Passages Sustainable Food and Farming Systems - PASA

Editor’s Corner
The Grapevine
■ Understanding Your Food
Transportation Costs
From the Land Stewardship Project
The real costs of moving good food
from farm-to-market include more time
and money than many farmers realize they
are spending. Land Stewardship Project
staff members engaged in Community
Based Food Systems work have adapted a
series of worksheets from an online calculator
developed by the Oklahoma Department
of Agriculture, Food and Forestry.
Visit landstewardshipproject.org/cbfed/
food-transportation-costs.html for details.
■ An Innovative Idea to Help Grow
PASA Membership!
By Brad Berry, Snipes Farm & Education Center
PASA wanted to share an innovative
idea to help grow our membership that
was shared with us by member Brad Berry
of Snipes Farm and Education Center CSA
in Morrisville PA (Bucks County).
Brad’s note is copied below, in his own
words — PASA hopes some other members
may consider offering a discount of
your own if your customers become members
of PASA…
My name is Brad Berry and I am the head
grower for a 200-member vegetable CSA in
by Michele Gauger
■ Handbook for Natural Beekeeping
This new booklet is for beekeepers who want
to manage their hives naturally and support the
optimum health of their honey bees without synthetic
treatments. The handbook covers all
aspects of beekeeping — from apiary location to
foundation to management of pests and diseases
— in 40 colorful pages (5.5” x 8.5”). Organized
clearly by topic, the contents are based on
the Apiary Standards of Certified Naturally
Grown (CNG) and include the list of allowed
and prohibited substances for CNG beekeeping,
as well as some definitions and techniques.
Take a look inside and order online
at www.naturallygrown.org/store, or send a
check to CNG, 540 President St, Third Floor, Brooklyn,
NY 11215. $5 each plus $2 shipping.
Morrisville, Pa — Snipes Farm and Education
Center. We have offered a discount to our
members for the 2012 season — if any of our
CSA members become PASA members, we
are giving them a discount on their share.
Here is what we sent to our members last
week:
If you sign up to become a member of
PASA you will receive an additional $25 off of
your CSA membership for the 2012 season!
So who is PASA and why do we value
them so much to offer you a discount on our
CSA for supporting them
As a farm, we believe the education of
farmers, legislators and consumers is critical
to our viability and success. PASA is dedicated
to educating each of these groups in
many ways throughout the year and in so
doing plays a vital role in protecting our
farm, consumers and other farms all across
the country. As farmers, we are a very busy
group of people and it is not always possible
for us to get off the farm and make our voices
heard when it comes to legislative issues
affecting our food security. Fortunately,
PASA is our voice and our advocate for public
policy issues. PASA works year round on
the local, state and federal levels to protect
our right to maintain a small scale food system
and your right to wholesome, locally
grown organic food. The more members the
organization has, the stronger that voice
becomes and equates to more influence in
legislation when it comes to food issues. It is
a resource for consumers to stay abreast of
potential threats to our food security and the
importance of local food systems. PASA has
the success of our farm and farms like ours
across Pennsylvania in their greatest interest.
I encourage you to visit pasafarming.org
to learn more about the organization and to
take advantage of this discount for your
2012 CSA share. Become a PASA member
and help the effort to protect your food, your
farm and your rights.
Brad Berry, Head Grower, Snipes Farm &
Education Center
■ Manure Management —
Where’s the Poop
By Susan Beal, PASA Ag Science Advisor
In all the talk about the new requirements
for manure management planning,
many folks are finding themselves asking
how they will need to respond to these
regulations.
While the actual words of the regulations
are more complex, the highlights are
these: folks who produce manure on farm
— and folks who use or store manure —
need to have a manure management plan.
This regulation impacts not only stock
owners but also those who use manure in
the production of vegetables, hay and
grain and other crops. And stock owners
include those who have driving and pleasure
horses, those who may have a few
head of animals on farm — as well as
larger farm operations. If an individual has
over five thousand square feet of cultivated
area, they will need a manure management
plan.
In determining the what’s next, consider
these items:
There are clear definitions of CAFO
(concentrated animal feeding operation)
and the more recently defined CAO (concentrated
animal operation). These are
defined by the number of animals and the
amount of land — and the determinations
can be found on the PASA website, at the
conservation district offices and through
the NRCS.
If your farm falls into these criteria, then
you will have to have your manure management
plan formulated by a trained
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