New Major: Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems

  

The University of New Hampshire has launched this major that reflects the region’s agricultural landscape and the growing appetite for local, sustainable food, products and services. The major, Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems, combines plant, animal, and environmental sciences with related topics such as nutrition, forestry, aquaculture, and business disciplines such as entrepreneurship and marketing. With a high degree of flexibility to address students’ unique goals and needs, the major offers both Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Arts degrees.

“This new major is consistent with the convictions we see in our young adults toward sustainable use of resources, knowing where their food and other products come from and how they are produced, and a desire to participate in this most fundamental aspect of life rather than being a passive consumer and bystander,” says Jon Wraith, associate dean of agriculture in UNH’s College of Life Sciences and Agriculture and co-director of the New Hampshire Agricultural Experiment Station at UNH. “This major aims to prepare students for employment related to New England’s diversified and relatively small-size agricultural operations, as well as to provide them with the knowledge and experiences to pursue other careers or advanced education.”

Becky Sideman, associate professor of sustainable horticulture and coordinator for the major, notes that books such as “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” and “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle” and the growth in farmer’s markets and other local food sources may have fueled students’ interest in sustainable agriculture. Over the past five years, enrollment in her Sustainable and Organic Food Production course has more than doubled.

“Most of these students not from farm backgrounds, but they are genuinely interested in food production,” she says.

The new major, which began in Fall 2010 with 15 students, requires students to complete foundation courses that explore a range of topics underpinning sustainable agriculture and to declare an area of emphasis that focuses their particular interest, from agricultural education to horticulture to food systems. The major requires at least one experiential course as well as a capstone experience, which Sideman says will likely involve students working alongside faculty members in the lab or on the farm.

Experiential courses might include CREAM – Cooperative Real Experience in Agriculture Management – in which students operate and manage a small Holstein herd on campus, or other similar courses under development in diversified organic agro-ecosystem and vegetable crop and horticulture management. Students also will be encouraged to develop internships with agricultural businesses within the state.

The Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems major will take advantage of UNH’s expansive experiment station facilities: the Fairchild Dairy Teaching and Research Center, the Organic Dairy Research Farm, the Kingman and Woodman Horticultural Farms and the MacFarlane Greenhouses.

Wraith notes that the new major, which complements UNH’s unique EcoGastronomy double major by providing an outstanding ”primary” major for interested students, will fill a need in New England’s diversified agricultural landscape.

”Students have told us that their family’s operation includes some livestock, horticultural crops, and a forested woodlot. This crosses at least three traditional degree programs, but we can now effectively integrate these common aspects of New England agriculture,” he says. “Further, we’re repeatedly told by key partners that entrepreneurship, economics, marketing, and human resources management are critical aspects of the real world that are often not well covered in traditional degree programs.” As opportunities in local agriculture, farmer’s markets, and agri-tourism “skyrocket,” he says, this program aims to prepare students for meaningful careers.

“The new SAFS major represents one key aspect of the ongoing reinvigoration of our agriculture and food systems programs here at UNH.  We’re fortunate to be working in a time of greatly renewed interest in agriculture and food, and that’s also reflected here on campus.  We want to partner with multiple constituents and disciplines to help lead the way forward,” says Wraith.

For more information, go to http://sustainableag.unh.edu/.

Savor the Elements

http://www.wsbe.unh.edu/gourmet-dinners

The Mystery of the Coconut

They lie on the ground unspoken for like so many acorns.  As I ride in the back seat of the family rental car I long to stop and gather them up.  It’s not that I couldn’t have insisted we stop; it’s just they were a mystery.  How do you open them, eat them, drink from them.  At a local farm stand we stop to ecstatically purchase our half dozen, half dollar pineapples.  The native farmer picks up his heavy machete and the large, smooth skinned, golden nut, whacks off an angular slice, puts a straw in its pure white center, and offers it to me.  Not being able to meet his eyes I shyly lower my head and shake “no”, too timid to receive the gift being offered to me.  Now the coconut haunts me.

I am on vacation in Panama for two weeks immersing myself in its unspoiled grandeur.  The peaceful cohesiveness of the people and their country fascinates me with its absolute simple beauty.   The people are poor, but I can’t feel sorry for them. They have no cars, gadgets, or modern electricity and plumbing, although, oddly enough, cell phones are amazingly common.  Their small villages invariably include a church, small general store, an open air Atlas beer garden, and a bus stop on both sides of the road.  Larger villages had more than one of each of these necessities. In these larger villages the stores, churches, and beer gardens did not seem to compete with each other as their even dispersement allowed for an easy walking distance for the villagers nearest to them.  Yes, the cuevas jardine was a necessity for the men to gather in and socialize on Saturday and Sunday nights.  In our frequent passes through the villages it was common to see all the villagers gathering together.   We would try to guess if the event were a funeral, celebration, or religious holiday.

Neither obesity nor malnutrition seems to plague these hard working people. The lack of noisy machines such as lawn mowers, combines, tractors, and bull dozers is very noticeable.  The machete should be declared the national tool.  The men use it to harvest, landscape, do general house hold tasks, and of course, open the coconuts.  Occasionally you would see an older boy proudly carrying around his own hand me down, all-purpose blade.  The shovel follows the machete in popularity.  Road work is done by many men actively digging and repairing.  No one stands around watching as one person works an expensive piece of machinery.  The workers wear long sleeves and pants, gloves, and an open bandana tied on their heads to protect them from the constant sun.  They take their breaks together under a large, shady tree.  They smile and talk to one another jovially as they drink water from a giant thermal cooler.  Because of its resistance to heat and rain, cement is the glue that ties the country together, but the actual cement mixer is rarely spotted.  The cement is mixed by hand with a shovel by individuals for building structures, roads, and homes.

In the areas we travelled we saw where the country raised its own food.  On many occasions you had long looks at the crops as you patiently, or not, drove behind the ancient dump truck piled high with the workers sitting on top being dropped off at their homes as the truck drove slowly to market at the end of the day.  Sugar cane, beans, corn, carrots, onions, beef, dairy, chickens, eggs, wheat, pigs, pineapples, bananas, citrus, plantains, potatoes, coffee, watermelon, cantaloupe, and, of course, coconuts are some of the easily recognizable, abundant nourishment. 

The people were surprisingly clean cut.  The men and boys all had dark, short hair and shaven faces.  Although it certainly wouldn’t be called a beard climate.  In the rural areas men wore long work pants and long sleeve work shirts and hats. The women and small girls in the rural areas wore matching brightly colored dresses trimmed with contrasting ric rac trim.  Some women, especially women employed in the city, carry umbrellas to shield themselves from the sun. The teenagers dress in jeans and t-shirts, and “summer” clothes like shorts and tank tops are surprisingly lacking.  Their only vice is VERY tight jeans worn by teens in the larger towns and VERY tight dresses worn by some women in the larger towns and cities.

Transportation is varied but the same throughout the country – bus, taxi, bike, horse, and car with the bus being the predominant mode.  Every 15 minutes in the largest city on the west coast, David, double decker buses completely fill with passengers to travel to destinations on the Pan-American Highway all the way to the east coast in Panama City.   Colorful, cement bus stops can be found in every corner of Panama.  There is no place too isolated or the road too bad where you cannot catch a bus.  There are always people at the bus stops.  Families, workers, teen agers, everyone gathers and takes the bus.  It is truly a mass transit country, which really makes you wish our country had much fewer cars and universal access to mass transit.    The “buses” in Panama City are owned by individuals, and I cannot stress how individual these buses are.  They are old school buses painted by the owner, some beautifully, some not, and with a variety of additions like gaudy exhaust chrome.  Clown buses would also describe the buses accurately; as it seems there is a Guinness world record competition going on to see who can get the most people on their bus.  One bus I saw had a man in the bus only by a foot and a hand hanging on to the stair rail.  Most other areas of Panama the buses look like small, elongated passenger vans.  It is fun to watch the caballeros on horses at the many cattle ranches decorating the hills and valleys.  The funniest site we witnessed were the men on bikes with bald tires with 10 gallon plastic containers strapped on their backs going to and from the crop fields.  I’m not sure what they are spraying on the plants – pesticide, chemicals, nitrates or just water? – But it seemed so benign compared to our massive chemical trucks or planes when they cover a field with its contents.

Apparently there is not a strict DMV in the country as the people and taxi drivers that did have cars had very expired inspection and registration stickers.  The police have daily, regular check points where they stop individuals to check to see if they have a driver license, which many don't. There is a heavy guard like police presence everywhere in Panama.  I’m not sure how many are on the payroll, but we saw them in most every kind of store, on most street corners, and many in the parks and public areas.  In the run down area of Panama City the police are two to a corner and wearing vests in the evening. In the rural areas they are seen much less, but there are still regular check points in these areas.  It seems that the country strongly wishes to deter ANY crime.

We drank mostly bottled water, but I’m pretty sure we could have just boiled the water and then drank it.  In the grocery stores it is possible to get almost all of your needs made or grown in Panama.  The exceptions being some fruits and vegetables are imported from other Central or South American countries and California.  They do offer American brand names, but you can almost always find the Panamanian version.

Overall, the country had a very sustainable, ecology friendly, uncomplex nature to it.  This appeared to be because of the lack of modernization and regulations.  The country had a 1960s feel to it. The people were much less isolated than all of our individual cars, houses, big screen TVs and online shopping have made us.   It made me feel regretful of our country’s incredible progress since the 1960s.  I know I also greatly enjoy the convenience of these advancements, but their country really inspired me to think whether in making things easier for ourselves, we didn’t do ourselves any favors.  Not an original thought, but one I feel heart fully right now.

Which brings me back to the mystery of the coconut?   All I know about the coconut I got from the plastic wrapped, shredded, dehydrated, sweetened version.

http://fruit-crops.com/coconut/

contributed by Colleen Schriefer

Final Reflections

 "Coming out of high school I longed for a way to turn my love of food into a career, but knew that I didn’t want to be confined to a kitchen day and night. I settled on a career in journalism instead, hoping that perhaps I someday could integrate it with my passion for food. That opportunity came two years ago when UNH launched its dual major program in EcoGastronomy. Since then, my involvement with the budding program has had a profound effect on my education and on the way I look at the world, particularly in regards to food, of course, but more generally as well.

I have worked to synthesize my two majors of journalism and EcoGastronomy in such a way that my writing may inspire and empower others to reconsider the food they consume. The effect of such efforts is hardly quantifiable, but I would hope that my writing has helped to connect someone—anyone—with a local producer, or caused them to think more deeply when roaming the produce department. As mentioned before, my involvement with, and understanding of, EcoGastronomy has evolved markedly in time. For a more thorough understanding of just what I mean, I’ve included examples of each stage in this sort of personal-professional development. I began my food writing trajectory as something of an undereducated gourmand, critiquing Seacoast restaurants with plenty of zeal, but few qualifications to do so. From there my food writing took something of a militant turn, and I began churning out moralistic manifestoes on sourcing, preparing, and eating food. It is empowering, of course, to unleash such ideas on the world, even if that world is but a Durham microcosm. I don’t regret these writings, of course, though I now consider them somewhat overzealous and perhaps a tad elitist.

More recently, I’ve sought to connect readers with the artisanal producers and business

owners that, through their dedication to high quality food and responsible practices, are slowly changing the way we eat. Last spring I set out to dispel some commonly held myths about raw milk and shared my findings with the UNH community via The New Hampshire. Last summer, while working with New Hampshire Magazine, I was assigned an article about the state’s dozen or so craft breweries. I visited each, interviewed the brew masters, and sat down to compose a brief history of craft brewing in New Hampshire. When the article was published I began getting feedback from a number of readers who had never realized all the state had to offer. I realized then that my weeks of research and interviews hadn’t merely disappeared into the ether; they had created a link between readers and high-quality, artisan food products. Writing like this may seem more innocuous than my earlier Pollan-esque treatises, but I believe them to be more accessible and less alienating than some of my other work, and thereby I think they are probably more powerful and more effective.

In essence, my experience with the EcoGastronomy dual major has afforded me countless opportunities to become more involved with, and aware of, my food system on both an academic and practical level, an advantageous combination that I believe is far too rare in higher education today. Perhaps most exciting, however, is the fact that our much-needed food revolution – though growing rapidly – is still in its beginning stages, meaning that now more than ever our food system is in need of forward-thinking individuals to build upon the progress made by others. To that I say count me in." 
Matt Benham, UNH graduate Fall 2010

Appreciating the Green Zebra

Tom Wagner aka Tater-Mater

EcoGastronomy was very fortunate to have been contacted by  plant breeder, Tom Wagner.  Tom has been breeding plants, mostly tomatoes and potatoes, for 54 years. He is the founder of Tater-Mater Seeds, and he's introduced some of the most beautiful tomato varieties that have ever been seen -Green Zebra, Schimmeig Stoo, Schimmeig Creg, Banana Legs.  Some of his beautiful potato varieties include  Kern Toro, Regis Summit, and Tom Boy.  Tom was kind enough to share the development of his most famous variety and this blog's namesake:  The Green Zebra.  Ta Da! 

 "The genesis of the Green Zebra goes back to when I first started crossing tomatoes in 1954.  I was raised in a large family that believed in keeping what is now called Heirloom tomatoes.  We had one that my great grandmother brought over from Graben Neudorf, Germany when she immigrated to this country in 1888.  But at that time we all believed that varieties run out, run their course, and new blood was needed.  Crossing Sioux with the German tomato (that is what we called it) was not a bad cross, so I kept going and going.

I had Evergreen from Gleckler’s in the 1950’s and it cracked so badly that I could hardly get a fruit into the kitchen without it splitting wide open in my hands.  To the rescue I got some tomatoes from a greenhouse grower that went on and on about how this variety he had did not crack.  I crossed it with Evergreen and got a hybrid tomato that was boring…a red tomato that cracked!  It was only by selfing (saving the seed) that I was able to find a stable selection that was not only green again, but did not crack.  Hurray!

Step two: I had traveled to Ames, Iowa to visit the tomato collections at the government station.  After a long visit, I walked through hundreds of varieties of tomatoes out in the field being grown for seed increase and found a vine that had green stripes on the un-ripe fruits.  The ripes fruits were red with light yellow stripes.  I picked one tomato and grew out the plants the next year and got some tomatoes with some stripes –not many---but it too, cracked.  I then crossed this striped tomato with a variety from Burgess Seed company that did not crack.  The hybrid was a tomato without stripes and it cracked as well.  You know the story by now; after several years of selfing I was able to find one plant that had no cracked fruit and still had some stripes.

Third event was when I crossed my improved Evergreen tomato with no cracking with a striped tomato with no cracking and …presto!  ..An ordinary red tomato that did not crack.  It took several more years of selfing before I found a prototype of my Green Zebra; green flesh and green stripes with no cracking.  When I increased the seed during summer and winter grow-outs in the greenhouse, I was seeking more tang in the flavor and that stayed with the eventual release of Green Zebra in my initial catalog in 1983 called Tater Mater Seeds.  The rest is history."

If you wish Tom can put you on his newsletter and catalog list. tatermater.proboards.com and tater-mater.blogspot.com

Thanks, Tom!

Welcome back 2010 EcoGastronomy in Italy UNH students!

In this video:  University of Gastronomic Sciences, Emelie Buell, Sara Hartley, Sarah Jacobson, Sarah Jamieson, Shannon Jasie, Michelle Raye, Geraldine Walker, Heather Rusaw, Sofia Ramos, Alanna Duffy, Alice Yen, Kana Otowa, Emily Malnati, Paris, Rome, Torino, Venice, Cinque Terre, Barolo, and England

Remains of the Day

By ABIGAIL CARROLL  Published: November 27, 2010, New York Times

Middlebury, Vt.  THANKSGIVING is a culinary commemoration of the “Pilgrim and Indian” feast. The turkey salad, turkey soup and turkey sandwiches that have dominated our lives these last few days, on the other hand, commemorate something else: a lost way of American eating, one in which leftovers played a central role.

During the hearth-cooking era, preparing food was time-consuming and labor-intensive, and early Americans cooked with leftovers in mind. In most households, at least one meal a day was based on the remains of a previous meal. If “hasty” cornmeal pudding was on the menu for supper, breakfast might feature the same pudding sliced, fried and served with milk or molasses. If the midday dinner was stew, supper was likely stew or cold meat and potatoes derived from it, with the possibility of more for breakfast.

In some households, this recycling of meals lasted at least through the late 19th century. The morning of the grisly 1892 Lizzie Borden murders in Fall River, Mass., the family breakfasted on mutton soup and cold mutton from the day before.

Leftovers for breakfast began yielding to bread and pastry in the early- to mid-19th century, thanks to the cookstove, which made baking a more predictable affair. Health fanatics like the Rev. Sylvester Graham, who praised the virtues of fiber and questioned Americans’ addiction to meat, also helped usher in the lighter, grain-based breakfast, setting the stage for the breakfast cereal revolution. By the turn of the 20th century, there was no longer much room for leftovers at the morning meal.

Nor was there much room at lunch. During the country’s industrialization, rigid factory schedules replaced agricultural work rhythms, pushing dinner to evening and reducing the midday meal to a short, informal refueling. No longer able to go home for a hot meal, workers and schoolchildren packed lunch pails with simple, filling foods like biscuits, potatoes, sandwiches and pie. Leftovers also found themselves in lunch pails, but they could be a hassle and sometimes carried a stigma. Increasingly, workers patronized lunch wagons, cafeterias and automats, and children eventually took advantage of school lunch programs.

That leftovers carried a stigma points to their association with class status. Slaves’ diets were often supplemented by leftovers from a master’s table; domestic servants took home leftovers from employers’ tables.

While the middle class did not want to be seen eating leftovers, it also didn’t want to seem wasteful. Consequently, a generation of cookbooks taught homemakers to hide leftovers in sandwiches, disguise them with garnishes, bury them in sauces and reconstitute them as new entrees. “Remaking” leftovers was a celebrated skill, and the woman who could convert cold ham into a dainty sandwich spread, appetizing casserole or tasty soup (or direct her servant to do so) was to be praised.

With two world wars and the Depression, leftovers enjoyed a resurgence. Eating leftovers came alongside victory gardens, home canning and meatless and wheatless days as a form of kitchen patriotism. In 1918, “Foods That Will Win the War and How to Cook Them” encouraged women to turn meat remainders into soup, and cold muffins into toast. By the late 1930s, reliable home refrigerators made storing uneaten food significantly easier. No longer was it necessary to pick at the same dish for consecutive meals until it spoiled. Appliance manufacturers published cookbooks with advice on putting, as Frigidaire advertised, a “lift in leftovers.” In the 1950s, Tupperware became available, followed by Saran Wrap and Ziploc bags, and since the late 1970s, Americans have been “nuking” leftovers in microwaves for instant snacks and meals.

Though technology has eased the task of dealing with leftovers, Americans have come to depend on them less than ever. For many eaters, repurposing leftovers has become all but obsolete, thanks to processed foods with long shelf lives and countless venues for eating out.

So if you find yourself struggling to turn Thursday’s turkey into yet another meal, remember that this was how Americans once ate day in and day out — and be grateful that there will probably be a new menu starting tomorrow.

Post courtesy of Abigail Carroll. 

Abigail Carroll is writing a book on the history of the American meal.