Turtle Farm

This summer I volunteered a couple days a week at a farm near my home in Des Moines, Iowa called Turtle Farm. Check out their website here: http://www.turtle-farm.com/

Turtle Farm is an organic CSA (community supported agriculture) in Granger, IA. Angela Tedesco is the owner, and Ben, the farm manager, runs things with the help of three full-time employees (Lucy, Darrin, and Josh), and numerous volunteers. The farm grows many different types of vegetables: eggplant, pole beans, snap peas, beets, squash, tomatoes, strawberries, asparagus, cucumbers, okra, chard, lettuce, and peppers, just to name a few. Ben likes to grow many unique varieties that you can't find in grocery stores. I didn't know there were white eggplants and brown peppers called sweet chocolates! One of my favorite parts of this summer was learning about all of the different vegetables (and sampling them, of course).

I've gotten to help out with many different tasks during my time at Turtle Farm. I had very limited farming experience before this summer, so I learned a lot. I helped harvest, weed, move fences, weave plants up trellises, lay down weed fabric, and set up irrigation. This experience helped me appreciate how much work farming really is. I was usually there for 3-4 hours, but the farm crew puts in 8 hour days. As hard as the work is, it is extremely fulfilling. I like feeling that my physical effort is accomplishing a worthwhile task, because what could be better than feeding people? It's also a great way to spend time outdoors and see all kinds of cool critters (I'm an insect fanatic). Yesterday we found a bullsnake that's endangered in Iowa! All in all it's been extremely rewarding, and I'm grateful to everyone at the farm for giving me this experience. I'm looking forward to future agricultural adventures.

by Megan Brant '13

"UW study finds large dairy farms produce higher quality milk more often than small operations"

Food Truther Courtney Halbach found this article in her local newspaper, the Wisconsin State Journal. The study used two measurements of milk quality: bacteria count and somatic cell count, which measures infection in cows. As the title suggests, with these measurements, large industrial farms appeared to have higher quality milk than small, family operations. Critics of the study point out that these are only two narrow measurements of milk quality, and that issues with industrial farms go beyond milk quality to issues such as water pollution.

Wal-Mart going local?

There was an interesting article in my local paper (The Des Moines Register) recently about Wal-Mart's plan to buy more local produce. I couldn't find a link to that article, but I found a similar one published in the NY Times in October 2010. Wal-Mart's shift to local could have huge positive implications, since Wal-Mart is the largest grocer in the nation. But is the produce truly "local", or is it only a marketing ploy? Some critics are also concerned that buying produce--even local produce--from a large, industrial corporation does not have all of the benefits of purchasing directly from a farmer through a CSA or farmer's market. Check out the article here: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/15/business/15walmart.html

Rural Enterprise Center

This past spring, Food Truth began speaking with a group in the Northfield area called Rural Enterprise Center (REC). REC helps low-income, rural Latino families start up natural, free-range poultry farms that are ecologically and economically sustainable. Learn more from their website: http://www.ruralec.com/

Taking out Tyson

This past spring, Food Truth has been hard at work on two campaigns. 1. We successfully reached our goal of getting fair trade, organic bananas in the dining halls (more on this campaign to come), and 2. we started our campaign against Tyson chicken.

BonAppetit gets its chicken from Tyson, the world's largest meat producer. Tyson's business practices have a number of detrimental effects on animal welfare, the environment, and human rights, which Foodtruther Tayler Owen details in his article that appeared in the Carletonian back in May. Because of these issues, Food Truth has decided to take a stand and call for an end to Carleton's business with Tyson.


Taylor's article caused a bit of a controversy and prompted BonAppetit to investigate Tyson's alleged overuse of antibiotics in their chicken. BonAppetit claims that it "only buys chicken raised without the "non-therapeutic" routine use  of human antibiotics as feed additives."  The article suggests that Tyson's practices do not align with BonAppetit's standards, so Helene York, the Director of the BonAppetit Foundation, investigated. She then wrote a response to Taylor's article which appeared in the May 13th Carletonian, in which she brings up some interesting points. It is really exciting to see Food Truth getting recognition at this level, that our voice can really make a difference, and that BonAppetit is very willing to work with students and address our concerns. This is just the beginning of an exciting campaign that has the potential to create change on a large scale. Way to go, Taylor!                                                                                                                                                 

Foodtruth Week of Green Wars!

After weeks of planning, 7th Week of Winter Term is Foodtruth Week of Green Wars! We challenge Carleton students to reduce their energy consumption by cutting out meat from their diets, reducing their use of trays and eating more consciously!
On Wednesday February 17th, join us for a panel discussion called "My Food Story." We will be joined by head Bon Appetit Chef Mike Delchambre and a representative of Thousand Hills Cattle Company.

Hope to see you there!

Exciting Government memo about local food systems

Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Kathleen Merrigan just sent out a memo discussing “harnessing USDA rural development programs to support local and regional food systems,” which goes beyond fantasies and straight to how this system will be created and funded. Then she starts sounding a bit like the Northfield community kitchen group. She writes:

Imagine an NGO receiving USDA grant money to construct a community kitchen where farmers drop off produce and families join cooking classes that teach about healthy eating while everyone prepares fresh nutritious meals to bring home…Imagine a community using USDA money to construct an open-sided structure to house a farmers market…Imagine a school using USDA loan money to set up cold storage as part of a larger effort to retrofit the school cafeteria to buy produce directly from farmers and return cooking capacity for school lunch…Imagine…