Author: Site Owner

We all have a different connection to nature. For those who have a love of outdoor adventure and spend much of their time in nature, that connection is imperative to who they are. This is the case for Chris Korbulic. Korbulic is an expedition white-water kayaker and professional photographer. He’s kayaked in some of the most remote corners of the world, including Patagonia, Africa and the Arctic. In the following interview, learn more about Korbulic’s connection to nature and the environment in which he thrives.

Q: How young were you when you first knew you wanted to push your limits outside?

A: It’s natural for kids to unconsciously push their limits, but it’s especially possible and rewarding outside. Maybe the greatest thing about spending a lot of time growing up outside was that pushing my limits was just my natural operating mentality. It’s not something I became aware of until I really learned about risk and danger, but that just made me appreciate my ability to push it outside more and try to refine those childish risk-taking tendencies into more sustainable actions.

Q: Was there a mentor or influence in your life that drew you to kayaking? If so, tell us about that person or people:

A: It has become pretty clear to me over the years how I’ve come to this lifestyle and career; my dad was a kayaker and my mom was a photojournalist. They loved being outside together, on the river and with other like-minded friends so their effect seems pretty direct on what I’ve come to appreciate and love to do. There are a lot of other inspiring people in the outdoor community who continue to draw me back to rivers and keep my perspective evolving.

Q: What is the connection for you, if any, between your adventure life and your view of the natural world?

A: For me, they are inextricably linked. Experiencing the natural world on its terms means being faced with the direct consequences of its raw power, which necessitates a deep reverence for it. That grows with every experience outside, and every challenge or failure inspires me to try more.

Q: As a photographer and blogger/adventurer, what impact do you hope your work will have on others?

A: The accumulated experiences I’ve had in the wilderness have taught me a lot, including the importance of being able to access it. I hope that sharing these experiences will encourage others to get out and have their own experiences, which will hopefully produce in them a desire to protect those wild places, too!

Q: What do you think is the most effective way to get people to care about preserving our natural world?

A: There is no substitute for first-hand experience. The more people who get outside into these natural wonders, the more people will want to preserve them.

What do adventurers, microplastics, and your national forests have in common?

Water.

Our national forests and the glaciers, lakes, and rivers running through them form the headwaters for the majority of America’s drinking water. This includes many of our big cities and growing urban centers, even those that are far away from national forests. Because of its importance, protecting clean, abundant water is a priority for the U.S. Forest Service, and thankfully, it’s a priority of a growing number of our partners.

Adventurers and Scientists for Conservation is a nonprofit organization of folks who combine their skills as elite outdoors recreationists with a passion for science and monitoring and stewardship. They are leading a study of microplastics, which are synthetic fibers that are in many common products like clothing, face washes and toothpaste, and have been found in the Gallatin River, primarily within the Custer-Gallatin National Forest and connects through Bozeman, Montana, and Yellowstone National Park.

Microplastics are really good at absorbing chemical contaminants like DDT, PCBs and other chemicals. As microplastics float along in a river, they spread these pollutants across the environment, or may deposit themselves in the sediment of waterways. Similarly, a small piece of plastic also looks like food to fish, which then becomes a part of the human food chain.

With this project, Adventurers and Scientists leaders train volunteers in a multi-year citizen science effort. The citizen scientists then collect research-grade water samples from dozens of sites across the Custer-Gallatin, and send them to research scientist Abby Barrows in her lab in Stonington, Maine to detect the presence of any microplastics.

Anyone who is interested and has the skills to access the sometimes remote forest sites can volunteer to be a citizen scientist.

I hiked into the Montana wilderness with several citizen scientists, and learned that not only is plastic being found in the middle of the ocean, but microplastics have been found in 71 percent of the samples on the Custer-Gallatin – even those deep in the secluded, backcountry areas of the Gallatin portion of the forest where there is very little human activity.

The Forest Service’s land management activities include a focus on enhancing clean water, and encouraging conservation education and involvement in citizen science. But the agency cannot manage those activities off of the forest that end up harming our forests’ health.

The Forest Service looks forward to partnering with more groups like Adventurers and Scientists, and most importantly partnering with individuals like you to help sustain our natural resources for the greatest good.

July is the height of summer grilling season, and throughout the month USDA is highlighting changes made to the U.S. food safety system over the course of this Administration. For an interactive look at USDA’s work to ensure your food is safe, visit the USDA Results project on Medium.com and read Chapter Seven: Safer Food and Greater Consumer Confidence.

From soup to nuts, we use science to help ensure the quality of agricultural products for consumers worldwide. As a Microbiologist for USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS), I am one of a small group of highly-qualified auditors that travel across the country to certify over 70 private laboratories. These labs are consistently testing to verify the quality and wholesomeness of U.S. food and agricultural products.

Our Laboratory Approval Service approves, or accredits, labs that test agricultural products in support of domestic and international trade. Our programs cover a variety of products from aflatoxin testing in peanuts and tree nuts to export verification for meat and poultry products.

Part of my job is to travel to lab to perform audits of the labs that test for aflatoxin in almonds, peanuts, and pistachio nuts. Aflatoxins are toxic metabolites produced by the molds Aspergillus flavus, Aspergillus nomius, and Aspergillus parasiticus. If present in sufficient amounts, aflatoxins are known to be carcinogenic and may cause acute toxicity, a food safety issue for both humans and animals.  Fortunately there has never been a case of aflatoxicosis in the United States.

My on-site audits ensure the laboratories performing aflatoxin analysis have proper training, good laboratory practices, quality assurance procedures, domestic and international standards, established methods and required equipment. I travel to very rural parts of the country to visit labs which voluntarily participate in the accreditation program for a set fee. Often packing a lunch is essential as I can spend a full day at a processing facility in the middle of an almond orchard with the nearest town miles away.

A fascinating part of my job is learning the wide and varied uses for the products that are being tested. Did you know that peanuts are used in sauces, gravy and soup mixes as well as snack foods? It is also amazing what I find outside the labs, like when I had to drive past acre after acre of cattle of large cattle ranches and big game ranches in Texas to reach a peanut laboratory to review their facilities. It was just one laboratory that served peanut growers and shellers in West Texas and New Mexico!

Or after a long day reviewing a peanut testing facility, I was amazed by what I discovered in down town Albany, GA – a life-size sculpture of Ray Charles in the center of the Plaza along the Flint River.  He is seated at a baby Grand piano on a rotating pedestal and at timed intervals, water flows over the pedestal and spills into a reflecting pool at its base. You get the experience of a live concert by Ray as his songs are play through speakers on the Plaza.  The sculpture is flanked on either side by a keyboard walkway with sharps and flat keys that serve as benches. But it is the people in these rural places that care, grow, transport and produce our food that make my job special.

Back in the office, my colleagues and I assess our audits, share our experiences and talk about how we are helping farmers and ranchers market their quality products here and around the world.  From farm to fork, our approach to marketing relies on science — not only to ensure product safety, quality and wholesomeness for consumers, but also to improve marketing opportunities and production efficiency for American producers.

This post is part of the Science Tuesday feature series on the USDA blog. Check back each week as we showcase stories and news from USDA’s rich science and research portfolio.

When you buy packaged foods at the grocery store, who makes sure what it says on the outside is true on the inside—whether you are reading “100 percent sweet honey” or checking the calories in a serving of nuts?

It never says so on the label, but many times the surety rests on the science of the Agricultural Research Service (ARS).

A team of ARS scientists wrote a report in 1962 that remains the definitive description of the composition and properties of honey. They had to analyze hundreds, if not thousands, of samples of honey from known locations and specific flower sources in order to record the natural variation in chemical composition. Having this reference made it possible to detect and document when honey has been counterfeited or adulterated, which refers to mixing in less expensive, inferior, and sometimes harmful substances.

It’s not easy to identify native U.S. channel catfish fillets from those of other imported fish species, especially basa and tra. Basa and tra are often incorrectly labeled as catfish by wholesalers and retail stores. So ARS developed a fast, simple field test that store buyers can use to distinguish between species, so that their customers can be assured they are putting home-grown—sustainably raised—catfish in their shopping carts.

Sometimes it’s not what, but how much? ARS does the double checking for you. Recently, ARS physiologist David Baer was part of a team of scientists that documented the fact that some nuts have fewer calories than standard tables indicated—especially almonds and walnuts—making the information reported on nutrition labels too high. They discovered that walnuts have 21 percent fewer calories than previously thought, so a typical 28-gram serving contains 146 calories, rather than 185 calories. Almonds have 32 percent fewer calories than the standard used for labeling, and for pistachios, it is 5 percent fewer calories.

The discrepancy found by the researchers could be attributed to evolving methods for calculating calories in foods. Calorie levels listed on labels for walnuts and other tree nuts are based on methods developed in the early 1900s.

Scientists in the 1950s grouped walnuts and other tree nuts with other plant-based foods, such as dry beans, legumes and peas, and estimated that each gram of protein or carbohydrate in those foods has an average of 4 calories of energy, while each gram of fat has an average of 9 calories. Baer said the system can work well for estimating calories in mixed diets involving several foods, but not as well for estimating certain individual foods such as tree nuts.

Other possible explanations for the discrepancy are that people don’t thoroughly chew nuts before swallowing them or that it is difficult to fully digest nuts’ cell walls, according to Baer. Either would reduce the bioavailability of energy in the harder nuts like almonds and walnuts.

Honey, catfish and nuts are just three examples of the many ways ARS research helps consumers.

The following guest blog post was written and provided by our partners SFE Energy.

Do you know you can offset your carbon footprint from your daily electricity and gas consumption?

We often talk about our carbon footprints, and their collective impact on the environment, but we typically don’t have the means to reduce our personal contribution to carbon emissions in many significant ways. Did you know that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that 0.005 tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO₂) are emitted per therm of natural gas burned? Electricity usage in your home emits 1.341 pounds (lbs) of CO₂ per kWh, on average. Most of the electricity generated in the U.S. comes from fossil fuels, sources that are non-renewable and emit harmful by-products.

SFE Earth Save programs, Green Electricity and Eco Gas, provide homeowners with an easy way to do their part to help the environment, right here in the U.S.  SFE customers can take environmental action by choosing a carbon offset program, for their gas and/or electricity commodity use, and also feel good about the protected supply price they get too, for their energy needs. A Green Electricity customer who signs on to a three-year program with SFE, will get 100 percent of their carbon output offset, while receiving a protected electricity supply price for three years. An SFE customer who signs on to a three-year Eco Gas program, will get 1.5 tonnes* of their average household carbon output offset, while receiving a protected gas supply price for three years.  *Eco Gas footprint tonnage is dependent upon household.

Making a positive environmental change is a high priority for SFE. To date, SFE and its affiliates have offset more than 302,349 tonnes of CO₂ from customers. When our energy customers opt for our Earth Save programs, SFE offsets the carbon emissions that their homes create, from natural gas and electricity use. We have developed many rewarding green relationships to make our Earth Save products available to consumers. We purchase carbon offsets on behalf of our SFE customers by investing in North American, verified projects like: Reforestation, Methane Gas Capture and Biomass Conversion.

SFE is also very proud to have a long-standing partnership with American Forests. For our 2015 Earth Save customers, American Forests will be planting 37,972 trees on their behalf.  Currently, carbon sequestration by plants offset 16.2 percent of total U.S. carbon dioxide emissions from the transportation and energy sectors.[1]

SFE Energy and its affiliates currently operate in Pennsylvania, Maryland, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts and California. We are now planning to launch our services in Ohio this summer and are proud to relay our commitment to make America a healthier and greener place to live, by reducing our collective carbon footprint, one Earth Save customer at a time.

Want to start offsetting your carbon footprint from your daily electricity and gas consumption? Contact our friendly Customer Service staff, via email or phone: cs@sfeenergy.com | 1-877-316-6344

[1] https://www3.epa.gov/climatechange/ghgemissions/sources.html: Greenhouse gas emission by Economic Sector in 2014: Commercial & Residential 12%; Agricultural 9%; Electricity 30%; Industry: 21%; Transportation 26%; Total US Emissions in 2014 = 6,870 million metric tons of CO2 equivalents (MMtCO2E)
CO2 offset by land use and forestry = 11% of total = 6,870 x 0.11 = 755.7 MMtCO2E
Transportation, electricity, and residential sectors = 68% of total emissions = 6,870 x 0.68 = 4,671.6 MMtCO2E
Offset due to plants relative to these three sectors = 755.7 MMtCO2E / 4671.6 MMtCO2E x 100 = 16.2%

 

As a mother and grandmother, I understand the importance of ensuring that America’s children are provided with nutritious meals every day. My grandchildren, who are 5 and 8, are just like all children – infinitely curious and filled with energy, love, and joy. Young children should be playing and learning — not worried about where their next meal will come from. But for many children, school meals are their only source of nutrition, which is why USDA’s Summer Meals Programs are so important.

Summer Meals provide kids with the nutrition they need when school is out, and a safe haven where they can play and learn to keep their minds and bodies active during the summer months. The availability of these meals, which are served at no cost to children 18 and under, also reduces the financial burden on caretakers when school is out of session.

In the summer of 2015, nearly 191 million meals were served to children and teens at more than 66,000 sites across the country. With the help of our partners, we pulled off an amazing feat– roughly 3.8 million children and teens were served by the program. This summer we are striving to reach even more children in our quest to build stronger, healthier communities and ensure all kids have the opportunity to thrive when school returns in the fall.

Expanding access to Summer Meals is important across the country, but it is especially important in rural areas. Last summer, I visited multiple summer meals sites across the country.  I remember meeting one young man named Brian. Brian was only 12 years old and every day he rode his bike a long distance, along a busy highway just to get a summer meal. Brian would rush and finish his meal as quickly as possible in order to ride back home and give his sister the bike, so she could ride it to the same site and have a meal as well. This shows the lengths that kids will go in order to get a meal and an example of the need that is there. It is stories like Brian’s that highlight the need to continue to find innovative ways to serve children through efforts such as mobile meals and other strategies to reach families that may not have transportation to a site.

States across the country are creating projects to address these challenges in rural areas. For example, the Iola Unified School District in Southeast Kansas retrofitted an older bus and created a “traveling bistro.” The students built tables and book shelves, painted the walls, and turned half of the seats around to create restaurant-style booths. MARV, or the Meals and Reading Vehicle, will be traveling to three low-income neighborhoods to serve lunch on weekdays during the summer. Another innovative project comes from California where over the last three years; they’ve expanded access to summer meals through libraries. With many schools closed, it is difficult to find a central location that is safe and easily accessible during the summer months. However, thanks to the Lunch at the Library Initiative spearheaded by the California Summer Meal Coalition and the California Library Association, summer meal sites at libraries have grown from 20 to more than 125.

Since summer 2009, we’ve served more than 1.2 billion summer meals. We hope to continue this success as the numbers have grown steadily each year.  Our partners have done a tremendous job stepping up to the plate. Summer Meals programs would not be possible without churches, libraries, schools, non-profits, and other organizations making a commitment to the communities they serve.  I am pleased, both as the Administrator of the Food and Nutrition Service, as well as a grandmother of two beautiful children, that these programs are available for kids in need.

To find a summer meal site near you, please visit our Summer Meals Site Finder. For more information on USDA’s Summer Meals Programs please visit fns.usda.gov as well as our Summer Meals Toolkit.

As I watched Matthew McLane’s children play in the front yard of their home, I could tell how much this family loved being homeowners.  Matthew and Candice McLane became first time homebuyers through the Agency’s Mutual Self-Help Program in 2012.  The couple, and their two daughters, had been living in an apartment prior to building their home through the Self-Help Housing Program.  Now the couple has three children, and one more on the way this fall – and the house is filled with love and joy as the family prepares for the arrival of its newest member.

Listening to Matthew describe the self-help process, you can tell how much pride he has in his home.  He describes putting his sweat, blood and tears into the home, but loving every minute of it.  From learning how to hang drywall, to laying flooring or installing shingles, it was all new experiences and skills that Matthew learned.  When repairs are needed to the home now, Matthew is able to do the home maintenance and repairs himself.

“We really enjoy the extra space in our house and the yard, and look forward to continuing to update the property,” said Matthew.   “I have put in a lot of hours on this house, and I have respect for it and plan to take good care of it for the next 30 years.”

Last week, in honor of National Homeownership Month we recognized the City of Liberal, Kansas for being a USDA Rural Development Mutual Self-Help Partner for the last 10 years.  Over the past 10 years, the city’s Self-Help Housing Program has assisted 55 families, just like the McLanes, build homes in the Liberal community.

As Karen LaFreniere, the city of Liberal’s Community and Housing Director stated, “Everyone employed by the City of Liberal is involved with the Self-Help Program. The city provides a huge support system to the program, and is committed to assisting families in our community find housing.”

It truly takes a coordinated effort to make the Self-Help Housing Program work, and the City of Liberal is doing it right.  By investing in the Self-Help Housing Program, the city has provided its residents with equity in their homes, affordable mortgages, new skill sets, and a sense of community.

The Self-Help Housing Program helps builds a healthier, happier community by investing in the most important asset – people.

Homes in rural areas, towns, and small cities, like Liberal, are eligible for Rural Housing Service programs if their population is less than 20,000 as of the 2010 census. Check to see if you or your home are eligible for USDA Rural Housing Service programs on our eligibility website.

Amidst nutrition facts, ingredient lists, and dietary claims on food packages, “organic” might appear as one more piece of information to decipher when shopping for products.  Understanding what the organic label means can help shoppers make informed purchasing choices.

Organic is a labeling term found on products that have been produced using cultural, biological, and mechanical practices that support the cycling of on-farm resources, promote ecological balance, and conserve biodiversity. The National Organic Program – part of USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service – enforces the organic regulations, ensuring the integrity of the USDA Organic Seal.

In order to make an organic claim or use the USDA Organic Seal, the final product must follow strict production, handling and labeling standards and go through the organic certification process.  The standards address a variety of factors such as soil quality, animal raising practices, and pest and weed control.  Synthetic fertilizers, sewage sludge, irradiation, and genetic engineering may not be used.  

Organic producers rely on natural substances and physical, mechanical, or biologically based farming methods to the fullest extent possible.  Organic produce must be grown on soil that had no prohibited substances (most synthetic fertilizers and pesticides) applied for three years prior to harvest.  As for organic meat, the standards require that animals are raised in living conditions accommodating their natural behaviors, fed organic feed, and not administered antibiotics or hormones. 

There are four distinct labeling categories for organic products – 100 percent organic, organic, “made with” organic ingredients, and specific organic ingredients.  

In the “100 Percent Organic” category, products must be made up of 100 percent certified organic ingredients.  The label must include the name of the certifying agent and may include the USDA Organic Seal and/or the 100 percent organic claim.  

In the “Organic” category, the product and ingredients must be certified organic, except where specified on National List of Allowed and Prohibited Substances.  Non-organic ingredients allowed per the National List may be used, but no more than five percent of the combined total ingredients may contain non-organic content.  Additionally, the label must include the name of the certifying agent, and may include the USDA Organic Seal and/or the organic claim.

For multi-ingredient products in the “made with” organic category, at least 70 percent of the product must be certified organic ingredients.  The organic seal cannot be used on the product, and the final product cannot be represented as organic – only up to three ingredients or ingredient categories can be represented as organic.  Any remaining ingredients are not required to be organically produced but must be produced without excluded methods (genetic engineering). All non-agricultural products must be allowed on the National List.  For example, processed organic foods may contain some approved non-agricultural ingredients, like enzymes in yogurt, pectin in fruit jams, or baking soda in baked goods.

Multi-ingredient products with less than 70 percent certified organic content would fall under the “specific organic ingredients,” and don’t need to be certified. These products cannot display the USDA Organic Seal or use the word organic on the principal display panel.  They can list certified organic ingredients in the ingredient list and the percentage of organic ingredients. 

Becoming familiar with organic labeling allows consumers to make informed decisions about the products they purchase.  Consumers can be assured that the integrity of USDA organic products are verified from farm to market. You can learn more about organic labeling by visiting: Labeling Organic Products.pdf.

 

 

 

In Southwest Virginia, a unique agricultural operation seeks to provide something that many in the community don’t have … plenty. The 18-acre combination vegetable farm/food bank/food hub on the Little River welcomes all to sample the bounty of sustainably-grown products.

Plenty! Farm began with a trip to a local Community Supported Agriculture (CSA). I was interested in taking extra beet greens to the local food pantry and was surprised to learn that no one had the ability to receive the vegetables or a means to distribute them. That’s when McCabe Coolidge and I began to collect unsold or extra produce from local farmers and gardeners.

With Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) funding, McCabe installed a high tunnel less than a year after first meeting NRCS District Conservationist Hunter Musser in December 2013. This latest addition allows the farm to expand to four-season production for our food bank and portable produce routes. It also offers year-round “pick your own” options for those interested in the freshest vegetables.

Most families don’t have a greenhouse or high tunnel, so they are eager to see what’s inside growing and learn how the high tunnel works. It’s a great draw to bring folks to the farm and show them the vegetables they normally eat growing out of the ground. We also offer to teach them about growing and preparing their own produce.

With grant funding from the Roanoke Women’s Foundation, we are installing a NRCS-designed drip irrigation system that will pump water to a holding tank for gravity-fed release to farm plots and the high tunnel. This more efficient system will help conserve water, suppress weeds and improve disease management.

Not all farmers are not USDA certified but can still use organic practices for demonstrated short- and long-term benefits. As a result, the produce tastes better, the soil looks healthier, and the land has much more diversity.

Freshness is important to McCabe who hosts weekly community lunches for our neighbors.  Bringing more to the table is especially important in this part of Virginia where many go hungry. Floyd is one of more than 900 focal areas for targeted assistance through USDA’s StrikeForce for Rural Growth and Opportunity. NRCS is doing its part by providing one-on-one conservation assistance on farms like ours. 

We started Plenty! because we believe everyone deserves fresh, healthy food regardless of income-level. Over time, the farm has become much more than a local distribution point. With our collaborative approach to food, it has become an open space for the community where we nourish bodes and celebrate Floyd County’s rich land and culture.