Illinois Farm Families Blog

This all began because I wanted to learn more about agriculture, and since I never pursued the field in college, I thought this could be a way to learn more and teach my children as well. The month before the tour I started researching, asking questions, and learning what I could, specifically about GMOs, pesticides, and organic foods. By the day the tour, I was mad at the way the US farmers grew food, disturbed about the lack of GMO labeling on US packaging, and confused about organic foods. I read so much about "dirty" foods last week I was hesitant to eat anything in my refrigerator! Then, the day of the tour came, and I wasn’t quite sure what I was getting myself into, but I knew I would walk away with some sort of adventure and knowledge to share with my family and friends.

It began on the bus. We found a seat on a comfortable bus bound for Paul and Donna Jeschke's corn and soybean farm in Mazon, IL. Three farmer’s wives and women in the Ag industry led a discussion and were answering our countless questions in a handheld microphone for the entire drive. They were very knowledgeable and open to any question we fired at them. They would simply smile and repeat the question and then take turns answering them thoroughly as our pencils flew over notepaper. 

After what seemed like a fraction of the time, we arrived near the Jeschkes farm. We passed by the type of barge that carried Phosphate and Potash mined in Florida, then saw newly planted fields that were first showing their rows, and finally the Field Mom’s corn and soybean acre. Our farm education continued from here off the bus. After an expensive tractor and planter was explained we took a short walk to the fields and learned from Dr. Brown, Agronomy Manager from Growmark, about the corn and bean plants, pests, pesticides and crop nutrients.

I learned that the same people who I thought a few hours before were out to get our family, and myself, are really people like you and I who are trying to make the best use of our country’s land using science and technology. Although, I still don’t believe that GMOs are completely safe for us, I now do understand why farmers choose GMO seed over non-GMO seed. I also understand more about pesticides, crop nutrients, and organic foods. Lastly, you still need to wash your organic fruits and vegetables before you eat them. Organic foods can be dirty!

Thank you Illinois Farm Families for creating this wonderful and program and to the Jeschkes for opening up your home and offering your time to educate us. I feel fortunate to be a part of this, and I am looking forward to what this Program has in store for us on the next tour!

Valerie Johnson, Elgin

You may have heard that names of meat are getting an overhaul.  Pork products will see the most changes.  This came about by a lot of research by the pork producers, beef producers, and the USDA that showed that consumers were confused by names in the meat case.  I’d agree.  While most of the meat I buy comes from my freezer, I do sometimes meander through the meat case when there is a sale.  I have a trophy somewhere in my house that proves that I should be an expert at deciphering meats, but even I get confused, so let me give you the simple rundown.

The new labels will give:

1. A name – “Porterhouse Chop”
2. A species and area on the animal where the cut comes from
3. How to Cook it

To me, the names are still semi-confusing, but the part that should help consumers (myself included) are the area where the meat cut comes from and how to cook it.  If it comes from the loin, the muscles running along the spine of either a cow or pig, it is going to be a tender cut, and you can grill it.

Think about it – what muscles get the most use in any mammal?  Legs, shoulders – anything that moves.  Muscles that move a lot tend to get hard and therefore, as meat, are tough.  That is where your shoulder or chuck roasts and ham or round roasts come from.  These cuts should be cooked low and slow (crock-pot, roasting, etc.).  Anything that doesn’t get a lot of “work” (back and stomach), should be tender meats that can be grilled, broiled, etc.

 

Clear as mud?  

Maybe so, but check out the meat case, and if you have questions, don’t be afraid to ask the person behind the meat counter – they are usually pretty knowledgeable.  I do, and I was even on a Meats Judging Team! Tonite’s supper (as with a lot this time of year with everyone busy in the fields) is crockpot-fare:  Korean Beef Short Ribs

Carrie Pollard, Rockford

Last season, Ron and I hosted the Field Moms’ Acre, where our Field Moms followed an acre of our soybeans through the season.  Recently, we had the privilege of delivering the profits from that acre, in the form of ground pork, to the Oak Park River Forest Food Pantry. More than 150 families will have pork on their tables thanks to the 2012 Field Moms.

Despite the drought last year, the Field Moms’ Acre earned a profit of $281. The Field Moms decided to donate that amount to the Oak Park River Forest Food Pantry, where Field Mom Amy Hansmann volunteers. We rounded the profits up a bit to buy more than 150 pounds of ground pork.

Amy and her son Kyle met us at the food pantry to present the donation. The executive director for the pantry, Michele Zurakowski, was very grateful for the donation. As you can see, we filled up their freezer!

This year, the Field Moms are following a pen of pigs to market and the growth of an acre of corn and an acre of soybeans. Follow along with the Field Moms’ Acre and Pen all season.

Deb Moore, Roseville

Fourat Janabi

 Greetings and salutations my fellow readers. It’s been a bit of a roller coaster ride publishing the last two posts on GMOs, so I thought to myself, where should I go next? Dive further into the rabbit hole (making myself ever more unpopular), or switch topics? I have an interview with a scientist, check! With a farmer, check! Biotech firm? Bingo! An opportunity thus presented itself, so down I went further down the rabbit hole.

So, to round out—and conclude—my trifecta (or triumvirate—a much cooler word that makes me sound smarter than I am) of posts about GMO, I have just finished up an email Q&A with the CEO and founder of Okanagan Specialty Fruits (OSF), Neal Carter, whose company makes Arctic Apples (apples that don’t brown). In my two previous Q&As— with a scientist here and with a family farmer here—I had commentary and concluding thoughts; this time, I prefer to let their positions stand on its own two feet, as it is more than capable of.

Do note, however. I am not trying to convince anyone to not eat organic food, or to eat GMO food, so don’t get your knickers in a twist.

 

1) What prompted your company to create a GM nonbrowning apple? Why not, for example, try to do the same with hybridization?

Our motivation for developing biotech apples, and all our other projects under development, is to introduce value-added traits that will benefit the tree-fruit industry. We have chosen to focus specifically on nonbrowning Arctic® apples as our flagship project for a number of reasons. One of the chief ones is that apple consumption has been flat-to-declining for the past two decades and we are confident the nonbrowning apple trait can create a consumption trigger while also reducing food waste throughout the supply chain.

Another key motivation is ever-increasing demand for convenience. Arctic apples are ideally suited for the freshcut market, which is expensive to enter because of the browning issue. We often refer to the consumption trigger that convenient “baby” carrots created – they now make up 2/3rds of all U.S. carrot sales!

As for why we use biotechnology to achieve this, it’s because we knew we could make a comparatively minor change safely, relatively quickly, and precisely. We silence only four genes, specifically, the ones that produce polyphenol oxidase, which is the enzyme that drives the browning process. We do so primarily through the use of other apple genes, and no new proteins are created. If we were to attempt to breed this trait conventionally, we could easily spend decades trying with no guarantee of success.

2) What benefits will the Arctic apple bring to the food market? Are there quantitative studies that can predict how effective it could be?

In addition to addressing stagnant apple consumption and tapping into the underutilized freshcut and foodservice markets, Arctic apples offer plenty of other benefits throughout the supply chain.

For growers and packers, nonbrowning apples can help significantly reduce the huge number of apples that never make it to market because of minor superficial marks such as finger bruising and bin rubs. So much of the food produced today is wasted purely for cosmetic reasons. This extends to retail where the nonbrowning trait can have a big impact on shrinkage and making displays more attractive while also offering exciting new value-added apple products.

Consumers will also benefit from throwing away far less fruit at home – how many apples get bruised up on the way back from the grocery store or in kids’ lunchboxes? Our goal is helping consumers, especially kids, eat healthier and waste less food. Last year, one grade 2 teacher wrote about how excited she is for nonbrowning apples, explaining she sees countless perfectly good apples and apple slices thrown out by her students due to minor browning and bruising. Consumers will also enjoy other tangible benefits like new opportunities for cut apples in many cooking applications.

As for quantifiable evidence showing the value of these benefits, food waste has been a major issue over the past year with recent estimates from the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization suggesting around one-third of food produced is wasted. The numbers are even worse for fruit, where around half of what’s produced never ends up getting eaten.

As far as the potential to create a consumption trigger, the produce industry is full of examples of how making fruit more convenient, especially for the foodservice industry, results in huge consumption boosts. We mentioned how baby carrots now make up two-thirds of carrot sales and reports tracking major fruit and vegetable consumption trends frequently emphasize convenience. One example explains one of the most prominent, ongoing trends “is a consumer demand for foods of high and predictable quality that offer convenience and variety.” Arctic apples satisfy all these requirements.

For apples, specifically, there’s lots of attention given to how various chemical treatments can slow browning and plenty of attempts to conventionally breed low browning varieties (though this is quite different from being truly nonbrowning). For instance, a notable 2009 publication from the Journal of Food Engineering discusses how “the market for fresh-cut apples is projected to continue to grow as consumers demand fresh, convenient and nutritious snacks”. Yet it also explains that the “industry is still hampered by-product quality deterioration” because when “the cut surface turns brown; it reduces not only the visual quality but also results in undesirable changes in flavour and loss of nutrients, due to enzymatic browning.” Again, Arctic apples address these issues.

Finally, some of the most convincing evidence that the nonbrowning traits will provide substantial value – both apple producers and consumers have told us so! In 2006/07 we surveyed a number of apple industry executives, 76% of whom told us they were interested in Arctic apples. In focus groups, we have found that over 80% are positively interested in Arctic apples and 100% of participants wanted to try them. Even more encouraging, when we surveyed 1,000 self identified apple eaters in 2011, we found that their likelihood to buy Arctic apples continued to increase the more they learned about the science behind them!

3) How many, and how intensive, were the studies performed to show Arctic apples are as safe as other apples? Were the studies peer-reviewed? If so, by whom? (You may wish to discuss what was and/or wasn’t changed.)

Before getting into the specifics, it’s important to put things in perspective to show how rigorous the review truly is; particularly arduous for a small, resource-tight company like ours: (See timeline)

So Arctic apples, our very first project, still haven’t been commercialized 17 years after we were founded and over a decade after we proved the technology and planted them! That means we now have over ten years of real-world evidence that Arctic trees grow, respond to pest and disease pressure, flower, and fruit just as conventional trees do.

Over this time, our apples have likely become one of the most tested fruits in existence. This makes detailing all of the specific tests impossible here, but we encourage anyone interested to view our extensive, 163-page petition on the USDA’s website, which provides full details.

Quickly highlighting some of the key ones: 

• Trees were closely monitored by a third-party horticultural consultant for any difference in their response to pests
• Agronomic data including how fast trees grow, how much fruit they produce, etc. was recorded by a third-party
• Experiments were completed to monitor pollen spread and potential for cross-pollination, resulting in two peer-reviewed papers
• Nutrition and composition of mature fruit was tested and deemed equivalent to controls
• Possible presence of novel proteins tested and confirmed none present

These tests were performed by a variety of reputable groups and individuals, some third-party, some in-house. Our field trials were monitored and data was collected by independent horticultural consultants and an Integrated Pest Management specialist.

Of particular importance is the fact that there are no proteins in Arctic fruit that aren’t in all apples. This shows there’s nothing “new” in our apples that will affect consumers. This is expected as we silence the genes that cause browning, rather than introduce new attributes. To give an idea of how sophisticated the tests used to prove this are, they would be able to detect a single penny amongst 100-250 ton coal-sized rail cars! We are confident Arctic apples are safe, and soon, we anticipate FDA’s confirmation of this.

So what has all of this extensive testing taught us? Exactly what we thought it would – Arctic trees and fruits are just the same as their conventional counterparts until you bite, slice or bruise the fruit!

4) Can you name a few of the misconceptions — if any — that people associate your company with, or accuse your company of, when they find out you’re a biotech company? If there are misconceptions, why are they wrong or miss the big picture?

Absolutely – just as there are countless misconceptions about biotech foods in general, there are also plenty of myths about our company and Arctic apples. In fact, one of our most popular blog posts ever is titled “Addressing common misconceptions of Arctic orchards and fruit”.

We invite readers to visit that post and explore our site in general for more details, but the two most common misconceptions about Arctic apples are:

1. Arctic apples will cross-pollinate with other orchards, causing organic orchards to lose organic certification: No organic crop has ever been decertified from inadvertent pollen gene flow. Even if pollen from an Arctic flower did pollinate an organic or conventional fruit, the resulting fruit is the same as the mother flower….not that of the pollen donor. Additionally, we are implementing numerous stewardship standards to ensure cross-pollination won’t occur, including buffer rows, bee-hive placement, and restricting distance from other orchards.
2. Because Arctic apples don’t brown, they will disguise old/damaged fruit: The opposite is true! Arctic apples won’t experience enzymatic browning (which occurs when even slightly damaged cells are exposed to air), but the decomposition that comes from fungi, bacteria and/or rotting will be just the same as conventional apples. This means that you will not see superficial damage, but you will see a change in appearance when the true quality is impacted.

Other accusations we hear somewhat frequently from a vocal minority who oppose all biotech foods are “we don’t know what the effects will be down the road” or that we’re “messing with God/Mother Nature”. Regarding the first claim, the science tools we now have are truly amazing and we have an unprecedented level of precision, control and analysis when developing biotech crops. They must be meticulously reviewed before approval and around three trillion meals with biotech ingredients have now been consumed without incident. As to the messing with God/nature charges, biotech-enhanced crops are really just one more advancement in a long history of human-driven food improvements – and even the Amish and the Vatican support these advances!

5) As an insider, you are privy to the goings-on and workings of the biotech industry, what do you envision the future of biotech to be? What new seeds are coming down the line and what potential advantages or disadvantages might they bring?

We foresee biotech continuing to be the most rapidly adopted crop technology ever, as it has been for the past 17 years. We also anticipate already realized benefits from biotech crops to continue, such as those highlighted by a fifteen year study including increased net earnings of $78.4 billion for farmers (mostly from developing nations), a reduction of 438 million kg of pesticide spraying and the equivalent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions as removing 8.6 million cars from the road for a year. Two major categories in particular where we’ll see further advancements are in environmental sustainability (reduced pesticide use, carbon emissions, food waste) and higher crop yields under adverse conditions (from pest resistance, drought-tolerance, etc.).

Another major trend you’ll see is the increased presence of biotech foods with direct consumer benefits, particularly nutrition. We will see many new projects following in the footsteps of crops like Golden Rice, which is fortified with beta-carotene; a precursor to Vitamin A. The World Health Organization has identified that around 250 million children under the age of 5 are affected by Vitamin A deficiency, which can cause blindness and death. Biotech crops like Golden rice can potentially save millions of lives by helping address this, and efforts are already underway to produce other Vitamin A enhanced crops including bananas and cassava.

This is just the tip of the iceberg, though, as there are many other exciting developments on the way including many other nutrient-enhancements for cassava, numerous drought-resistant crops, blight-resistant potatoes and many more. I actually highlighted some of these crops in a TEDx talk I gave in October 2012 on the value of agricultural biotechnology, which is available to watch online.

6) As a biotech company, do you bear the brunt of the anti-GMO backlash nominally directed at Monsanto and DuPont? If so, how has this affected you? Please be specific.

All companies who develop biotech crops have to deal with a certain level of backlash from the vocal, emotional minority who oppose biotechnology.

We are quite unique because when consumers discuss biotech companies, names like Monsanto and DuPont, as you mention, are the first ones that come to mind, rarely small companies like ours. Using Monsanto as an example, they have approximately 22,000 employees – we have 7. Because most organizations in this industry are pretty massive, they do get the lion’s share of attention. That being said, if we were to create a ratio of media attention to company size; ours would be through the roof!

One key reason we likely get more than our fair share of attention is that we’re dealing with apples. When we’re talking about something as popular and iconic as the apple (e.g., “an apple a day”, “American as apple pie”), it’s going to get people emotionally charged. Genetically, our enhancement is relatively minor compared to the majority of crops out there; yet even so, when our petition was available for public comment along with 9 other biotech crops in the U.S., we received around three times as many comments as all 9 of the other petitions combined!

In terms of how all this attention affects us, we can dictate that to some extent. On one hand, we could simply choose to ignore it. The review process is evidence-based (and rightfully so!), meaning we could keep our heads down and let the science speak for itself and not worry about what people are saying. That’s not how we operate, however, as we believe in the benefits and safety far too much to keep quiet. We want to do our best to make sure accurate, evidence-based information is out there to counter-balance all the myths and misinformation. This may mean that we spend more time and resources on education than others might, but it’s too important of an issue not to.

We’ve made a concerted effort so transparency is the core of our identity. We know we have a safe, beneficial product and we’re happy to explain the truth around previously mentioned misconceptions. We make it a priority, no matter how busy things get, to keep active on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, maintain a weekly blog, make timely site updates, respond to every single sincere email we get and invest in delivering presentation such as last year’s TEDx talk. 

We believe everyone in the science and agricultural industries have a responsibility to help educate the public on the facts of biotechnology. Sometimes that results in more backlash, but it’s worth it.

7) Some scientists state that the anti-GMO backlash has cemented Monsanto’s grip upon the market because only they can afford the regulatory burden, do you find this to be true in your experience? And how does this affect the greater biotechnology field?

Well, we’ve touched on how rigorous the review process is and how much smaller we are than the big industry players, so yes, it is tough for smaller companies to bring a biotech crop to market. It’s challenging to raise funds, produce needed data, spend the resources providing education, and it’s just a much bigger overall risk.

While the regulatory burden is heavier for small biotech companies, I think we’re an example that it’s still possible for the little guys to make it through, but it’s not easy. Not only do you have to successfully develop a fantastic product, but you must be focused, persistent and very patient. There is no rushing the review process, but here we are a decade after first planting Arctic trees and we expect to achieve deregulation in the U.S. later this year.

Even though we’re helping demonstrate it’s possible for small companies to commercialize a biotech crop, the high regulatory burden certainly does affect the industry as a whole. With such an intimidating outlook in terms of high investment, both in time and resources, there will obviously be far less small, entrepreneurial companies than would be ideal. In a field in which innovation should be embraced as much as possible, we are missing out on many potential innovative companies and value-added products because the barriers are so high.

Really, what it comes down to is the regulatory process is (and should be) extremely rigorous, but it is indeed possible for companies that aren’t multinationals to accomplish commercialization. Ideally, once biotech crops add further to their exemplary track record of safety and benefits and the scientific tools continue to improve; these barriers will gradually be lessened.

8) Lastly, what is your relationship to the government and governmental agencies. It has been alleged that agencies like the FDA are in the pocket of big biotech organizations and are willing to look the other way. Do you find any truth in those statements? If not, why not?

If we had to select one word to describe the multiple regulatory bodies we’ve dealt with over the past few years (USDA, APHIS, FDA, CFIA) it would be “thorough”. There’s certainly no looking the other way and nothing casual about the review process. If these government agencies were in the pocket of biotech companies, we wouldn’t still be awaiting deregulation more than ten years after we first developed Arctic apples!

Some people will see that some of the agencies have former members of biotech companies and immediately distrust the whole system; this misses the point. Of course they will have some former industry employees. These companies have thousands and thousands of employees and plenty of them are well-credentialed with first-hand experience in multiple facets of agriculture. In most fields, movement between private and public spheres is common, and most working aged citizens will have at least 10 different jobs before they turn 50. Some overlap is inevitable.

The truth is, you will hear a very wide range of arguments from those who don’t like biotech crops and this is just another one on that list. Luckily, there is more than enough evidence to show that biotech crops are indeed safe and beneficial, including over 600 peer-reviewed studies, around one-third of which are independently funded. The best advice we can give to consumers is to do their own research, but always with a close eye on the credentials and reputability of the sources!

For more information on OSF or Arctic apples, please visit www.arcticapples.com

Neal Carter is the CEO and founder of OSF. Thank you for your time Neal. I am, well, me; a curious fellow trying to make sense of the world (and I just released the 2nd edition of Random Rationality: A Rational Guide to an Irrational World for Kindle). It’s working out so far, and quite fun too.

So, would you eat an Arctic Apple?

 

Fourat Janabi is a writer, entrepreneur, photographer, explorer, and idiot. So, he likes to think he's important. He has worked in Baghdad while a war was raging, in Bahrain while the Arab Spring was in full sw?ing, and in Saudi Arabia where women don't exist. He wrote a book called Random Rationality, which you can buy for Kindle. You can follow his thoughts on his blog of the same name. Originally published on April 3, 2013 in at www.randomrationality.com. Reprinted with permission from the author.

I consider myself a relatively reasonable human being. I am modeling this behavior after my mom and grandma, who have strong morals and convictions, but tend to question and be skeptical, in an educated, calm manner.

Thus, my thoughts on the GMO (genetically modified organism) debate tend to err on the side of science, but I try to do a little research while I'm at it.

There's a craze going on. A food craze. An "eat nuts and berries and twigs" and "processed foods are the devil" craze, and while I agree, I would rather my kids eat fruit than fruit snacks, does that make corn bred to withstand drought that we planted evil? Does that genetic modification make us as farmers evil?

Answer from a majority of the crowd: No.

However, how does this corn that we inevitably harvest for fuel and food products and not to be confused with sweet corn that you can pick and eat, fit into the GMO debate?

Well, good question. Because to me, it's a simple answer: It shouldn't, because scientists have done their research.

I am not a scientist, but my understanding of GMOs is that it's just breeding. It's crossing these traits with those. It's making the outcome of the crop fit the need of our growing population. It's like Joe buying a "good bull" to breed with a "good cow." It's just genetics. There's no evil.

Scientists are in the lab, researching, and they're not evil scientists. They are just regular dudes who are wearing white coats and looking at CELLS. They're not figuring out a way to make the American public fatter. They have extensively studied this particular crop and have found a way for farmers like us to continue to survive during the driest of years and now the wettest of springs, and still harvest a corn crop so you folks can fuel up your SUVs with gas to get to Trader Joe's to purchase organic, non-GMO (supposedly) food and then make a stand on not eating conventionally grown food (sorry for the sarcasm, I'm grouchy today).

There's plenty of information out there that is both pro and con GMO. However, writers and skeptics like Fourat Janabi who have written books with anti-GMO sentiments, have back pedaled. Janabi has since written a second edition to his book, Random Rationality, realizing there's not much footing on the GMO debate. Thanks to conversations with scientists like Kevin Folta (read the conversation here if you're interested in the science behind GMOs, plus it's an entertaining piece), Janabi has written pieces of information so that people like me can see the GMO debate a little more clearly.

GMOs are not making us sick or fat. CHOICES are making us sick and fat. Regardless of whether you eat organic or conventional, there is no debate when you're eating too much of the wrong stuff. However, with all this GMO debate, and all the press it's getting, scaring the pants off of many Americans, it's filtering down to farmers like us, and that stinks, because we're just trying to keep up with the needs of a bigger and bigger population. GMOs are helpful in this respect, and if you don't believe it, try growing your organic garden without water this summer, and see how it turns out.

So before you post another shared "eat this not that" article on Facebook, check your sources, and think of my face, my husband's face, and know that we're not in cohoots with some big agricultural company, or trying to give you cancer or get you fatter or whatever. We're just trying to make a living in this crazy occupation that doesn't get a regular pay check, is dependent upon the weather, and has the responsibility to fuel and feed a growing global need.

Lucky us.

Emily Webel raises corn, cattle and four kids along with her husband, Joe, in Northwest Illinois.

This article originally appeared in the blog, Confessions of a Farm Wife, and is reprinted with permission from the author.

 

My first family farm tour was to the Ward Family Farm in Sycamore, IL.  I wasn’t sure what to expect.  I’ve been on farms before.  My grandparents used to own a dairy farm.  Lots of extended family members also lived on farms.  I remember visiting and smelling the smell and wanting nothing to do with it!  My parents raised my siblings and I in a small town surrounded by farms & farmland.  We always dreaded getting stuck behind the combine on the highway.

Upon exiting the bus, we were filmed & photographed. A lot!  We went inside the farm’s machine shed.  It had been cleaned!!

The pig barns were really cool!  Having never been inside one before, I was impressed!  Very clean! 20-22 piglets in a pen seem like too many to me.  The nursery where the piglets are kept was empty on our visit.  Every 6-7 weeks new piglets arrive.  Farmers are busy!  The stalls have to be cleaned thoroughly with a disinfectant and a high pressure washer before new pigs are allowed in.

Piglets are given medicine while in the nursery.  Illness prevention & growth promotion are the reasons.  Wouldn’t pigs grow on their own?  We don’t give our children growth promoting medicines.

The second barn we visited was for finishing.   I thought 50 pigs in a stall was a lot until I saw them.  Pigs seem to always bunch together so there is lots of space to spare. Male & female pigs are separated and are fed different diets.  Ten stalls of each sex are on a side in the barn.  The farmer walks through the barn twice each day to check on the pigs.  He is looking for illness or misbehavior or equipment malfunctions.  Sick pigs are kept in a smaller pen near the entrance until they are well enough to be put back.

Pigs are fed a diet of corn, soy meal, dried distillers grain, bakery & other items at the Ward Farm.  The bakery products are unique to the area due to the close proximity to Chicago.  Leftovers from Pepperidge Farms, Kraft, Nestle, Azteca & Sara Lee are ground into a fine powder & added to the pig’s feed.  We were able to feel the different feed between our fingers.  It reminds me of almonds when I grind them in the food processor.  Anti-microbials are also given to the pigs to help balance the bugs in their guts.  Dried distillers grain is a co-product of ethanol production.  It is what is left after fermentation.  It can replace part of the corn in the pig’s diet.  Corn has higher costs & less availability.

The barn monitoring system is very high tech.  Pigs are kept at a comfortable temperature.  Sprinkler systems, fans, heaters all contribute to their comfort. 

When pigs are raised outside, their body temperature is hard to control.  The taste of the meat would also fluctuate.   To control the health & nutrition of the pig, farmers now raise them indoors.  When pigs are cold, their bodies require more feed because their thermo-neutral zone is challenged.  I now understand it is in the farmer’s best interest to raise them indoors.

Bio security was a term I never associated before with farming.  This was all new & fascinating to me.  Wearing the white suit was fun.  I do hope they aren’t too expensive as they are put in the trash much too quickly after being used for only a short time.

Sitting in the tractors is something my boys always do.  This time it was my turn.  The seats in the newer tractors are very high up off the ground.  A farmer should be able to see many miles while driving through the field.  I like the simplicity of the older tractors.

Lunch was yummy!  I’ve never had a pork chop sandwich before.  

Farmland Foods was very generous to donate pork tenderloin to each Farm Mom.  What Jay Hofer from Farmland Foods told us about the slaughtering processes was eye-opening.  They put their pigs to sleep instead of electrocuting them; a simple and very humane process.  All this effort is for the benefit of the consumer who wants great tasting pork.  After being killed, their throats are slit, blood is drained and intestines are cleaned.  Then they are chilled for 24 hours before cutting.  Pork tenderloin or pork loin comes from the neck/shoulder region.  Bacon, our family favorite, comes from the underside of the pig.  

Farmland is definitely a local food producer.  They work with farmers within a 150 mile radius of their plant.  They ship to local grocers in Illinois.  If you want to eat local food, this is one company that provides.  Their All-Natural brand means no vaccinations for the animals.  My family prefers to buy direct from the farmer, but if in a bind we will to purchase Farmland’s All-Natural pork.

Jammie Esker-Schaer, Elmhurst, IL

Cornell researchers find that consumers believe organic food has fewer calories and are willing to pay nearly 25% more for it. Lesson: read the label. A new study from Cornell University floated through my social media field yesterday.

Basically, a group of researchers from Cornell's Food and Brand Lab wanted to know if the "health halo" effect of organic food could lead to real bias. Previous studies have shown that the organic label can lead consumers to think a product is healthier, but this group wanted to know if it went further than that.

Turns out, it does.

In short, they offered up a pair of cookies, yogurt and potato chips to shoppers. All of the product pairs were produced organically, but they labeled one of each as "organic" and "regular." Then they offered them up to consumers to taste and rate.

"Even though these foods were all the same, the “organic” label greatly influenced people’s perceptions," they reported. In fact, consumers estimated the organic cookies and yogurt to have significantly fewer calories. And - AND - they were will to pay up to 23.4% more for them.

People also believed the "organic" cookies and yogurt tasted lower in fat than the "regular" variety. Even "organic" chips and yogurt were deemed to be more appetizing and flavorful.

A very large part of me wants to say, really? Really, people? And yet, I know we can convince ourselves of all sorts of nutritional shenanigans. Remember the Snackwells cookies of the mid-'90s? My fellow college freshmen and I were pretty sure those were our diet silver bullet, mostly because they said "fat-free" on the label. Never mind that they had enough sugar to choke a horse. They were fat free! And that was my first lesson in reading labels. Because, shocker, I didn't lose weight by eating Snackwell cookies. I just ate a lot of bad cookies.

But if you read a label - and know what organic means - then you have a much better chance of avoiding the health halo. You can be an informed consumer. You can know that organic doesn't really mean more nutritious; you can make the decision to either buy organic or conventional food because you know the organic label is simply a description of how the food was raised, not the nutritional content. You can make decisions based on scientific analysis (and nutritional labels) as opposed to marketing labels like, "healthy", "nutritious" and my all-time favorite, "natural."

This, of course, transfers the responsibility to the individual. That's not always welcome in our society. But there's a lot of power in that responsibility. And that includes being able to make a conscious decision about nutritional value. And health.

In the end, it's up to us to read labels, pay attention and understand what terms like organic really mean (and don't mean).

Holly Spangler

Old Elm and Dayton Farms, owned by the Ward Family, was not what I anticipated when I envisioned visiting a hog farm. First, called a “finishing farm” the Wards don’t own the pigs. Illini Farms, who owns the pigs, supplies them when the pigs are 21 days old. Steve Ward, son and co-owner of the farms, explained that once the pigs come to his farm, he is responsible for everything involved in the daily care of the pigs including the administration of medicines and vitamins. Prior to my visit, my knowledge of pig farms was based solely on what I had read and seen in documentaries. I was concerned that I might see unclean conditions and animals contained in tight pens. Fortunately, these nightmarish images were far from the truth. In fact, I was in for quite a few surprises during my visit.  

I was impressed with the number of safety protocols established to maintain the health of the animals. Almost immediately, John Ward informed my group that there was absolutely no smoking permitted anywhere on the farm.  Prior to visiting the buildings where the pigs are housed, we were asked to cover our shoes with protective “booties” and our clothing with disposable “jump suits.” The farm owners want to ensure that there was little opportunity for our group to inadvertently transfer viruses or disease to their animals. In fact, Steve told us that the “swine flu” was a misconception. Swine (or pigs) didn’t transfer the flu to humans; it was the other way around--humans can give it to the pigs.

Steve led our group on a tour of both the West Building (or the Nursery) which houses the pigs until they are 6 weeks old and the East Building where the pigs live until they are 115 days old and weigh (on average) 280 pounds. Unfortunately, there were no piglets in the nursery.  But that didn’t stop Steve from showing us how clean and well ventilated the building was.  Through the use of a series of heaters and fans, Steve also demonstrated how he is able to maintain and monitor the temperature in both buildings: warmer in the nursery and well ventilated in both buildings.  Sincere, forthright and enthusiastic about sharing his livelihood, Steve encouraged us to ask questions (even about things that didn’t necessarily have to do with pork farming), take pictures, and invited us see all aspects of the production. He showed us the feeding system in the barns and how he monitors each animal’s health (segregating those who are either not growing at the expected rate or are not well.) I was surprised and delighted to learn that, unlike what is sometimes propagated in the media, the pigs eat what one would imagine pigs should eat: Dried Distillers Grain (DDG), Corn, Bakery Products (Jack’s Pizza anyone?), Soybean Meal as well as other dietary supplements like oil, calcium, vitamins and salt.

Yes, gone are the days of pigs living in outside pens burrowing in mud and eating the family’s left-overs.  The Ward’s pigs aren’t eating slop, that’s for sure.  And they are not rolling in their own manure either. These farmers truly love what they do and the animals that they care for.  This family business truly exemplifies what it means to “love what you do and do what you love.”

Five Things I Learned From My Visit

1. The difference between “farrow to wean” farms and finishing ones.  More importantly, why specialization may be the key to ensuring a farm family’s continued success
2. Eating pork labeled as “organic” may not necessarily mean that you are eating the cleanest and healthiest meat on the market.
3. The current method of butchering pigs is humane and does not cause stress for the animals.
4. Children raised on farms are encouraged to get involved in farm life but cannot do the same chores that their parents did at their age due to the sophistication of the machinery.

5. Approximately 50 pigs are housed in each enclosure.  Even as the pigs grow, there is still plenty of room for them to move and interact with each other without being shoved together due to lack of space.

 Renee Keats,  Highland Park

From the moment we stepped onto the Ward Family Farm and met our hosts, John and Betsy Ward and Steve, Jolene and Sarah Ward, I felt warm and at ease.  They opened their doors to us and were wonderful hosts.  I enjoyed learning about the original homestead of the Dayton Farm and the Old Elm Farms, dating back to the mid-1800’s and the early 1900’s respectively.  I also got a tear in my eye when John spoke of how proud he is of Steve and of Betsy, his city wife, being by his side all these years.

I enjoyed learning the in’s and out’s of the daily life and going on the hog barn and equipment tours.  I wasn’t aware that a litter of piglets was just under 4 months gestation and on average a litter was about 12 piglets, each sow having 2.2 litters per year.  I also thought it was interesting that the males and females were kept separate and that pigs are kept with the same ‘cage-mates’ for the entirety of their lives from wean to market.

The presentation from Illini Farms was interesting.  I am saddened that the cost of food for the hogs outweighs the price that farmers get for their product and if it weren’t for the futures market right now, the hog farmers would be losing money.

 

Also enjoyed knowing that a few of the Chicago corporate headquarters used product not fit for the shelves to go into pig feed, including:  Sara Lee, Azteca, Kraft, Nestle

Overall, a great experience and I look forward to the next one.

5 Take-Aways

• From The Wards – Behind every successful farmer is his spouse.
• From Farmland – Thanks for the recipe Jim, going to try it!  Also, IL is the #4 state in U.S. pig production.
• From Illini Farms – Learned and remain interested and slightly concerned about amino acids coming from Korea.
• From Pam – Farming as with everything in life takes dedication from the whole family.
• From Tom – Marinate a Pork Chop with a Rub for 3 days, the sandwiches were delish!

Kimberly Findlay, Chicago

A couple of weekends ago, I did something that I never imagined I would do in my adult life. I volunteered to go to a pig farm to see where all of the wonderful pork that the Houseful loves to consume comes from.

Boy did I get an eye AND nose full!

As part of my participation in the Illinois Farm Families, I visited the hog farm of Steve Ward and his family in Sycamore, Illinois. I wasn’t entirely sure of what we were in for, but I was open to the fact that I would learn something. You always should be, correct? I’m eternally grateful to Steve and his family, including his very gracious father and mother, for opening up their farm to us.

On the bus to the farm, we were given a talk by a couple of the farmers who were along with us on general farming concepts. Acreage (did you know that an acre is roughly the same size of a football field?) and the massive amounts that lot of farmers have. We’re talking 1200 acres of land to take care of on a daily basis. I think that I would faint with just one acre of land, and these families are taking care of 1200. Steve even let us know that if he worked from sun up to sun down during planting season, he would be able to get through one hundred acres of land. Catch me now as I faint from exhaustion. I did get to pretend to drive a tractor. The thing is massive. Literally. One wheel is taller than I am, and the cabin is so far off the ground that those of us who are a little afraid of heights may not deal well, but we pretend and take a photo anyway.

The learning process started immediately. We were told that Steve’s farm was a wean to to finish hog farm (meaning, they get pigs that have been weaned from their mothers and raise them until it’s time for them to be processed.) for Illini Farms. He has four hog houses – two for the smaller pigs, and two for pigs that are about 75 pounds and over. If you should ever get to this farm, as they do tours and the such, make sure you ask Steve how to wrangle a pig. It’s quite an art.

One thing that most city people would not really be prepared for would be the smell. It hits you before you even step foot in the door, however when you enter, you wonder where it’s coming from since the pens are literally spotless. Well thanks to modern innovation, the pens all have slotted flooring, so that all urine and fecal matter can drop into an 8 foot pit and not contaminate any of the pigs food. If you’re thinking that they shouldn’t care about the food being contaminated since it’s all slop anyway, you would be wrong my bacon loving friends. The food is delivered in a timing system, and consists of grains such as corn, soy and wheat. They eat from stainless steel troughs and they are quite happy with it.

I do remember learning when I was younger that pigs were social animals. I found out that my teachers did indeed know what they were talking about. As soon as our group walked through the doors, the pigs were pretty excited to come and interact with us. They also followed Steve around as he walked through the pens randomly petting or checking them.

The things that I really enjoyed learning were:

1. The pigs are kept in climate controlled housing instead of outside to fare in the very random Illinois weather.
2. Pigs are fed a diet that consists of grains and not random slop
3. Pig pens are not messy in the least. They are formatted to make sure that the pigs have sanitary areas to eat, sleep and live in.
4. Overcrowding is not an issue on this farm. All pens have enough room to allow the pigs to roam around as necessary.
5. The “processing” of the pigs are done with as little stress as possible. No electricity and no knives (which is what I always thought.) Farmers realize that food must come from somewhere, and everyone is not going to be a vegetarian. They want to make sure that those who do consume pork products are given the best product that they can find.
6. Pig scent stays with you for a couple of days. I know that Mr. Houseful loves me, because he kissed me BEFORE telling me that I was smelly.

Are there things that you would be interested in finding out about a hog farm? Ask your question below, and I’ll do my best to find out for you!

 Natasha Nicholes, Chicago