This quarterly electronic newsletter of FARM & HOME ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT PROGRAMS is produced by the staff of the National Farm*A*Syst/Home*A*Syst office. The aim of this newsletter is to inform interested readers about voluntary pollution prevention programs around the nation and about new research and policy impacting the management of environmental risk on farms and in homes. We intend for this newsletter to be a forum for news and discussion about ongoing programs and new approaches. For more information, or to contribute to this newsletter, please refer to our website (http://www.uwex.edu/farmasyst), or email editor, Mrill Ingram, (mingram@facstaff.wisc.edu). We welcome comments and feedback!
USDA-CSREES, USDA-NRCS, and the U.S. EPA provide support for our programs.
Farm and Home Environmental Management Programs
Room 303 Hiram Smith Hall
1545 Observatory Drive
Madison, WI 53706
Phone: 608-262-0024
FAX: 608-265-2775
Websites:
http://www.uwex.edu/farmasyst
http://www.uwex.edu/AgEMS
http://www.uwex.edu/homeasyst
http://www.uwex.edu/healthyhome
The "Partnership for Livestock Environmental Management Systems" project has been working with beef, dairy and poultry commodity organizations to develop, pilot test and evaluate environmental management assessment system materials and delivery approaches in nine states (Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Montana, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia and Wisconsin). Representatives in these states are pilot testing assessment tools, and refining Environmental Management System strategies to fit their specific commodity and location.
In Georgia, for example, cooperators are developing an "ag version" of the ISO 14001 standard, which will include only the elements that make sense in poultry. Partners are aiming to begin developing on-farm EMSs in Georgia by this fall.
Montana's team of ranchers and extension researchers has focused on self-assessment tools for water quality. Eight ranchers have volunteered to move forward to develop an EMS.
In Wisconsin, staff with UW-Extension's Nutrient and Pest Management Program are currently pre-testing assessments on farms to get input from the producers about how to improve them.
For more information about the development of these agricultural EMSs, please visit http://www.uwex.edu/AgEMS/livestock/index.html. If you reside in one of the cooperating states or work with commodity organizations in other states and are interested in joining in these efforts please contact the cooperators in your state, or the principal investigators for more information.
Return to Table of ContentsConsumers can now take action to protect their families' health - on the Internet. Called Help Yourself to a Healthy Home: Protect Your Children's Health, a new, interactive web-based tool takes users through a series of questions about their daily living habits, and provides a personalized "action check list" of easy, low-cost steps for protecting children from hazards such as lead poisoning and improper pesticide use. According to program manager Sarah Van Tiem, many people are unaware of the everyday dangers children may face around the house or apartment. "People think of their homes as the safest place to be," says Van Tiem. "However, everyday household items like cleaning products or the paint on your walls may pose serious health threats."
The web tool covers lead poisoning, drinking water quality, pesticide use, indoor air quality and hazardous household products. To visit the web tool, go to http://www1.uwex.edu/healthyhome/tool. A demo cd of the webtool is also available. For more information, visit http://www.uwex.edu/healthyhome. The Healthy Home Partnership also has printed versions of the booklet, Help Yourself to a Healthy Home: Protect Your Children's Health available in English by calling the federal government's Consumer Information Center at 1-888-878-3256. For larger quantities or the Spanish version of the booklet, call (608) 262-0024.
Return to Table of ContentsNew resources for fruit growers are now available from Michigan. Orchard*A*Syst: Pesticide and Nutrient Management for Orchard is aimed at helping tree-fruit producers better control pests while reducing environmental and health risks and improving product quality. A companion publication, Seasonal IPM Checklist for Orchards, outlines IPM activities for all phases of the growing season, from preseason through postharvest. The documents were produced under a joint EPA/PESP project with the National Farm*A*Syst/Home*A*Syst office, and are based on key production and environmental issues faced by Michigan fruit growers. Orchard*A*Syst was first distributed to commercial fruit growers at the annual Great Lakes Fruit, Vegetable and Farm Market Expo held last December in Grand Rapids. Michigan Groundwater Stewardship Technicians began educational meetings with commercial fruit growers this past winter. One participant commented, "Both are good programs. My farm has lake frontage and growers seem to always attract attention. Education is the key to help solve some of the problems."
Fruit growers who complete the assessments with a certified technician are eligible for two pesticide applicator re-certification credits. Orchard*A*Syst is now available at http://www.msue.msu.edu/ipm/orchard.htm. Contact person Allen Krizek may be reached at (517) 373-9813, or krizek@msue.msu.edu.
Return to Table of ContentsThe protection and enhancement of a community's water quality depends on the participation of everyone. A new water quality education program in North Carolina is aimed at people with low literacy skills. "This group needs basic information presented in a format that allows them to understand how environmental concerns affect their quality of life," says Dr. Ellen Smoak of North Carolina A&T State University, who conceived of the program with colleague Robert Williamson.
The project, WATER: Assessing The Everyday Risks -- Just Use Good Sense! (WATER JUGS), builds off the Farm*A*Syst/Home*A*Syst model. It includes a map depicting a river running through hypothetical urban, suburban, rural and forested areas, and accompanying worksheets that assist readers in assessing risks and seeking solutions to water quality. "Our ultimate goal," says Williamson, "is to build knowledge in local communities to improve restoration, enhancement and protection of water quality."
For more information about the program, contact Ellen Smoak (smoak@ncat.edu) or Robert Williamson (Robertw@ncat.edu), NC A&T State University Cooperative Extension, P.O. Box 21928, Greensboro, NC 27420, (336) 334-7956.
Return to Table of ContentsOver 400 people at a watershed protection meeting?! That was the 2001 annual meeting for Maryland's Tributary Strategies program. Maryland's program is facilitated by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources and includes ten Tributary Teams, comprised of community volunteers, industry experts, and government officials. The teams conduct education and outreach activities such as Wade-Ins, Fish-Ins, and Dip-Ins, make policy recommendations, plant trees and oyster beds, and produce materials such as the 40-page Fragile-Handle With Care pollution protection manual.
Although the Tributary Teams coordinate activities with Maryland's 1998 Nutrient Management Law and other related ordinances, the approach is primarily collaborative as opposed to regulatory. "The EPA has recognized the benefits of our collaborative approach. The Tributary Teams are the key role players in developing new tributary strategies which are replacing a Baywide TMDL as the means to get the Bay delisted by 2010" says Jeff Skelding, Tributary Strategies Director. "Maryland's Tributary Teams have played an invaluable role in our Bay restoration efforts," said Governor Parris N. Glendening and Lt. Governor Kathleen Kennedy Townsend in a letter to team members. "You have helped us develop and refine policy, communicate the Bay cleanup message to a wide variety of audiences, and focus attention on the most pressing Bay protection issues."
Secretary of the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, J. Charles Fox, says "As we move to implement the Chesapeake 2000 Agreement, their efforts to guide policy and promote practices to protect water quality are more important than ever." The Tributary Team's website is: http://www.dnr.state.md.us/bay/tribstrat/.
Return to Table of Contents(Excerpted from an article by Sandra S. Batie & David E. Ervin. For the full article, please visit: http://www.aec.msu.edu/agecon/smith_endowment/.)
Over the last decade, Stahlbush Island Farms in Oregon decreased synthetic pesticide use by about 85 percent and significantly reduced synthetic nitrogen fertilizer use, yet raised yields and increased profit. Water is recycled and waste is composted and returned to the soil. Their sales of organic and other "sustainable agriculture" products now reach markets in 40 states and 14 countries. Stahlbush's case illustrates business-led initiatives in environmental management and may offer a glimpse of the leading edge of environmental management in agriculture.
These initiatives have occurred at the same time that there appears to be a broad recognition that past agro-environmental programs, despite progress on soil erosion and wildlife issues, have not engendered solutions to persistent, serious problems. We must take greater advantage of private initiative if we are to develop durable remedies to nettlesome agro-environmental problems, such as nonpoint water pollution. More lasting progress may be expected, if business acumen and incentive can be harnessed to lessen information and budget constraints.
Business-led environmental initiatives appear to stem from two main forces--first, a desire to lower costs and improve profits while achieving or exceeding environmental regulatory compliance (i.e., compliance-push forces) and/or second, a desire to respond to consumer demands for more environmentally friendly processes and products (i.e., demand-pull forces). In response to the first compliance-push force, many firms no longer rely on minimal compliance with environmental regulations but rather build relationships with regulators, analyze the firm's total processes with respect to the environment, and see environmental management as an essential competitive aspect of their firm's strategic approach. In response to the second force, demand-pull, firms have found market niches for so-called "green products" such as "sustainable agriculture" products. Developments such as eco-labeling permit consumers to express their willingness to pay for environmental attributes of the product or its production process
Will the next generation of agro-environmental management be led by farmers, ranchers and agri-businesses? Anecdotal evidence suggests that many farms and agribusinesses have already improved their environmental performance and profits simultaneously. These innovative production and marketing systems are still the exception rather than the rule, however. What policy actions might accelerate their development and adoption to greater economic and environmental effect? We have highlighted four areas for policy attention:
So-called "command and control" regulation does not appear to be the best model for pursuit of nonpoint pollution prevention goals. There is considerable promise in the design of more flexible strategies. Also, there are important relationships between environmental regulation and business environmental performance that need to be understood. The first relationship to be understood is that, unless there are viable and robust markets for "green products" (e.g., "pesticide-free baby food or "dolphin-safe" tuna), then regulations, or liability, or the threat of regulations and liability, are necessary to motivate companies to pursue environmental management. The second relationship to be understood is that regulations have the potential to be cost-effective if they are flexible and performance-based. That is, they need to specify what needs to be accomplished as measured by environmental outcomes, but should not dictate how these outcomes are to be achieved. Obviously, monitoring of outcomes and accountability for failure to reach performance standards is an important feature of a flexible pollution prevention policy.
The above was excerpted with permission from an article by Sandra S. Batie & David E. Ervin; available online at http://www.aec.msu.edu/agecon/smith_endowment/.
Return to Table of ContentsLast summer (2001), Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack requested faculty of Iowa State University and the University of Iowa to provide guidance on the impacts of air quality surrounding Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations. The resulting report contains information on the latest peer-reviewed scientific evidence of the impacts of CAFOs on rural residents within several miles of a livestock operation. The report concludes that CAFO air emissions may constitute a public health hazard and that "precautions should be taken to minimize both specific chemical exposures (hydrogen sulfide and ammonia) and mixed exposures (including odor)." Other air quality impacts are also discussed as well as potential new regulation. The full online report can be accessed at, http://www.public-health.uiowa.edu/ehsrc/CAFOstudy.htm.
A new report describes mini-grants programs used by various States, local agencies, and non-profit organizations to implement efforts to address nonpoint source pollution and to protect or restore watersheds, including estuaries. The report is a product of the Grants Workgroup of the State-EPA Nonpoint Source Partnership. The Partnership's purpose is to enable States and their partners to learn from each other, to build effective programs for controlling NPS pollution, and for fostering watershed protection efforts across the United States. The report can be accessed at: http://www.epa.gov/owow/nps/minigrant.pdf.
The theme of the 2002 National Poultry Waste Management Symposium, to be held October 28 - 30 in Birmingham, Alabama, is "Looking Ahead." The Program offers the latest on technology and information regarding poultry waste management, as well as presentations on social and public policy concerns. The mission of the symposium: to provide cutting edge, timely, and hard hitting presentations that address the need for comprehensive programs and that assist members of the poultry system to fulfill their individual and collective environmental protection responsibilities. For more information contact: Richard Reynnells, USDA/CSREES/PAS, 800 9th Street, SW, Room 3702 Waterfront Center, Washington, DC 20250-2220. Phone: 202.401.5352; E-mail: rreynnells@reeusda.gov. Website: http://www.alabamapoultry.org.
The National Pesticide Telecommunications Network (NPTN) handles over 23,000 calls a year on topics related to pesticides and pesticide poisonings. Its staff of pesticide professionals includes toxicologists and a medical doctor trained to answer questions about human health, label information, pesticide regulation, emergency medical treatment, safety practices when handling pesticides, and more. NPTN can be reached at 1-800-858-7378.
Kansas Food*A*Syst has issued publications on food safety for consumers and producers. "Kansas Food*A*Syst: A Food Safety Risk Management Guide for the Consumer," is a self-assessment program for evaluating food safety risks in buying and preparing food. It includes a risk checklist and information on shopping in open air food markets and on preparing food for higher risk groups such as infants and the elderly. "Kansas Food*A*Syst: A Food Safety Risk Management Guide for the Producer," contains a program to evaluate food safety risks in growing and processing foods (both meats and produce) to be directly marketed to the public. Available online at: http://www.oznet.ksu.edu/library/fntr2/.
A new book titled Guideline for Dairy Odor Management presents various ways to reduce or eliminate odor from dairy manure and other sources on dairy farms. Topics covered include odors: perception, characteristics, and measurement; sources of on-farm odors, preventing and reducing odors from livestock and other facilities, preventing and reducing odors from manure handling systems, reducing odors during land application, neighbor relations and regulation. An appendix provides an off-site odor report that can be used by producers to survey farm neighbors and help pinpoint odor problems. The book will be of interest to dairy producers, cooperative extension personnel, dairy and waste management advisors and consultants, environmental regulators, and public officials. Guideline for Dairy Odor Management, NRAES-146, is available for $10.00 per copy, plus shipping and handling, from NRAES, Cooperative Extension, 152 Riley-Robb Hall, Ithaca, New York 14853-5701. For more information or a free publications catalog, contact NRAES by phone at (607) 255-7654, by fax at (607) 254-8770, or by e-mail at nraes@cornell.edu. To learn more about NRAES visit http://www.nraes.org.
The USGS's "Pharmaceuticals, Hormones, and Other Organic Wastewater Contaminants in U.S. Streams, 1999-2000: A National Reconnaissance," found one or more pharmaceuticals, hormones, and other organic wastewater-related chemicals in 80 percent of 139 streams sampled in 30 states. The USGS field reconnaissance used newly developed laboratory methods to provide baseline information on the environmental occurrence of a wide range of organic wastewater contaminants. Most streams sampled were known, or suspected to be, susceptible to sources of human, animal or industrial wastewater. The chemicals included human and veterinary drugs, including antibiotics; hormones; insecticides; antioxidants; and household chemicals. Veterinary pharmaceuticals used in animal feeding operations may be released to the environment with animal wastes through overflow or leakage from storage structures or land application, the report said. Among the most frequently detected chemicals were plant and animal steroids. Drinking water standards or other human or ecological health criteria have been established for only 14 of the 95 chemicals detected. The report is available on the internet at http://toxics.usgs.gov/regional/emc_surfacewater.html.
This year, 2002, is the 30th anniversary of the Clean Water Act, and has been designated the Year of Clean Water. "Water Quality Initiatives and Agriculture: An Electronic Bibliography," plus other online resources are available from the Water Quality Information Center, National Agricultural Library at http://www.nal.usda.gov/wqic/Bibliographies/e-yocw.html; or contact Joe Makuch, Coordinator, jmakuch@nal.usda.gov.
Safedrinkingwater.com NEWs, is a new weekly e-newsletter for the drinking water quality community. The free online publication promises to publish the latest information on US federal, state, and local drinking water regulations, relevant articles and resources nationwide and across the globe, as well as notificaiton of public meetings, upcoming conferences and events. To subscribe, visit http://www.safedrinkingwater.com/html/subscribe.htm.
The National Drinking Water Clearinghouse offers a new "2002 Outreach Resource Guide" to assist individuals and communities in answering questions about local drinking water issues. Call (800) 624-8301 or email: ndwc_orders@mail.nesc.wvu.edu.
Looking for assessment worksheets and factsheets? Access the searchable online index of more than 700 items that have been produced for Farm*A*Syst, Home*A*Syst and related programs nation-wide. The index includes both general national-level materials and materials that have been tailored to state-specific contexts. http://www1.uwex.edu/ces/farmasyst/library/librarysearch.cfm.
Interested in learning more about Environmental Management Systems? Our "Partnerships for Livestock EMS" project has just released a 10-minute video and brochure designed to introduce potential users to the basic concepts and benefits of pursuing an EMS. The video includes interviews with farmers who have undertaken an EMS, as well as commentary from policy-makers and producer representatives about the usefulness of this approach to managing environmental risk and improving farm operation. For more information about obtaining the video, brochure and other information materials, please contact us at the address listed at the top of the newsletter.
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