Cyclones prepare for round two Iowa State will face off with UW-Green Bay on Tuesday in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. see SPORTS on PAGE 10
March 23, 2010, Volume 204 >> Number 121 >> 40 cents >> iowastatedaily.com >> An independent newspaper serving Iowa State since 1890
TUESDAY
Health
Ames open for organics
CSA programs connect farmers with consumers
Organic certification costs, benefits high
By Bethany Pint Daily Staff Writer
By Whitney Sager Daily Staff Writer
Marilyn Andersen knows where her strawberries come from. She didn’t buy them in a grocery store, and they weren’t specially ordered from a berry patch in California. Andersen gets her shipment of strawberries from Berry Patch Farm in Nevada through the Farm to Folk Community Supported Agriculture — CSA — program in Ames. Farm to Folk began as Magic Beanstalk CSA in 1995. Its name was changed in 2007, said Andersen, coordinator of the program. Farm to Folk is open year-round and provides consumers with different share options in a variety of price ranges. “With a CSA share, a person would pay at the beginning of the season, and then each week during the growing season they would get a delivery of fresh produce of whatever is ripe and ready for that week,” Andersen said. The “a la carte” option allows CSA members to choose as often as they want from a list of available items, updated each week. “If you don’t want to have a CSA share, where you’re committed to paying at the beginning and getting something every week, with the ‘a la carte’ you can order on an as-needed basis,” Andersen said. Helen Gunderson, of Ames, uses the “a la carte” ordering option to order chickens and honey from Audubon County Farm, and corn kernels, pancake mix and wheat berries from Paul’s Grains. “I very much believe in the use of locally grown foods, and the grocery stores in Ames don’t really carry a lot of that,” Gunderson said. While the push to get to know the producers is good, Gunderson said she’s met more of them through the farmers market since some of the producers don’t stick around during the Tuesday delivery date to talk
Florida, dairy from Minnesota, turkeys from Minnesota and chickens from Kalona, Iowa. “It’s a nice way to collectively organize your customers,” he said. “The nice thing about Farm to Folk is it works well on both sides. As producers you can have all your customers all in one spot and organized. But on the other side, it’s nice for consumers because all the producers are in one spot.” He said it’s “less money and more work” selling to grocery stores than to consumers. He said government regulations and the competi-
While more and more farms are switching to organic farming methods, producers must keep in mind the regulations that need to be followed when growing these crops. In order for produce to be sold as an organic product, it must be certified. According to the Electronic Code of Federal Regulations, any crop that is labeled as “100 percent organic,” “organic” or “made with organic ingredients” must be certified. According to the National Organic Program’s Web site, the information a producer must give to an accredited certifying agent includes the type of operation, a list of any substances applied to the land during the last three years, what products are being grown, and a description of the organic system plan. Once a producer has been certified as organic, it must pay an annual fee for certification costs. “All the certification costs for my operation are around $500 a year,” said Angela Tedesco, owner of Turtle Farm CSA in Granger. Tedesco said the certification costs, at least in her opinion, outweigh the hidden costs that are incurred on consumers from conventional farming practices. These hidden costs may include the cleanup of pollution in water due to chemical run-off from fields. According to
see CSA on PAGE 3
see FOODS on PAGE 3
Marilyn Andersen, coordinator of Farm to Folk, talks with Paula Weidner, of Ames, after distributing vegetables that Weidner bought through the program at First Christian Church, the drop-off site. Photo: Karuna Ang/Iowa State Daily
to customers. “If you’re expecting to get to know your farmer and have a social experience, sometimes I find more of that by going to the farmers market in the summer,” she said. Nick Wallace, a beef and lamb producer from Keystone, said he’s been able to connect with his customers and other producers through the CSA. Wallace coordinates the distribution of several meat products through 10 different CSA programs, including four in Chicago. Besides his beef and lamb products, Wallace processes Berkshire pork, fish from Alaska, shrimp from
Poverty Awareness Week
Budget
ISU group travels to Belize to tackle food security issues By Chelsea Davis Daily Staff Writer While some students relaxed on a beach, went home or stayed in Ames, eight members from one ISU group went to Belize to help eliminate poverty. Engineers Without Borders started in fall 2008 and since then has worked countless hours to spread the message of the rise of global poverty. This year it will hold Poverty Awareness Week from March 29 through April 3. “Right now about half the population lives on less than $2 a day,” said Kavita Rodgers, senior in economics and journalism and mass communication. “We’re sitting over here at Iowa State University and everything’s really cushy, and somewhere somebody is starving or doesn’t have water to drink.” Jeff Garland, senior in mechanical engineering and programming director for Engineers Without Borders, said the group noticed a lot of clubs on campus concerning poverty, but nothing was uniting them. “We thought it would be a good idea to have an event that focused on the global pandemic of poverty,” Garland said. “We put together this event to combine all those clubs and individuals that had a like-minded goal of eliminating poverty.” Although details have not been finalized for the week, Garland said the band Shades will be performing at Headliner’s on Lincoln Way. There will be a multi-disciplinary panel speaking about approaches to poverty and an event called “The World of Poverty,” which will happen in front of Parks Library. “‘The World of Poverty’ is the coolest event on campus [for Poverty Awareness Week], in my opinion,” Garland said. “Lots of different groups that deal with poverty will be explaining what they do.” The panel will include an economics professor from Iowa State, an engineering professor from the University of Iowa who invented an award-winning filter, someone from The World Food Prize and someone in the global health arena. Rodgers is part of the team of students who went to Belize for Spring Break. “Last year we did an assessment trip to Belize, and based on the needs that we gathered from the villagers, we’re going down this semester to build four solar fruit dehydrators for the school,” Rodgers said.
see BREAK on PAGE 4
Iowa education fund drops By Tyler Kingkade Daily Staff Writer Frustrations over education cuts came to a boil as Spring Break began in Iowa. Break allowed a chance for students to visit their homes and realize the next generation will face a vastly different curriculum thanks to budget cuts in nearly every school district. Iowa’s education fund has dropped from $1.271 billion in fiscal year 2009 to $815 million in the current fiscal year. The Iowa Legislature is aiming for $844 million next year’s budget while Gov. Chet Culver has put a target at $861 million. Des Moines Public Schools have proposed eliminating 480 positions, most of them teachers, and will make a final decision in April. Ames Public Schools is considering cutting positions, eliminating funding for high school dances and eliminating middle school orchestra — a savings of $45,286, while scaling back music programs in elementary schools. All to reach a goal of cutting $3.5 million from their budget for the next fiscal year and $1.5 million for the 2011–’12 fiscal year. In response, a Web site and Twitter account launched called “Save Ames Music.” Outside of Iowa, Kansas City, Mo., is considering closing half of the public schools. Teachers and assistant principals may be laid off over the next two years for the first time in Omaha Public Schools history after a 12–0 vote March 15 by the Omaha Public School Board. On March 14, Sen. Tom Har-
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Iowa’s education fund has dropped from $1.271 billion in fiscal year 2009 to $815 million in the current fiscal year. Gov. Culver is aiming for $861 million for next year’s budget. Photo: Tyler Kingkade/Iowa State Daily
kin and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan held a town hallstyled meeting with a standingroom only crowd of near 150 at Morris Elementary on Des Moines’ south side where Duncan largely pushed President Barack Obama’s planned overhaul of No Child Left Behind. Outside, concerned parents stood with signs, like Jeffery J. Weiss’ reading “Make Music Not War.” Others distributed flyers urging support for music education funding. Weiss was there representing the Catholic Peace Ministry with his two daughters. Before the doors were opened, a group of middle school teachers stood and discussed the cuts their respective schools were facing. “I’m afraid for education, I’m afraid for our kids,” said Susan Boll, a Carlisle middle school science teacher about why she was attending. “We have been dumbed down so much and the
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last eight [years] have been phenomenal.” No Child Left Behind was the hallmark achievement of President George W. Bush’s first year in office and based success of children performing on grade-level requirements determined by scores on standardized testing such as the Iowa Tests of Educational Development. Betsy LeBlond has been a certified substitute teacher for more than 15 years because she does not want to “deal with the bureaucracy.” “Teachers are so run down, so exhausted, so unsupported by the administration,” LeBlond commented. Many of the attendees waiting for the start of the panel expressed passionate disapproval of NCLB and proposed cuts to English Second Language educators as well as to the arts. Duncan said NCLB “didn’t
work” and put a spotlight on the achievement gap. He added, “One of the big failures is money was left behind.” “The law was too punitive,” Duncan said as he declared a need to reward excellence. “There’s success out there but no one is learning from them.” Duncan emphasized giving more autonomy to school systems and less “micro-managing from Washington.” Both Harkin and Duncan boasted the $350 million included in the Recovery Act for state education systems, though the Iowa State Education Association has said lawmakers used a majority of the money this year. Duncan said investing in technology could create a “great equalizer” among schools and added assessment testing needed reevaluating. “If we raise the bar, I have no doubt kids will do better,” he said. Once questions from the audience were taken in the meeting, a man quickly stood and voiced his frustrations with Iowa’s education system. “You say you’ve been there for 23 years; well, Senator Harkin, you get an ‘F’!” he burst in reference to Harkin’s years as the head of the Senate Education Appropriations Committee. Attendees brought up charter schools, Gifted & Talented programs and music programs, including one parent who said, “My third grader will not have choir, orchestra and band like my fifth grader did.” Weiss shouted from the back, “Cut the Pentagon bud-
see CUTS on PAGE 3