Sharing risks and rewards across partners in pastured livestock-based value chains (.pdf)

Rich Pirog is a marketing and food systems research program leader for the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University. Pirog specializes in food and fiber value chains, consumer market research, food system pathways, how far food travels from farm to fork, environmental impacts of long distance food travel. Currently Pirog is the project director for the Value Chain Partnerships for a Sustainable Agriculture (VCPSA)  project.  He leads the Regional Food Systems Working Group, one of three VCPSA working groups. He also serves on the Iowa Food Policy Council.

Pirog’s work on food miles and ecolabels has been cited in magazines and publications across the United States and is used in college courses that focus on sustainable agriculture.  In 2003, he received the Iowa Sustainable Agriculture Achievement Award from Practical Farmers of Iowa, and in 2004, he received the Iowa State University College of Agriculture Award for Outstanding Achievement and Service.

Pirog has a master's degree in agricultural meteorology from the University Missouri and an undergraduate degree in earth science from Kean College in New Jersey.

Contact Information:
Iowa State University
Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture
Ames, Iowa
E-mail:rspirog@iastate.edu

Eric Meili

Organic pasture beef (.pdf)

Eric Meili is a Farm Consultant with the Extension Service at the Research Institute of Organic Farming (FiBL).  He has worked on animal production issues there since 1988.  Although his current focus is low input milk and beef production in organic farming, he also deals with breeding, feeding, husbandry of milking cows, suckler cows, beef cattle, pigs, sheep, goats, organic farm planning with animal production, construction of farms, farm business  management, practical farming, and teaching organic farming at agricultural schools.  He has traveled widely in Europe and beyond.

Meili studied agriculture at the Swiss Federal Technical University of Zurich and received a diploma for teaching at agricultural schools.  He is a member of the Swiss Federal Commission for Organic Animal Husbandry.  Before joining the staff at FiBL, Meili worked as a farm manager for an organic dairy farm and cheesemaker; an administrator for the Zurich Canton Department of Agriculture; and a mushroom production manager.

Contact Information:
Research Institute for Organic Farming
Frick, Switzerland
E-mail: eric.meili@fibl.org

Francis Thicke

On-farm processing and local markets (.pdf)

Francis Thicke, with Susan, his wife and business partner, operate Radiance Dairy, an organic, 65- head Jersey cow herd on 236 acres of pasture near Fairfield, Iowa.  The cows graze on fresh organic pasture daily. When dairy cows eat fresh grass, a study by the University of Wisconsin iscovered higher levels of Omega-3 fatty acids and Conjugated Linoleic Acids (CLA) naturally found in their milk. Omega-3s are formed in the green leaves of plants. Elevated levels of Omega-3 and CLAs will remain as long as the cows are grazing on fresh pasture.

Francis sees the farm as an organism. “You should be careful of what kind of energies and products are brought onto the farm or are taken off because you have an organism here and you want it to grow with its own integrity,” he says.  Diversity of plants and animals are the strength of the organic farming ecosystem.  
 
Thicke earned a B.A in Music and Philosophy,  an M.S. in Soil Science,and a Ph.D in Agronomics.  He worked in Washington D.C., for the USDA-Extension Service as the National Program Leader for Soil Science, before moving to Iowa to start Radiance Dairy.  He has worked with the Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Service, the Scientific Congress on Organic Agriculture Research, the Iowa Food Policy Council, the USDA State Technical Committee and the Iowa Environmental Protection Commission.  He has received awards from the Iowa Chapter of the Sierra Club, the Jefferson County Soil and Water Conservation District, and the Sustainable Agriculture Coalition in Washington, D.C.

Contact Information:
Radiance Dairy
Fairfield, Iowa
E-mail: fthicke@kdsi.net

Louise Hemstead

Identifying & developing appropriate processing locations (.pdf)

Louise Hemstead serves as the chief operating officer at the CROPP Cooperative in LaFarge, Wisconsin.  Better known as Organic Valley , the nation’s largest organic dairy cooperative boasts nearly 700 organic farmers.  Hemstead, with a staff of 100, oversees quality assurance and organic certification – from farm to finished-product distribution – for the cooperative; manages co-processor relationships; handles new product research and development; and directs distribution  inventory and freight departments.  She writes and implements co-packer agreements and contracts; reviews and recommends milk-procurement rates; and oversees scheduling 50 milk routes in 18 states and over 45 manufacturing plants.  She also is responsible for the cooperative’s Wisconsin-based Chaseburg Creamery facility, which produces the cooperative’s  organic butter output.

Her Bachelor of Science degree in Agriculture is from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Hemstead belongs to the Institute of Food Technologists, and the Wisconsin Association of Milk and Food Sanitarians.  She is past board member of the Wisconsin Specialty Cheese Institute and is a Wisconsin State Licensed Cheesemaker. 

Hemstead and husband David and their two children own & operate a 4^th generation family dairy farm in rural La Farge. A dedicated conservationist and farmer, she sits on the Kickapoo Reserve Land Management Committee, an advisory committee to a local management board overseeing the controversial aborted Kickapoo Lake project. She is an active community leader sitting on the school board, serving on her church’s council and directing a local bell choir.

Contact Information:
Organic Valley Family of Farms
LaForge, WI
E-mail: louise.hemstead@organicvalley.com

Kate Clancy

How well do current laws fit local/regional processing needs? (.pdf)

Kate Clancy is Senior Scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists, where she is working on issues in animal agriculture, sustainable agriculture and biotechnology. She was formerly Director of the Wallace Center for Agricultural and Environmental Policy, and Professor of Nutrition at Syracuse University. She has worked on agricultural and food system issues at the local, state, regional and national levels for many years, with a special emphasis on policy development and change.

Clancy is Past-President of the Agriculture, Food and Human Values Society, and the Society for Nutrition Education. Her degrees in nutrition are from the University of Washington and the University of California at Berkeley.

Contact Information:
Union of Concerned Scientists
Washington, D.C.

Temple Grandin

Farm animal audits:  Meat processors (.pdf)

Temple Grandin is a designer of livestock handling facilities and an Associate Professor of Animal Science at Colorado State University. She has designed facilities located in the United States, Canada, Europe, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, and elsewhere.  Almost half of the cattle in North America are handled in a center track restrainer system that she designed for meat plants. Her writings on the flight zone and other principles of grazing animal behavior have helped many people to reduce stress on their animals during handling.

Grandin has developed an objective scoring system for assessing handling of cattle and pigs at meat plants, used to improve animal welfare. She also researches cattle temperament, environmental enrichment for pigs, reducing dark cutters and bruises, bull fertility, training procedures, and effective stunning methods for cattle and pigs at meat plants.

She has appeared on national television and radio, and been featured in major magazines.  She has authored over 300 articles in both scientific journals and livestock periodicals on animal handling, welfare, and facility design. She is the author of Thinking in Pictures, Livestock Handling and Transport, and Genetics and the Behavior of Domestic Animals.  She obtained her B.A., then her M.S. and Ph.D. in Animal Science. 

Contact Information:
Grandin Livestock Handling Systems
Fort Collins, Colorado



Processing Break-out Session Results [coming in the future]

Margot Rudstrom

From green grass to cash (.pdf)

Margot Rudstrom is Assistant Professor and Extension Economist at the University of Minnesota, based at the West Central Research and Outreach Center in Morris, Minnesota.  Rudstrom’s current research emphasizes the economics of forage based livestock systems, with particular emphasis on rotational grazing dairies. Other areas in which she works include financial performance, variability in income, marketing plans, risk management, and transition from high capital intensive dairy systems to low capital intensity forage based production systems.  She is also interested in computer assisted learning as a vehicle for teaching farm management both in classroom and extension settings.

Rudstrom received a Ph.D. from Purdue University in production economics and agricultural marketing.  Her publications include Dairy Grazing Economics, Stearns County Dairy Farming, and Grazing: Growing Dairy Heifers. 

Contact Information:
University of Minnesota West Central Research and Outreach Center
Morris, Minnesota
E-mail: rudstrmv@mrs.umn.edu

Benjamin Bartlett

Keeping animals healthy on pasture (.pdf)

Ben Bartlett is the Michigan State University Extension Dairy and Livestock agent for Michigan’s Upper Peninsula (U.P.).  He serves farms in 15 counties across the U.P., with a focus on improved animal handling and grazing.  His monthly agriculture newsletter reaches 1100 farms and represents the voice of Upper Peninsula agriculture. 

An early and strong proponent of livestock grazing, Bartlett is in high demand as a speaker at grazing meetings across North America.  He served as Michigan ’s representative to the North Central Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Administrative Council, which he was elected to chair.  He has received numerous awards including Michigan State University’s Distinguished Academic Staff award in 2001 and an Eisenhower Exchange Fellowship to Argentina in 1999.  He is completing his work to become a Certified Holistic Management Educator. 

Bartlett is just as involved personally as professionally in agriculture.  He and his wife Denise own and operate a farm where they graze 400 sheep and 200 cattle.  Their three grown children have each earned masters’ degrees in agricultural fields and all are employed in Michigan’s agricultural sector. 

Contact Information:
Michigan State University Extension
Chatham, Michigan
E-mail: bartle18@msu.edu

Janice Swanson

Husbandry and welfare of livestock in pasture-based systems (.pdf)

Five years in the Animal Welfare Information Center in the U.S. Department of Agriculture gave Janice Swanson ample experience in the field of animal rights. Swanson, now a professor of animal sciences and industry at Kansas State University, studies agricultural animal production and its relationship to public concern toward animal welfare.

Swanson addresses animal living conditions and confinement issues in agriculture. Her training in animal behavior provides insight into the behavioral needs of farm animals kept under intensive conditions, including space and mobility requirements.

Swanson is a member of numerous professional societies including the Animal Behavior Society, the American Society of Animal Science, and the International Society for Applied Ethology. She is also a member of the Burger King Corporation Animal Well-being Council.  She has published and presented her work on agricultural animal issues in a variety of publications and to diverse audiences.  Swanson received her master's and bachelor's in animal science from the University of Connecticut and her doctorate in applied ethology from the University of Maryland.

Contact Information:
Kansas State University Department of Animal Science
Manhattan, Kansas
E-mail: jwanson@ksu.edu

Laura Paine

Grazing ecology: Conservation benefits of ruminant agriculture (.pdf)

Laura Paine is an agronomist and an Agriculture Agent with the University of Wisconsin Extension Service, based in Columbia County.  She has a broad plant science background with education and training in botany, horticulture, and agronomy.  For the last 12 years, she has been involved with research and education in the area of grazing management including resource conservation issues such as water quality, wildlife habitat, and using native prairie plants in pasture systems.

Paine will soon complete studying and training to become a Certified Holistic Management Educator. 

Contact Information:
University of Wisconsin Extension Portage, Wisconsin
E-mail: laura.paine@ces.uwex.edu

Dinner Address