R.I. Farms Get Hacked

By DAVE FISHER/ecoRI News staff

PROVIDENCE — Normally, when one hears the word "hacker," the image of an obese guy simultaneously playing World of Warcraft, eating Funyuns and attempting to infiltrate the CIA mainframe from his parents' basement springs to mind. But not all hackers are malicious. Some of them want to solve problems. Case in point: FarmHack.

FarmHack was started to create real-world, easily replicable, low-cost solutions to America's farmers, and to create a community of farmers, designers, fabricators and documenters that could design, vet, test and provide technical specifications for each proposed solution to a given agricultural problem.

Recently, a group of Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) students and local farmers gathered for the first Ocean State FarmHack. Watch the video here.

FarmHack, sponsored by the National Young Farmers' Coalition, offers farmers the opportunity to collaborate with industrial designers and fabricators of metal, wood and plastic on innovations envisioned to increase the sustainability and efficiency of small farms.

In large part, mainstream agricultural research and development only provides farmers with petro-chemical solutions — whether through diesel-burning machinery or petroleum-derived fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides. These top-down solutions seldom work within the ethics or scales of New England family owned farms.

For many generations, small farmers have created their own tools and solutions and have shared them through word of mouth and organizations like the Grange network, but the digital age has given our nation’s growers and raisers a much larger and more immediate network to work within. FarmHack seeks to take advantage of that network, colloquially known as the interwebs, to disperse these solutions to small farms and farmers worldwide.

Let’s take a walk through the FarmHack process.

A farmer has a problem. Let’s say his or her CSA program has tripled its yearly subscriptions. Seeding beds and fields by hand has become too time consuming and labor-intensive to keep up with the current demand. The farmer posts his problem to the FarmHack website. “I need a faster way to seed my fields.”

Enter the designers. Assuming that multiple designers will take on the problem, multiple solutions will be proposed. For arguments sake, let’s say that two solutions are proposed for this particular problem — a retrofitted bicycle with a series of differentials and an attached dibbler and seed dropper, and a gas-powered lawnmower modified in the same way.

The designs are then passed on to the fabricators and engineers.

Both solutions seem viable, so two fabricators begin building the two different machines. The buildout, optimally, is documented by the fabricator or another party. This documentation could range from a series of photos, video documentation or, in a best-case scenario, full three-dimensional computer assisted design (CAD) renditions and technical specs. Again, all documentation is uploaded to the FarmHack website. This process of recording the buildout process is a key component of FarmHack, because without it, the solutions wouldn't be transferrable on a large scale to other farmers with the same need. When the machines are completed, they are given to the farmer to test for real-world applicability.

Back to the farmer. He or she decides that, in order to reduce the farm’s petro-dependency, the pedal-powered solution is the right one and begins to use the equipment on the farm. That’s not to say the retrofitted gas mower isn't also a viable option, and may very well work for a larger farm, so the solution resides in perpetuity on the Internet. Issues that the farmer, or end-user, may have with the current solution can then be transferred back to the designers and fabricators for tweaking.

FarmHack’s guiding principles are to foster cooperative innovation by farmers to address their farming challenges; to collaborate with allies such as designers and engineers; to focus on research and development driven by the needs and insights of sustainable farmers; to bring farmers and allies together; and, most importantly, to encourage idea sharing.

Given the multitude of small and urban farms in Rhode Island, and the number of local farmers who are looking for sustainable solutions to various issues, one can expect that the first Ocean State FarmHack, held March 10 and 11 at RISD, won’t be the last.

SVF: Where Cryogenics Meets Local Food System

By KYLE HENCE/ecoRI News staff

Meet Chip, the nation's first cryopreserved Tennessee fainting goat embryo to be thawed and transferred into a common Nubian goat. (Photo courtesy of the SVF Foundation)NEWPORT — The local foundation behind the world’s only germplasm bank and farm for rare and threatened heritage breeds of livestock works with small farms to steward these critically endangered animals.

The SVF Foundation’s primary mission is the long-term preservation of diversity in our food supply, with a primary focus on goats, sheep and cows. In a scenario akin to the Irish potato blight that decimated an entire nation’s staple food source, the organization’s library of frozen semen and embryos is vital to the protection of the world’s food supply in the event disease or climate change wipes out a genetically uniform commercial breed of domesticated animal.

If that were to happen, the nonprofit foundation would select samples from its sperm bank, thaw them and use them to “re-awaken the breed” to reintroduce critical and valuable genetically conveyed traits, according to SVF manager Jill DeLeo.

The foundation kicked off its free public lecture series on local food and farming Feb. 16 with Farm Fresh Rhode Island Executive Director Noah Fulmer. Farm Fresh Rhode Island is a regional food distribution nonprofit based in Pawtucket.

So why would a foundation that employs the most advanced cryogenic technology to fulfill its mission bring focus to a fast-growing, low-tech regional food distribution model?

“I think that people feel good about local food,” said DeLeo, speaking in general terms about what director Peter Borden calls a “localvore movement.”

The general public, motivated by social, economic, environmental and personal health concerns, is increasingly seeking out local food sources and diversity of choice.

“Rhode Island is in a very unique position; people are finding their niche in conservation,” said Liz Smith, a local resident with a Ph.D. in environmental economics from the University of Rhode Island who attended the lecture with about 70 other area residents. “It’s really important to explore.”

Farm Fresh Rhode Island helps connect local farmers and their diverse supply of locally grown produce with buyers across the region. The result: increased diversity within our food supply and support of the local food economy.

“Rare or heritage breeds of livestock carry valuable and irreplaceable traits such as resistance to disease and parasites, heat tolerance, mothering ability, forage utilization, and unique flavor and texture qualities,” according to the SVF Foundation.

“Eighty breeds are critically endangered in the U.S. We focus on forty of them here,” Borden said.

With more than 58,000 germplasm samples from 40 heritage breeds of livestock, the SVF Foundation is halfway to its 20-year goal to create a sort of “Noah’s ark” of the most threatened breeds of domesticated farm animals. Its secondary mission is conserving the living lines of valuable rare breeds on small farms seeking to develop a lucrative niche within the growing local food movement.

“We get a lot of calls from people who are interested in bringing heritage breeds into small farms,” said Sarah Bowley, the foundation’s program and livestock manager. “This is the wave of the future in our agriculture system.”

After germplasm is preserved from a given animal, that animal is then placed with small farms that can steward the breed. The foundation’s high-tech cryogenic lab, germplasm bank, offices and staff residences are all within a compound known to locals as the “Swiss Village” — situated on 45 acres used for stabling and pasturing.

The two-year restoration of the farm and building complex was completed in 2000, with principal financial backing from local philanthropist Dorrance H. Hamilton. The facility is the only one of its kind in the world, one that safeguards millennia of genetic intelligence using the most modern of technologies.

But it’s back to the future for the SVF Foundation. This local advocate for a diverse food system is clearly not solely interested in talking about livestock. With the foundation halfway to its long-term goal and with core competencies and a well-honed partnership with Tufts University’s Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine in place, the SVF staff has expanded its public outreach and education program through the aforementioned lecture series that will examine the many dimensions of a healthy local and regional food system.

Fulmer, with help from a colorful slide presentation that included photos, graphs and charts, spoke about one of the biggest success stories within the local and regional food movement in this country: Farm Fresh’s Market Mobile program.

“It’s really about creating a really robust food system,” Fulmer said.

Last year, Market Mobile moved more than a million dollars of food, sourcing from 48 local farm suppliers to 197 wholesale buyers while undercutting traditional distributors. This year, the program anticipates 50 percent growth as local and regional farmers and fisherman continue to meet growing demand.

Food Forum Focuses on Fair Farm Funding

By DAVE FISHER and TIM FAULKNER/ecoRI News staff

PROVIDENCE — Farming in Rhode Island ain’t easy. Start with the backbreaking physical labor, move on to the long hours, add a sporadic and variable income, endless layers of state and local bureaucracy, and a federal farm policy that, to paint with only slightly broad strokes, doesn’t work for any farms in New England. It’s enough to make you wonder how agriculture hasn’t completely closed up shop in the biggest little.

Most agricultural subsidies in the United States are distributed to large farms, mostly in middle America, that grow corn, wheat, soy, canola and sorghum — the so-called commodity crops. These crops are traded in vast quantities on commodities markets worldwide, and in many cases, the government subsidizes their cultivation because they cost more to grow than the market will bear in cost. Few subsidies actually go to growers of fruits and vegetables, and even fewer go to the small, highly diversified farms one finds in Rhode Island. In fact, most farms in the Ocean State aren’t even designated as “rural” by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, further limiting government resources for local farmers.

This year, Congress will begin shaping the next Farm Bill, and proponents of regional food systems as tactics to address the health of our economy, environment and citizens are seeing this as a major opportunity to redirect some of those federal subsidy dollars. One of those proponents is Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-Maine, who delivered the keynote address at this year’s Farm Fresh Rhode Island Local Food Forum, held Feb. 7 at Brown University.

Pingree, along with co-sponsor Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, has proposed the Local Farms, Food and Jobs Act (S.1773, H.R. 3286) for inclusion in the next incarnation of the Farm Bill. The bill aims to divert a small fraction of the some $12 billion in agricultural subsidies distributed annually in the United States to strengthen local and regional food systems. In the past 16 years, Rhode Island has received less than a tenth of a percent of all federal farm subsidy dollars.

Twelve billion dollars a year is a lot to pay for a system that relies on a growing list of toxic chemicals, drugs and futzing around on a nucleic acid level to remain operating. “But the good news,” Pingree said, “is the trend is moving in the opposite direction.”

Indeed, U.S. farmers' markets have doubled in number during the past decade; organic, local and sustainable continue to be the top trends in food retailing; and agriculture in Rhode Island, despite its lack of funding, insurance and security as an industry, continues to be a source of economic activity for the state.

Pingree said the Local Farms, Food and Jobs Act gives extra attention to local and family run farms, while also making it easier for the public to buy locally grown food. The bill also boosts funding for farm loan programs, food safety, and small-farm slaughterhouses and processing facilities. Seniors, students and low-income programs such as SNAP also get added funding. Funding these measures, Pingree said, represents a fraction of national agriculture subsidy expenditures.

The outlook for Pingree's bill is uncertain at best. Both Rhode Island members of the House of Representatives support the bill, but not a single Republican has signed on to the measure.

Bill Stamp, head of the Rhode Island Farm Bureau, was one of the few of the 200 attendees at the recent forum to question the bill's focus on small, local farms. "If we're going to feed the country, agricultural land has to survive and produce food in large quantities," he said.

During the past decade, small farms have grown dramatically in Rhode Island. Tess Brown-Lavoie operator of a small urban farm on the city's West Side said federal policies could do more to help urban farmers. "There's so many exciting people who want to start farms in cities and urban areas," she said.

Cris Coffin, New England director of the American Farmland Trust, noted that Rhode Island is second to New Jersey in losing farmland to commercial and residential development. Across the country about 1 million acres are lost every year to development, according to Coffin.

Coffin encouraged farmers to explain the importance of the Farm Bill to customers. "(Customers) are completely clueless about what's in the Farm Bill and we have to educate them."

One big point needing attention, said Noah Fulmer, director of Farm Fresh Rhode Island, is how farm subsidies make it harder for local farmers to compete with Big Agriculture. In Rhode Island, only 1 percent of all farm products sold in the state are from Rhode Island.

"If we are serious about going over 1 percent we have to think about the policies in effect," he said.

Though the Farm Bill has overlooked local and regional food systems for the past 40 years, Pingree said, “This is the perfect moment in time for real change in our food system. The public is there, but we need to move the policy makers and the funding. This is a major revolution that everyone needs to be a part of.”

Simmons Farm Goes Local to Get Cheesy

By KYLE HENCE/ecoRI News staff

Goat dairy products, too.MIDDLETOWN — Simmons Farm will soon have some of the freshest cow cheese available on the shelves of Aquidneck Island grocers.

Karla Simmons, a regular presence at area farmers’ markets, runs the 120-acre organic farm with her husband, Brian. Their farm is a family operation that stretches back generations to the 1600s and the first settlers of the Rhode Island colony.

As interest in local and organic food grows, so have opportunities for Simmons Farm. Its latest expansion to meet growing market demand comes in the form of a Grade A dairy that opened in June.

Simmons recently met with Jim Ferlauto, a manager at A Market in Newport, to run through the dairy products that Simmons Farm is now small-batch processing.

“We are going to start carrying the products and will put an order in soon,” Ferlauto said.

This is the first big push this year to expand their marketing to local stores, according to Simmons. “We hope to have a regular supply of cheese year-round,” she said. “Cow cheese. The goats are still on their hiatus but likely will come back mid-march.”

None of the animals at the farm are given antibiotics or growth hormones, and all the products and produce are certified organic.

Cow dairy products will include fresh cheddar curd, fromage blanc and whole milk yogurt. Goat dairy products will include chèvre and goat milk yogurt.

Simmons Farm established its certified Grade A dairy facility last year with financing from the Farm Service Agency, which allows for loan payments on a farmer’s schedule. “So we pay them at the end of summer,” Simmons said.

The dairy complements the farm’s successful CSA — community-supported agriculture program — that accounts for 75 percent of the business, according to Simmons. The farm’s stand on West Main Road also will have fresh dairy products available Thursdays from 3-6 p.m., as will Thames Street Kitchen in Newport.

Winter Offers Little Respite for R.I. Farmers

By DAVE FISHER/ecoRI News staff

As winter envelops New England, our growing season comes to an end, but the lack of crops that need tending and harvesting most certainly doesn’t mean that Rhode Island farmers take an extended vacation. In fact, there is just as much work to be done on the farm in the fall and winter as there is in the height of the summer, if not more.

Cold crops
“Running a farm takes a great deal of planning,” said Pat Gardiner of S&P Gardiner Farm in Wakefield. “In the summer we plan multiple croppings and in the winter we plan our approach for next year.”

That means paying attention to trends in the business, as well as trends in what your customers want. But that’s not the only work to be done before old man winter descends. For the folks at S&P Gardiner, that meant really dialing back their production of flowers and ornamentals the past few years, as the economy has shrunk.

A lot of equipment and infrastructure maintenance and upgrades are performed in the fall and winter. Sealing leaks on greenhouses and high tunnels must be completed before any crops can be transplanted from the field or beds. Farm equipment must be maintained and, sometimes, replaced.

Beds that are dormant must be covered with agricultural cloth to retain some heat and prevent erosion. Areas that are too big to use agricultural cloth, or are prone to erosion, are planted with cover crops such as winter rye.

Gardiner said she’s lucky to get a week off during the winter. “There is so much behind-the-scenes work that most people don’t think about," she said. On any given winter day, the cold weather doesn’t keep Gardiner and her family from mending fences, cleaning up the fields or preparing for one of the winter farmers’ markets that Gardiner said have "saved a lot of farms and small businesses in Rhode Island.”

S&P Gardiner farm also benefits from the direct sales that it makes to local markets such as Belmont’s and even the local Shaw’s. Gardiner's farmstand also is open year-round, which affords the farm a bit more income throughout the winter.

Frozen meat
Rhode Island’s producers of cattle, hogs, goats, sheep and all manner of fowl shift gears during the winter as well. While their production, for the most part, doesn’t come to a complete standstill, practices certainly change with the weather. In many cases, winter operating costs are higher than in the summer.

Ever drive by a farm and wondered, 'What are those things for?' That is silage. It's then covered in plastic so that it ferments.For example, a grass-fed beef operation such as Aquidneck Farms in Portsmouth relies on the natural grasses on its land for feed during the summer. In the winter, however, ruminants such as cows and sheep are fed dry hay and silagw — a fermented, high-moisture fodder made from whole grain crops.

“Unfortunately,” said Barbara Van Beuren, owner of Aquidneck Farms, “we have to purchase much of our feed to get the herd through the winter.”

Add the cost of feed to a season that sees fewer slaughterings and fewer steaks for sale, and profits take a major dip in the winter.

The added cost of feed during the winter affects poultry farms in the same way. During milder weather, chickens and turkeys happily scratch through the dirt and grass for insects, grubs and seeds. The birds don’t have this luxury in the winter, and farmers can see their feed costs double or more.

Goat farms — most of which raise goats for milk and not for meat — have another issue with which to contend: pregnancy. The winter months are the breeding, or kidding, season for goats, and they produce little milk during their five-month gestation period.

“The goats go from producing up to five gallons of milk a day to about one gallon a day,” said Miriah Reynolds, who helps raise the goats on her folks’ farm, The Reynolds Barn Hobby Farm in North Kingstown. “Fortunately, we have our soaps and lotions to carry us through the winter.”

Regardless of the boom in Rhode Island’s agricultural community, the cold winter months still stand to break many of our local farmers. They need our support at the farmers’ markets year-round. Consider joining your local farm's community-supported agriculture program. These programs give farmers an influx of cash before the growing season begins to ensure a successful summer and a tolerable winter.

Farm Bill Needs to Support Local Systems

By KYLE HENCE/ecoRI News staff

Congress is set to reauthorize the Farm Bill in 2012 amidst growing concerns that Big Agriculture will again be favored over small-scale farming and modest specialty food operations, which are more pervasive in Rhode Island. Advocates of the latter see a strong local food system as critical to healthy and resilient communities.

In May, the Rhode Island Agricultural Partnership released “A Vision for Rhode Island: Five-year Strategic Plan,” which set a goal for the state to grow, harvest or catch at least 5 percent of the food Rhode Islanders consume by 2016, five times the current figure. On Food Day in October, the state announced the creation of the Rhode Island Food Council.

During a November roundtable hosted by Rep. Jim Langevin, D-R.I., local stakeholders discussed a range of issues vital to the state’s thriving agricultural sector.

Those concerns went national this week. The American Farmland Trust (AFT) hosted a webinar Dec. 19 entitled, “The Farm Bill in the Northeast: Local and Regional Food,” that addressed issues critical to small-scale farmers and food businesses in Rhode Island.

The webinar featured more than 100 participants from throughout the Northeast who heard presentations from sponsoring organizations, such as the New England Farmers Union, the Wholesome Wave Foundation and the Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Working Group, and from two members of the U.S. House, Rep. James McGovern, D-Mass., and Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-Maine, each of whom serve on the congressional committee overseeing the Farm Bill.

Recognizing the importance of agriculture to Massachusetts, McGovern said, “We need not only to sustain it, we need to encourage it.” He said the Food Bill programs should benefit all 50 states.

“People seem to be more and more appreciative of locally grown produce and my hope is that that trend continues,” McGovern said.

Asked when the Farm Bill will come up for a vote, McGovern said, “My guess is that it will be kicked beyond the next election.”

Pingree, a lifelong organic farmer and a current small-business owner in southern Maine, is lead House sponsor of the Local Farms, Food and Jobs Act (S 1773/HR 3286), which was introduced in November.

“We are up to 60 some co-sponsors of the bill and there is a tremendous amount of interest in this,” Pingree said. Rhode Island’s representatives, David Ciciline and Langevin, are co-sponsors. The bill has the support of a broad coalition of agriculture groups, hunger groups, and organic and sustainable farmers.

“What I find everywhere I go, is when you talk about farming and sensible farm policy, food policy, buying local, enhancing the number of farms in our communities people of all stripes, left wing, right, Republican and Democrat, young, old, show up because people are truly interested,” Pingree said. “There is a real market out there and we need to do more to enhance it.”

The act would improve Farm Bill programs that support local or regional farm and food systems, according to Pingree. In particular, the legislation would help farmers address production, aggregation, processing, marketing and distribution needs while assisting consumers with access to healthy food via direct and retail markets.

“We don’t want to see Walmart buying all that food in China, shipping into this country and saying that’s what organic food is,” Pingree said. “We want to be able to be sure people can buy it in local markets, because it does a tremendous amount of good for the local economy.”

The complete webinar, part of the Farm Bill 2012 series sponsored by The American Farm Trust, is available by clicking here.

R.I. Shares Its Thoughts on Federal Farm Bill

By DAVE FISHER/ecoRI News staff

WARWICK — Every five years or so, Congress reviews and restructures the Farm Bill. The bill is the primary tool of the federal government to define the role and purview of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and all its respective funding appropriations.

That time is upon us, and on Nov. 28, Rep. Jim Langevin, D-R.I., hosted a roundtable discussion at the Warwick Public Library with the state's agricultural community to hear its complaints and concerns about how previous farm bills have been actuated in Rhode Island.

Representatives of the USDA, the state departments of Environmental Management and Health, the Rhode Island Farm Bureau, the Rhode Island Nursery and Landscape Association and other agencies took part in the discussion, and comments and concerns were heard from a crowd of more than 100.

Farm bills can be rather controversial nationally and internationally because the blanket regulation and subsidies provided through the USDA don’t necessarily work for all farmers and can impact the world economy. Local and organic agriculture proponents have criticized past farm bills for providing too much funding for large agricultural concerns that employ inhumane practices and use an army of petrochemicals to maintain their livestock and crops. The 2008 Farm Bill, for instance, increased subsidies for biofuels, which many economists believe to be a contributor to the world food price crisis in 2007-08.

Overarching regulation, grants and subsidy mechanisms that favor Big Agriculture have long been the bane of small farmers. In Rhode Island, we have nothing but small farmers and, yet, our agricultural economy continues to grow and thrive.

There seemed to be a consensus on the panel and in the room that in order for our local food system to survive several points had to be prioritized.

First, the tax assessment on farms has to be adjusted to reflect the output of the farm, not the value of the land. Currently, farms are taxed at a reduced rate up to $1 million in value. Al Bettencourt of the Rhode Island Farm Bureau suggested that a farm's entire assessed value should be taxed at the farm rate. Inheritance tax rates on farms need to be adjusted as well if we want to preserve farmland from generation to generation, he said.

Second, the grant and funding mechanisms provided by the USDA need to be more flexible and reflect the needs of the state. For instance, money is made available to Rhode Island to preserve grassland. Given that we don’t have too much grassland, much of this money reverts back to the federal government. Rhode Island's contingent of the USDA-Natural Resource Conservation Service would like to see that money spent in where the state does need it — in marshes, on farms and in woodlands. It also would like to see changes that would allow the NRCS to spend money on public land, which is currently forbidden by the Farm Bill, and lower upfront investments for NRCS matching grants.

Third, food safety regulations need to be more flexible and friendlier to small farms. Local farmer Pat McNiff said blanket food safety regulations are designed for big farms and processors, and forcing small farms to adhere to the same regulations is unfair.

Lastly, we need to remove the development pressure on existing and viable agricultural land. That land includes the state's vast turf farms and nurseries that aren't currently eligible for USDA funding. Rhode Island is home to tens of thousands of acres of sod farms and nurseries that, according to Jesse Rodriques of Rhode Island Nurseries, “Needs to be preserved to grow food if and when we need it.”

Other panelists and attendees pled their cases to prevent proposed cuts to individual programs, such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and the Community Food Project, and proposed disbanding the USDA Foods Program. The Foods Program was once a surplus buying mechanism that was used by the USDA to bring food at a low cost to schools, but recently, the program has stopped buying surplus.

Dorothy Brayley of Kids First said the money that is earmarked for the program should be go directly to the school systems to allow more flexibility in purchasing.

Some other suggestions from the crowd included expansion of conservation programs to aquaculture, expansion of crop insurance benefits to help local farmers offset extremely seasonal income, labeling requirements for genetically modified foods, and providing subsidies for beverages other than milk in schools.

Baa-Baa Black Sheep, Have You any (Waste) Wool?

By RUDI HEMPE/ecoRI News contributor

These sheep look cold! Waste wool has the potential to retain water in container crops and plants.KINGSTON — Rhody Fresh, the cooperative that put locally produced milk and cream in supermarkets all over the state, started folks in Rhode Island's agriculture industry thinking about collaboration as a viable business plan. The collaborative model is a great way to promote and sell local products, and since the creation of Rhody Fresh, quite a few other local businesses have begun to pool their resources to boost sales and public awareness, such as Rhody Warm Wool Blankets, Rhody Livestock, Rhody Native Plants and now Rhody Mulch.

It seems that Rhody Warm Wool Blankets, the project that produces fine wool blankets from the Ocean State’s sheep stock, also produces a reuseable waste product — wool that is too dirty, too matted or too unsuitable for manufacturing into high-quality blankets.

To deal with the byproduct of the sheep shearing process, state conservation officials have come up with a potential solution: using waste wool as a mulch that can keep down weeds and help irrigate potted plants.

According to Gerard Bertrand, executive director of the Rhode Island Rural Development Council (RIRDC), an organization whose role is to support small-business development in agriculture and other similar endeavors, the idea started when some surplus wool — not suitable for the blanket project — was given to the Southside Community Land Trust. The land trust is a highly successful Providence-based nonprofit that educates people in the metro area about urban agriculture and operates and facilitates a network of 13 community gardens in and around the capital city. Urban farmers spread the wool in their vegetable beds to keep weeds down.

Chris Modisette, U.S. Department of Agriculture-Natural Resource Conservation Service representative and coordinator of the Rhode Island Resource Conservation and Development Area, heard about it and suggested to Bertrand that the waste wool might have the potential to be upcycled, and that a grant might help get just such a project started. The Rhode Island Sheep Cooperative agreed, and the Resource Conservation and Development Area applied for and received a USDA rural development grant for the project.

Susan Charlwood, a member of the sheep cooperative who heads this “secondary wool project," was chatting with Bertrand one day over who could step forward to take on a feasibility grant. Charlwood’s son-in-law, Thomas Soucar, a math teacher at St. Raphael Academy in Pawtucket, heard about it and, “saw it as a great way to get students involved in a real world assignment and so I committed St. Raphael Academy to complete the research.”

The grant allowed participants to explore two avenues for the possible distribution of the waste wool: the development of wool mulch in the residential realm — i.e. community gardens — and in the commercial area — i.e. garden centers, greenhouses and farms.

In the process, 125 Rhode Island sheep owners were identified who could potentially be involved in the program, as well as the University of Rhode Island’s Peckham Farm, which is also home to a flock of sheep that could supply secondary wool. That's when Fred Launer, a URI College of Environmental and Life Sciences lecturer, and Chantelle Marechaux, a URI senior majoring in animal science, became involved.

Soucar enlisted St. Rapael Academy students Gregory Perreira, Ethan Sneesby and Mike Badzmierowski in the project, all seniors at the time who have since graduated. Sneesby and Badzmierowski are currently attending URI and Perreira is now a freshman at Providence College.

They devised a trial method of using two nested 5-gallon pails with the inner one having a hole in the bottom. The wool mulch was placed at the bottom of the outer pail. Tomato plants were planted in the inner pails — in a soil mixture of potting mix and fertilizer — enabling it to draw moisture from the wool. The tomatoes were then grown in a manner much like the as-seen-on-TV Topsy. The students devised four different trial configurations of pails, including differing types and placements of wool within the pails and, of course, a control group of more traditionally planted tomatoes. The pails were put outside on the school grounds and drew quite a few stares from passersby.

The students reported that the plants in the special pails with the mulch seem to need less water than the controls. They also noted that water beaded up on the wool and was not absorbed, making it readily available to the plants. This was explained by the fact that, by using an organic soap to clean the wool, lanolin — the natural oil in wool — was left largely intact.

The Rhode Island Nursery and Landscape Association (RINLA), headquartered at URI’s East Farm, also got involved by enlisting the participation of a few growers in the South County area — Stewart Nursery, Schartner Farms, Clark Farms and The Farmer’s Daughter — in the trial. RINLA Executive Director Shannon Brawley said the potential for using the wool in the commercial area will probably be in containers and greenhouses rather than in the fields. She added that eventually there will be demonstrations at the commercial sites.

While the wool project is still in its infancy, indications are that this waste product will emerge as a viable conservation option for the horticultural industry in Rhode Island and perhaps beyond.

Local Farmers Still Coping with Irene

By TIM FAULKNER/ecoRI News staff

Trees blown over by heavy winds, such as this one at City Farm in Providence, can damage crops. (Joanna Detz/ecoRI News staff)Tropical storm Irene powered its way through the region nearly a month ago, delivering perhaps the "new normal" for our climate-changed weather: torrential rain, explosive winds and an infrequent phenomenon, especially for farmers — sea spray.

Sea spray is salt water blown ashore from the tops of waves, and the harmful salt is the reason crops aren't planted close to the ocean. But Irene pushed salty moisture far inland, destroying produce such as winter squash, corn and tomatoes across southern New England.

"We've never seen that kind of storm," said Brian Simmons, of Simmons Farm in Middletown.

Salt-filled wind from Narragansett Bay blasted about a quarter mile from shore to reach Simmons' 120-acre organic farm, coating buildings, trucks and, worst of all, acres of squash.

"You can see a strip of dead stuff," he said.

Ken Ayars, agricultural chief for the state Department of Environmental Management (DEM), said farms in eastern Rhode Island suffered the most salt damage, such as Mello Farm on Aquidneck Island, which lost much of its late summer corn. Two miles inland from Rhode Island Sound, Wishing Stone Farm in Little Compton also suffered significant crop loss. Skip Paul, owner of Wishing Stone, said he lost $3,000 in specialty winter squash, and his cold crops — broccoli and cauliflower — weren't destroyed, but they just won't be of the quality that he likes to see coming off the farm.

Paul also brought up another important point concerning hurricanes that scrape the east coast. "These storms pick up all kinds of (non-native) bacteria, molds and insects and then deposit them here," he said. Paul also noted that in addition to this influx of invasives associated with hurricanes, heavy rain events, such as the remnants of tropical storm Lee that swept across the Northeast just a few days after Irene left, compact the soil, decreasing oxygen levels.

Further up the bay, the town of Warren absorbed 5.37 inches of rain from Irene, the most in the state. Yet, sea spray and wind decimated zucchini, winter squash and corn. "It wiped us right out," said farmer John Gervais who lost 80 percent of the corn on his 2-acre farm. "It's horrible."

At least 3 miles north of the nearest saltwater river, Oakdale Farm in Rehoboth, Mass., lost nearly all of its summer squash, zucchini and peppers.

The loss of squash, much of which is usually frozen and sold to grocery stores through the offseason, will mean a big drop in income — and perhaps higher prices for consumers, predicted Marie Prey, CSA manager for Oakdale. "We're not going to do well this winter," she said.

The farm also lost two greenhouses during the storm. But like all farmers, Prey admitted she is at the mercy of the weather. "We did lose our crops, but not our lives." 

Many orchards felt the stinging winds of Irene. Sandra Barden of the Barden Family Orchard in North Scituate said the orchard lost about 50 trees, most overturned at the roots, but "50 out of 2,000 isn't bad, and after we picked the fruit off of the fallen trees, we were able to stand quite a few of them back up."

The damage to crops and fruit trees, up to 30 percent across the state, prompted Gov. Lincoln Chafee to seek federal disaster relief and low-interest loans to help farmers rebuild. The loans are already available through the federal Department of Agriculture. There is no word yet from Congress and the secretary of agriculture about direct financial help.

Ayars said the increase in harmful storms and floods during the past decade have prompted him to encourage more farmers to sign up for federal crop insurance programs. "Each time we get one of these disasters it shows that it's probably worth it," he said. Ayars estimates that less than 25 percent of Rhode Island farmers currently carry crop insurance.

The physical damage of the storm wasn't the only worry for many farms. Being without power for extended periods of time impacts farms that have refrigeration and packing rooms, and rely on electricity to keep the air and water moving into their greenhouses. Steve Hancock knows this all too well. After Irene knocked out power for nearly a week at his greenhouse operation, NorthStar Farms in Westport, Mass., he had the added aggravation of his energy provider, NStar, not wanting to repair the lines to his farm because they are on a private road. (We'll bet they don't mind sending his electric bill to a private road.)

One sign of relief in recent weeks has been shoppers returning to outdoor farmers' markets to restock their kitchens. At the Hope Street market in Providence, Lynn Quigley of Woodstock Farm in Connecticut, which had heavy crops loss from flooding, described business on recent Saturdays the "best markets ever. Everybody's had to start over."

ecoRI News staffer Dave Fisher contributed to this report.

Revive the Roots Prepares for Transition

By TIM FAULKNER/ecoRI News staff 

A gravity sink is used by Revive the Roots on its community farm in Smithfield. (Tim Faulkner/ecoRI News staff)SMITHFIELD — To appreciate the close friends who founded Revive the Roots Foundation is to understand the concept of the "transition" movement.

On a broad scale, it's an international organization centered on the belief that environmental waste and misuse of natural resources in today's global society will ultimately lead to the downfall of civilization. It seeks to avoid that end through the transition movement: community groups whose members share the belief in a restructuring of society through community-driven solutions to climate change and alternatives to fossils fuels. It aim to gradually replace the petroleum-based, service-driven global economy centered on cities, sprawling suburbs and shopping malls, with communities of farmers, blacksmiths, carpenters and textile makers — all focused on a sustainable use of natural resources.

The Transition Network started in England in 2006 and provides resources for forming local networks whose members can share ideas and methods for sustainable transportation, food, energy and recycling. It promotes practical ways for living, working and building relationships in a new society, one that respects trees, land, water and the atmosphere.

Revive the Roots is one of Rhode Island's first transition groups. It was started by a close group of college-age friends in January. They became inspired about finding solutions to climate change and depletion of natural resource about six years ago while classmates at Smithfield High School. An ecology course in particular posited the dire environmental outlook with simple solutions, motivating the group to start its own farm and alternative approach to traditional living.

"We're trying to inspire our community to join our initiative," Greg Sankey Jr. said. "And inspire people to act in a positive way. We have faith in the initiative and faith in the community — and that keeps us going."

Revive the Roots manages a community garden on about 8 acres of Mowry Gardens on Farnum Pike. The property, about 45 acres, is owned by the Smithfield Land Trust, with a large wooded area that leads to the Stillwater Reservoir.