NYSERDA Grant to Help Adirondack Residents, Businesses and Communities
August 10, 2010 - The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), a public benefit corporation, has awarded an “Energy $martSM Communities Program” grant to a Cornell Cooperative Extension of Jefferson County. The purpose of the program is to help residents, businesses and communities in a ten county Adirondack North Country region to take better advantage of NYSERDA’s numerous and diverse energy programs.
The Program will be carried out in partnership with the Adirondack North Country Association (ANCA), the Council for International Trade, Technology, Education and Communication (CITEC), and the Cornell Cooperative Extension Associations in Lewis, Herkimer, Hamilton, Warren, Washington, Essex, Clinton, Franklin, and St. Lawrence Counties. This partnership will provide energy education, outreach services and clean energy business development through implementation of NYSERDA’s New York Energy $martSM Communities Program within the ten North Country counties.
Richard Halpin, Executive Director of Cornell Cooperative Extension of Jefferson County, stated that “the strength of our proposed project design, and why I believe it received NYSERDA funding, lies in the collaborative approach championed by the partnering organizations that are well positioned to efficiently and effectively extend energy expertise and funding opportunities to the local level where they are needed most. With Cornell Cooperative Extension leading the way, and the contributions of ANCA and CITEC, the entire North Country will realize tremendous benefit from this collaborative effort.”
Steve Erman, President of ANCA, called the grant award “an important opportunity for ANCA to further support community and economic development efforts in the Adirondack North Country.” “Our partnership with Cornell Cooperative Extension and CITEC to deliver NYSERDA programs in the region will help to improve quality-of- life in our communities and enhance the region’s economy.”
Arnie Talgo, an ANCA Director who recently retired from New York Power Authority, added that “the development and implementation of programs to advance energy efficiency as well as investments in the generation and delivery of clean power in the North Country is essential to building economic vitality and positioning our region for the future.” “Through the education and outreach initiatives made possible by this new grant, ANCA can help build strong grass-roots interest in energy improvements.”
The funded project design includes overall coordination and administration of the program by Cooperative Extension from its Jefferson County office, while regional coordinators working out of ANCA, CITEC and County Extension offices will be deployed to oversee and support local delivery of NYSERDA programs and services by trained energy specialists based in the region’s more densely populated rural communities. Together, all staff working to implement the grant will be positioned to help communities in specific ways tailored to individual resident, business, and community energy needs.
Kate Fish, ANCA’s Executive Director, confirmed that her group brings to the effort “a wealth of experience and knowledge concerning community economic and development needs, particularly regarding the important role energy plays in the business of everyday life.” “Improving the efficiency of our infrastructure to include buildings, appliances and businesses, reducing our dependence on imported energy, and deploying more regional resources to serve our energy needs will create jobs, save our communities money and help build more resilience into our local economies.” “In the Adirondacks alone, we spend over a $1 billion dollars a year on energy costs. Even a 15% improvement in efficiency would save the region $150 million dollars a year,” Fish said.
CITEC’s Executive Director, William Murray expanded his partnering colleagues’ views. He said that ANCA and CCE each bring their own particular strengths to the NYSERDA mission in ways that fit well with CITEC’s long-standing involvement and documented success in helping bring forward sound technological solutions to critical societal issues. “While technology is never the only solution to business and community problems, Murray said, it almost always is an essential part of arriving at real progress. This especially is the case in the energy arena.”
Several services that will be made available to residents, businesses, and communities through the Energy $martSM Communities program stand out and underscore the importance of collaboration to achieve desired results. Energy coordinators, for example, will help communities by:
• Matching energy project needs with the available NYSERDA funding opportunities and other economic development resources.
• Creating partnerships to encourage the development and implementation of local energy projects.
• Educating home owners, community leaders, business owners, and the general public on the benefits of energy efficiency and renewable resources.
• Providing assistance to energy-related businesses and entrepreneurs through initiatives that increase awareness of local and NYSERDA business assistance services available to early-stage, clean-energy businesses.
• Building support for energy-efficiency and renewable energy projects by providing energy education forums to help achieve the energy savings necessary for successful development efforts.
• Helping organizations and businesses build opportunities and create jobs by providing access to job training and recruitment opportunities for local business partners.
• Building a network of local organizations and agencies that contribute to urban, suburban, and rural understanding of your project and its energy benefit to the community.
Additional information about the New York State Energy $martSM Communities Program and other NYSERDA programs, resources, activities and events may be found at www.NYSERDA.ORG.
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For follow up information contact:
Richard Halpin
Cornell Cooperative Extension of Jefferson County
rlh44@cornell.edu
315-788-8450, ext. 233
Kate Fish
Adirondack North Country Association
518-891-6200
William Murray, P.E.
CITEC, Inc.
315-268-3778 x29
ANCA Launches Newest Scenic Byway Project in St. Lawrence, Franklin and Clinton Counties
August 12, 2010 — The Adirondack North Country Association (ANCA) is launching its newest Scenic Byway project for the 84-mile Military Trail that will benefit communities along the highways linking Rouses Point, NY and Massena, NY. This is the eighth Scenic Byway in the region that ANCA has developed.
Fuller Communications of Malone, NY has entered into a contract with ANCA to prepare a Corridor Management Plan (CMP) to define the future of the Military Trail Scenic Byway based on direct input from people who live along the route. “Fuller Communications (Fuller) is pleased to be awarded this task,” said Susan Fuller, President of the firm. “We look forward to meeting the leaders in each of the communities along the route through Malone, as well as those communities along the proposed loop via Potsdam,” she added. This assignment continues Fuller’s contributions to the Scenic Byways network throughout the Adirondack region.
Recreation, tourism, transportation safety, marketing, promotions, resource interpretation and stewardship needs and opportunities will be reviewed. A comprehensive inventory will be prepared of historic, cultural, recreational, and natural resources located in the towns and villages across the project region in the three northernmost counties of New York State.
Local community leaders will be contacted in coming weeks by Fuller to begin the preparation of the CMP that will address issues including: assessment of the byway’s current conditions; goals for the byway; concrete objectives, strategic actions, responsible parties, and timelines needed to achieve those goals. Government leaders, business owners, civic groups, residents, tourism offices, Chambers of Commerce, State agencies, regional planning offices, and other interested parties will be invited to participate.
The Military Trail Corridor Management Plan project is made possible with grant funding from the New York State Department of Transportation through the National Scenic Byway Program and the Transportation Equity Act of the 21st Century. The draft plan will be presented to the New York State Department of Transportation for review and upon approval will enable the Byway communities in St. Lawrence, Franklin and Clinton Counties to access Federal and State program dollars to support marketing and tourism efforts that encourage new, repeat, and extended visitation.
New York State’s Scenic Byways bring tourism dollars to communities along travel routes throughout the Adirondack North Country. The Military Trail Scenic Byway Corridor Management Plan project creates opportunities for lodging, restaurant, and attraction owners, local producers of arts, crafts, foods, gas station proprietors, outdoor sporting goods stores, guide services and others. ANCA invites all interested residents and groups to notify our office to request placement on the project contact list.
Visit www.adirondack.org to learn more about the ANCA’s commitment to empowering communities and localizing economies in the Adirondack North Country. Visit www.adirondackscenicbyways.org to see how ANCA promotes Scenic Byway communities and the region’s special resources to the growing market of tourists who prefer to do their travel planning online.
# # #
Contact: Sharon O’Brien, ANCA Byway Program Coordinator
sobrien@adirondack.org, 518-891-6200
Is there really common ground in the Adirondacks?
July 15th, 2010 by Brian Mann
There’s a reason why historian and part-time Long Lake resident Phil Terrie called his history of the Adirondacks “Contested Terrain.”
For a couple of centuries now, people have seen the Adirondacks through very different lenses: as a storehouse of rich natural resources, as a free land far from the hassles of civilization and government, and as a glorious nature preserve…
Individuals, agencies work to secure region’s economic future
New state jobs program not expected to help the Adirondack Region
Excerpts from article:
Between 2011 and 2015 Empire State Development (ESD) plans to provide $250 million in tax credits to firms in their new Excelsior program. The program offers incentives in “targeted industries” that create and maintain new jobs or make significant financial investments. The “targeted” fields include biotechnology, nanotechnology, manufacturing, financial services and green technology.
Dennis Mullen, ESD chairman, says the above “likely won’t do much for this area. But the ESD has other tools to help companies in this area, including a small business $50 million small business revolving loan fund announced this month (July 2010) by Gov. David Paterson, economic development fund and other things that we have will continue to help these communities.” Article By CHRIS KNIGHT, Adirondack Daily Enterprise Senior Staff Writer, July 24th, 2010.
Groups focus on jobs in the Adirondacks
Excerpts from article:
Jeff Allott is a cofounder and president of General Composites now located in Willsboro. He sees General Composites as a model for other businessess in the Adirondack Park. He believes others like it can succeed in the North Country.
“We are a niche, high technology company focusing on aerospace and medical devices. All sorts of these rural opportunities are happening nationally and internationally,” he said, adding that broadband and the Internet have made this possible. Article by ALISON HAIN Contributing Writer, Press Republican, July 18, 2010
News for and about the Artisans and Retailers of the Region
ANCA’s crafts program coordinator has been writing
News for and about the Artisans and Retailers of the Region since 2003.
Upcoming Forum on Invasive Species August 10 – 11
Hello community members on the Adirondack Trail Scenic Byway,
The Adirondack North Country Association (ANCA) has partnered with The Adirondack Chapter of the Nature Conservancy on two byway grant projects to protect the natural resources that draw visitors to our region and that make our area a great place to live. We would like to make you aware of a great opportunity in August for you to learn more about how to stop the spread of invasive species. We are sharing the press release below for your information and encourage you to attend the upcoming Forum on Invasive Species.
Sharon O’Brien, Program Coordinator,
ANCA, 67 Main Street Suite 210, Saranac Lake, NY 12983
518-891-6200 ext 15
www.adirondackscenicbyways.org
______________________________________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release
Contact: Hilary Smith, Director
Adirondack Park Invasive Plant Program c/o Adirondack Chapter of The Nature Conservancy
Phone: 518-576-2082 x 131
Adirondack Forum Will Take Aim at Invasive Species
Registration is now open for a free Adirondack Forum on Invasive Species. The Forum, a one-and-a-half day event, will be held August 10-11 at Paul Smith’s College. You will learn how you and your community can be prepared for harmful invasive species invading Adirondack lands and waters.
Partners of the Adirondack Partnership for Regional Invasive Species Management have organized the Forum to give citizens, community groups, members of governmental and nongovernmental organizations, resource managers, and elected officials from across the region an opportunity to discuss invasive species. The Forum will highlight initiatives underway in the region; showcase local successes and challenges as told by community members; feature up-to-date information about new invasive species; and identify important next steps that groups must collectively take to have a real and lasting impact on this challenging environmental and economic issue.
The Forum’s theme centers on the need to consider all types of invasive species – plants and animals in both aquatic and terrestrial settings – and on ways in which communities can be prepared to address them. Invasive species are a top threat to lands and waters, to favorite outdoor pastimes and cherished traditions, and to forestry, fisheries, and agriculture upon which local economies rely. Some species, like purple loosestrife, have been in New York for hundreds of years, but others, like emerald ash borer, arrived only recently. The explosion in the expansion of species and the rate of new arrivals is alarming and cause for concern.
Each year a greater number of communities are faced with tough decisions about invasive species. In response, groups in the Adirondack region banded together over a decade ago to take aim at this pressing problem. They work together to halt the invasion by focusing on prevention and management. A great deal has been accomplished, but much more has yet to be done.
The Forum is free, and participants may register for all or part of the event. Information about registration, lodging and meals and a draft program are available online at http://adkinvasives.com/Forum.html. The deadline to register is July 28. For more information, contact Hilary Smith at the Adirondack Park Invasive Plant Program, 518-576-2082 or hsmith@tnc.org.
Hilary Smith, Director, Adirondack Park Invasive Plant Program
The Nature Conservancy – Adirondack Chapter
PO Box 65, Keene Valley, New York 12943
518-576-2082 x 131 (tel), 518-576-4203 (fax)
hsmith@tnc.org, www.adkinvasives.com
Adirondack Invasive Species Awareness Week, July 11 – 17, 2010, Regionwide
Adirondack Forum on Invasive Species, August 10 – 11, 2010, Paul Smiths, NY
Eating Local Yet? Conference
Local Lard? Probiotics from Homemade Sauerkraut? Preserving the Nutrients from NNY-Grown Foods?
Learn How to Improve Your Nutrition Using Local Foods May 6, 7 or 8 in Plattsburgh, Canton or Watertown
Plattsburgh, Canton, Watertown, NY — Did you know cooking with the lard rendered from local grass-raised pork can provide a good source of vitamin D and healthy fatty acids? Want to add probiotics to your diet – how about making your own sauerkraut? Need a good food-based source of calcium or nutrients to help your joints?
Nutritionist Martha V. Pickard will offer the answers to these questions at three “Are You Eating Local Yet?” events set for:
- Thursday, May 6, 5:30-8:30pm, Plattsburgh High School, Rugar St, Plattsburgh, NY
- Friday, May 7, 5:30-8:30pm, Eben Holden Hall, St. Lawrence University, Canton, NY
- Saturday, May 8, 10am-3:30pm, Case Junior High School, Watertown, NY.
Pickard says, “It’s time to re-learn what our grandparents already knew. Food grown close to home and properly prepared can create vibrant health for our families.”
Pickard is an American College of Nutrition Certified Nutrition Specialist and holds a Master’s degree in Human Nutrition from the University of Bridgeport in Bridgeport, CT. She is also a grazing specialist with the Adirondack North Country Association, Saranac Lake, NY.
“I am excited to talk about budget – conscious ways to enhance the nutritional value of local foods and incorporate them in everyday meals even with a hectic schedule,” Pickard says
The “Are You Eating Local Yet?” agenda also includes presentations by Northern New York farmers, chefs, and Jennifer L. Wilkins, creator of the first regional food guide in the U.S.
For more information, contact Cornell Cooperative Extension Clinton County: 518-561-7450; St. Lawrence County: 315-379-9192; or Jefferson County: 315-788-8450. #
Is it possible for animals and people to live together sustainably? Is it possible for them not to? By Shannon Hayes
Shannon Hayes is the author of Radical Homemakers, The Grassfed Gourmet and The Farmer and the Grill. She is the host of grassfedcooking.com and radicalhomemakers.com. Hayes works with her family on Sap Bush Hollow Farm in Upstate New York.
Last month I released a new book, Radical Homemakers: Reclaiming Domesticity from a Consumer Culture. The result of three years of obsessive research, the book is something of a manifesto for a movement of Americans who believe that a household can survive – thrive, in fact – on a single income or less; they can live happily and equitably, influence social and ecological change, and minimize their reliance on a consumer culture by reviving their domestic skills and redefining what constitutes “having enough.” The people profiled in the book were single and married; with children and without; rural, urban and suburban; vegetarians and omnivores.
While the book has received a delightfully warm reception, that last description – omnivore – has raised the eyebrows of a few folks, particularly when they consider my personal and professional background. It involves a lot of meat. My family raises and processes our livestock. I have written two books about cooking sustainable meats. I maintain grassfedcooking.com to answer people’s questions about working with local livestock farms and purveyors of local meats. I’ve achieved some regional notoriety, if not for my writing, then for my artisanal sausages. Every Saturday from Mid-May through Mid-October, I can be found at a farmers’ market in the Catskill Mountains, standing beside my husband, selling my family’s meats.
Not surprising, then, that since the book’s release, a common question I have been asked regarding sustainable living is, to paraphrase: I agree with your premise that Radical Homemaking is possible and important. But, really, do you honestly think animals and people can live together sustainably?
Anyone who has ever leaned their cheek against the side of a dairy cow, breathing in her sweet scent while squeezing her milk into a pail; who has watched a crowd of spring lambs prance across pasture, punctuating their dance with spontaneous four-footed leaps; who has witnessed the amazing fertility of a manure-nourished garden, who has wiped grease off her chin after secretly feasting on cracklings before presenting a fresh roasted leg of pork to the family at Easter dinner; who has reached under a hen and found a warm fresh egg after delivering a bowl of kitchen scraps to the flock — might ask a different question: Is there any sustainable way that humans and animals could not live together?
Meat as a Community Affair
Historically, in my community, humans and livestock have been nearly inseparable. West Fulton, NY is a series of frosty hollows surrounded by forested hills and rocky, steep pasture lands. When agricultural industrialization swept through the country, our small fields and pitched slopes made machine cultivation not only problematic, but treacherous. A previous owner of our own farm was killed by a tractor rollover decades ago – a not uncommon death for earlier generations around here. But even when local farms were deemed “non-viable” decades ago by agricultural officials who saw the ground couldn’t be adapted to big technology (the eleven months of frost didn’t help), many of them stayed in production. And although most incomes were well below the poverty line, people in West Fulton could feed themselves by maintaining hand-cultivated vegetable patches and small herds of livestock. Cattle, sheep, chickens, goats and pigs were well adapted to our landscape and trying climate. And they could produce food on fields that never saw a plow.
In an era that faces fossil fuel shortages, climate change concerns, swelling population, food security problems and economic hardships, the symbiosis between animals and humans becomes even more important to understand.
Ruminants and the Environment
The consumption of meat has come under ecological scrutiny on a variety of fronts, from resource efficiency to water pollution to global warming. Livestock, particularly ruminant animals, like cattle and sheep, play a critical role in all of these current global problems. Managed improperly, as we’ve seen, they are a big part of the problem; but stewarded properly, they can be a big part of the solution.
For at least three decades, the use of these animals as a food source has been criticized by some as a ruinous misuse of cropland, because ruminants are not efficient animals to raise on grain. In animal science, the calculated ratio of the amount of grain an animal requires to gain a pound of weight is called the conversion factor. When grain is fed to fish, the conversion ratio is about 1.25 to 1; for every 1 ¼ pounds of grain product fed to a fish, there is a pound of weight gain. The conversion ratio for chicken is 2 pounds of feed per pound of gain on the bird. Pork requires 4 pounds per pound of gain. And when ruminants enter the equation, it skyrockets: estimates may vary, but generally lambs require 8 pounds of feed for a pound of weight gain, and beef requires 9 pounds of feed per pound of gain.
When assessed by this principle alone, red meat does presenta serious ecological problem. Grain production is extremely taxing on the environment, particularly when considering use of the chemical fertilizers and pesticides, soil degradation, nitrous oxide emissions, and the fossil fuel-intensive mechanized farming and transport. In this paradigm, a lot more people could be nourished with that grain if it weren’t being dumped into livestock first.
But there is a problem with relying solely on this equation to evaluate the efficacy of meat production: ruminants are not designed to eat grain. By the nature of their digestive systems, sheep and cattle thrive best on lands suited to grow only pasture. They can even convert crop waste, such as corn stalks, into food. Industrialized agriculture relies on grain-feeding, not because the animals require it (in fact, it is harmful to their health), but only because it makes cattle gain weight uniformly faster. In short, raised on properly managed pastures, ruminants don’t compete with humans for grain-producing acreage, and in turn, they supply us with bountiful nutrients, and leave the earth better for having walked upon it. Out on intensively-managed pasture, they have been shown to restore vegetative cover, increase biodiversity, and to improve soil fertility, thereby making our fields more resistant to both drought and flood. Seen from this viewpoint, grassfed ruminants are arguably the most efficient way to convert sunlight and water to quality protein.
Interestingly, one of the latest concerns about ruminant livestock production has been methane emissions. Enteric fermentation, the fermentation of forage in the rumen, is a natural part of the digestion process for ruminant animals. Because their diet is naturally high in roughage, grassfed animals will belch more than their factory-farmed counterparts (the process is unnaturally suppressed in factory farming due to a coating of slime that grain-feeding causes in the rumen). This belching has generated some negative publicity for ruminants, which is unfortunate (and incredible!), since they and their ancestors have been roaming the earth for tens of thousands of years, long before there was a methane problem. Undoubtedly, there are other sources of methane that are more serious culprits to contend with: oil, coal and gas consumption and landfills being some of the more salient. On her website eatwild.com, Jo Robinson reports on research that was conducted by Dr. Rita Schenck at the Institute for Environmental Research and Education which shows that, when we account for the carbon sequestration resulting from grazing animals (where well-managed pastures pull excess carbon from the atmosphere), even with increased enteric fermentation, there is still a net reduction in greenhouse gases. Interestingly, researchers also now suspect that the great spike in atmospheric methane concentrations in 2007 is a result of thawing permafrost in the artic. These scientists speculate that one way to slow the melting of permafrost is to re-introduce herds of herbivorous animals to the region. “Snow is like a down jacket that keeps the ground warm,” says University of Alaska-Fairbanks researcher Katey Walter, in an interview with Scientific American, “As the activity of animals compresses the snow or removes it through their foraging, the cold winter temperatures can penetrate deeper into the ground and keep the permafrost frozen”.
Pigs and Chickens: Omnivores and the Sustainable Household
While they don’t forage the same way as ruminants, omnivorous animals, like pigs and chickens, can also play a part in regaining global sustainability. Raised in concentrated factory farm settings, these animals require large amounts of grain to be processed and trucked in, that could be more efficiently fed directly to people. Kept in these horrific densities, their accumulated wastes are also a potent source of pollution. But dispersed on small farms and backyard or urban farm settings, these animals have a greater purpose. Their grain requirements are minimized because they forage and recycle human food waste and turn it into more food. The backyard pig is a common phenomenon in rural communities all over the world. Allowed controlled foraging, the pig will eat mast like fallen nuts and acorns, dropped apples, insects, tuberous weedy plants and household food scraps. In exchange, they yield meat, skin for cracklings, bones for stocks, and lard for cooking and soap making. Chickens perform similarly, if on a smaller scale. The backyard hen magically converts household food scraps into eggs. Later, when her egg-laying begins to fail, she adds sustenance to the soup pot. Both animals produce nutrient-rich manure, which then invigorate household gardens, the surplus of which (along with some protein) then goes back into the livestock. These animals help us to round out our household and local ecosystems, enabling us to constantly regenerate nutrition on a local scale without having to draw excessively on fossil fuels to provide commodity grain.
The Union of Life and Death
While I hope the above points will reassure the human omnivore eager for a pasture-raised pork chop or some free-range eggs and hash, I suspect they might ring hollow to those who are averse to the killing of animals for meat – period.
Any vegetarian who has ever challenged face to face the morality of a livestock farmer (especially one in the sustainability movement) can probably report receiving a touchy and defensive retort. This is because – contradictory as it might seem – we choose this because we like animals – not because we enjoy killing them or see slaughter as a means to a profitable end.
Sadly, those of us who make our lives farming have become a national cultural anomaly. From my own view from my family’s land, it seems that mainstream American Culture harbors incongruous ideas about life and death. The culture has a quirky tendency toward adulation of life, and abhorrence of death. When daily life is directly tied to the ebbs and flows of nature, as they are in agriculture, one cannot help but observe that life and death are forever in service to one another. We cannot have one without the other. We nurture the newborn livestock, and we process the ones that are ready for market. We harvest one crop, we plant seeds for another.
All beings, whether human or other-than-human, have an inherent right to a natural existence in the world, and each has a way to contribute to the welfare of the greater whole. Inevitably, a time will come when every life must give way to sustain balance on the earth. On the farm, there is an understanding that nothing we eat to sustain ourselves comes without the sacrifice from another living being, be it animal, plant or microorganism. Thus, we take all food, whether it is a hamburger, a pork chop, a carrot, a spoonful of yogurt or a slice of an apple, in moderation and gratitude. Nothing is eaten without an understanding of the sacred life and spirit that created the nourishment, and the ecosystem that was required to sustain it.
I understand that there are many vegetarians out there who will disagree with me. Our divergences are a necessary, important tension. Conscientious eaters long before the locavore movement, vegetarians can be thanked for helping draw attention to the ecological havoc and travesties to animal welfare that have come to define our conventional livestock production system. Their criticisms and questions have also assisted small family farms, like my own, to devise ways to improve our practices and to reflect deeply upon the nature of our work. When it comes to the livelihood professed in Radical Homemakers, the lessons taught by vegetarians have entered my own kitchen. Meat will always be a part of my life, but I believe that it should not be taken in the extreme and wasteful way our culture has defined as acceptable. We cannot produce such tremendous volumes of meat sustainably, and wasteful and nonchalant consumer habits fail to honor the sacrifice of the animals’ lives.
I understand that no amount of explanation of the hows and whys of grassfed livestock production will convince the person who is opposed to killing animals that eating meat is okay. Unless they or someone they love manifests a nutritional need that can only be met by animal proteins, they may never cross that philosophical divide. Life on my family’s farm and in my own household is informed by and is reflective of the concerns of such folks; I remain thankful that those perspectives and questions continue to come forward. But to answer the question: Can animals and humans sustainably live together? My personal vote is “yes.”
Shannon Hayes wrote this article for YES! Magazine, a national, nonprofit media organization that fuses powerful ideas with practical actions.
Local Grazing Farm Achieves Top Ranking for Milk Quality in NYS
Peter Slaunwhite, PRM Horizon Organic presents Doug Donahue and Heather Donahue of Donahue Family Farm, Horizon’s 2009 Quality Milk Producer award. The Donahue’s farm achieved #1 Ranking for NY State.
ANCA staff have worked closely with the Donahue farm by providing technical assistance with their grazing plan. Heather Donahue is the co-president of the ANCA facilitated grass Farmer-to Farmer networking group, The Northern NY Farmer’s Partnership.
Doug and Heather Donahue of Donahue Family Farm in Gouverneur, NY achieved top ranking for Milk Quality in New York State for Horizon producers. The award was presented on March 3, 2009 at Horizon Organic’s Annual Producer Meeting in Canton, NY. Peter Slaunwhite, the area Producer Relations Manager for Horizon, stated how pleased he was with the quality of milk that is produced in the North Country. Of the 18 NY dairies that received Horizon’s Quality Milk awards this year, 15 of them are in Slaunwhite’s producer group, which includes the North Country.
“We have spent the last 5 five years building our dairy from the ground up. Producing quality milk has always been our goal and achieving #1 ranking for NY State Horizon producers is very encouraging.” said Heather Donahue
The Donahues began their 50 cow organic dairy with their daughters, Emily and Erin, in 2006. In addition to producing organic milk for Horizon, they have a NYS Raw Milk License which enables them to sell raw milk directly to consumers at the farm. The farm also produces beef, pork and eggs.
For further information please contact:
Heather Donahue
277 Stevens Rd
Gouverneur, NY 13642
(315)287-2296