ATTRA - Sustainable Agriculture

In this episode, NCAT Horticulture Specialist Tammy Howard speaks with Betsy Miller, Montana Department of Agriculture food-safety coordinator, about new regulations coming into effect as a result of the Food Safety Modernization Act of 2011. In this podcast, they focus on FSMA’s produce rule.

David Wise is a farm food safety consultant in Montana. He currently works with farmers throughout the state on helping them with their GAP certification and doing internal auditing of farmers food safety plans.

 In this edition of ATTRA: Voices from the Field, Tammy Howard talks with him about the internal audit program and different food safety certification programs throughout the state.v

This podcast features excerpts from a panel discussion on marketing that took place during an NCAT workshop on vegetable production and business management held at the Heifer Ranch in Perryville, Arkansas, 1n May 2017. NCAT’s Southeast Regional director Margo Hale facilitated the discussion,  and the panelists were (in order of appearance) Mary Bone of Lighthouse Produce Farms in Fargo, AR; Ben Maddox of New South Produce Cooperative in Little Rock, AR; and Paul Chapracki of Ozark Alternatives in Lowell, AR. In this segment the panelists discuss successful strategies for selling at the farmers market and through CSAs. They also offer on pricing your produce and setting yourself apart in the marketplace.  

Robert Maggiani, a horticulture specialist with the National Center for Appropriate Technology, talks with Larry Butler, co-owner of Boggy Creek Farm in Austin, Texas. They talk about the farm and the value added products it has sold over the years.

Ocean farming is the new frontier for sustainable and restorative food production. More than that, it holds promise for job creation, coastal community development, and ecosystem restoration. In this podcast Lee Rinehart, a Sustainable Agriculture Specialist with the National Center for Appropriate Technology, is joined by Bren Smith, executive director of Greenwave, a non-profit focused on expanding opportunities for fisherman and farmers to start sustainable shellfish and aquatic plant farming enterprises. Bren, a former commercial fisherman turned ocean farmer and advocate, explains the multitrophic 3-D Ocean Farming concept, and invites listeners to share in a new vision for seafood production.

The world demand for seafood is increasing and is putting pressure on our oceans for protein. And as the human population increases, it is crucial that we foster ecological and regenerative systems to produce seafood that reverses the ocean degradation we have caused through overfishing and unsustainable fish farming methods.

Fish production and harvest is largely industrial in nature. To be sustainable, fisheries must be developed on a place-based ecological model of restorative systems that regenerate and sustain our waters while providing opportunities for farmers and fishermen to reclaim the waterfront.

In this video, National Center for Appropriate Technology Program Specialist Lee Rinehart discusses ATTRA’s new Ecological Fisheries and Ocean Farming website, which has resources to help farmers, fishermen, and communities make decisions in developing ecologically appropriate, place-based seafood production enterprises.

In this podcast National Center for Appropriate Technology specialist Luke Freeman hold a conversation about blackberries with Dr. John Clark of the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville.

They get in depth on Dr. Clark’s broad experience with blackberry research; changes in the industry; and new cultivars that are becoming available.

In this podcast, ATTRA Sustainable Agriculture Specialist Luke Freeman talks with Dr. Curt Rom of the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville about growing organic brambles in high tunnels. They touch on the advantages of growing in high tunnels and some of the obstacles Dr. Rom has dealt with during his research production of blackberries and raspberries. They also touch on the economics of growing organic brambles in high tunnels and how producers have successfully used high tunnels in areas where the climate isn’t conducive to growing brambles. Luke recently updated the popular ATTRA publication, “Brambles: Organic Production,” which is now available as a free download on the ATTRA website at www.attra.ncat.org

Entrevista con Aldo Andres Marega agricultor orgánico de El Gauchito Hill Farm en Yolo County, California. La entrevista incluye: biografía, primeros años de experiencia, mercados de agricultor y ventas a restaurantes, retos o desafíos de fertilización y control de plagas, y consejos para agricultores principiantes. Martin Guenera dirige la entrevista.

No, the butcher did not have it for his dinner. By federal law, any beef that is older than 30 months is subject to the Specific Risk Material regulation. All custom, state, and federally inspected processing plants must remove the brains, eyes, spinal cord and a large portion of the vertebral column from the final cuts of beef. This results in the absence of some traditional cuts and 10-15 percent less pounds back in your box. In this podcast, NCAT livestock specialist Dave Scott and Justin Fisher of Ranchland Packing Company in Butte, Montana, discuss the law and its affects.