this breed in the United States and look forward to offering our customers a 'bit of Old Spot' pork in 2011 and onwards.

One of our areas of interest is smoking and curing our own meats. We are currently working to perfect our first year of Maryland proscuitto!

It is a beautiful sight to see animals on pasture!

Farmers Markets, eggs and The Common Market

2010-03-27T15:23:00.000-07:00

Well, we've been trying to figure out where our retail outlets should be this summer and a plan has slowly come into view for 2010.

As it stands, we will be attending two markets this year, both on Saturday morning:

Fresh Farm Bethesda Market

June 19 - Oct 30, Saturdays, 9-1:00.

Norfolk Ave. at Veteran's Park.

Click Here For a Map

Burleith/Glover Park Market,

May 8th - Oct 30th. Saturdays, 9-1:00.

Wisconsin at 34th Street, NW (across from the 'social Safeway')

Hardy Middle School parking lot.

http://dcgreens.org/

(We are sad to be leaving our spot on Wednesday's in Rose Park:(

Thanks to the new program launched by the Maryland Dep't of Agriculture, we will be able to legally sell farm-fresh poultry and rabbit at the Bethesda Market.

We have ordered our broiler chicks and will be pasturing them starting in April for 2 batches of chicken sales this summer!

There is some hope that the USDA may change rules in place that currently only allow the sale of meat crossing state lines to come from a USDA-inspected abbatoir (meat processor).

If the new rules are passed, they may allow state-inspected facilities that meet the same standards as USDA-inspected facilities to be sold across state lines (think Maryland to D.C. farmers' markets).

As a farmer, I can attest that the presence of state, USDA or any other kind of certification really does not mean that much in terms of food safety.

For example, there have been several closures of large kosher USDA-inspected processing centers in the midwest in the past several years for serious infractions. These were situations where the kosher certifier may have looked the other way and allowed things to pass that were SO BAD that even the USDA intervened.

In the end, knowing who raises your food, under what conditions, and trusting in your farmer to work with reputable and humane butchers is the BEST way to be confident in the meat you are getting.

We also hope to supply more of our products to The Common Market ( a wonderful food COOP in Frederick and our grocer of choice in Frederick) and VOLT Restaurant (also in Frederick) http://www.voltrestaurant.com/

We are excited to see one more barrier to direct-to-consumer sales fall!

See you at the markets!

As a consumer, what can I do?

2010-03-24T07:03:00.001-07:00

Oftentimes, our customers will ask in frustration what they can do to help change our seriously warped industrial agriculture system. It can be overwhelming because its become such a big problem. It can be hard to know where to start.

The good news is there is a lot than can be done and it all begins at the beginning! Many changes begin in small ways and are easily implemented even when working hard as a busy parent, homemaker or worker bee.

First of all, every time you buy something locally produced at a farmers' market or local coop, your dollars are making a statement, sending a message to producers, and removing one animal from an inhumane feedlot operation.

This is probably the one most important thing you can do and has a profound and rippling affect down throughout the ag system.

By supporting producers doing the right thing, you strengthen them and make it easier for them to compete, increase their production and continue to spread the good word.

Which leads me to my next item, which is education. I consider this probably the most important thing because every time I can get someone thinking about food and its provenance, I create a lifelong catalyst for change. There are too many people who are ignorant and blissful.

Now don't get me wrong, I love a little ignorant bliss as much as the next person, but some things are too important to ignore. Food and its provenance is one of those things. The costs are just too high for our health, the health of the environment, our local farming community and the misuse of public funds (i.e. your money) to support a pathologic system of food production.

When you buy food from retailers like BJ's or COSTCO, you directly support the mistreatment of animals, the ruining of our physical environment, the exploitation of workers in very powerless situations, and serious effects on human health.

As a parent, are you concerned about your family's well-being? What are the long-term ramifications of your spending habits. What about your children's lives? Are your habits making the world a better place for them when they reach adulthood and are looking to have their own families?

If you're a religious person, should you treat the world around you as a treasure or something to be exploited, used up and then discarded? Animals, plants and the world we live in deserve to be treated with respect and kindness.

I've heard that American Indian traditions require that any new practice be judged as to its affect several generations or more down the line, before they are considered just or permissable.

Just because the Chinese are willing to make the same mistakes we made in terms of their environmental protection doesn't mean we shouldn't care or that we should support their bad decisions just because its cheap. Much of what we eat is now coming out of China and other essentially unregulated sources.

We now have melamine in our food supply in THIS country because of our careless policies that emphasize cheap food above all else. And dust storms now blow across the continents from Africa and Asia and significantly (and usually negatively) affect weather in North America.

Okay, enough preaching. Sorry but this is something I feel just can't wait. I am most certainly an idealist at heart.

Here are some very concrete suggestions you might want to explore:

1. Join a CSA.

What is a CSA?

This is a great way to get hooked up to the local food production community and get the freshest, best things that local farmers have to offer. Not all CSA's are the same and you should look around for a CSA that best suits your needs in terms of delivery, the kinds of products included (just veggies, milk products, meats, year-round, costs, etc).

I think we may be launching our first CSA's next fall and will target Frederick, Maryland for easy delivery. Hopefully, we can expand to D.C. if all goes as planned in 2010.

2. Check out some really great films out now and consider showing them locally:

FRESH

FOOD, Inc.

3. Frequent your local farmers' markets, get to know your farmers and talk to them. Ask them about barriers to delivering their products to market.

Oftentimes, there are simple things that can be done to remove barriers to local food delivery. A good example here in Maryland were existing state laws that prevented farmers from selling poultry processed on-farm to consumers at farmers' markets. We could sell you a chicken on the farm, but not at the local farmers' market.

Arbitrary and unnecessary legislation harking back to a time when off-farm poultry processing was readily available to local farmers. This is no longer the case as small abbatoirs have struggled to compete with super cheap meats.

Maryland Dep't of Ag recently created a new program to certify farmers to process their own poultry for resale to consumers at farmers' markets directly. This still doesn't solve the problem of other retail outlets unavailable to local farmers, like your family supermarket, but we often measure change in small steps.

4. Explore some online resources specifically geared towards connecting consumers with local producers. Many have email alerts that can help you keep current on legislation affecting the local foods movement in your area.

Here are just a few:

MICFA Maryland Independent Consumers and Farmers Association

PASA Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture

Future Harvest/CASA - the Chesapeake/Maryland chapter for sustainable agriculture

SLOW food USA - awesome global organization that promotes local food. They have a yearly conference in Italy every year! Italy anyone!

LOCAL HARVEST - good resource for finding local producers and local farming/consumer events.

Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund http://www.ftcldf.org/ - helps counteract some of the unfair practices affecting small producers and their access to consumers. helps counteract some of the oppressive bureaucratic oversight and powerful big-ag lobby.

EAT WILD! - a good resource for finding grass-fed, finished operations in your area. grass fed meats have been shown to have the same health benefits as fish oil in terms of high levels of omega-3 fatty acids.

100 mile diet Try eating only locally produced (within 100 miles) food for a month or a year. Don't worry, you're allowed a few luxury items like coffee, tea, OJ, etc!

I'll stop there but this is just a beginning! Please don't be offended by what I have to say - this is my opinion. Educate yourself and then get back to me as to whether I was off-base or not ;)

A word of warning however...this is a slippery slope. Once you start to educate yourself, you can't easily turn back to that blissful place and you will never look at what and how you eat the same way again :)

Lambs, lambs everywhere!

2010-03-05T07:24:00.000-08:00

Well, after last week's kidding by Lucy, we have finally concluded our first (and last! lol) February lambing.

Granted, who could have predicted the worst weather in recorded history and all in all, we did pretty well despite the weather. This was our first try at winter lambing and it was not completely satisfactory.

The advantages of lambing on pasture, our normal practice, were clear pretty quickly. Aside from the obvious issues about cold weather, we kind of overlooked the difficulties of keeping a clean environment with so many animals on the barnyard.

Without good hygiene, enterocolitis and coccidia become major problems and treatment can be difficult, time-consuming, and somewhat unsatisfactory.

Here are some of our bottle babies during feeding time. We took a more aggressive stance and culled several mom's with non-functioning teats and other irreparable problems.

Lambing on pasture allows you to take advantage of the natural cleaning properties of wind, sun and rain. The mother's segregate themselves to find a quiet corner to lamb in.

Given the fact that katahdins are such good mothers and easy lambing predominates, assisted deliveries are rare. the biggest problem we've had is new mom's confusing lambs born at about the same time and highly hormonal expectant mom's stealing other's lambs! lol

We lost 2 lambs to cold and one lamb to a pneumonia, but the remaining 125 are doing beautifully!

We also had 4 malpresentations, one retained lamb, 4 mummies, 4 cases mastitis, one set of quads, one set of septuplets, and one emergency c-section.

I'm not entirely sure but believe that our c-section dame may have ruptured her uterus plus or minus a placenta previa. Her two lambs are doing fine on the bottle and I expect to retain both for our genetics.

Here's a sequence that illustrates nicely the normal progression of lambing:

This ewe has already delivered her first lamb when I arrived. Note the fresh umbilical cord hanging below her lamb.

The dame continues to paw the ground in a nesting maneuvers while she smells and explores her lamb, cleaning it quickly by licking it dry. This cleans up the scents of blood that might draw a predator and dries the lamb who can chill very quickly.

The lamb will quickly struggle to its feet and start searching for the teat. It is vital that it find the teat quickly in order to get as much colostrum as possible.

Colostrum is like lamb jet fuel, very high in calories, fat and energy, as well as vital antibodies to shore up the lambs non-existant immune system. Without colostrum, the lamb is MUCH more likely to perish from cold, pneumonia and starvation.

The lamb has found the teat and her nursing action stimulates prolactin release in the brain which encourages milk let-down and stimulates more uterine contractions. Suddenly the ewe is back in labor and is gearing up for her next lamb.

The ewe lays down, pushes out another lamb and then quickly gets up, turns and starts cleaning and stimulating her second lamb. If this happens too quickly after her first lamb is born, one lamb may not get the attention it needs.

Sometimes, the amniotic sac is covering the new lamb's airway and without mom's help, the young lamb may not be able to break free on its own.

With the second lamb nursing, mom's contractions are really kicking in and she quickly has the urge to push once again. The process repeats itself for a third time and she is done. The afterbirth will follow within a few hours and the best mother's eat the placenta to clean the birth site and as a valuable nutritional addition. Her body condition will deteriorate rapidly over the next 10 weeks as she nurses 3 lambs and she needs every calorie, all the iron and protein she can get.

HOOP houses and the USDA

2010-03-05T06:48:00.000-08:00

I've been thinking of some ideas on what to write about lately and decided to give kudos to the USDA who has finally come up with a program that will encourage local, sustainable agriculture.

They have recently created a reimbursement program to defray costs to small producers who want to build a hoop house, otherwise known as a cold frame or french-style cold greenhouse.

This is actually an old technique where two layers of air are used to hold heat in in order to raise cool season veggies in the winter and extend the warm season further into spring and fall for heat-loving plants like tomatoes.

Remember, there was a time when fresh produce could not be shipped across country during winter months, and people relied on squash and canned goods to get their veggies in the winter. This was one way to allow fresh, seasonal greens for example to be produced in northern climes.

While the money is limited, it does give small producers an opportunity to grow product in the winter months for local resale.

We are very excited to join this awesome program and look forward to offering fresh produce essentially year-round to our customers.

the BLIZZARD of 2010

2010-02-18T08:36:00.000-08:00

Many of our friends, family and customers have been wondering how we fared during our recent unprecedented snowy weather in the mid-Atlantic...

It was an exhausting week of digging, hauling water and feed through 4 foot drifts and lambing, but we survived.

I did a spectacular fall on the ice and wrenched my knee and we lost two lambs to the cold, but all in all, it could have been much worse.

Thanks to our neighbors, Loran (our farm manager) and others who helped us free our tractor, kept the roads plowed as best they could, and worked my shift at the hospital as I was trapped at home.

Well, they say a picture speaks a thousand words, so here we are!

PIGLET follow-up

2010-02-13T06:29:00.000-08:00

I've had a lot of inquiries about how the piglets fared (posted in an earlier blog entry).

We had 11 live births and 3 runts. The 3 runts and one full-size girl got chilled and needed rewarming.

We kept them in the house off and on for about 36 hours but after a few tries, clearly some just did not have a strong will to live.

One runt, the smallest, fought like a devil with the other piglets to get to the teat. You've heard the expression 'stuck on the rear hind teat' perhaps? This refers to the fact that the hind teats have less milk and that's typically where the runts end up. Sure enough, our little runt, ended up back there.

After 36 hours of trying, we decided to let nature take its course. We had given the weakest piglets a fair fighting chance to survive and now it was up to them. We rewarmed them one last time and put them with mom. 24 hours later, 3 were dead but not the little fighter.

Over the subsequent days, she struggled as they bullied her around. The other piglets chewed off part of her tail, leaving her with a stub. But, she persevered and is doing fine even today. Still the smallest, still with a stub of a tail, and still a fighter.

Here are some pics...see if you can find the piglet with the short tail!

Do these lambs make my ass look fat?

2010-02-13T06:18:00.000-08:00

My sheep were wondering - what do u think?

(I think they're feeling a little hormonal! lol)

The Rare Maryland Snow Pig

2010-02-10T07:06:00.000-08:00

During our recent spat of very un-Maryland-ish snowy weather, there was an unusual sighting - the rare Maryland Snow Pig.

Here a young sow was sighted with her entourage of piglets from a late winter farrowing.

In reality, this would be Gloria 'I Will Survive' Gaynor and her new friends, a group of 8 piglets recently weaned from their mama.

Gloria has taken a shine to the wee ones and they follow her around the pasture. She's been really great about helping forge a path for the little ones to make their way to the waterer and feeder during our recent heavy snowfall.