Katybug&Austin&Victoria’s Weblog

These past few weeks have been busy for us with a lot of research going on and quite a few new revelations about the direction of the project. We have just scheduled one interview with someone who can hopefully give us a little more insight into local agriculture and our project. We will post an update about this interview and another possible one that has not yet been confirmed on the next blog.

Our initial research revealed that farmers are becoming an increasingly rare “species” because young people seem to want to work in cushy office jobs that pay far more than farming. Any agricultural career tends to be very physically intense and stressful with very little monetary reward. Farming in this nation has also become largely industrial and small diversified farms are seeing a significant decrease. (Schlosser, Fast Food Nation) Organizations such as FFA in schools seek to encourage young people to pursue careers in Agriculture. (www.ffa.org)

Locally there are several organizations such as the FIG program on Maverick Farms to hire interns to learn about farming and connect them with available land to start their own farms. The Appalachian Sustainable Development organization seeks to promote sustainable and/or organic farms that will provide food to locals and business to local farmers. (http://www.asdevelop.org/sustainable_agriculture.html)

“So what’s the problem then?” you might ask. Well, as wonderful as these programs are, they are not implemented everywhere, and farming really isn’t right for everyone. Also, land is becoming rarer either due to expense or past farming practices that render it unusable for future agriculture. We have found that these are just a few of the problems associated with local agriculture and its promotion within communities.

If we were to completely ignore the steady decline of locally available agriculture, we might one day see a food shortage. Even within a nation as developed as America, we still need local agriculture to keep us going. Should the problem persist unaddressed one day there may be very few or no food producing farms as farmers are aging out, losing land to government projects such as highway construction, and tending to plant “cash crops” that can’t be consumed (such as trees for building or Christmas decoration; or plants like tobacco and cotton).

In Watauga County some of the barriers preventing more farms from starting include lack of funding or lack of affordable farmable land and lack of interest in general about the profession from younger generations. However Community Supported Agriculture organizations (CSA’s) promoting sustainable local agriculture and farm-to-table co-operations that get local agriculture into restaurants and grocery stores are another good solution to this problem. Organizations like these help local farmers by promoting agriculture within the community and providing people in the area with fresh local foods.

Promotion of local agriculture by advertising farmer’s markets, creating CSA’s and teaching youth about farming are all good feasible solutions for this area. During the next few weeks we are going to be looking into these solutions more and collecting more data on how available these types of things are to Watauga County residents.

Project Time-line:

Friday, October 26, 2007 – Second posting to blog is due, research for each person has reached around 3-5 paragraphs of information

Monday, October 29 – Possible meeting with Chelly at Espresso News (we will meet with our community partner every Monday from now until the end of the project unless something comes up). Discussion about project progress and presentation of findings so far.

Tuesday, October 30 – feedback on posting expected/meet with Joe about improving the blog

Thursday, November 2- Meet as a group to discuss blogs and work on next posting/improvement to the last

Monday, November 5- Meet with Chelly at Espresso News, schedule interviews? Discuss blog and current progress.

Tuesday, November 6- Meet as a group, discuss personal progress and compile next blog posting.

Thursday, November 8- Finalize third blog posting.

Friday, November 9 – third posting to blog is due.

Monday, November 12- Meet with Chelly, discuss progress, interviews?

Tuesday, November 13 – feedback on third posting/meet with Joe about improving the blog, compile practice run presentation.

Thursday, November 15- first run of presentations.

Monday, November 19- Meet with Chelly

Tuesday, November 20 – feedback on presentations

Wednesday, November 21- Thanksgiving Break begins, each person will finalize her portion of the research and begin work on summary and self-assessment paper.

Monday, November 26- Meet with Chelly to hand in project for review, to be returned by November 28.

Thursday, November 29 – final draft of project due by 5 pm; final posting to blog

December 4 – Presentations at research day in Great Hall

**** We have divided the research between three people who will be investigating different sources for basically the same types of information. Therefore, we cannot specify the dates of completion for each portion of the project, we can only estimate what will and won’t be found by certain points. ****

Hypothesis:

The majority of farmers in Watauga County don’t produce food crops, don’t practice organic cultivation, and are part-time farmers over the age of 50.  Most consumers in Watauga County shop at a grocery store, but some take efforts to look for organic or locally produced (or both) foods.  The evidence we have found so far confirms our hypothesis.

Presentation of Evidence

What both Katy and Austin have found in their research of the U.S. Census of Agriculture and in the Watauga County Cooperative Extension Agriculture Survey suggests that our group’s hypothesis about the majority of farmers in Watauga county being part time farmers over 50 is CORRECT. This evidence is supported in more than one place and therefore is assumed highly accurate. However as far as the non-food crop to food-crop ratio goes, it is still unclear whether the majority of Watauga county crops are food or cash crops.  Austin’s research, from the Survey of Current and Future Agriculture and Agricultural Interests and Needs in Watauga County, shows that out of the crops currently being produced in Watauga County, the top four crops are cattle, hay, christmas trees, and tobacco.  While cattle could be considered a food crop, hay, christmas trees, and tobacco are not.  Since cattle is a food crop and is produced by the most farmers in Watauga County, the part of our hypothesis that states that the majority of farmers in Watauga County do not produce food crops may not be correct.  Victoria’s evidence is relative to the ethnic and social statistics we were researching, but so far neither confirm or refute our hypothesis.

As far as the number of part time farmers over 50 is concerned, we believe that this is caused by farming being a less popular occupation in the last few years due to the relatively low income which does not appeal to younger people of today who can make more money in other, less physically demanding, fields of work.  Katy’s research from the U.S. Census of agriculture shows that the average net cash income of farm operation in 2002 was $2,214 and the average production expenses per farm were $9,148.  Katy’s research also shows that the average age of principle farmers in the United States was 57 in 2002.  Austin’s research from the Survey of Current and Future Agriculture and Agricultural Needs in Watauga County shows that out of 32 full time farmers in Watauga County, 25 were over 50 years old and 7 were under 50 years old.  The research also shows that out of 63 part time farmers in Watauga County, 43 were over 50 years old, 18 were under 50 years old, and 2 did not give their age.

Possible Upcoming Interviews:

So far, we have not interviewed anyone because our research mainly consists of gathering already exsisting information from the U.S. Census of Agriculture (Katy), the U.S. Census Bureau (Victoria), and the Survey of Current and Future Agriculture and Agricultural Interests and Needs in Watauga County (Austin).

In the future we could possibly be interviewing a former Watauga student, named Shannon, who has done research in this area.

We might also interview Margie from the Cooperative Extension office about her survey results.

RELATIVITY TO THE COURSE:

In our IDS 1103-102 course, we have learned a lot about food systems and their impact on the economy, the environment, human health, and many other aspects of our lives.  The information we have gathered from the U.S. Census of Agriculture (Katy), the U.S. Census Bureau (Victoria) and the Survey of Current and Future Agriculture and Agricultural Interests and Needs in Watauga County (Austin) relates to many of the topics we have discussed in our class. In our course we talked about how farmers are losing power due to corporate takeovers in the agriculture industry. Our findings that most farmers are of an advanced age indicate that younger people notice the lack of power and income associated with farming. This shows that our evidence supports what we are talking about in the course: agriculture is becoming industrialized and farmers are aging out. This profession is in danger of becoming extensively government regulated.  In the course we have also discussed and read about the pros and cons of both local and organic food systems.  We have discussed the fact that not many people are aware of the advantages and disadvantages of these types of foods.  Because they are not aware of the choices, many people still buy most of their food at grocery stores rather than buying local food from places such as farmer’s markets.  We are researching the crops grown in Watauga County and information about them such as, whether or not they are organic.  Even though we have found a lot of information that relates to the class, we discussed many topics in class that do not relate to our research.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

http://www.agcensus.usda.gov/

“Survey of Current and Future Agriculture and Agricultural Interests and Needs in Watauga County”

http://www.uscensus.org

The Community Food Assesment in Cooperation with the Local Food Task Force & Blue Ridge Women in Agriculture

*Group members: Katy Bug, Austin, and Victoria*

How does this relate to our IDS 1103-102 course? Well…

Food is a fact of life. One must eat to live, but avoid living to eat. There are many food options available- but not all of them are cost-efficient. An out of season vegetable or fruit travels an average of 1,300 miles to reach the supermarket. This uses a lot of valuable non-renewable energy in the transport process, not to mention the very production of that food! Our project is about learning how to create awareness of food within the community and promote local foods which may be grown in conventional or organic settings and offer the benefits of putting money back into our community through local consumption. Our food course is teaching us about the benefits of a local food mindset in which community members help out others by buying and using their products. This reduces dependency on other states and nations, dependency on fossil fuels, and dependency on government regulated foods.

Main Inquiry for Project:

How can statistics pertaining to social, economic, and practical components of farming help us understand food in our community? What food is produced within the community? Who produces our food?

Hypothesis:

The majority of farmers in Watauga County don’t produce food crops, don’t practice organic cultivation, and are part-time farmers over the age of 50.  Most consumers in Watauga County shop at a grocery store, but some take efforts to look for organic or locally produced (or both) foods. We believe that our Hypothesis is correct because we have had some time to do background research and have incorporated knowledge acquired from our readings to compile a list of possible results. Our hypothesis is the compilation of the most likely results (on average) that occur throughout our inquiry.

We will be working with Blue Ridge Women in Agriculture for our Community Project. Our main project goal is to collect information about the local community for BRWIA and the Local Food Task Force to use in their Community Food Assessment. Our group will find and analyze information about population, poverty, and the cost of living in the community in addition to facts on farmers and farming practices. We will focus on Watauga County.

The group is expected to find information about the size of farms, what type of crops they grow, and the profit they make. BRWIA is also interested in their expenses such as the price of land, the cost of living and how they pay for them. We will work with pre-existing data from the United States Census and the Census of Agriculture as well as information collected by the Cooperative Extension. We will analyze this data and compile it into a more organized and complete reference
source for the Community Food Assessment.

We will use several different methods to complete this project. We will look through the United States Census and the Census of Agriculture to find any data that may be relevant to the Community Food Assessment. We will also interview farmers and other members of the community to obtain new information. We will interview community members in person, over the phone, or through e-mail.We have agreed on several expectations for the members of the group and for Chelly Richards, our community partner from BRWIA. We expect each member of the group to do their fair share of work and to meet and communicate regularly with the rest of the group and with Chelly. Group members need to have an open mind, cooperate, and respect each other. We also need to finish our work in a timely manner. We expect Chelly to respect the group members and communicate with us regularly. We would like her to set clear goals and guidelines for us and confirm these in writing. We also expect Chelly to give us advice, direction, and honest feedback on our work.

Divisons of Responsibilities:

Katy Bug will be using the Census of Agriculture to find out what food is produced in the community and who produces it. The numbers of farms and their acreage as well as ownership and upkeep details, land preservation practices, crop production details, number of farmer’s markets and CSA’s.

Austin will be using the information given to the group by Cooperative Extension on local agriculture and food processing in order to find out more about who is producing our food and what food we can produce for ourselves. Information on data such as numbers of organic farms, crops grown in any certain area, and numbers of community gardens will be collected from this information.

Victoria will be using the National Census to report facts on poverty, population, growth rate and costs of living for Watauga County residents. In addition, she will also help Austin research information such as salaries, costs of living, gender, age and revenue on Watauga County farmers through Cooperative Extension data.

All of this data once found will be categorized and incorporated into the final presentation.

Strengths and Weaknesses:
We found that our group has many strengths and a few weaknesses. Our strengths are that we are organized, this means we will be able to establish and meet deadlines. Our organization skills are strengths because we will be able to keep track of the information involved in the project. We can be creative and enthusiastic about the project. Our creativity is a strength because people are more likely to pay attention to information that is creatively displayed. This will make it easier for us to spread our information in the community. Being enthusiastic is a strength because it means we will have fun doing the project. We will also devote more time to the project if we are enthusiastic about it. We will also be aware of people feelings while working with them. This can be a strength because people are more likely to want to speak with others who are kind to them and consider their feelings. This could also be a weakness because it might make us avoid conflict. Dealing with conflict is an important part of the success of any group. We may have some trouble working with data because the majority of our group is not good at managing this kind of information. This is a weakness because we will be working with a lot of information. In order to overcome this weakness, the group members who are not good at dealing with this kind of information will have to support the one who is. We may have trouble facing reality. Two of our group members like to look for possibilities rather than the facts. This can be a positive thing because those group members may think of new ideas for the project. However, this could be a negative thing because some group members may believe we can accomplish more than is actually possible. We may also have trouble actually talking and interacting with people because the majority of the group members are introverts. In order to overcome these weakness we will have to cooperate and be understanding of each other. We will have to support each other and work on the hard aspects of the project together. We should be able to balance our strengths and weaknesses by adhering to the expectations we have established for the group. We believe we will be able to work well together and accomplish our goals.