Food, Farms and Our Future

Posted November 2008

CIAS advisory council members and staff talked about organic farming, sustainable agriculture and locally grown food as part of the 4th Street Forum at Milwaukee Turner Hall on November 20th. The forum aired on Milwaukee Public Television the following weekend. CIAS participants included former advisory council member Will Allen from Growing Power, who was awarded a 2008 MacArthur Foundation Fellowship in Septemer; current adviser Ron Doetch, Michael Fields Agricultural Institute; current adviser Deirdre Birmingham, organic apple grower and vice-president of the Organic Farming Research Foundation Board of Directors; and Michelle Miller, associate director. The group engaged in a discussion of sustainable food systems and then entertained excellent questions from the live studio audience. A podcast of this forum is available at www.milwaukeeturners.org/fourth-street-forum/podcasts/index.shtml

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Vegetable Storage Crops Workshop

Learn how to extend your marketing season by growing and selling winter storage crops like carrots, beets, winter squash, cabbage, potatoes, onions, garlic and more. This workshop will be held on December 4 in Hudson and December 11 in Madison. For details, see the workshop flyer. Hope to see you there!

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CIAS in the community

CIAS Hosts Annual Meeting of Eco-Apple Growers

On Thursday, November 12, CIAS hosted its annual meeting of apple growers engaged in its Eco-Apple pesticide reduction program. Notably, the group of 48 growers celebrated the successful completion of a six-year effort designed to reduce the use of pesticides on orchards throughout Wisconsin. During the course of the program, all reporting orchards demonstrated a reduced reliance on pesticides in favor of a diversity of IPM strategies, and some realized a near-total elimination of organophosphate applications. CIAS thanks its team of growers for their enthusiastic and committed participation. In particular, CIAS wishes to thank Dave Flannery, Wendy Schafer, Bill Stone and Anna Maenner for their fortitude in seeing this phase of the project through to a successful conclusion. UW rsearchers Dan Mahr, Patty McManus, Matt Stasiak and Teryl Roper have been critical to the project’s success. Thanks also to EPA-V and the USDA for their support and encouragement.

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