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USDA’s new Child Nutrition Technology Innovation Grants apply to school meal programs, summer meal programs and the Child and Adult Care Food Program.

If you’re a frequent reader of this blog, you already know that USDA is committed to continuously improving the integrity of their programs.  We strive to operate our programs effectively and efficiently.  We aim to provide program participants with the best service possible, while ensuring taxpayers get the biggest bang for their buck.

We go about this in a number of different ways.  In previous posts, we’ve shared how we’re streamlining the USDA organic certification process; highlighted our prize competition, which crowdsourced design ideas to minimize error in school meals applications; and featured ways we’re working to educate farmers on official grain standards, sampling and grading rules.

Recently, Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) announced another way USDA is improving efficiency and integrity in its programs:  a new grant called the Child Nutrition Technology Innovation Grant. This grant opportunity is designed to encourage the state agencies that administer child nutrition programs to propose innovative technology solutions that will improve program accountability and efficiencies at both the state and local levels.  The grants apply to school meal programs, summer meal programs and the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP).

These grants mark the first time technology grants have been available for CACFP.

State agencies administering these programs maintain automated systems at the state level that rely on operational data from the local levels, such as applications, certifications and program monitoring.  The grants are intended to improve that process, ensuring the states’ systems and the child nutrition program operators’ systems can communicate seamlessly.

It may sound a bit ‘in the weeds,’ but the point is this: These grants are a way for states and program operators to partner more efficiently and accurately. They encourage innovation that will eliminate duplicity and foster information-sharing.  And at the end of the day, they’ll enable states and program operators to save both time and money.

There is up to $4.4 million in grant funds available this year, which will be distributed through two types of awards:

• CN Technology Innovation Planning Grants: up to $100,000 with a grant period of up to one year
• CN Technology Innovation Implementation Grants: up to $2,000,000 with a grant period of one to three years

For more information or to submit an application, visit our website.  All state agencies that administer child nutrition programs are invited to apply now through January 25, 2017.

November 10th, 2016|Tags: water|0 Comments

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By Doyle Irvin, American Forests

So, What Can We Do about These Floods?

Agroforestry in Missouri. Credit: CAFNR via Flickr.

In Part 2 we discuss the positive impacts that existing trees have across the board, and what kind of benefits are involved with replanting areas converted to other uses.

Trees aren’t the only answer to this problem, but they certainly help. During a hot summer, a single pecan tree will soak up 150 to 250 gallons of water per day.[i] Other types of mature trees will intercept more than 30,000 gallons per year. Your average acre of forest today may have up to 200 trees per acre, while farmed lots — we will get into trees and farming later in this article — can have up to 1,000.Whether it’s a natural forest or a farmed forest, that’s a lot of water! One study in Pennsylvania found that removing the forest reduced water absorption in an area by 42 percent. The worst case scenario is if a forest is turned into a parking lot —the runoff from one acre of parking lot is the same as the runoff from 36 acres of forest. [ii] And, with forest runoff, it is water that has been cleaned and filtered — suitable for healthy forest streams and brooks that sustain wildlife — unlike the parking lot water

Trees also filter this run-off. Agriculture, lawns and parking lots all inject pollutants into our groundwater. These include fertilizers, pesticides, hydrocarbons, heavy metals and nitrates. These pollutants end up in the Mississippi River, along with industrial waste. More than 50 cities and millions of people rely on the Mississippi for drinking water and waste disposal.[iii] There’s an irony in drawing your drinking water from a river that’s unswimmable in many places and has created a Dead Zone in the Gulf of Mexico.[iv]

Bordering a stream with forest also slows the release of water considerably. When it comes to floods, think about it as similar to rush hour traffic: if all drivers spread themselves out evenly over the course of 24 hours, our existing infrastructure could handle it easily and driving would be untroubled. Jams and road-rage happen because everyone needs to drive at the same time, and the infrastructure is overwhelmed. Floods are the same way: if all the rain water in a catchment reaches a river instantly, you’re liable to experience a flash flood that breaches structures built to contain that river. If you manage to slow down the release of that water over a longer period of time, peak water levels never become dangerous. Fallen trees create leaky dams, and riparian forests as a whole prevent erosion, creating predictability. A delayed flood peak and predictable outlets can keep floodwaters that one crucial foot under levee levels.

Where’s the Motivation?

Rewarding eco-friendly farmers can help combat climate change. Credit: Merrill College of Journalism via Flickr.

The biggest question that remains is “how do we get people to plant trees, when there seems to be more profit in other uses for the land?” There are many answers to this question.

The first thing, and probably the simplest thing to keep in mind, is that, if farms get flooded, it’s going to cost a whole lot more than it would have to have converted a fraction of the land to forest. The 2011 flood cost farmers along the Mississippi approximately $2 billion in crop loss alone, and that’s before accounting for what it cost to repair those fields to yield in future seasons. On top of defense against flooding, forest windbreaks can help prevent soil loss, keeping productive soil from being blown away. In this manner you could think of forest buffers as an eco-friendly insurance payment.

The second thing to remember is that there are a whole number of secondary benefits to planting trees that end up saving money for private citizens and public welfare as a whole. Health-wise, removing pollutants from the drinking supply is a huge benefit. Trees also remove particulate matter from the air and can help lower temperatures in surrounding areas, both through evapotranspiration and the shade they produce. According to the department of energy, planting for shade can reduce a home’s air conditioning costs by up to 50 percent![v] Livestock also benefit from the shade produced during long summer days.

The third thing to remember is that farms can also directly make money from trees. Many trees create harvestable crops, and the leaves that fall from trees make soil more nutritious (reducing the need for chemical fertilizers). But, it’s not just fertilizer — agroforestry practices are booming right now because many farmers have realized that integrating trees into their property makes their land more profitable across the board than keeping it conventional.[vi] This integration is a science. The director of the Forest Service’s National Agroforestry Center, Andy Mason, says “Agroforestry is not converting farms to forest. It’s the right tree at the right place for the right reason.”[vii]

Following in Their Footsteps

Protecting — and enhancing — farms with trees is not a new idea. It first gained major popularity in the United States because of the Dust Bowl, when the government created policies to help prevent wind erosion. These policies lasted until Earl Butz came along. The next step for us U.S. citizens is to bring back support for more flood- and eco-conscious attitudes towards trees on our farms and in the wild. This would mean changing the way that incentives are currently constructed for farmers. The rest of the world is already way ahead of us.

 

[i] http://aces.nmsu.edu/pubs/_h/H636/

[ii] http://extension.psu.edu/plants/green-industry/landscaping/culture/the-role-of-trees-and-forests-in-healthy-watersheds

[iii] https://www.nps.gov/miss/riverfacts.htm

[iv] http://1mississippi.org/dead-zone/

[v] http://energy.gov/articles/energy-saver-101-infographic-landscaping

[vi] http://www.agr.gc.ca/eng/science-and-innovation/agricultural-practices/agroforestry/benefits-of-agroforestry/?id=1344633257343

[vii] http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/22/science/quiet-push-for-agroforestry-in-us.html

The post Flood Waters Rising Part 2: The Solution appeared first on American Forests.

Each day, nearly 1,300 veterans and their family members return to civilian life. USDA is helping many veterans transition from the military to agriculture.

In honor of Veterans Day, Deputy Under Secretary Lanon Baccam provided Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack with an overview of USDA’s support for veterans. Baccam, a proud army veteran, also serves as the Department’s Military Veterans Agriculture Liaison.

Mr. Secretary:

Tomorrow is Veterans Day, an official day reserved each year to commemorate the contributions to our nation’s safety and security that have made by our military veterans and their families.  This includes over 11,000 veterans who now work at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).  And while USDA’s connection to the military starts with our veteran employees, it extends far beyond, by encompassing the entire mission of our department.

With 16 percent of the population living in rural America, yet comprising 40 percent of the military, rural America contributes an outsized proportion of its sons and daughters to the armed forces.  That’s why in my capacity as USDA’s Military Veterans Agriculture Liaison, I’m proud to share some information about how USDA has been able to honor the service of these brave men and women by helping them to branch out into agriculture when they return to their communities.  With approximately 1,300 veterans and their family members returning to civilian life each day, transitioning from the military to agriculture is a natural fit for many.

At USDA, our programs can help veterans who are interested in starting a farm or ranch. Eric Grandon, a veteran from West Virginia, credits farming with saving his life. He spent nearly 20 years in the Army, and served as a combat veteran in Operation Desert Storm, Operation Iraqi Freedom II, and participated in four peace-time missions to the Middle East. Eric suffered from post-traumatic stress (PTS) and was deemed permanently disabled, but through farming, he found a way to work through his PTS.  With the help of several USDA programs — including a generous grant from the Natural Resources Conservation Service to build a high tunnel — Eric now grows and harvests 300 heads of romaine lettuce for four separate county school systems.

According to the USDA Economic Research Service, the unemployment rate for the rural post-military population fell to 5 percent in 2015 – – its lowest level since its 2010 peak of 10.3 percent.  Moreover, the unemployment rate for young rural veterans (ages 18 to 34) has also declined — from a high of 15.7 percent in 2009 to 7.9 percent in 2015. While that reduction in unemployment is partly due to the national economic upturn, it also is due to the public and private efforts which help veterans transition into the workplace much more quickly and into better paying jobs that fit with their skills.

USDA has established more partnerships to help veterans find careers in agriculture. One great example is the Memorandum of Understanding between USDA and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation’s Hiring Our Heroes program. HOH has several “Fast Track” web portals to connect veterans with jobs in industries such as trucking and transportation, entertainment and media, manufacturing, insurance, oil and gas, and financial services, but now, USDA has been working with HOH and CHS to develop a “Fast Track” portal for jobs in the agriculture industry. The Ag Fast Track will bring together Ag industry employers with our military veterans seeking employment.

Hiring our Heroes also coordinates with the Department of Defense and military commanders around the country to host some of the premier employment and transition summits for service members. This year, USDA launched a new, agriculture-focused workshop at these summits, which allows us the opportunity to engage directly with service members to inform them about the many programs we have that can help them pursue farming and ranching. A few of the programs include:

• Low-interest loans from the Farm Service Agency (FSA), of which more than $505 million has been issued to over 7,400 veterans since 2009, providing them with the credit needed to start a farm or ranch;

• AgrAbility, a USDA-supported organization that helps veterans and people with disabilities enter – and remain – in farming and ranching. This can be extraordinarily helpful for those veterans who suffer from less visible disabilities, such as post-traumatic stress, because the evidence remains strong that working the land, and raising crops and livestock, can have notable therapeutic aspects for our returning heroes;

• Our National Institute for Food and Agriculture has provided a $275,000, four-year grant that will support Texas State University’s Boots to Roots program, helping women and Hispanic veterans in their pursuit of agricultural and science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) degrees. This grant will allow this segment of the veteran population to take full advantage of the 57,900 job opportunities that occur each year in degree-related agricultural fields, especially since there is an annual shortfall of 22,500 candidates to fill these positions;

• We’ve been working to train veterans on the basics of agricultural practices, with the Agricultural Research Service working with partners in Fayetteville, Arkansas, to offer workshops, online courses, internships and multiple-day “Armed to Farm” boot camps that can help veterans to explore whether farming and ranching is right for them, and learn how to move forward in agriculture.

• And finally, this year we launched an apprenticeship through the Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS), targeted at veterans, that will increase our ability to hire them here at USDA. The AMS commodity grader apprenticeship is a Department of Labor Registered Apprenticeship program that provides technical training to help veterans join the USDA team that ensures the quality of our farm commodities in commerce.  The apprenticeship is also recognized by the Department of Veterans Affairs, which allows veterans to use their G.I. Bill benefits with this apprenticeship.

Mr. Secretary, our veterans have served this country admirably by protecting it; and with USDA’s support, they can continue those honorable contributions to their country by providing for it, through farming and ranching, jobs in the agriculture industry, or with continued public service at USDA. America’s veterans are helping to provide a strong, safe and affordable food and fiber supply for our country.

As a veteran, it has been my privilege to work with current and former members of our military to strengthen that link between them and USDA services.  The foundation which we have created will continue to be of significant benefit to our returning servicemen and women well into the future.

Sincerely,

Lanon Baccam
Deputy Under Secretary &
Military Veterans Agriculture Liaison

Henry Smith, who served in the 75th Infantry Division in World War II, holds a gift he received when he visited Belgium earlier this year. The framed item includes a photo of Smith and thank-you notes from people who today live in towns that he helped liberate in 1945. He is wearing his uniform coat from that time.

When I met Henry Smith in March, he told me about how two months earlier he stepped off of a plane and onto Belgian soil for the first time in more than 70 years. He said the setting was immediately familiar to him.

“It’s going to snow,” he said to his family as the chill in the air and low-hanging clouds echoed conditions he remembers vividly from January 15 and 16, 1945.

During those cold, snowy days 70 years ago, Smith’s U.S. Army 75^th Infantry Division recaptured the area east of the Salm River in Belgium and liberated the communities of Vielsalm, Frand-Halleux and Salmchateau. It was a key time and place near the end of the Battle of the Bulge, and Smith was an important part of it. He saw friends die and he fought for freedom as a machine gunner.

In the description of his book about the 75^th Division, author James Slagle McClintock writes that Smith’s group was the youngest division in the US Army, and despite having limited training and lacking food, supplies and winter clothing, “The 75th Division defended the American Army’s flank from a direct assault by two German SS Panzer Divisions. Their contribution to the battle resulted in the collapse of the German Bulge, earning their place in history as the ‘Bulge Busters.’”

Born in Covington, Smith has lived in Virginia most of his life. These days he is enjoying well-deserved free time at his home in Farmville. He lives in a 40-unit multi-family housing community subsidized by USDA Rural Development for people who are living on limited or fixed income, such as Social Security.

In the community, and at 91 years of age, Smith helps out neighbors by driving them to the store and checking in on them from time to time. And being a former horseshoe champion, he never turns down an opportunity to throw some bags in a similar lawn game called Cornhole. He said maintaining his independence is important.

Inside his apartment, Smith stays busy by writing, sketching, painting and emailing family and friends. All of which he does within sight of a photo of his late wife of 67 years, three months and 13 days, as he readily specifies.

The photo of his wife actually is a copy. The original, which Smith kept in his pocket during the war, is at the church in Belgium where his wounded comrades were treated in 1945. He left it there as a memento when he visited this year.

Smith made that return trip with his family after being invited to accept praise and gratitude from the people living in the towns he helped liberate. Residents and members of the military gave him plaques, hosted banquets, asked him to sign pictures of himself and interviewed him for a Luxembourg TV news story.

Smith said it was nice to be thanked.

In the most poignant of moments during the trip, Smith unveiled a plaque commemorating fallen U.S. soldiers as a Belgian musician sang the Star Spangled Banner and the familiar, low-hanging clouds delivered on cue.

“It started snowing just in time,” Smith told me. “It was beautiful.”

Henry Smith, wearing his World War II uniform coat because he had just had pictures taken in it, plays the lawn game Cornhole at Milnwood Village Apartments in Farmville. The 40-unit apartment community is a USDA Rural Development multi-family housing community in which units are subsidized for people who are living on limited or fixed income, such as Social Security.

This year GIPSA hired 12 veterans in permanent employment positions, representing 18 percent of the agency’s permanent new hires.

With the political rhetoric finally over, there’s one inspiring message that everyone can agree with—our veterans already make America great every day. Every veteran who joined the military following the end of the draft in 1973 volunteered to serve our country. And they want to continue serving even after they packed away their uniforms.

During remarks delivered at Arlington Cemetery last year, the President noted that bringing veterans into the workforce shouldn’t necessarily reflect some moral obligation, charity or patriotism. Veterans, including those with disabilities, are simply good for business.  Our veterans possess training, skills, leadership, and motivation ideally suited for public service. Following their commitment of service during one of the longest struggles in history, our veterans consistently reflect passion, resilience, and tenacity to get the job done.  Their talents are seasoned by deployments, honed in many cases under the stress of combat, and forever shaped by an ethos dedicated to mission success.

I’m proud to say that the Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration (GIPSA) has been expanding its veterans’ ranks.  This year GIPSA hired 12 veterans in permanent employment positions.  This number represents 18 percent of all GIPSA permanent new hires. Another two were brought aboard on a temporary basis. Our motivation is part of a broader initiative that began seven years ago.

Since 2009, the President recognized that as one of the nation’s leading employers, the federal government is always seeking highly skilled individuals to meet staffing needs and support mission objectives.  He issued Executive Order 13518 on November 8 that year to do everything possible to assist veterans re-enter civilian life and find employment.

The result was a government blueprint that sponsors initiatives in job counseling, recruitment, hiring, and training.  It also established an inter-agency council to coordinate efforts for hiring veterans. USDA, along with other executive branch agencies, is represented in the President’s Council on Veterans Employment.

Secretary Vilsack recently announced a new USDA jobs program to hire new employees as agricultural commodity graders, and also increase jobs for veterans. The initiative is a collaboration among USDA, the Department of Labor (DOL), and Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). DOL approved the curriculum and registered it as an official source for job training and VA approved the use of Veterans Benefits, which may include a monthly housing allowance as well as an additional stipend for books and supplies.

Piloted by USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service, the apprenticeship program combines on-the-job training with instruction in the classroom and online. Apprentices who complete the paid training program will meet the qualifications for a position as a USDA Agricultural Commodities Grader—a key role in USDA’s mission to protect American consumers.

Although the program is open to anyone interested in a career in agriculture, Secretary Vilsack said he is proud the program offers veterans a path to success and hopes many will take advantage of the opportunity. “If they are passionate about a career in agriculture, we want to help them achieve it,” he said.

This Veterans Day celebrations may be overshadowed by the intensity of a presidential election concluding 48 hours beforehand. Even so, it is our civic responsibility to demonstrate true unity in support of the few who have borne burdens for so many. As the nation pauses to reflect on its national character, it is a fitting tribute that our outgoing commander in chief, among his many initiatives on behalf of those who wore America’s uniform, last month signed the Veterans Day Moment of Silence Act. Perhaps encouraging two minutes of silence each Veterans Day will heal not just scars of battles now forgotten, but also mend recent tears in our national fabric.

I’m optimistic that the next president will champion the potential of our veterans as much as the current one. It is one indisputable measure of national pride on which we can all agree.

Chris Roehm (left), an organic farmer from Square Peg Farms in Oregon, examines tomatoes with USDA resource conservationist Dean Moberg. Since the USDA implemented the organic regulations, the U.S. organic sector has tripled in size to over 22,000 certified organic operations with over $43 billion in U.S. retail sales. Photo by Ron Nichols.

Since USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) implemented the organic regulations in 2002, the U.S. organic sector has tripled in size to over 22,000 certified organic operations with over $43 billion in U.S. retail sales.  Demand for organic products is expected to continue growing.  This strong consumer demand outruns supply, providing market opportunities within the organic sector.

USDA offers many resources for organic producers and businesses – including organic certification cost share assistance, organic price reporting, conservation programs, and so much more – to facilitate growth within the organic sector. We also provide assistance to producers transitioning to organic production, and work to facilitate international trade.

To learn more about our services, you can now visit the redesigned USDA organic portal.  The new site features a more user-friendly design with updated content that allows you to access the USDA resources for the organic community from one centralized location.

During this Administration, we strengthened the USDA Organic Working Group – an internal information-sharing group who come together to coordinate USDA programs and services that support the organic sector – and successfully worked across agencies to expand our organic services.  Additionally, Secretary Vilsack issued guidance to all USDA agencies affirming the department-wide commitment to the organic sector. Our collaborative efforts have set the groundwork for continued growth by connecting farmers and businesses to training, strengthening the National Organic Program, funding organic research, and improving crop insurance options for organic producers.  Here are just a few examples.

Our Sound & Sensible initiative is simplifying and streamlining the organic certification process, and providing tools and resources to the entire organic community.  The Risk Management Agency (RMA) provides improved insurance options for organic producers, including organic premium price elections for 57 crops, and a transitional crop insurance option, offering insurance that better reflects the product’s market value.

Since 2009, the Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) has worked with more than 6,800 organic farms and provided more than $115 million in assistance through its EQIP Organic Initiative.  The Farm Service Agency (FSA) continues to act as a bridge to all USDA opportunities, and recently set a goal of enrolling 20,000 organic acres in conservation buffers through the Conservation Reserve Program.  Earlier this month, the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) published results from its fourth organic producer survey, showing a significant increase in organic farm receipts and reflecting updated data on prices, farming practices, and conservation practices.

Demand for organic products is not limited to the U.S. domestic market.  The global organic market includes over 31,000 certified operations and is valued at nearly $80 billion annually. Organic trade continues to expand to meet the demands of the organic market.  AMS works closely with countries around the world to support this growing market.  We maintain organic equivalency arrangements with Canada, Japan, Korea, Switzerland and the European Union.  These arrangements simplify the process for all farms and businesses to participate in the global organic market to ensure the integrity of imported organic products.

We are committed to establishing a level playing field that protects all organic farms and businesses through clear and transparent standards while maintaining the integrity of the USDA organic seal for consumers.  Earlier this year, we published a proposed rule clarifying requirements for livestock and poultry living conditions and health care practices.  We are working on a final rule based off feedback from the organic community.

Organic continues to be a bright spot in the agricultural economy, and USDA strongly supports organic agriculture. We look forward to working together with the organic community.

U.S. Army Veteran Matt Smiley harvests heirloom tomatoes at Jacobs Farm in Pescadero, California. (Photo courtesy of Susanna Frohman)

Whether protecting our nation and its highest ideals with military service or ensuring a safe, abundant, and nutritious food supply as veterans, we are grateful for their willingness to serve.

For more than 35 years, USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) and the U.S. Departments of Defense and Veteran Affairs have collaborated to support those who support America – the U.S. military Veterans and their families. These collaborations have helped thousands of military families gain access to the high quality educational programs in early childhood education, youth development, community capacity and related fields that land-grant university cooperative extension services provide.

In nearly every state, 4-H Military Partnerships offers youth development programs for children from military families in the form of day and resident camps, community 4-H clubs and leadership development programs. Other key initiatives include the Clearinghouse for Military Family Readiness (Penn State), the Virtual Lab School (Ohio State) and the Military Families Learning Network (eXtension).  Each of these programs provide the most up-to-date, evidence-based programming to strengthen military families.

NIFA also engages military veterans with the Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program (BFRDP).  BFRDP helps fund organizations that train beginning farmers and ranchers through workshops, educational teams, training, and technical assistance.  At least five percent of BFRDP funding goes to projects that serve military veterans. Some veterans have likened their interest in agricultural careers to “the next mission” in their ongoing service to their country.

Applications for 2017 BFRDP projects are due Dec. 8.  Tufts University’s New Entry Sustainable Farming Project will host a new applicant webinar on Nov. 16 at 1 p.m. EST to provide a review of Grants.gov and the application process.  The Webinar is free, but registration is required.

NIFA staff will join other USDA personnel for the third annual Farmer Veteran Stakeholders Conference beginning Nov. 30 at Michigan State University. The conference offers the largest gathering of the military and agricultural communities in the country.

NIFA proudly collaborates with other governmental and non-governmental organizations, including the Farmer Veteran Coalition, to ensure military and veteran families have the resources and support they need to achieve the highest degree of readiness to accomplish their mission.

NIFA invests in and advances innovative and transformative research, education and extension to solve societal challenges and ensure the long-term viability of agriculture.

From left, U.S. Army Veteran Jody Schnurrenberger, Hock-Newberry Farm operations owner; U.S. Coast Guard Veteran Erica Govednik; and U.S. Army Veterans Christine and David Hale Jr. at Hock-Dewberry Farm, an organically-managed, multi-species, rotational-grazing farm on rented land in Marshall, Va. USDA Photo by Lance Cheung.

At USDA, we are thankful for the military men and women who are serving or have served this nation.  We are committed to providing them with opportunities for their next career to be in agriculture.

USDA employs more than 11,000 veterans and since 2009 have provided more than $505 million in direct farm loans to more than 7,400 veterans to start, maintain or grow their farming operations. USDA has service centers across the country where veterans can find out about farming and other USDA programs and services.

In the Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS), there are more than 300 employees who have served in the Navy, Army, Marine Corps, Air Force or Coast Guard, or who are serving in a military reserve component. Out of 617 new hires in AMS in fiscal year 2016, more than 12 percent (74) are Veterans.

It doesn’t matter whether or not they have experience in agriculture — if they are passionate about making a career in agriculture, we want to help them achieve their goal. Prime examples of this are the employees who are in the pilot year of our Agricultural Commodity Grader Apprenticeship. Half of the participants came from careers that were far removed from agriculture:

• Charles Horton is a retired Air Force master sergeant. He served as an aircraft machinist and welder for 24 years.
• Paul Derdzinski was an Army ammunition specialist who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. The former staff sergeant has a Bachelor of Science in Information Security and Risk Management.
• Jeff Dezort was an artillery cannoneer for four years in the Marine Corps. He served in Iraq, and when his term of service ended, he worked as a Department of Defense contractor in Kuwait. He then went to college and earned his Bachelor of Science in Management.

The apprenticeship program is only one of many ways for America’s veterans to join our ranks. More information about opportunities available at AMS can be found on the Careers page of our website.

USDA also works with federal partners like the Department of Labor (DOL), Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and Department of Defense to inform our service members about the wide variety of loans, grants, training and technical assistance for Veterans who are interested in agriculture. Relationships with organizations like the Farmer-Veteran Coalition and Hiring Our Heroes opens the agriculture industry and the thousands of high-skilled jobs to veterans.

Again, we thank you for your service to America. At AMS, we are especially proud that many of you have chosen USDA to continue that service.

U.S. Marine Corps veteran Calvin Riggleman stands in front of a U.S. flag displayed on a barn on Bigg Riggs farm in Hampshire County, W.Va. Riggleman served in Iraq and serves his community farm fresh organic produce and food products made by the Bigg Riggs Farm team. USDA Photo by Lance Cheung.

November 9th, 2016|Tags: water|0 Comments

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By Doyle Irvin, American Forests

Fence Row to Fence Row

Lone tree in the midst of cornfields. Credit: Fred Jackson via Flickr.

In the early 1970s, a man named Earl Butz set a policy that would determine the shape of our nation for decades to come. As Richard Nixon’s secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Butz famously encouraged farmers to “plant from fence row to fence row,”[i] maximizing all their available land into sellable crops. Cut your trees, turn them into timber. Plant corn. As he was notorious for saying, “Get big or get out.”

Dismantling New-Deal-Era regulations that were centered around preventing another Dust Bowl, Butz pushed for huge subsidies of corn and soy beans, promising farmers that their crops would be sold (to the Soviets) no matter the level of supply or demand. He promised that the United States would “feed the world.”

That he served on the boards for multiple agribiz conglomerates was less important to farmers at the time than the 1973 Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) oil crisis, which, in a sideways manner, drove grain prices through the roof. Because key crops like corn and soy had a guaranteed minimum price protected by the government in case the market crashed, farmers were incentivized to take advantage of the bull market and convert as much land as possible into these crops. By the time Butz was run out of town for making racist remarks publicly, the damage had already been done, and his policies outlasted his tenure in office.

These land conversions, as we will cover, lead to increased frequency and severity of super-floods — but it’s also important to keep in mind that there are a number of different factors at play here, so we can refrain from sensationalist finger-pointing.

The Scope of the Problem

Mississippi Flood, 2008. Credit: Todd Ehlers via Flickr.

The first thing we have to understand is the size of what we are dealing with. In simple terms, a catchment is the area from which rivers receive their water. All of the rain and snowmelt converges into a single area, forming a stream or river. The Mississippi River is the largest river in the largest drainage system in North America. Constituting roughly 40 percent of the landmass of the continental U.S., the catchment of this drainage system includes 31 states and two Canadian provinces, for a total of more than 1,245,000 square miles.

Consider the population explosion of the last century. At the time of the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927, the population of the U.S. was 119 million. Today, we sit at 324 million. Because of guaranteed return on crops like corn, many of these new citizens moved to areas within the Mississippi catchment and started farming. Those people needed to eat; they needed dry land to build their houses. They needed roads, and they needed places to park their cars. Roofs, roads and parking lots are all far worse at water retention than natural areas like floodplains, wetlands or forests.

Prior to human intervention, the Mississippi had plenty of floodplains and wetlands that would take the runoff during flood season and prevent superfloods. Because we need space and because floodplain soil is rich in nutrients, humans have been constructing levees to create farmland adjacent to the river largely since 1800. [ii] The side effect is that each time a levee prevents the river from reaching a floodplain, it just sends all that prevented water further downstream. Today, in the middle and lower stretches of the Mississippi, the main stem of the river is no longer connected to 90 percent of its floodplain.

The levees protecting these urban areas and farms are often privately maintained and not adequate to really protect those areas. They are mostly built to protect from average or “99 percent” floods, and not from so-called 100-year floods that are now happening every other decade or so. For example, in 1993, 1,000 of the 1,300 levees on the Mississippi River failed.[iii]

It’s Not Just the River-Front Property

Memphis, Tenn. flood, 2011. Credit: Chris Wieland via Flickr.

When a wild area is converted into a farm, not only do the levees constructed to protect the farm make the flood larger for those downstream by preventing natural release points, they also decrease the flood absorption of the catchment at large. When trees are cut and replaced with corn, the soil no longer holds nearly as much water. A cornfield is simply nowhere near as good at retaining water as a forest.[iv] That means that rain that falls on the farm travels from the topsoil to the groundwater to the rivers much more quickly (and, therefore, dangerously). Something important to remember is that this still applies to fields that aren’t on the border of the Mississippi — remember the catchment covers 40 percent of the landmass of the continental U.S., so a forest being turned into a cornfield in the remoter hills of Minnesota affects flood water levels all the way down in the flats of Louisiana.

The soil, too, becomes more mobile, getting picked up by the wind and also moved around by rainfall, entering the groundwater and then eventually the river. As silt from erosion fills in the river bed, the average height of the river increases and makes the area more flood-prone. With that silt comes all the fertilizers and pesticides used to grow the crops.

The Price Tag

Agriculture Secretary Earl Butz and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republic (USSR) Minister of Agriculture Vlatimer V. Matskevich in December 1971. Credit: USDA via Flickr.

Because of these major factors, the Mississippi River is getting squeezed into tighter and tighter spaces, meaning that record breaking floods occur more and more frequently. The 1993 flood cost close to $15 billion, and since 2011, major floods have caused roughly $34 billion dollars in the U.S.[v] These numbers will just increase as our population increases, as further space that was once floodplain gets settled.

So, was Earl Butz really the bad guy here? The answer to that is no, not entirely. Land conversions and levee constructions have been occurring along the Mississippi for more than 200 years, and the first major public outcry about their effect on floods happened in 1927 — long before him. But, Butz was the one whose policies made it incredibly lucrative to convert all available land to flood-inducing corn and soy crops, and it’s his policies that are still in effect today.

In Part Two of this series, we talk about potential solutions and their benefits.

[i] http://grist.org/article/the-butz-stops-here/

[ii] http://all-geo.org/highlyallochthonous/2011/05/levees-and-the-illusion-of-flood-control/

[iii] http://www.nwrfc.noaa.gov/floods/papers/oh_2/great.htm

[iv] http://ec.europa.eu/environment/integration/research/newsalert/pdf/32si_en.pdf

[v] http://moneynation.com/u-s-floods-cost-34-billion/

The post Flood Waters Rising Part 1: The Problem appeared first on American Forests.

A one-time high school science teacher, ARS chemist Allene R. Jeanes was instrumental in developing a blood plasma extender that saved lives and a compound used to thicken household products ranging from steak sauces and cough syrups to skin lotions. (USDA-ARS Photo)

Science can do more than improve people’s lives; sometimes it can save them.

Consider the contributions of the late Allene Rosalind Jeanes, an Agricultural Research Service (ARS) chemist at what is now the National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research in Peoria, Illinois. Her efforts are particularly worth celebrating this Veteran’s Day.

Jeanes studied polymers (large molecules composed of many repeated subunits) found in corn, wheat and wood. She spent long hours investigating how bacteria could produce polymers in huge fermentation vats. Eventually, she found a way to mass produce dextran, a type of polymer, so that it could be used as a blood volume “expander” to sustain accident and trauma victims who have lost massive amounts of blood and need to get to a hospital for a transfusion.

The technology is credited with saving the lives of numerous battle-wounded Americans in Korea and Vietnam, and is one reason why Jeanes, who died in 1995, is still remembered by some of her former colleagues in Peoria.

“She was a very quiet and very distinguished person, and she happened to be a brilliant scientist who saw the potential for what turned out to be critical work. It is an interesting story,” said ARS chemist George Inglett, who was chief of the research laboratory in Peoria where Jeanes spent her later years.

The annals of history are replete with important discoveries sparked by serendipity, and this present story is no different. This particular serendipity involved—of all things—a batch of bad root beer. Jeanes had been interested in dextran for years, but it was hard to find in quantities large enough for meaningful research. That changed when a soft drink company in Peoria sent Jeanes a sample of their product wanting to know why it had become thick and gooey. The root beer turned out to have been contaminated with a type of bacteria that produced dextran. The discovery of the dextran-producing microbes meant Jeanes could produce all the dextran she needed for research.

Meanwhile, researchers in Sweden and England had been investigating the use of dextran as a potential blood volume expander. While it can’t carry oxygen to vital organs as healthy blood cells do, it might, thought the researchers, temporarily help accident and trauma victims suffering massive blood loss by restoring lost electrolytes and maintaining blood pressure.

When the Korean War broke out in 1950, Jeanes and her colleagues were able to make a dextran-based blood volume expander that the Army put to use. The blood volume expander had many advantages: it could be kept longer than blood plasma without refrigeration, it could be sterilized to prevent infections, it was one-third the cost of plasma and it remained viable in the blood long enough to keep patients alive until they could get a transfusion. It was approved for U.S. military use in 1950 and for civilian use in 1953.

Research would later show that dextran wasn’t perfect and the U.S. Government no longer uses dextran as a blood expander. But at a critical juncture in history—and absent viable alternatives—Jeanes’s discovery saved many lives.

Jeanes and her colleagues also discovered xanthan gum, a polysaccharide (or polymeric carbohydrate molecule) synthesized by bacteria that is used to thicken and improve the consistency of ice cream, salad dressings, lotions, cough syrups and many other products. It is also used in the oil and gas industry to extract fossil fuels from the earth.

Jeanes was awarded 10 patents, produced 60 publications and became the first woman to win the USDA’s Distinguished Service Award in 1953. In 1999, she was posthumously inducted into the ARS Science Hall of Fame. She was also awarded the Garvan Medal from the American Chemical Society in 1956 and the Women’s Service Award from the U.S. Civil Service Commission in 1962.

We should all be thankful for the work done by Jeanes and other scientists like her. They’ve not only helped save lives, but they have also made our lives better with new products and technologies.