[dominiquer60]

I can identify with your concern Erik. We are trying to take two separate entities and combine into one organization. It could prove difficult, but I think we can do it with out upsetting most people.

The DAPNet membership money is minimal compared to the potential income from newsletter, sponsors, donations and gate fees. I see this membership money as seed money, office/mailing, websites and money toward our fiscal sponsor which we will need for running both the DAP forum and any events. The money needed for an event will have to come from sponsors, donations and grants, there is no way that we can even have half our usual event without this source of income.

As it stands now if you live in Europe and become a DAPNet member for $20, I think that you get your monies worth with DAP alone, which also covers our regional event. Even though they will most likely not attend they can benefit from the event indirectly through DAP and our website.

I really feel like having the membership gives those that cannot attend, our event or other events, a chance to support the ability to connect with other people whether in person or online, and to me that is the biggest value of our organization. The in person educational event(s) is the icing on the top.

Erika

[dominiquer60]

Dear DAPNet members,

DAPNet is off to a great start becoming a new organization. During the Northeast Animal Powered Field Days we had our first meeting on Sunday, October 17th. Carl Russell and Lisa McCrory are the driving force behind NEAPFD and the online discussion forum DAP. We were given a glimpse of all that they had to do to make this event happen the last 4 years, and what running DAP entails. We also learned that it has become too much for them to continue on their own, this is why they created DAPNet. We used this sunday meeting of many minds to circulate ideas of how to progress as an official non-profit organization, while also starting to unsaddle Carl and Lisa from the countless tasks it involves. In the end we decided to have a conference call meeting that was organized by David Fisher.

On November 8th, 23 of us gathered via phone to decide the next steps. We decided that we should be a non-profit group so that we can obtain grants and funding easier. To do this we will have to work under an existing 501c3 or become one ourselves. There are advantages and disadvantages to either option. A group of eight people including Carl and Lisa formed a Transition Team. We are researching the pros and cons of working under a non profit, which non-profit to team up with, even if only on a temporary basis, and what state laws we would have to abide by. The team is also working on taking over some of Carl and Lisa’s responsibilities such as treasury, administrative tasks, communication, etc.

We would like to issue our first newsletter in January as early as possible. The idea is to include articles, updates, classifieds, calender of events, a write-up of the Field days, a write-up of the member meeting, etc. We are asking you, our members, to help by submitting ideas, content, advertising and photos from the 2010 NEAPFD for the newsletter. Also we are looking for volunteers to help create the newsletter. “Many hands make light work” especially when starting a new organization. If you have ideas, content or time for our newsletter please contact Erika Marczak at marczake@hotmail.com.

We are currently gathering information about working as a non-profit under Rural Vermont or Small Farms Conservancy and the state laws that govern these organizations. Our Transition Team includes Carl Russell, Lisa McCrory, Jean Cross, Geoff Pritchard, David Fisher, Erik Andrus, Brad Johnson and Erika Marczak. These folks will be paving the way for the new organization until we decide on how to organize DAPNet with officers, committees, etc. All are welcome to help, if you have a skill and would like to be involved we will be welcoming and needing more help as we progress.

We would like to thank you, our members, for your support in becoming DAPNet members. There is strength in numbers and we encourage you to spread the word and see how many others we can welcome to our network. Every dollar brought in is a dollar towards maintaining DAP, mailing newsletters and promoting NEAPFD, to name a few financial needs. More importantly, every new member is another source of knowledge, experience and friendship that we have come to enjoy and thrive upon. This may be a big world but with organizations like our own, we are able to cross huge bridges and come together to build a strong working draft animal community. Many thanks friends, have an enjoyable winter, we are looking forward to hearing from you all.

Sincerely,

Erika Marczak
Transition Team Communications Committee

P.S. Please encourage a friend to join DAPNet by filling out and mailing our membership form at our NEAPFD website http://animalpowerfielddays.worldsecuresystems.com/membership.html, Thank you.

[dominiquer60]

GAPs are supposed to reduce microbial food contamination, below is a quote from the UC Davis GAP site. http://ucgaps.ucdavis.edu/

“Assessment Challenge
Determine methods of improving food safety in a hypothetical setting.”

Water quality, manure/compost management, animal encroachment and personal hygiene are big parts of the plan. GAP certification is only required in mostly a commodity/wholesale sized scale of agriculture, but I can picture it being a requirement for farmers’ markets in the future.

erika

[dominiquer60]

Working on note today, we had to take the opportunity to work in the rain Sunday night/ Monday morning to harvest the last few but lucrative vegetables that we had in the field.

Erika

[dominiquer60]

Here in the states, a few grocery stores are able to source local produce directly, however many will purchase produce locally, but it must go through the distribution system as you describe first. Whole Foods is a high end grocery chain that has been heavily criticized for switching from direct sales to using the high miles distribution network. They pride themselves on being environmentally conscious, but now as you say, a local product from 5 miles away has now traveled 500. Many grocers are now requiring farmers to be GAP certified before they accept any produce. The Good Agricultural Practices are believed to be a good thing for food safety reasons, but the costs for a small diverse farmer is very prohibitive.

Erika

[dominiquer60]

Now that my “Farm Bureau supports Raw Milk” is behind me for another year here is my letter. What can I do to make it better?

Dear DAPNET members,

DAPNET is off to a great start becoming a new organization. During the Northeast Animal Powered Field Days we had our first meeting on Sunday, October 17th. Carl Russell and Lisa McCrory are the driving force behind NEAPFD and the online discussion forum DAP. We were given a glimpse of all that they had to do to make this event happen the last 4 years, and what running DAP entails. We also learned that it has become too much for them to continue on their own, this is why they created DAPNET. We used this sunday meeting of many minds to circulate ideas of how to progress as an official non-profit organization, while also starting to unsaddle Carl and Lisa from the countless tasks it involves. In the end we decided to have a conference call meeting that was organized by David Fisher.

On November 8th, 23 of us gathered via phone to decide the next steps. We decided that we should be a non-profit group so that we can obtain grants and funding easier. To do this we will have to work under an existing 501c3 or become one ourselves. There are advantages and disadvantages to either option. A group of nine people including Carl and Lisa formed a Transition Team. We are researching the pros and cons of working under a non profit, which non-profit to team up with if only on a temporary basis, and what state laws we would have to abide by. The team is also working on taking over some of Carl and Lisa’s responsibilities such as treasury, administrative tasks, communication, etc.

We would like to issue our first newsletter in January as early as possible. The idea is to include articles, updates, classifieds, calender of events, a write-up of the Field days, a write-up of the member meeting, etc. We are asking you, our members, to help by submitting ideas and content for the newsletter. Also we are looking for volunteers to help create the newsletter. “Many hands make light work” especially when starting a new organization. If you have ideas, content or time for our newsletter please contact Erika Marczak at marczake@hotmail.com.

We are currently gathering information about working as a non-profit under Rural Vermont or Small Farms Conservancy and the state laws that govern these organizations. Our Transition Team includes Carl Russell, Lisa McCrory, Jean Cross, Geoff Pritchard, David Fisher, Erik Andrus, Jerry Bouchard, Brad Johnson and Erika Marczak. These folks will be paving the way for the new organization until we decide on how to organize DAPNET with officers, committees, etc. All are welcome to help, if you have a skill and would like to be involved we will be welcoming and needing more help as we progress.

Sincerely,

Erika Marczak
Transition Team Communication Committee

[dominiquer60]

I am on board,
erika

[dominiquer60]

Let me start by clarifying in this post what our policy book is, I assume it is rather similar in most other states. The policy book is what our paid lobbypersons and our politicians use as a reference tool. All of the content of the book is policy that delegates from all over the state have created and voted on to include in the book. It is used mainly by our paid staff of lobbyists and lawyer to go forth and represent our collective opinion on political issues. It is also used by our politicians to reference our policy opinions.

For example, we had a fierce labor bill proposed this past year that would have hurt farms of all sizes in NY, our paid staff saw clearly in our policy that we were very opposed to such legislation and fought tooth and nail against it. Another example is honey. Apparently we have been importing “honey” from China that is watered down with corn syrup and pawning it off as real honey. Our country lacks a honey standard of identity and the government is tempted to create one. Our state senators value our opinion on this and when looking up apiculture policy found nothing on this topic and requested our opinion before it comes up for a vote. The bee folks looked to research and came up with what they feel defines the identity of honey and we passed it as our policy to support this definition. Now our Senators feel that they can speak for the bee keepers of this state with hope of putting a stop to this false honey.

I agree that it is usually best to go under the radar. What caused me to add animal power policy to our FB book is the threat of animal advocacy groups and food safety “animal encroachment” standards that may pop up in the future. My thought was to be proactive as quietly as possible. Our policy book simply states: “We support the use of animal power for agricultural purposes and transportation.” It is in the “Protection of Agriculture” section under the subsection “Producer Protections.” The only other policy in this subsection is “we support the right of farmers to produce their own seed.”

A couple people asked about it before hand, ribbing me about using horses, or those that remembered mentioned my oxen. I simply said to these few people that I don’t want someone telling me that it is cruel to gather firewood with my oxen or to tell an Amish farmer that he needs get a tractor. This completely satisfied their curiosity. When the subsection came up to vote I knew that they were in a hurry to get to the dairy debates, so I refrained from any comments and it quietly and quickly passed without any hesitation.

Now if a county legislature wants to consider banning Amish from using public highways ( like they did in Romaina) in that county, our paid lobbyists can make a stand against such act because we have policy supporting animal power. If we didn’t have policy, they would be tackling some other issue. The downside is this is only state policy so if the FDA wants to ban the use of animals in crop fields, NYstate’s voice may get lost without national policy on this issue. Sometimes and more often than not we have policy in place but the American Farm Bureau pressures our state FB into taking a stand against or neutral to our policy “because we have to stand united” on the federal front. For instance with this food safety bill, we had the policy to stand against it, but they told us that their stand on the bill was unclear, but that the organization was for the Tester Amendment, clearly pressure from above. So while having policy in your favor is not fail safe, it can be used to our advantage if it is in black and white in our policy book.

Erika

[dominiquer60]

I don’t know enough about harness fit to comment on that at all, but i think it is slick how you were able to make the change without making a single stitch on the traces, great job.

Erika

[dominiquer60]

I just got back from the NY Farm Bureau State Annual Meeting. This is a 3 day meeting of delegates from 54 NY counties that vote on additions, deletions and changes to our policy book. The policy book is an organized list of what we, a 28,000 member group, support or oppose and is given to all of our local, state and national politicians. In theory our hired staff uses these policies to voice our opinion when they lobby politicians and our politicians are encouraged to reference this book to help them make decisions.

I went to keep our support of raw milk and the direct sale of raw milk. The raw milk was a bit of a struggle, but after a one on one meeting between a large western NY dairy farmer with a young eastern NY hopeful raw milk farmer, an agreement was made and the next day carried out on the delegate floor. I can proudly announce that the NY Farm Bureau now supports our state Ag Dept. to continue the NY Certified Raw Milk Program and the the direct sales of Raw Milk.

It was a worthwhile trip because I also was able to gain the support of the use of animal power for agricultural purposes and transportation, which I discuss on another thread.

Thanks for all of the great info, I certainly increased my knowledge of Raw Milk and was well armed for a debate that we were fortunate enough to not get into.

Erika

[dominiquer60]

I was starting to think along Mitch’s lines, so I am going to take the good with the bad, put a couple more things away for the winter and catch a bus to Long Island, see you all when I get back.

Erika

[dominiquer60]

I do have a beef heifer that would most likely let me milk her when the time comes. Also Dale’s family has never been too proud to milk a Hereford now and then.

However my point was that if someone gave me a cull Holstein tomorrow I would be more inclined to beef her than to try to deal with someone else’s problems. I am sure that there are good culls like Ixy’s “low” producing Jerseys. I have been to our local auction house and in the bowels of the largest beef packing plant east of the Mississippi working on pens of dairy culls for AI training. All the animals were there for a reason, none of which I would want to deal with if I didn’t have to. Like I said I am sure some culls would work fine, but there are many problems to look for and avoid if given the option of a cull cow for a potential family cow. In conclusion, buyer beware.

Erika

[dominiquer60]

rather not the 17th, but I can make it work if that is best.
Erika

[dominiquer60]

I agree that crops and livestock are not what they were originally before we tinkered with them. We have done some huge injustices with some of our breeding projects, but on a basic level a great amount of seed and livestock breeding have been done working within the confines of what nature will allow.

Plants and some animals have seen hybridization in nature, we have just taken it a little further. To splice part of an unrelated organisms gene and have it produce a completely foreign compound in a perfectly fine organism is asking a little too much.

Even though there is a lot of genetic manipulation that goes into teacup poodles, hairless cats and variegated double petunias, in the end they are not contaminating natural populations of similar species, or causing resistance and holes in the food chain. Man has developed over 60 different colors of Old English Game Bantam chickens and none of them cause any harm to natural game fowl populations or infect commercial strains of meat chickens with terminator genes.

I think that the best use for GMO theory is in the fiction section of my local book store. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction, for all the “good” that GM products may offer, there is much bad that results.

Erika

[dominiquer60]

I know that there is some stat out there claiming that GM corn has saved so many millions of dollars for farmers that don’t use it but benefit from being in the vicinity of lower insect populations around these fields. I can appreciate that. However the fact is debris from these GM corn fields end up in water ways and are killing small aquatic life leaving a huge gap in the food chain, and I do not appreciate that.

I wonder if in theory we could use GM technology to help the corporate elite not want so much money and instead give back to the dead communities and ecosystems that they have helped destroy. My guess is that even with the good intentions of this thought, there would be a unforeseeable and unwanted downside that goes with it.

Erika

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