Tag Archives: local food

Double Your Donation to End Malnutrition in Honduras and Guatemala

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Right now, the rate of malnutrition in Central America is staggering. In the Alta Verapaz region of Guatemala, 60 percent of the population suffers from chronic or acute malnutrition. Six out of 10 children struggle with malnutrition in the Lempira region of Honduras. These communities face an infant mortality rate of 28 deaths for every 1,000 births. That’s almost five times worse than the United States. But, we can do something about it.

During the month of March, your gift to Heifer International can be matched dollar-for-dollar thanks to a generous benefactor and international partners, every dollar raised for three new projects in Honduras and Guatemala will be doubled. Stretch your dollar further and double your impact to help provide the training and livestock needed by families to help put more food on the table.

Cary Rubelse and Eduardo Najera Gonzalez, Guatemala

Cary Rubelse and Eduardo Najera Gonzalez can drink goat’s milk to increase their nutrition.
Photo by Russell Powell, courtesy of Heifer International

In Honduras, Heifer is working alongside communities in Lempira to improve health and nutritional food security by 2016. Training in areas like micro-enterprise initiatives, gender equity and sustainable farming practices will help improve production and full inclusion in the community. Farming and income diversification will be impacted by the placement of cows, goats, poultry and bees.

Heifer has started two projects in the Alta Verapaz region of Guatemala to help families to produce more on their family farms through the use of stronger livestock, seeds and improved agroecology.

Gifts of livestock and training provide improved nutrition and additional family income along with the chance for vulnerable children to grow up healthy and strong. In addition, these kids will have the opportunity to break the cycle of poverty by attending school.

Elmer and Lisbe Gonzalez

Elmer and Lisbe Gonzalez now have the opportunity to attend school.
Photo by Russell Powell, courtesy of Heifer International.

In order to maximize this March match, we need to raise at least $831,000 by generous supporters like you. These projects cannot move forward without your help. Right now, any gift made to this project will be matched dollar-for-dollar. Click here to find out more or to donate.

Direct Sales and the Future of Local Food

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Editor’s note: The following is a guest post from an outgoing Heifer International intern, Lesley Waterson. If you are interested in becoming an intern with Heifer International, please contact interns@heifer.org.

Friday was the conclusion of my internship with Heifer International. Since April 2012, I have been working closely with Heifer’s USA Country Program. I received assignments on a wide range of topics, which included internal management of Heifer USA’s documentation, investigation of state legislation to support local food, and research on direct sales avenues for local farmers. Seeing the newly renamed USA Seeds of Change Enterprise (SOC) evolve throughout the course of my time at Heifer has provided valuable perspective, and I am truly grateful to have worked with a team of passionate and creative individuals.

Local Food

Lesley, right, and Heifer International staff member Senchel Matthews on a site visit in Hughes, Arkansas. Photo courtesy of Heifer International.

The shift in direction that SOC is taking will no doubt offer Heifer a plethora of new opportunities. With a strong entrepreneurial spirit, SOC will eventually lead to building relationships with food sector businesses and has the potential to play a larger role in how Americans get their food. But where does this process begin?

Poco a poco se anda lejos. English translation: “Little by little, one goes far.”

This is one of my favorite Spanish proverbs. To me, it means that success comes slowly and with deliberate steps. If we want to build a successful social enterprise for Heifer’s domestic farmers, we need to start small, create a strong cooperative model, and move toward expanding the market from there. One of the ways to start small is to establish a handful of direct markets. Direct markets (i.e. farmers’ markets, community supported agriculture [CSAs], online local buying programs) offer small- and mid-scale farmers a consistent and viable income. Products sold directly to consumers give farmers a higher profit margin than if they were to sell to a retail or wholesale supplier. (See http://newfarm.rodaleinstitute.org/depts/midatlantic/FactSheets/direct_mrkt.shtml for more information). Direct markets also side-step tedious bureaucratic processes and establish more wholesome relationships with the farmers’ clientele. Hopefully these relationships will help farmers to feel a strong sense of pride in both their products and what they are doing for the community at large.

In the research I completed on direct sales avenues, it seems that there is a growing trend of incorporating workplaces as a place for farmers to connect with new potential consumers. What’s more, workplaces offer a beautiful chance to incorporate health insurance benefits to employees. Many companies with workplace CSAs or food share programs have provided payroll deduction options and even discounts on health insurance premiums for employees who participate. These options make participating in direct local food programs all the more attractive.

Here are the perks in a nutshell:

  • Farmers gain access to a consistent market
  • Employees (i.e. clientele) get affordable access to higher quality produce and farm products
  • Partnering businesses get bragging rights on innovative employee benefits and wellness programs
  • Health insurance companies have healthier customers (and fewer expenses) due to increased consumption of nutrient-rich farm products

Because these workplace CSAs and food share programs are still gaining ground, the hardest players to convince about the employee health benefits are the health insurance companies. But even this obstacle is slowly being overcome. Today there are a few examples in which health insurance companies are following suit in promoting local food. For instance, Fairshare CSA Coalition—based out of Madison County, Wisconsin—has created a rebate program ($100 for individuals and $200 for families) to support employees who want to buy local food. The rebate program is managed by four insurance companies—not the businesses where employees work. Since the program’s inception in 2005, rebates were claimed for 75% of all coalition CSA shares…a whopping 28,000 rebates in total. Check out http://www.csacoalition.org/ for more information.

With the changing climate of the healthcare industry and high obesity rates in the U.S., preventative health care measures will begin to play a larger role in our lives. This makes for an ideal time to involve local food and farmers.

Let me not simplify the difficulty in developing direct markets. Implementing such a program will require a lot of time, patience and energy. It will demand a detailed and flexible planning period. However, countless articles and trends point to a growing demand for local food. The more we—as consumers—vote with our dollar in supporting locally sourced food, the bigger the message that sends to our government’s leaders to modify how subsidies are divvied up among farmers. The pendulum of where our food comes from is slowly swinging away from the globally sourced commodity crops and is shifting towards a more centralized food system. I look forward to seeing where the local food scene goes next!

Local Food

Photo courtesy of Heifer International.

It is with bittersweet feelings that I conclude my internship with Heifer. It will be sad to leave all of the lovely employees and friends I’ve made who work at Headquarters, but the time that I’ve spent here has been overall an excellent experience. I look forward (and with great anticipation) to seeing how Heifer progresses—especially with such a colorful program like the Seeds of Change Enterprise.

We thank Lesley for her time here and wish her all the best in her future endeavors. If you are interested in becoming an intern with Heifer International, please contact interns@heifer.org.

U.S. Drought Hurting Small Farmers, Too

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The United States continues to suffer worst drought in half a century. Most of the media coverage tells of horrible corn and soybean yields and the rising food costs we’ll be seeing in grocery stores next year.

U.S. Drought map

Often left out of the conversation, however, are the small farmers who grow for local markets, particularly those who can’t afford crop insurance or who raise livestock (which doesn’t have the same safeguards as staple crops). Despite being typically diverse in what they grow (generally a good strategy for mitigating disasters like weather or pests), the lack of rainfall and incredibly high temperatures are taking a serious toll.

One of these farmers is a personal friend of mine. In fact, we first met as volunteers at Heifer Ranch. Katie Short of Farm Girl Natural Foods raises pigs, cattle and chickens. She was recently interviewed by a Central Arkansas newspaper, Sync Weekly, about how the drought has affected her operations. She said:

Spring rains usually give us enough grass; it’s called stockpiling, and it piles up in pasture enough to get through hot dry months. But we did not get that spring rain, so we did not get the spring grass. So that’s been the number one concern — is there enough forage to feed our animals, primarily the cows? We supplement the chickens and pigs with grains, and they’re eating more grain than they would otherwise. With the cattle, we’ve had to make some hard decisions, and we’ve started to cull the herd to preserve grass we have.

And:

Think of the range in this drought; much of the grain fed to chickens and pigs is grown in the grain belt in the Midwest, and they’ve been impacted. I’ve seen some forecast of grain prices, and that’s terrifying. It affects the decisions we make in the long-term of our operation in terms of animals we can support sustainably.

 

Jersey-red angus cross cow

One of Farm Girl's cows. Photo by Adelia Kittrell.

Small livestock farmers like Short are being slammed in all directions as a result of the drought. Lack of rainfall dries out pastures; it’s too expensive to irrigate the fields; they can’t afford the supplemental feed the animals need in the short-term; they’ll end up selling their products sooner and at lower prices; the livestock feed costs for next season will be even higher, as this year’s grain harvests will be so bad; and there is little to no external assistance available (while President Obama’s announcement that the U.S. government would purchase $170 million in meat from farmers and ranchers, it is unclear what the qualifications for receiving this assistance will be) .

This isn’t happening only in Arkansas (though can I say we’re looking particularly bad on the map above?). And it’s not just small livestock farmers. So what can we do about it? Well, this is a great example of when buying locally really can make a difference. Go to your farmer’s market or nearest produce stand. Buy the ugly tomatoes, the smaller-than-desirable ears of corn, the cuts of meat you usually pass over. Meet the farmers, get to know their stories. Ask them how they’re coping with the weather. Offer your sympathy, and buy some of their products.

 

Finding Inspiration Close to Home

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One of my favorite things about my job is traveling around the world and meeting the incredible people with whom we work – the inspiring women, the innovative men, and the curious children.

And sometimes, to meet such people, my travel is much shorter, just an hour’s drive away to Heifer Ranch in Perryville, Arkansas.

I traveled with Heifer’s executive leadership team and Ish from sr4partners (incredible organization, you should check them out!) and we spent almost two days at the Heifer Ranch. Our group consisted of Steve Denne, COO; Bob Bloom, CFO; Cindy Jones-Nyland, Executive Vice President of Marketing and Resource Development ; Leesa Ferguson, Vice President of Human Resources, René Rockwell, Executive Office Director and Board Liaison; Hilary Haddigan, Director of Planning and Effectiveness; and of course, myself.

During our stay we were invited to dinner with the volunteers (these volunteers actually live and work on the farm). The catch? We were cooking dinner!

The first order of business was to review our ingredients and see what we could create.

There was a delicious array of food (not shown above!) grown by the wonderful people at the Ranch.

So we organized our menu, assigned tasks and we got to work!

As the meal began to come together, the kitchen filled with jokes, stories and laughter.

It wasn’t as if this was our first time together. We all see each other in meetings and around the office and we talk… a LOT…every day. The difference, of course, was the environment. Oh and the food! There’s something incredible about cooking your meal and knowing that the food that you’re preparing came from the land, just outside. Heifer Ranch has a great Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program that provides seasonal produce from the end of April until September and all the food is grown in a certified, organic, agricultural environment - now that’s what I call good eating!

Our finished spread was delicious and included fried chicken, pasta with a marinara sauce, stuffed bell peppers, a chocolate bread pudding, and additional treats provided by the volunteers.

But that wasn’t even the best part. The highlight was the opportunity to break bread with various Ranch volunteers and other Heifer co-workers. It wasn’t just about the food

(although it was a delightful perk!), it was also about the conversation and camaraderie.

The Ranch has these incredible volunteers that come from across the United States and even from other countries (a current volunteer is from Morocco!) and they range from students just out of high school to retirees. There jobs entail so much more than just tending to the agriculture. They also lead the educational programming, care for livestock, maintain facilities and provide operations support.

This was Ish’s second time at the Ranch and I asked him what he thought. He said, “From the moment you are at the Ranch and meeting with the volunteers and staff, you can just feel the commitment and the dedication. This is Heifer’s mission and vision in action. All of these people are committed to Heifer’s inspiring work.”

And he’s absolutely right. What matters to these people is the ability to serve and work towards Heifer’s mission of ending hunger and poverty while caring for the earth. They want to see a change, and they recognize that they can help set the wheels in motion. It really is inspiring.

In our conversations, we learned the stories of the volunteers, how they heard about Heifer, what their future plans were and we even had some volunteers share their innovative ideas (I have a whole list!). One volunteer shared with us: “The Ranch changed my life. I feel strongly connected to making sure it continues to be a source of empowerment, knowledge and motivation.”

In addition to discussions of ending hunger and poverty, we managed to squeeze in a few games of Foosball. It’s one of the rare times you’ll see Steve and me on opposite teams. I think I held my own!

It was an early night for us as Steve, Cindy, Bob, Leesa, René, Hilary, and I still had another day of discussions and brainstorming. But a dinner with the volunteers was just what we needed to keep up our momentum and morale.

If you’re looking for a way to connect to Heifer’s work closer to home, I highly suggest a visit to Heifer’s Ranch. For more information, visit Heifer’s website.

I thank the wonderful volunteers at the Ranch for a lovely time and I can’t wait for my next visit.

In Context: What’s Cooking In Bangladesh

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Food is the best way to learn about a place. Bangladesh’s heritage shines through its cuisine. At one time an outpost of the Mughal Empire, Bangladeshi food is based in a rich combination of spices and dried fruits and nuts. Mughal cuisine distinctly features gravies, pilafs, kebabs, and fruit like apricots, peaches, plums and melons.

The Bangladeshi approach to food

Photo courtesy of Southern Foodways Alliance, Creative Commons

A true Bangladeshi meal is comprised of plain rice, khichuri ( a rice dish best described as “everything but the kitchen sink”), lentils, a variety of fish and/or vegetables and Indian chappatti (flat bread used for sopping up sauces and curries). The food can be very sweet or extremely spicy.

The use of fish and flaming hot spice pastes is what makes meal time unique and sets the cuisine apart from her neighbors, India and Myanmar.

Fish

As every Bangladeshi knows, “Machh e bhat e Bengali” (Bangla for fish and rice make a Bengali). However, don’t expect to eat a lot of sea fish. A land full of rivers, river fish are by far the most popular and valuable fish. The fish is fried in a spice paste batter and served with rice.

Ground spice pastes

A combination of spices, roots and green chili peppers are ground together and used to flavor everything from meat, fish, fruits and vegetables. Spice paste flavor combinations can include ginger, garlic, red chili peppers, turmeric, onion, cinnamon, coriander, cumin or mustard seeds. Unlike in indian cuisine where the spices are popped in hot oil, in Bangladesh, the spices are ground together with a pestle and mortar.

Rice

There are four types of rice dishes, biriyani, pillau, khichuri and bhat (plain rice). Biriyani is rice cooked with chicken, beef or mutton. Pillau is the vegetarian version of biriyani. Khichuri is rice that is cooked with vegetables, lentils and fruit and is often served with meat. Bhat is plain white rice, served with every meal.

Hungry yet? Take a trip to Bangladesh without ever leaving home. Add some excitement to dinnertime and try this basic khichuri recipe.

  • 1 cup lentils (yellow moong dal which can be found at asian grocery stores)
  • 2 cups rice
  • 2 tsp finely diced ginger
  • 1 tbsp salt
  • 2/3 cinnamon stick
  • 2 small bay leaves
  • 1/2 cup ghee (clarified butter)
  • 4/5 clove

Method:

  1. Wash the rice
  2. Pan fry the lentils until they begin to soften
  3. Sautee the ginger and bay leaves in ghee
  4. Add the rice, lentils and salt to the ginger and bay leaves and cook for 10 minutes on medium to medium-high heat
  5. Add five cups of boiling water and the salt
  6. Cover pot once the water comes to a boil
  7. Simmer on low heat for 20-25 minutes
  8. Add 1/2 teaspoon of red chili powder and 1/2 teaspoon of turmeric

 

In Context: Seasonal Eats

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Editor’s note: In Context is a new series designed to inform and educate you on Heifer’s work in each country we have a presence. Every two weeks we’ll tackle a different country and examine unique situations related to hunger and poverty, how Heifer works to address them as well as take some time to explore local culture and traditions.

Photo by Ketowna09 courtesy of Creative Commons

No matter where you live, you can do your part to improve the food system (and your well-being in the process).

This video from www.eatrealeatlocal.ca illustrates what’s happening to the food system in Canada.


An easy way to pitch in and start fixing the problem is to eat local. When you eat local you eat with the seasons; you eat your fruits and vegetables the way they were meant to be eaten.



Benefits include:

Flavor: Fruits and veggies right after they’repicked during their growing season taste fresher and have a lot more flavor.

Environment: When grown in their ideal season,plants are naturally stronger and more resistant to pests and disease so thatthey require fewer pesticides and fertilizers
Nutrition: Certain fruits and vegetables canonly be grown during certain seasons. When you buy them off-season, you’relikely purchasing food that was picked weeks or months, earlier. Since producestarts to lose nutrients shortly after they have been picked meaning out ofseason has lower nutritional values.

And don’t forget,when you eat with the seasons, you keep wealth in your community.

While specific cropsand harvest dates vary by region, here is a sampling of fruits and veggies youcan expect to find at the market this spring.

  • Apricots
  • Asparagus
  • Beets
  • Cherries
  • Fava Beans
  • Greens
  • Lemons
  • Mint
  • Peas
  • Strawberries
  • Turnips

To find out what’s in store for you this spring, check out Locavore on iTunes. It’s an app that tells you what fruits and veggies are available in yourarea.

In Context: Local Eats

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Editor’s note: In Context is a new series designed to inform and educate you on Heifer’s work in each country we have a presence. Every two weeks we’ll tackle a different country and examine unique situations related to hunger and poverty, how Heifer works to address them as well as take some time to explore local culture and traditions.

Most of the time, eating local is the way to go. Besides theobvious benefits, like boosting the local economy, it just plain tastes better.Produce is fresher and we get to eat with the seasons—tasting fruits andveggies at their peak. In Cambodia, much of the cuisine is focused on locallygrown, locally produced foods.


The Cambodian diet consists of mainly rice and fish although noodles are also popular. Rice, which contributes about 68% of daily caloric intake, is a component of nearly every meal and an essential ingredient in many desserts.

Fish makes up 70% of the protein in the Cambodian diet. In fact, fish is so vital to Cambodian culture that the national currency, the riel, is named after a small silver carp that is a dietary staple for many Cambodians.


The popular breakfast dish Num Bahn Choc or Cambodian Morning Soup varies in taste according to region and season. This noodle dish is a great example of eating local. Thebasic ingredients to this soupy, rice-y noodle dish are the same: fermentedfish paste, rice and noodles. The rest of the ingredients however, are a combination ofherbs, vegetables and greens available at that morning’s market.

A farmer’s market in Cambodia
A Peek Inside the Pantry
Mint, coriander and lemongrass traditionally flavor fish,rice and noodles but a true Cambodian meal also includes:
Prahok, a fermented fish paste, which is used in a varietyof ways and is found in nearly every dish.

Kroeung is a spice paste made up of star anise, cardamom, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and turmeric.

Morning Glory (also known as swamp cabbage or water spinach)is used as a vegetable but is actually an herb. Grows in marshy areas. Tasteslike spinach.
Cooked Morning Glory
Photo by Andy Wright, courtesy of Creative Commons

Kabocha or “Cambodian Pumpkin” is a winter squash, broughtto Cambodia by the Japanese in the 1500s. It’s sweeter than butternut squashwith a texture that’s a cross between pumpkin and sweet potato.

Kabocha
Photo by The Unseasoned Wok, courtesy of Creative Commons
Slek Bas or Vine vegetable/Ivy gourd is a leafy green looks like a lot like Morning Glory but tastes like a mix of spinach and watercress.


iPoultry

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We’ve told you time and again the benefits that chickens bring to our beneficiaries around the world. But you might be surprised to learn that there are a few employees here at Heifer headquarters who raise chickens in their backyards. It’s a growing trend for city dwellers in the U.S., especially with the rise of the local food movement. Besides, who wouldn’t want fresh eggs any time they wanted them?

A screen shot of the Pickin’ Chicken app from Mother Earth News article.

If you’re interested in finding out how to set up your own coop, yep, there’s an app for that. From Mother Earth News, the Pickin’ Chicken Breed Selector helps you find the perfect bird based on your climate, how much space you have and whether you want eggs, meat or both. It’s available on iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch.

The app features 82 breeds and 100 varieties of the fowl, so you’ll have plenty to choose from. You can even look into raising Heritage or endangered breeds.

If chickens aren’t your thing, but plants are, there are a number of apps for gardening available out there too. iTunes has a variety of apps that range in price from 99 cents to $9.99.

So if you’ve wanted to get in to growing or raising your own food, but didn’t know where to start, now you’ve got no excuse. But I wouldn’t blame you if you wanted to wait until Spring.

This Town Grows Its Own Food

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For your morning inspiration, I point you to this story about the town of Todmorden, West Yorkshire, that is striving to become self-sufficient in food by the year 2018. They already have loads of vegetable and fruit plots around town, and residents are free to be a part of the give-and-take.

I absolutely love this idea, and I’m interested to see what comes of it. I’ve been on my friendhbors (you know, friends who happen to be neighbors) to start something like this small-scale. Just imagine a whole town working to grow their own food! What a great example of food sovereignty.

Support Your Local Beehive

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Post by Heifer International Manager of Adult Education Todd Montgomery.

If you, like me, are a casual reader of the news (and yes…this very blog), you have gotten wind of a bit of a controversy surrounding the importing and selling of honey here in the U.S.  The consuming public seems to be keenly interested in what constitutes honey, its place of origin, and the systems of processing the honey and preparing it for its trip to market.  Why does this matter so much?  As a consumer in a global market and a novice beekeeper, I have my own opinions.  Deep down, we have some weird inkling that buying honey (or any other agricultural product) from half a world away just seems a little out of whack.  The question isn’t why should we buy local.  The question is why shouldn’t we.

Let’s compare our habits as consumers with those of the honey bees as producers.  A worker bee will forage for nectar within a 2.5 mile range of her hive.  Using the sun as her compass and following the directions of her sisters, she’ll locate flowering shrubs, plants, trees, and crops.  She’ll gather nectar in her stomach and pollen on the tiny hairs on her legs.  One she has a full load; she’ll fly back to the hive in a bee-line (yes, that is the origin of the term.) and make her deposit.  The nectar is stored in thousands of hexagonal-shaped combs.  The bees will fan the nectar to evaporate the water.  The condensed product is honey.  The pollen is used to feed the young bees.  The bees collect more than enough honey to feed the hive so the excess is stored for the winter when it will be too cold to forage.  The art/science of beekeeping is essentially encouraging the bees to produce enough excess honey for the beekeeper as well.    

The honey bee is a strong advocate of supporting a local food system.  Honeybees are remarkably resourceful.  They will collect the nectar of nearly any flower, and honey bees can live in a wide range of habitats because of this resourcefulness and their instinct to prepare for hard times.  Each hive is a product of its specific environment and habitat.  By the way, the worker bees only live for 6 weeks to 3 months depending on the time of year.  For the most part, they won’t live long enough to see the hive benefit from their hard work.  They just do it because they “know” it is right and natural.  

Let’s not kid ourselves.  We live in a global economy.  My coffee comes from Central America; my shoes are from Southeast Asia.  I drove to work today in an automobile powered by fossil fuel from who knows where.  I am, for the most part, no longer a product of my local habitat and resources.  I think I represent the majority in these respects, and I don’t think this is necessarily a bad thing.  But I know that supporting local agriculture is a good thing.  How do I know?  I’ve had local, raw honey.  Don’t believe me?  Try it.  When you eat a spoonful of local honey, you are directly plugging yourself into a value-added food chain.  Soybeans, gardenias, apple blossoms, clover, and dandelions may all be in the mix, depending on where you live; all of these plants benefit from visits from bees.  They all have a place in our habitat and food system, and so do I.  At a very basic level, though, it doesn’t make sense to import a product from thousands of miles away when the same product, at a higher quality, can be found nearby.  

Be an active participant in your local food system.  Try local honey.  

Trust me, I’m a beekeeper.