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FARM & HOME ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT PROGRAMS
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. To subscribe or unsubscribe to this online newsletter, 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@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/homeasyst
http://www.uwex.edu/AgEMS
http://www.uwex.edu/healthyhome
Social Marketing: Moving Beyond Education to Action
As anyone involved in environmental protection knows, education does not always lead to new behavior. Just because someone knows that something they do can cause environmental harm, is no guarantee that they will stop. In response to a growing awareness of the shortcomings of an “education-alone” approach, people involved in issues of health, environment, education and other areas have been working with a new “social marketing” approach that is designed to go beyond informing people about issues to understand why people behave as they do and to support sustainable behaviors. Social marketing is a pragmatic, community-based strategy. It begins by assessing what people already know and believe, in order to remove barriers and provide appropriate tools to support new action.
How it works
Social marketing relies strongly on pre-testing and evaluation of messages and materials. Designers of social marketing strategies don’t assume that ignorance is the problem, but work to understand what barriers prevent people from taking action on issues they are already aware of. For example, many people are aware that commuting contributes to smog. A social marketing approach tries to understand what sorts of obstacles like inconvenience or perceptions of personal safety might be preventing a group of people from exploring alternatives to driving their own cars. A social marketing approach works to provide information along with a list of actions that can be taken and that will make a difference. This differs from the “engineered awareness” approach, in which one group of people works to inject knowledge into what is perceived as a passive audience. Social marketing in social psychology research indicating that people are more likely to change habits when they are encouraged to do so at the community level, and as the result of direct contact with people. Social marketing approaches also try to change real-world obstacles, such as establishing new bus routes, providing curbside recycling pickup, setting monetary rewards for insulating homes and other new services and infrastructure. Recycling has been so successful, for example, because the establishment of collection services has made it convenient and easy.
This approach is getting used in an increasing diversity of programs. Recycling programs and home energy use reduction programs are just two examples of successful uses of community based social marketing. In Seattle, Washington, for example, a consortium of concerned groups organized to change the way residents manage their lawns, especially in limiting the amounts of water and pesticides used. These groups launched a community based social marketing campaign for natural lawn care in 1996. The campaign relied on advertising, news articles, public relations events, a “Bert the Salmon” brochure with 6 steps to using natural lawn care, a habit change kit (which was advertised in utility bills and included a Bert the Salmon lawn sign), as well as focus groups and neighborhood meetings. Between 1997 and 2001, Seattle residents who left clippings on their lawns “most of the time” increased from 27.7 to 41 percent. Households using ‘weed-n-feed’ and similar pesticide-containing products decreased from 60 to 46.8 to percent of households; and the percentage of residents not watering their lawns increased from 18.4 to 34 percent.
A community based social marketing effort begins with setting clear objectives for a campaign and specifying a target audience. It includes building a relationship with the target audience and using surveys and focus groups in order to understand the behavior of that group, including existing levels of awareness of a problem, and barriers to action. Once this groundwork is laid, social marketing efforts try to “open the door” for people to pursue new behaviors, by providing messages that give them the optimism and skills to carry out environmentally friendly behaviors, such as composting, recycling and natural lawn care. Social marketing campaigns build in many opportunities for feedback, so that messages can be tested. Another important aspect of social marketing is commitment. Whenever possible, effective campaigns ask people to commit to an action, verbally or in writing. The most successful campaigns have had groups of people commit together and in public. In a study of efforts to save electricity and natural gas, for example, households that agreed to have their names published in the local newspaper as committed to a conservation program saved significantly more energy than did households who only gave a private commitment. The names were never in fact published, but simply asking for this permission brought about a 15% reduction in natural gas use and a 20% reduction in electricity use, for at least a year after the permissions were given.
Farm & Home Environmental Management Programs has just received a grant from the US EPA’s Pesticide Environmental Stewardship Program to develop a social marketing campaign for reducing pesticide use and risk in urban landscapes. The project is focused on landscape managers and groundskeepers working in the Lake Monona watershed in Madison and Dane County, Wisconsin. A first step in the project involves a telephone survey to learn more about what these land managers know about IPM, what their sources of information are, and how they perceive benefits and barriers to the use of IPM. The project also involves collecting existing IPM materials and messages available to professional landscapers and urban residents, and evaluating them in light of survey results. Project partners, including grassroots groups, university and public agency partners, will use these analyses to develop a “social marketing strategy” useful to urban watershed protectors nation-wide. It will include communication plans to use existing, revised or new landscaping IPM educational materials -- such as a one-stop guide for landscape managers and a “Green Landscaper” certification program.
Where to go for more information
Not Giving Mold A Chance: Bob Broz Trains People to Fight Asthma At the Source
University of Missouri Outreach and Extension water quality program coordinator Bob Broz is a busy man. He provides leadership for several water quality programs including the Missouri Watershed Information Network (MoWIN) and the Missouri Manure Management Action Group. He oversees at least 6 grant-funded projects that total more than $1.5 million and provide a range of tools to help Missourians protect their environmental quality.
This year, he began work with a new project focused on asthma. Funded by the Missouri Foundation for Health, the project provides training for a range of Missouri extension specialists on the specific triggers for asthma and how to mitigate those triggers in the home. The project will "train the trainer" for a wide range of extension specialists in two pilot areas in Missouri. Extension personnel including agricultural engineers, community development specialists and human environmental health specialists will be trained to present information to the general public and their specific audiences about asthma triggers and ways to prevent, control or eliminate sources of contaminants that can cause an asthma attack.
“We teamed up with a group of medical respiratory experts from the University of Missouri School of Medicine that provided research data, technical expertise and gave the project more validity,” adds Broz. “We are taking that research and using the indoor air quality section of the Help Yourself to A Healthy Home book as a key component of our training programs,” he explains. “We have developed several Power Point presentations to be used by extension specialists when doing their presentations, and created cds based on a Healthy Homes “house hunt” to be used as an interactive educational tool for adults and youth. The cds can be used with displays, in school health classes, by county nurses or anyone wanting information about asthma triggers or general home environmental health.”
Broz’ participation in the project is “the mold side of things.” Mold can grow if you have excessive moisture and little air movement, he says. Take away or prevent the moisture source and you have a good start on controlling mold. Moisture in the wrong place creates mold, which in turn causes property damage and human health concerns. By teaching people what to look for and identifying the causes of most molds, we can prevent costly damage to personal belongings and human health. “More people are aware of the problems associated with mold, but few people understand what is needed to prevent, control or eliminate it from an area,” says Broz.
“Our trainings have gone exceptionally well so far because we have so much good information and there are many people concerned about mold,” he says. The trainings address various sources of asthma-inducing allergens. “We recommend inexpensive solutions to help eliminate sources of asthma, like using a synthetic pillow instead of a feather one, or getting a special cover.” Pets are the number one trigger for asthma, Broz explains. While most people aren't willing to get rid of their pets, there are things that can be done to reduce pet dander in the home, such as bathing the pets often. This can help reduce the threat of an asthma attack. We can take different medications to reduce asthma attacks but if we can reduce, control or eliminate the source of that trigger, we have taken a big step in providing a healthier environment. Prevention and not medication is still the biggest key factor to reducing asthma attacks.
For information on Bob Broz work in Missouri, see:
http://outreach.missouri.edu/mowin/
http://outreach.missouri.edu/mommag/
For more information about the Healthy Homes project visit:
www.uwex.edu/healthyhome/
An EMS For Ag Air Quality Issues
Air quality is an emerging issue in agriculture, especially for big operations where large number of animals can stir up a lot of dust, and manure lagoons emit significant amounts of hydrogen sulfide and ammonia. Public complaints about illness and air pollution related to large animal operations are on the increase. In Mississippi, 1,800 residents filed class action lawsuits against large animal operations, and the state health agency has put a moratorium on new ones. Due to air pollution problems around Phoenix, Arizona requires that any farmer who farms more than 10 contiguous acres of land near the capitol city must comply with an agricultural “particulate matter” permit. As one indication of the possible impacts of air pollution, a recent German study found that dust from livestock confinement buildings was not only a respiratory risk for workers, but may also contain antibiotics added to animal feed. Reported in Environmental Health Perspectives, the research looked for chemical evidence in the air of 6 antibiotics added to pig feed at low doses to speed growth, and found that 18 of 20 air samples, gathered yearly between 1981 and 2000, contained at least one of the 6 drugs.
Under the Clean Air Act, industries that emit large amounts of dust, or certain air pollutants such as ammonia and hydrogen sulfide, must apply for permits and stay within limits. Although there currently is no federal regulation of agricultural air quality, the EPA has requested that large farms monitor air emissions. There is a lot of uncertainty about how to measure and regulate agricultural air emissions, however. Many in the agricultural sector have complained that enforcement of pollution laws has been haphazard, and that not enough information exists yet about the impacts of farming on air quality. The National Research Council, part of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering, recently reported that the EPA and the USDA failed to deliver financial or technical resources necessary to estimate how much air pollution is being emitted from concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), or to develop ways to reduce emissions. (http://www.nap.edu/catalog/10586.html). The report concluded that the EPA’s method for estimating air emissions isn’t scientifically adequate. The report also stated that the agency’s proposed rules on CAFO waste management for water may increase air pollution, for example, when a farm sprays a field with manure in order to avoid overfilling a lagoon, thereby releasing additional ammonia into the air.
The Partnerships for Livestock Environmental Management Systems pilot project in Texas provides one example of efforts to contend with this emerging issue. The Texas team has targeted dust and odor management issues in its work with cattle operations in that state. In its work with the feedyard community, the Texas LEMS project has found that operators are seeking voluntary odor-and-dust management tools to help them address community and neighbor concerns about nuisance odor and dust, and reduced visibility. Working under the title, "Texas Feedyard Air Quality Management Program (FAQMP)," Texas' LEMS project is developing a “toolkit” to help operators improve the management of airborne emissions (dust, odor, major gases) from cattle feedyards in the Texas Panhandle. Feedyard managers have expressed a need for a quick and easy way to measure air quality to help them make management decisions. Even a tool as simple as a multicolored rod installed in the feedyard can help managers measure changes in visibility early in the day and assess the dust potential for that evening, when cattle typically rise from their afternoon lethargy and move about, generating dust.
The FAQMP Toolkit also includes an air-quality risk matrix to help producers focus their attention on what emissions they need to be concerned about as a function of who or what is affected by which types of emissions. The team is creating streamlined checklists to help employees detect risk factors for dust and odor such as excessive manure accumulations, poor drainage conditions, and poor or non-uniform performance of sprinkler systems. The project is currently working with the Texas Cattle Feeders Association and more than 20 cattle feedyards in Texas and the High Plains -- representing 1.3 million head of cattle.
Announcing: New Healthy Homes Progam Manager!
The Environmental Resources Center welcomes Katherine Davey as the new program manager for the Healthy Homes Partnership. Katherine’s interest and experience in health and environmental issues began with her work as assistant director of the Center for Bioenvironmental Research of Tulane and Xavier Universities several years ago. She has worked for a number of health and environment-related nonprofits, and was most recently assistant director of the Land Tenure Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Katherine looks forward to working with Healthy Homes coordinators to expand partnerships and the program's reach. A primary goal for this next year will be to expand the Healthy Homes web site to include featured news stories, an events calendar and a “virtual toolbox” of sample healthy homes programs and materials. Over the last three years, participants of Healthy Homes have developed numerous trainings, demonstrations, publications and other programs and materials to educate people on home health threats and how to avoid them. One immediate goal will be to make these available on the web, so that people in other states may use them for their programs.
Katherine is soliciting program summaries as well as publications and other materials, in electronic or print format. If you have anything that might be appropriate for this site, please contact her at kdavey@wisc.edu or call at 608-265-2774.
The Healthy Homes Partnership is forming an editorial board to guide the development of the expanded web resource. If you are interested on serving or you know of a good candidate, please contact Katherine. In addition to expanding the web site, Katherine will be working on recruiting additional state coordinators, developing an advisory board, and holding trainings for state coordinators in the spring. Expect more details on these efforts soon.
Michigan Farm*A*Syst Key to Environmental Stewardship
Results from a recent Michigan State University (MSU) study show one of the state’s on-farm risk assessment tools – Farm*A*Syst – is key to farmers adopting environmentally sound practices. The study indicates that farmers who have gone through this assessment are more likely to store pesticides in a secure facility away from other farm areas; to annually test drinking water; to develop emergency response plans; to report hazardous pesticides and fertilizers to local emergency planning committees; and to develop drift management plans.
Michigan remain proactive and successful in preventing agriculture-related pollution and preserving our state’s vital natural resources,” said Dan Wyant, director of the Michigan “This study validates what our results already showed – Farm*A*Syst is helping Department of Agriculture (MDA). Michigan Farm*A*Syst is administered by MDA’s Michigan Groundwater Stewardship Program. Groundwater technicians located in conservation district and MSU Extension offices across the state work one-on-one with farmers to identify potential risks to water resources and then assist them in adopting effective and practical solutions to those risks. Farm*A*Syst assessment includes: soil evaluation, drinking water well condition; pesticide storage and handling; pesticide handler and worker safety; fertilizer storage and handling; hazardous waste management; septic system management; livestock manure storage and management; silage storage; and milking center waste water treatment. An on-farm petroleum storage section is being added to the program this fall. Farm*A*Syst is also one assessment tool used to verify compliance with the Michigan Agriculture Environmental Assurance Program.
For more information on Michigan Farm*A*Syst, contact MDA’s Allen Krizek at 517/373-9813. Reprinted from the State of Michigan Web Site with permission from the Michigan Department of Agriculture.
NOTES:
New EPA Guidance Encourages the Use of Environmental Management Systems in Enforcement Cases. To encourage the widespread use of Environmental Management Systems (EMSs), EPA announced in June a new guidance to promote their use in compliance assurance and enforcement programs. The guidance will increase the use of EMSs in civil settlements and also explains how they will be used to address the root causes of violations and the risks they pose to communities and ecosystems. Available at: http://www.epa.gov/Compliance/resources/policies/incentives/ems/emssettlementguidance.pdf
EPA's Pesticide Program FY 2002 Annual Report Now Available. “Promoting Safety for America’s Future,” the fiscal year 2002 Pesticide Program Annual Report highlights accomplishments of the entire federal Pesticide Program – EPA headquarters and regional offices. See:
http://www.epa.gov/oppfead1/cb/csb_page/updates/02annualrpt.htm
National Pesticide Information Center's New Brochure Now Available. The National Pesticide Information Center, the toll-free pesticide information help line, co-sponsored by EPA and Oregon State University, recently released its newly designed free brochure for distribution to the general public. The brochure contains important information about NPIC and its valuable, free services. EPA's Office of Pesticide Programs has a limited number of copies available. Visit:
http://www.epa.gov/oppfead1/cb/csb_page/updates/npicnewbroch.htm
Just Released: National Resources Inventory. NRI is a statistical survey of land use and natural resource conditions and trends on U.S. non-federal lands. It was conducted every 5 years between 1977 and 1997. Currently it is in transition to a continuous, or annual, inventory process. The first annual report is now posted on the web. It presents national-level estimates for land use, soil erosion, and urbanization and development status and trends on non-federal lands. For the press release, see:
http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/news/releases/2003/nri.html
For the report, see:
http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/technical/NRI/
New Publication: Costs Associated with Development and Implementation of Comprehensive Nutrient Management Plans (CNMPs). The 1999 USDA-EPA joint “Unified National Strategy for Animal Feeding Operations” presented a plan for addressing the potential water quality and public health impacts associated with animal feeding operations. As part of this strategy, the USDA-NRCS has just released part one of its assessment of the costs for developing and implementing CNMPs. The report states that 257,201 operations in the 1997 Census of Agriculture were identified as needing a CNMP. These operations are distributed nationwide, although there are significant pockets of concentration, with dairies accounting for the largest share. The total CNMP development and implementation cost over a 10-year implementation period was estimated to be $19.5 billion, or about $76,000 for each of the 257,201 CNMPs. The average annual cost per operation is thus about $7,600. The report is available online at: http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/technical/land/pubs/cnmp1.html
Heartland Water Quality Initiative's Animal Manure Management (AMM) monthly newsletter. The Heartland Water Quality Coordination Initiative aims to improve water quality programs and their coordination in the four Midwest states of Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska (EPA Region 7). The Initiative was developed by leaders of extension water quality programs of Iowa State University, Kansas State University, University of Missouri, and University of Nebraska. The AMM steering committee is working to improve information flow and coordination through a new newsletter. Available at: http://www.iowabeefcenter.org/heartlandwq/newsletter/0703.htm
Changes in Global Nitrogen Cycle Have Increasing Negative Effects on Human Health, Review Suggests. Humans are dramatically expanding the rate of nitrogen fixation into more reactive forms, with increasing negative effects on human health, finds a scientific review in Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment (June 2003). Conversion of atmospheric nitrogen (N) to inorganic fertilizers is "the single largest alteration of the N cycle," and half of all inorganic N use on the planet has occurred in the last 15 years. At lower levels, fertilizer use increases crop yields and can lead to improved food availability and overall nutrition, the authors write; yet higher levels are linked to negative health effects, directly through air and water pollution and indirectly through unhealthful diets and ecological changes that foster disease. "The full scope of connections between a changing N cycle and human health is not yet widely appreciated," the study notes. Alan Townsend, University of Colorado at Boulder, alan.townsend@colorado.edu, has some copies of the article available to those who request them.
Dioxins and Dioxin-like Compounds in the Food Supply: Strategies to Decrease Exposure (2003). Exposure to dioxin and dioxin-like compounds, or DLCs, occurs primarily through the food supply, although at low levels, particularly by eating animal fat in meat, dairy products, and fish. This publication recommends policy options to reduce exposure, in particular, recommending reducing the contamination of animal forage and feeds and interrupting the recycling of DLCs that results from the use of animal fat in animal feeds. Open-air burning, especially of garbage, plastics, and also plant materials, releases dioxins, or DLCs, that then can contaminate food and feed crops. The report recommends a focused effort to reduce unregulated (e.g., backyard) burning especially in animal production areas, and continued federal, state and local collaboration to provide up-to-date fishing advisories on waters that are highly contaminated with DLCs. Visit: http://www.nap.edu/books/0309089611/html/
EPA Watershed Initiative. The Bayou Bartholomew watershed, in Southeast Arkansas, is one of 20 areas selected for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Watershed Initiative, a landmark program to develop new, far-reaching plans for protection of America's most important watersheds. Collaborators include the Bayou Bartholomew Alliance, the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality, Winrock and The Nature Conservancy. Activities include study of land use and collection of stream data, development of a mussel protection program, establishment of a monitoring station, and creation of an environmental assets trading program. For more information on Bayou Bartholomew or the E.P.A. Watershed Initiative, go to: http://www.epa.gov
Southern Region Extension Water Quality Conference. Being held October 19-22, 2003, in Ruidoso, New Mexico. This 9th biennial conference includes sessions on volunteer water quality monitoring, phosphorus management, using spatial technology in extension, stormwater, livestock, and poultry waste management. Visit:
http://spectre.nmsu.edu/water/welcome.html
or contact:jerussel@nmsu.edu or (505) 646-3401
GA Agricultural EMS and Poultry Pilot Roundtable. Atlanta, Georgia, October 28, 2003. Stakeholders in livestock agriculture are invited to gather and hear about experiences and potential uses of agricultural EMSs. Contact Thomas Bass at:
tmbass@engr.uga.edu or (706) 542-2735.
3rd National Conference Nonpoint Source Pollution Information & Education Programs. October 20-23, 2003, Congress Plaza Hotel, Chicago, Illinois. Learn and share ideas on nonpoint source information and education strategies. Target audiences include nonpoint source, watershed, and TMDL program staff at the local, state, and federal levels, as well as environmental service groups that may work closely with local adult and youth education programs. See: http://www.chicagobotanic.org/research/conference/nonpoint
Sources for this newsletter include: "Alternative Agriculture News" from the Henry A. Wallace Center for Agricultural & Environmental Policy at Winrock International; "Agriculture And Natural Resources News" from the USDA Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service; "The Recharge Report" from the Groundwater Foundation; and "Wildlines Report" from the State Environmental Resource Center. Thank you!
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