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Students Get Involved in School Lunch through School Lunch Advisory Councils

There are many ways Team Nutrition schools are involving students in the development of school meal menus and health promotion activities. These activities can help schools offer nutritious foods in a manner that appeals to children and can help students learn about nutrition and school foodservice. This guest blog highlights promising strategies for involving students in school meals through the use of School Lunch Advisory Councils. It also describes how Montana students are playing a role in helping their schools implement Smarter Lunchrooms techniques to reduce food waste and increase consumption of healthful foods.

Interested in implementing Smarter Lunchrooms techniques at your school? Get started with this free self-assessment checklist from the Cornell Center for Behavioral Economics in Child Nutrition Program. Team Nutrition provides nutrition education materials, training tools, and grants to assist schools in creating healthier environments. Learn more about Team Nutrition and how to become a Team Nutrition school at http://www.fns.usda.gov/tn/team-nutrition.

Park High School uses creative signage to encourage students to eat fruit.

By Katie Bark, RDN, LN, SNS and Molly Stenberg, RDN, LN, Assistant Project Director, Montana Team Nutrition, Montana State University

Food service directors from Montana middle and high schools are enticing teens to choose more fruits and vegetables at school lunch through the use of School Lunch Advisory Councils (SLACs). A SLAC is composed of a food service director, an educator, and two to three students that work together toward a goal of implementing simple, low-cost strategies to encourage students to make healthier choices in the cafeteria. Staff from Montana Team Nutrition and the Montana State University Food and Health Lab work with school SLACs to apply Smarter Lunchrooms techniques in the cafeteria.

For example, students from Park High School’s SLAC in Livingston created signage for the school cafeteria to promote fruit selection. This included a life-size poster of the basketball coach giving out an apple with the caption “Got fruit? Tastes almost as good as victory.” Following the use of the creative signage, repositioning the salad bar, and training food service staff, student consumption of salad bar items doubled, salad bar waste decreased by 40 percent, and overall lunch waste decreased by 35 percent.

SLAC students at Kalispell Middle School helped redesign their cafeteria by moving the salad bar to allow for better access and increased convenience. This simple change increased the number of students making selections from the salad bar by 50 percent.

Interested in starting a SLAC in your school? Here are some words of wisdom from Montana school champions for successful student engagement:

Ask teachers, school counselors, or administrators to nominate specific students for the SLAC
Consider offering students an incentive for their participation (e.g., extra credit)
Schedule SLAC meetings before school or during the lunch hour
Schedule activities during the fall semester rather than the spring semester
Make the SLAC a school club or a project of an existing club (Family, Career and Community Leaders of America) to help make it sustainable
Have students complete a specific task, like before and after photos, completing sections of the Smarter Lunchrooms Self-Assessment Scorecard, collecting surveys, or creating names for menu items

For more information on Smarter Lunchrooms in Montana schools, visit our Smarter Lunchroom Web site.

Flooding: A Checklist for Small and Very Small Meat, Poultry and Egg Inspection Processing Plants

Flooded out roads in Cass County, North Dakota.

Rivers rise. The ground is saturated. Levees fail. Floods happen, and they happen beside rivers, along the coasts, in deserts and in city streets. Flooding might be a fact of nature but that does not mean you have to lose your business and possessions to flood waters.

It is never too early to prepare. Because September is National Preparedness Month, it is a good time to think about emergency planning. Don’t Wait. Communicate. Make an Emergency Communication Plan.

That is why the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) developed the “Flooding: A Checklist for Small and Very Small Meat, Poultry and Egg Inspection Processing Plants.” This brochure has simple and inexpensive steps that you can take right now to protect your business and employees from disaster.

Every state is at risk from a flood and it is critical that every plant is aware of flood hazards no matter where they are located. It is especially vital if your business is in a low-lying area, near water or downstream from a dam.

This brochure covers what you can do to prepare for a flood, respond to a flood that has occurred and the steps your business can take to begin the recovery process if the worst happens.

Every page is filled with steps you can take to prepare your facilities and employees, and the products your plant produces. The flooding brochure is available on the web at http://www.fsis.usda.gov/wps/wcm/connect/5ac6e4ee-7850-4366-8010-c146c6d56f52/Flooding_Brochure.pdf?MOD=AJPERES.

Flooding can happen at any time of the year and it is important that your business be prepared and ready to handle the event. Once the flood waters start rising, it is far too late to take action.

New Allowances for Including a “Non-GMO” Statement on Certified Organic Meat and Poultry Products

New procedures by USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service allows certified organic meat and poultry producers to obtain approval of non-GMO label claims based on their organic certification.

Organic meat and poultry producers can now use a streamlined process to get approval for labels verifying that their products do not include genetically engineered (GE) ingredients. These products may also now use a “Non-GMO” label claim. Because of this, we’re updating a previous blog from our “Organic 101” series.

In 2014, USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) streamlined procedures for including a “non-genetically engineered” statement on the label of organic meat and poultry products. This continues to be consistent with organic regulations, which have always prohibited the use of GE in all organic products. Today, FSIS is adding further process improvements and labeling flexibilities, in light of recently passed legislation. Many organic stakeholders have expressed an interest in using “Non-GMO” label claims to clearly communicate to consumers that organic products do not contain genetically engineered ingredients, and that organic animals were not fed genetically engineered feed.

So why the change? In a newly-passed law, the National Bioengineered Food Disclosure Act, Congress stated that organic certification is sufficient to make claims about the absence of bioengineered ingredients, such as “non-GMO.” Also, the Food and Drug Administration recently clarified its policy to accept claims that products do not contain genetically modified ingredients, including “non-GMO” statements. This lets USDA grant additional labeling flexibility to organic producers and processors. The Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS), which runs the National Organic Program and establishes organic standards, worked closely with FSIS on their updated guidance. FSIS and AMS have long shared responsibility for verifying accurate labeling of certified organic meat and poultry products.

The new procedure released by the FSIS allows certified organic meat and poultry producers to obtain approval of non-GMO label claims based on their organic certification. USDA organic regulations already require certified operations to obtain their certifier’s approval of labels that use the term “organic” or display the USDA organic seal. Now, a certified organic meat or poultry processor can modify or add a label claim to a previously approved label in accordance with the recently published guidance document entitled “Statements That Bioengineered or Genetically Modified (GM) Ingredients or Animal Feed Were not Used in Meat, Poultry, or Egg Products.” The label approval procedures may be found on the FSIS website.

Non-GMO label claims must be carefully worded so they do not confuse or mislead consumers. They may make a specific claim regarding the process that was accomplished without the use of GM materials, but they must also add a clear statement that the USDA organic regulations prohibit the use of genetic engineering in the production of organic products.

For example, the FSIS may allow an expedited label claim for an organic poultry product that states “Chicken raised on a diet containing no Genetically Engineered ingredients.”

Proper label use will be verified during normal FSIS verification inspection tasks and during routine NOP certification inspections – which occur on an annual basis for organic operations.

The expedited process will not only save time and expense for organic producers, it will enable them to more easily communicate with consumers that their products maintain organic integrity and are free of GE ingredients.

Strengthening U.S. Farm Labor through Surveys

Farmers can help ensure there is enough agricultural labor in the United States at critical times in the production cycles by taking part in the Agricultural Labor survey.

Throughout the course of the year, hired labor makes planting and harvesting of America’s farmland possible. On my family’s Illinois farm, we relied on both paid and unpaid friends and family to bring in our hay. Nearby farmers however relied on seasonal migrant labor to harvest vegetables.

Today I’m a statistician overseeing the analyses and publication of environmental, economic and demographic data on U.S. agriculture. In that role, my team produces data on farm labor that provides the basis for employment and wage estimates for all farm workers directly hired by U.S. farms. It is also used by the U.S. Department of Labor to administer the H-2A agricultural guest worker program.

The H-2A program allows farmers and ranchers to hire foreign guest workers for seasonal jobs critical to American agriculture. Agricultural labor is defined as any activity performed on a farm in connection with production of agricultural commodities. The Department of Labor relies on the data we provide to monitor labor demands in the farming sector at key points during the year. They can then make decisions related to the supply of guest workers to meet reported labor demands. And this is where our farm labor surveys comes in.

We reach out to farmers and ranchers to conduct an agricultural labor survey twice each year in April and October. In the past, we collected the data four times a year, once per quarter. Several years ago we combined the quarters and began collecting data only twice a year. With this approach, we were able to reduce both costs and demands on the survey participants, while still collecting and publishing quarterly information. Currently, the April survey collects data for a specific week in January and April, and the October survey collects data for a specific week in July and October. Data is collected for the week containing the 12^th of each month.

One of the easiest ways for farmers to help ensure there is enough agricultural labor in the United States at critical times in the production cycles is to take part in the Agricultural Labor survey. So I ask all farmers who receive the survey form in a few weeks to take the time to fill it out. Only with accurate data can farmers, ranchers, policymakers and others make decisions that help the farm businesses and strengthen U.S. agriculture.

An Inside Look: Anatomy of a Team Up Workshop

If you haven’t heard the buzz, the USDA Food and Nutrition Service’s expansion of the Team Up for School Nutrition Success initiative is in full swing, with 20 completed trainings and 14 more scheduled for 2016. Team Up offers a unique learning experience that enhances schools’ food service operations through training and peer-to-peer mentorship to school nutrition professionals looking to maintain a healthy environment and encourage strong student meal program participation.
What exactly happens at a Team Up training? Ever had an “a-ha” or a “why didn’t I think of that” moment when a friend shares a really great idea? Team Up is where “a-ha” moments are shared among school nutrition professionals and turned into action back via their school meals programs. Let’s break down a Team Up workshop to see how these “a-ha” moments transpire.

A peer mentor shares her best practices for menu planning during the Wisconsin Team Up training.

Best Practice Panel Presentations

Great ideas are meant for sharing. Team Up workshops kick off with panels where participants hear school nutrition peer mentors share their best practices and strategies for issues like increasing school meal program participation, menu planning and financial management.

At the Georgia Team Up training, participants share ideas and questions for menu planning and increasing program participation.

Breakout Sessions

This is where the magic happens! After listening to best practice presentations, participants break out into small groups for a round of brainstorming and problem-solving around each specific topic, all with best practice ideas in mind. Using the Egan Skilled Helper Model, which uses an opportunity-development approach, school nutrition peer mentors guide and facilitate discussions as participants identify their program challenges and develop solutions with their peers. During the breakout sessions, participants examine:

What is going on in my school nutrition program?
What does a better outcome look like?
How do I get to the better outcome?
How do I make it all happen?

The Action Plan

Participants examined their challenges and solutions and excitement is building around progress and potential opportunities identified during the breakout sessions. What do participants do with all of these great ideas? Peer mentors help participants put their specific strategies and solutions into an action plan using SMART goals, which are defined as goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time‐bound. Participants take their action plan home as a guide to implement their Team Up strategies and solutions in their school nutrition programs.

Resources

Operating a school meals program can be challenging, but school nutrition directors don’t have to do it alone. Team Up workshops invite allied organizations to share their free school nutrition resources that support school food service operations and help create a healthy school environment. Participants can use these resources as they move forward with implementing their action plan in their school nutrition programs.

Networking is another valuable resource Team Up workshops provide, giving school nutrition directors opportunities to develop working relationships with their peer mentors and other school nutrition directors in their state. Many directors who have attended a Team Up training have expressed that they’re not alone and can turn to their fellow director. “I can now see what areas I need to work and improve on in my program. I see that I am not alone in my journey. I have many helpful people that I can rely on for help and guidance. The Team Up training was valuable to me because I am more comfortable talking to my peers. I see I am not alone and I can ask for help.” – Rebecca Lusk, Manager/Supervisor, Towns County Schools, Hiawassee, Ga.

After the Workshop

The Team Up workshop may be complete, but the Team Up spirit lives on. After returning home, participants roll up their sleeves, take a deep breath, and take the first steps outlined in their Team Up action plan – and then real life happens. Barriers pop up as action plans are implemented, but there’s no reason to get discouraged. Team Up peer mentors and state agencies are still available should participants have questions or get stuck with their action plan. In addition, USDA together with the Institute of Child Nutrition hosts monthly webinars for school nutrition professionals to expand their knowledge and tools on a wide variety of topics; webinars recordings are made available online for later viewing.

And this is why Team Up workshops are so effective – Team Up encourages school nutrition professionals to continue to network with their peers and problem-solve school nutrition program barriers long after the workshop is completed. No one is an island, and we must team up to make school meals accessible, nutritious and delicious!

For more information about the Team Up for School Nutrition Success initiative, check out the Team Up Web site and these guest blogs authored by former participants in the Team Up workshops. For more information on other training and resources available to school nutrition professionals, visit our Healthier School Day web site.

Can a blanket violate the second law of thermodynamics?

One of the silliest arguments of climate deniers goes like this: the atmosphere with its greenhouse gases cannot warm the Earth’s surface, because it is colder than the surface. But heat always flows from warm to cold and never vice versa, as stated in the second law of thermodynamics.

The freshly baked Australian Senator Malcolm Roberts has recently phrased it thus in his maiden speech:

It is basic. The sun warms the earth’s surface. The surface, by contact, warms the moving, circulating atmosphere. That means the atmosphere cools the surface. How then can the atmosphere warm it? It cannot. That is why their computer models are wrong.

This is of course not only questions the increasing human-caused greenhouse effect, but in general our understanding of temperatures on all planets, which goes back to Joseph Fourier, who in 1824 was the first to understand the importance of the greenhouse effect.

The atmosphere acts like a blanket which inhibits heat loss. In fact according to Roberts’ logic, a blanket could also not have a warming effect:

It’s simple. The body warms the blanket. This means that the blanket cools the body. So how can the blanket warm it? It cannot!

The answer is simple. The warm body loses heat to the cold air. The blanket inhibits and slows this heat loss. Therefore you stay warmer under a blanket.

The Earth loses heat to the cold universe. The atmosphere inhibits this heat loss. Therefore, the surface remains warmer than it would be without the atmosphere.

It is true that the surface loses heat to the atmosphere – but less than it would otherwise lose directly to space. Just as I lose less heat to the blanket than I would otherwise lose to the air, without blanket.

Of course, in neither case is the second law of thermodynamics violated. The heat always flows from warm to cold – just more or less effectively. The processes of heat transfer are quite different – for the blanket it is mainly heat conduction, for the greenhouse effect it is thermal radiation. The climate deniers claim that the colder atmosphere cannot radiate thermal radiation towards the warmer surface. This is of course nonsense. The cool Earth also sends thermal radiation towards the hot sun – how would thermal radiation leaving Earth know how warm the surface is that it’s going to hit? It’s just that the sun sends more radiation back to us – the net flow is from hot to cold. More is not implied by the second law of thermodynamics.

Thanks to two Germans (Gerlich and Tscheuschner of the TU Braunscheig – deeply embarrassing for this university), the absurd claim that the greenhouse effect violates the second law of thermodynamics even made it into an obscure physics journal – obviously there was no peer review to speak of. The bizarre article was promptly demolished by some US physicists. Just recently I read the claim again in an article of coal lobbyist Lars Schernikau – with such fairy-tale beliefs of its representatives, one is not surprised by the decline of the coal industry.

The thermal radiation from the atmosphere toward the ground, which allegedly cannot exist, is of course routinely measured, including its increase (see e.g. Philipona et al. 2004, 2012).

And you can even feel it. Those who sometimes sit outside in the garden after dark know this. Under a dense, low cloud layer you do not nearly get cold as fast as on a clear starry night. This is due to the thermal radiation coming from the clouds. They are colder than our body, but warmer than the night sky in clear air.

Roberts said: “Like Socrates, I love asking questions to get to the truth.” Perhaps he will ponder my answer next time he sits in his garden at night, or slips under a blanket.

P.S.

Here is the energy balance diagram for our Earth, explained in IPCC FAQ 1.1. The “Back Radiation” makes the greenhouse effect. It is larger than the solar radiation reaching the ground, and measured by a global radiation measurement network.

References

R. Philipona, “Radiative forcing – measured at Earth’s surface – corroborate the increasing greenhouse effect”, Geophys. Res. Lett., vol. 31, 2004. http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2003GL018765

R. Philipona, A. Kräuchi, and E. Brocard, “Solar and thermal radiation profiles and radiative forcing measured through the atmosphere”, Geophys. Res. Lett., vol. 39, pp. n/a-n/a, 2012. http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2012GL052087

The 2016 Champion Trees National Register Finds the Biggest Trees in the U.S.

Washington, D.C. (September 20, 2016) — The champions have been crowned! American Forests is proud to present the 2016 Champion Trees National Register, listing the largest and most impressive trees of their kind. This year, big tree hunters from across the country found 64 new champions to add to the list of America’s giants.

With more than 750 species represented overall, the Champion Tree Register, sponsored by The Davey Tree Expert Company, has been in the making since 1940, compiling America’s largest trees and inspiring the preservation of these iconic living monuments. Old, large trees are essential to sustaining a healthy forest ecosystem, and those that are still standing are often hidden deep within wilderness or out of the public’s eye on private property. The National Register is a way to find and celebrate these remaining giants, and this year’s big tree enthusiasts were especially successful in doing so!

True to historic trends, many of 2016’s new winners are from the Pacific Northwest, with Oregon having the most new winners at 14, while Texas and Montana tied for second with nine new champions each. This year’s nominators found seven massive oaks, one of which had the widest crown of all the entries at 110 feet. Six impressive pines were also submitted and included the tallest competitor of all, a sugar pine that stretches 241 feet into the sky.

Scoring the most points of any entry, a huge Coast Douglas-fir from Oregon captured an astounding 792 points overall, putting it 10th in the ranking of largest all time champions! It also proved to be the girthiest entry, at an astonishing 444 inches in circumference.

Without further ado, see all the details, measurements and pictures of the biggest trees in America in the 2016 Champion Trees National Register.

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ABOUT AMERICAN FORESTS
American Forests restores and protects urban and rural forests. Founded in 1875, the first national nonprofit conservation organization in the country has served as a catalyst for many key milestones in the conservation movement, including the founding of the U.S. Forest Service, the national forest and national park systems as well as leading literally thousands of forest ecosystem restoration projects and public education efforts. Working in forests in all 50 states and in 45 countries, American Forests planted its 50 millionth tree last year. The impact has resulted in cleaner air and drinking water, restored habitat for wildlife and fish, and the removal of millions of tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Learn more at americanforests.org.

ABOUT THE DAVEY TREE EXPERT COMPANY
The Davey Tree Expert Company is the premiere sponsor of the National Register of Big Trees and has U.S. and Canadian operations in more than 47 states and five provinces. Davey provides a variety of tree care, grounds maintenance and consulting services for the residential, utility, commercial, and government markets. Founded in 1880, Davey has been employee owned for 35 years and has more than 7,300 employees who provide Proven Solutions for a Growing World. For more information, visit www.davey.com.

MEDIA CONTACT
Lea Sloan | Vice President of Communications | 202.370.4509 (direct) | lsloan@americanforests.org

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New Research on Climate Change Attitudes of Southern Forestry Professionals

Screen Shot 2016-09-20 at 10.27.40 AM.png Two new papers have just been published in the Journal of Forestry that explore attitudes of Southern Foresters towards climate change. The first paper entitled “Climate Change Attitudes of Southern Forestry Professionals: Outreach Implications” is designed to to enhance educators’ understanding of foresters’ climate change attitudes. Interestingly, the results of this study suggest that demographic characteristics of foresters shape climate change attitudes in ways comparable to those of the general public.

The second paper, “Nonindustrial Private Forest Landowner Beliefs Toward Climate Change and Carbon Sequestration in the Southern United States” expands the analysis to include carbon sequestration and focuses on private landowners. The study found that landowners that have a neutral opinion on climate change could provide a receptive target audience for climate change education. Both papers provide useful insight into how climate change training might be designed for these audiences.

CLN Leaders Publish Paper on Climate Change Attitudes of Southern Forestry Professionals

Screen Shot 2016-09-20 at 10.27.40 AM.png A new paper has just been published by our CLN leaders Leslie Boby, Mark Megalos and Bill Hubbard along with lead author Hilary Morris that explores the attitudes of southern forestry professionals on climate change. The paper entitled “Climate Change Attitudes of Southern Forestry Professionals: Outreach Implications” is designed to to enhance educators’ understanding of foresters’ climate change attitudes. The paper was published in the September 2016 issue of the journal of forestry and is available for download here. Interestingly, the results of this study suggest that demographic characteristics of foresters shape climate change attitudes in ways comparable to those for the general public. This will provide useful insight in designing training materials for this audience.

2016 GODAN Summit: A Large Display of USG Support for Agriculture and Nutrition Open Data

USDA Chief Scientist and Research, Education, and Economics Under Secretary Catherine Woteki (left) works with Global Open Data for Agriculture and Nutrition (GODAN) partners to make agricultural and nutritional data available, accessible, and usable for unrestricted use worldwide.

Open agriculture and nutrition data is a powerful tool for long-term sustainable development. The Global Open Data for Agriculture and Nutrition (GODAN) initiative – comprising more than 350 international organizations representing governments, donors, businesses, and not-for-profits – continues to be a leader in advocating for the adoption of open data policies. GODAN’s focus on opening agriculture and nutrition data as a mechanism to support sustainable development has the potential to solve longstanding global food security challenges.

As a founding partner of GODAN, the United States Government (USG) has implemented policy to support the creation of open data resources and provided technical support to make open data work for agriculture and nutrition—through the release of open data sets, through the development of standards that allow different types of data sets to be integrated with one another, and through the creation of new databases to house open data. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has served as the U.S. Government lead on the GODAN initiative since its creation in 2013, and has been highly involved in open data efforts.

Held on September 15-16, 2016 in New York City, the GODAN Summit was the largest open data event ever held for the agriculture and nutrition fields. As a member of the GODAN Summit Planning Committee, the USG led the planning of a wide range of activities designed to stimulate high-level dialog around the importance of open data, including: addresses from Secretary Vilsack and other Ministers, diverse presentations and exhibits from open data practitioners, an Open Data Challenge competition, and a data hackathon. During the Summit, a GODAN petition was delivered to high-level policymakers and diverse stakeholders, representing voices from around the world united together calling for continued support of open data in the fields of agriculture and nutrition. USDA also brought together GODAN partners from over 20 organizations to establish two GODAN Working Groups, driving important sessions around the fields of nutrition and precision agriculture practices at the Summit.

In addition to leading high-level policy conversations around the importance of open data at the Summit, the USDA has worked with colleagues across the Federal government to secure new open data commitments within the agriculture and nutrition fields. These open data efforts, as well as those continuously uploaded within the consolidated Federal catalog at www.data.gov/food/, are a testament to the U.S. commitment to make agriculture and nutrition data available, accessible, and usable for unrestricted use worldwide. By building capacity for the use of “big data” by all stakeholders, we can stimulate economic growth and support the farmers, scientists, consumers, and entrepreneurs who are working to solve the world’s long-term food security needs.

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