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Wednesday, December 16
Shopping across Iowa - Twelve Great Places
by
cathy lafrenz
on Wed 16 Dec 2009 08:47 PM CST
Shopping across Iowa - Twelve Great Places
 by Cathy Lafrenz
We talk about what is wrong with the economic situation of the country. We talk about the high un-employment and the low wages of workers. We talk about the lack of healthy food options in our schools and in our homes.
We talk.
But we can do this.......... we can shop Iowa.
Every dollar spent with a small entrepreneur in Iowa, is turned over three times in a community. And we all know ..... small entrepreneurs are the key to economic success.
So .... in the Spirit of the Twelve Days of Christmas ..... here are 12 places you should be shopping. Some are online sites. Some are store fronts. Please call or email before venturing out. I have not visited all these places, but all the information was current in 2009.
And you probably can guess........ they will be food/farm oriented. Hey - I wrote the list!!!!
1) OK - this is my all-time favorite place to shop. The Freight House Farmers Market in Downtown Davenport. The Freight House is the only year round, indoor market in Iowa. Open Tuesday from 3-6 pm and Saturday from 8-1pm, from soap to soup bone - you can find it there.
2) Come rediscover the old-fashioned flavor of Henry's Village Market in Homestead. One of the seven villages of the Amana Colonies....... you will find a lot to look at there.
3) Oneota Community Food Cooperative in Decorah has the largest bulk food department in NE Iowa.
4) For that gardener ... get a catalog and gift certificate from Seed Savers Exchange also in Decorah. They have been providing heirloom seeds to gardeners since 1975.
5) For a special gift for a very special someone .... a night at a farmhouse B & B. What an experience to spend an evening at the Englebrecht Family Winery!
6)Another personal favorite Blue Gate Farm in Chariton has a great selection of jams, jellies, honey and home-spun yarn for sale. E-mail Jill for current availability. And look for their Tapestry Salad Mix next spring at the Downtown Des Moines Farmer's market.
7) An Iowa dairy that has their own on-site bottling is Picket Fence Creamery in Woodward. It comes on good authority that their ice cream is to die for!!!!
8) Frisian Farms Cheese in Oskaloosa specializes in hormone and antibiotic-free Gouda cheese. Available on their website and many Iowa locations.
9)Grass-fed beef is in high demand and in central Iowa, one source is Wallace Farms. Nick Wallace raises grass-fed beef and lamb and fresh-air pork. Organic chicken and eggs are also available.
10) Dubuque Winter Farmers Markets features eggs, meat, apples, baked goods and kettle corn and will run from November to April.
11)Another personal favorite and one of the most environmentally conscious businesses that I know is Prairieland Herbs. Donna and Maggie sell shampoo without plastic bottles and laundry soap without boxes. And their shea butter products are wonderful. Tell them Miss Eff sent you!!!
12) Finally, what would Christmas be without a tree. Kistler Tree Farm in Fairfield specializes in pines. Contact them for hours.
You can spend money....or you can make your dollars count. Buying locally connects our dinner plate to the economic welfare of our family farms. You can make a difference for Iowa farmers ..... or you can put money into the pocket of big agribusiness.
Its your choice.
Cathy
Lafrenz is a regular contributor for Blog for Iowa on the topic of
food. She serves on the board of the Quad-Cities chapter of Buy Fresh-Buy Local. She raises hens for egg production and is Animal Welfare Approved. In
her spare time she advocates for health care reform, spins yarn, and
knits every pair of socks she wears. Check out her blog, Miss Effie's Diary
Photo: Paul Coletti/Radish Magazine
Wednesday, December 9
Interview With Iowa Ag Sec Candidate Francis Thicke - Part IV
by
Jay Mattsson
on Wed 09 Dec 2009 05:00 AM CST
Interview With Iowa Ag Secretary Candidate Francis Thicke - Part IV
 by Jay Mattsson
Today
in the final segment of BFIA's exclusive interview with Francis Thicke, the candidate discusses slander campaigns, sustainable farming systems, President Obama, and more.
Click here to read Part I Part II Part III
BFIA: You do public speaking engagements around the state. What contact have you had with organizations promoting organic produce?
Thicke: There are a lot of organizations working on organic and local food systems. For example, the Practical Farmers of Iowa (PFI) began as a group to help support farmers who wanted to experiment with innovative and more sustainable farming practices. PFI has grown into a large and diverse group of farmers, researchers and consumers who cooperate in order to learn from each other. PFI sponsors an annual educational conference.
There's also an Iowa Organic Farming Conference sponsored by Iowa State University each fall. I've had the opportunity to speak at these conferences and learn from other presenters as well.
BFIA: Is that something what would be required of the Ag Secretary — to speak at different conferences?
Thicke: The Iowa Secretary of Agriculture is very often invited to speak at agricultural conferences held in Iowa. I see that as a major role of the Iowa Secretary of Agriculture: to articulate a vision for the future of Iowa agriculture, and to provide leadership to help move Iowa agriculture towards that vision.
BFIA: How often do you speak at different conferences and meetings?
Thicke: It seems like nearly once a week, or perhaps every couple of weeks, I have the opportunity to speak at a conference or other educational event.
BFIA: A while back you spoke at the Johnson County Democratic Party fundraiser. Can you tell us about that?
Thicke: As a Democratic candidate for Iowa Secretary of Agriculture I have many opportunities to speak at events sponsored by county Democratic central committees. The audiences for these meetings are generally made up of party organizers and community leaders. These meetings have provided good opportunities for me to present my positions on issues facing Iowa agriculture and get feedback from audience members.
BFIA: Speaking of Democratic candidates, the last Democratic candidate to run for Secretary of Agriculture in Iowa was Denise O’Brien, and I see that she endorsed your campaign.
Thicke: Denise and I have been friends for many years. When Denise ran in 2006, I had also been thinking about running. She called me up one night and we talked about it, and I agreed that she should run and I would support her. She nearly won the election, and probably would have if it hadn’t been for the last-minute slander campaign that was launched against her. This time, Denise has agreed to support me in whatever way she can.
BFIA: I saw you at different Democratic events — the 2nd District convention and the state convention. Tell us about your experience with the Democratic Party here in Iowa.
Thicke: In my experience in the past, working with the Iowa Legislature, I have met a number of leaders of the Democratic Party. I'm now getting to know more Democratic Party leaders and office holders around the state as I travel the campaign trail. That gives me the opportunity to hear their views on issues facing Iowa.
BFIA: Over the years, I’ve heard that some nationally-known candidates and Democratic leaders have taken tours of your dairy farm.
Thicke: We've had lots of visitors over the years. We frequently have classes tour our dairy, everything from kindergarten up through graduate school. We've had many international visitors as well. For example, we've had two delegations from the World Bank come to see our farm as part of their tour-study of sustainable farming systems. We've also had two presidential candidates come to our farm. In the fall of 2007, Joe Biden — who was a candidate for president at that time — came for a tour of our farm. I spent an hour and a half showing him the farm and discussing ag policy with him.
BFIA: What other ag policies would you like to see in Iowa?
Thicke: One thing I didn't mention was a law that was recently passed in Illinois that sets goals for more of the food eaten in Illinois to be produced in Illinois. They are starting with state-owned institutions, like hospitals and universities. One goal of the new Illinois law is to have 20% of the food purchased by state-owned institutions be grown in Illinois by 2020. That is an interesting model of how to increase local food production, which translates into economic development. We could do something similar in Iowa.
BFIA: Tell us about how well you know former State Representative John Whittaker and talk about his new position in the federal government.
Thicke: I've known John for many years. He was State Representative for my district, but he is also a farmer. Recently he was appointed as the Iowa head of USDA’s Farm Service Agency. I have always been impressed by how much John knows about agriculture and the environment. Recently I saw John at a State Technical Committee meeting, where he came to represent the Farm Service Agency. It was interesting to see him in that new capacity. I am sure he will do an excellent job in heading up the agency.
BFIA: What public figures in America really inspire you?
Thicke: I am very inspired by President Barack Obama, not only in that he is a brilliant man and great speaker, but by the way he handled himself during the election. I see that as a model. He was often attacked and criticized unfairly, and he would simply answer the attack, and show how it was unfounded, and then he would take it to a higher level.
That's what I would like to do in my campaign. I've already been attacked by the opposing party, and if the last election is any kind of a model — they pulled out a tremendous slander campaign against the last Democratic candidate for Iowa Secretary of Agriculture — I should expect more of the same. So, I'm looking to Barack Obama as a model for how to answer these kinds of lie-and-slander campaigns that will likely come down the road, if the past is any predictor of the future.
We have some major challenges ahead for Iowa agriculture. One is the escalating price of oil — that is going to have a tremendous effect on Iowa agriculture in the future. Another challenge is the effect of climate change, in particular, extreme weather events such as heavy rainfall, floods, and drought. Climatologists tell us to expect more of these extreme weather events.
But, we also have some tremendous opportunities on the horizon that we can take advantage of to help us meet coming challenges. What we need is a new vision and new leadership to meet these challenges and take advantage of emerging opportunities.
That is why I'm interested in running for Iowa Secretary of Agriculture, to have a dialogue with Iowans about these challenges and opportunities in order to create a more resilient, profitable and sustainable agriculture in Iowa.~
Jay
Mattsson, previously a Minneapolis school teacher, stayed in Iowa after
getting his MA in Professional Writing. He had experience hosting an
interview show on the radio every week for 18 months and worked as a
book editor, associate producer and freelance writer/editor before
joining a full-service audio-production company in 1998. Active in
Democratic politics, Jay was a member of the Statewide Leadership
Committee on the Obama for President Campaign.~
Visit the candidate's website thickeforagriculture.com
Wednesday, December 2
Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Candidate Francis Thicke Exclusive BFIA Interview - Part III
by
Jay Mattsson
on Wed 02 Dec 2009 05:00 AM CST
Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Candidate Francis Thicke Exclusive BFIA Interview - Part III
by Jay Mattsson
Today
in Part III of BFIA's exclusive interview, Francis Thicke discusses his
ideas for a sensible, sustainable, and profitable agriculture future for the state of Iowa.
Click here to read Part I Click here to read Part II
BFIA: Do you see any way that agriculture in Iowa can become more profitable for farmers?
Thicke: I do. One problem in agriculture today is that farmers are being precluded from much of the profitability of agriculture. For example, in hog production, the hogs are increasingly owned by corporations, and farmers are being relegated to raising the hogs on a contract basis. Fewer and fewer farmers are raising more and more hogs, and, in today’s market, farmers are in danger of having their contract payments reduced or cancelled at the whim of the corporations that own the hogs. That scenario has already played itself out in the poultry market. Today it is difficult for poultry growers to make a living and pay the mortgages on their poultry buildings under the contracts dictated to them by the corporations that own the poultry the farmers raise.
Another example is large wind turbines sited on Iowa farms. It is good that we have so much wind power generation here in Iowa, but if you look at where the wealth — created by those wind turbines — goes, not much stays with farmers or local communities. Wind is a resource, much like oil wells or mineral mines, except wind is an inexhaustible resource. When wind turbines and wind rights are owned by out-of-state companies, and when much of the electricity generated goes out of Iowa, what we are doing is allowing our wind resources to be extracted from Iowa — and farmers and local communities are not profiting as much as they could be. Meanwhile, farmers who do not own the wind turbines sited on their farms are paying full retail rates for the electricity they need to power their farms.
I am advocating for mid-sized wind turbines on farms — turbines owned by farmers — to power farms and to provide greater profitability for Iowa farms. There would be many advantages to having wind turbines on farms all across Iowa. First, farmers could power their farms with the wind blowing across their land, and the excess electricity generated would be a source of farm profit. Second, distributed wind power production from turbines on farms across Iowa would provide more constant power generation — as weather fronts move across the state — than if most wind turbines are sited in just one section of the state. Third, distributed production allows electricity from wind power to be used locally, because electricity use is also distributed across Iowa. That reduces the need for costly power transmission lines, and reduces power loss from long-distance transmission.
There are models for how this can be accomplished. Europe — and some U.S. states — are using what are called “feed-in tariffs” to fund wind turbines on farms. The way feed-in tariffs work is that power companies are required to initially pay a high rate per kilowatt for power from locally owned wind turbines that are sited on farms or other private property. For example, the rate could be 20 cents per kilowatt for the first five years. That allows the owner to pay for the capital investment in the turbine. Then, the pay rate drops to wholesale level, currently about 3.5 cents per kilowatt, and the power company is able to purchase green power at a low rate for the life of the turbine. That makes it a win-win situation for both the farmer and the power company. A combination of tax credits and feed-in tariffs would spur investment in farm-scale wind generators.
Like wind power, the current structure of ethanol production precludes Iowa farmers from much of the wealth created. Farmers produce a commodity, corn, for which ethanol plants pay a low commodity price. Where ethanol plants are owned by local farmers, the wealth created stays in the community. However, many ethanol plants are not locally owned, and some have recently been bought up by a multi-national oil refinery company, in which case the wealth created from ethanol production leaves the state.
Ideally, biofuels production should meet three criteria: First, biofuels should be made from sustainable, perennial crops that protect our natural resource base. Second, biofuel plants should be locally owned and scaled to make local ownership feasible. Third, we should develop technologies to produce biofuels that can be used to power agriculture.
A major shortcoming of the ethanol industry is that we are using our biofuel-production capacity to produce fuel for very inefficient passenger vehicles. If the goal of ethanol production is to reduce dependence on foreign oil by reducing gasoline use, we could do that much more easily by increasing the gasoline mileage of passenger vehicles. The average mileage of passenger vehicles in the U.S. is 22 mpg (if SUVs are included). If we increased that mileage by just two mpg — to 24 mpg — we would save more gallons of gasoline than all the gallons of ethanol produced in the U.S. today. And, we are using a third of the U.S. corn crop to make that ethanol. With hybrid automobiles, we have the technology to double passenger vehicle mileage, and with plug-in hybrid technology we could quadruple mileage.
BFIA: In addition to wind energy, are there any other new technologies you can tell us about?
Thicke: Yes, there are a number of next-generation biofuel technologies being developed. One that I think is pretty exciting is pyrolysis, which is a method of heating biomass (any plant materials) to high temperature in the absence of oxygen, producing gaseous and liquid fuels, which can be converted to gasoline and diesel fuel. Studies at Iowa State University show that pyrolysis can be done on a farm scale. Imagine, if we could produce biofuels on farms across Iowa, we could power our farms with fuel produced on the farm, avoiding the ever-growing costs of fuel from imported oil. Another great plus for pyrolysis is that perennial crops — such as prairie plants — that are more protective of our natural resource base can be used as feedstocks for pyrolysis.
Granted, the technologies for pyrolysis — and several other very promising renewable energy systems — are still in development, but it is these kinds of sustainable systems, which are suitable to local scale and local ownership, that we should be investing in so their development will be accelerated.
BFIA: A few years ago, Iowa started instituting the Iowa brand label on organic produce. Companies talk about “branding” their products in marketing terms. Is there a way for the Ag Secretary to “brand” Iowa in the eyes of the world and how would you like the world to see the Iowa “brand?”
Thicke: That is something we could do. It is parallel to the idea of Country Of Origin Labeling (COOL) which is a national program provided for by federal law. Under COOL, foods that are produced here in the U.S. are labeled as such, so people who wish to can buy U.S.-produced foods. The same could be the case with Iowa branded foods. The Buy Fresh, Buy Local campaign is another approach being used here in Iowa to promote locally grown food.
More local food production would be a plus for economic development in rural Iowa. We eat about 8 billion dollars worth of food in Iowa every year, but estimates are that 80% of what we eat comes from out of state — which is astounding for an agricultural state like Iowa. But it means there are tremendous economic development opportunities out there for Iowa farmers to grow more of that food right here in Iowa.
The most recent agriculture census found that during the years 2002 to 2007 the number of small farms in Iowa increased by 4,000. It's pretty amazing that we have more small farms in Iowa now than in the past. No doubt, a lot of these small farms either already produce some food for local communities or they could be well situated for doing so.
And if you combine the statistics on new small farms with data from the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, which found there are 64 grassroots organizations in Iowa that are working on local food production and marketing, it appears that we have the beginnings of an infrastructure in Iowa to grow more of our food locally.
Demand for locally produced food is growing. Consumers are looking for fresher and more nutritious foods. They are also increasingly concerned about food safety, and have more confidence in food safety if they know where their food came from. Even the U.S. Department of Agriculture has a new initiative called "Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food" which encourages expansion of local food production.
I think we need more coordination to accelerate the development of local food systems in Iowa. As you mentioned earlier, I have served on the Iowa Food Policy Council. That council was created by Governor Vilsack, but it has become less active in recent years. If I am elected Iowa Secretary of Agriculture, I will revive the Food Policy Council and provide a home for it in the Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship. The primary charge I will give the Food Policy Council is to make recommendations for how we can increase local food production in Iowa in order to foster economic development, improve the health of Iowa citizens, and increase biodiversity on Iowa’s landscape.
Jay
Mattsson, previously a Minneapolis school teacher, stayed in Iowa after
getting his MA in Professional Writing. He had experience hosting an
interview show on the radio every week for 18 months and worked as a
book editor, associate producer and freelance writer/editor before
joining a full-service audio-production company in 1998. Active in
Democratic politics, Jay was a member of the Statewide Leadership
Committee on the Obama for President Campaign.~
Check back next Wednesday for the final segment of BFIA's exclusive interview with Francis Thicke. Visit the candidate's website thickeforagriculture.com
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