May 1-9th, 2008 Agriculture Articles Irrigation for frost protection Potato virus update Ag and our Communities 2008 Michigan Farm Market Directory Now Available Area schools honored for health-promotion programs 5. The revolution will not be pasteurized: Inside the raw-milk underground Ag and the Government 6. Farm Bill from Farm and Ranch Alliance (their perspective) 7. House, farm groups seek override votes Upcoming Events 8. MSU Student Organic Farm Tours 9. MSU Student Organic Farm Daylong Workshops 10. Seeking Interest in East Lansing City Market Reopen 11. Vegetable Cover Crop Workshop June 12 near Kalamazoo at Kellogg Biological Station 12. Two Farm Tours in Ontario-Organic Vegetable and Weed Management systems-June 20 and 21st. ************************************** Agriculture News 1. Irrigation for frost protection by Bill Steenwyk, Michigan State University A farmer seeking to avoid crop loss from last week's freezing temperatures reported that in some fields, the irrigated areas received greater injury than plants along the borders where the sprinkler heads could not reach. This seems to contradict what we know about irrigation. Water from our wells is maintained at 50 to 55 degrees, so any amount of water sprayed onto a field, it would seem, should help keep the air warmer than where no water was applied. In this case, our common sense fails us, because we are forgetting two very basic concepts from physics. What we forget is that: 1) when water freezes, it gives off heat to the surrounding environment, and 2) water that evaporates removes heat from its surrounds. If a farmer irrigates during freezing weather, but does not apply enough water to maintain continual ice formation, the water will not be giving up a great deal of heat to the air. Furthermore, if the soil's heat causes the water to evaporate, it will behave just like a refrigerator, removing the soils heat energy, resulting in colder air temperatures and more severe frost damage. If, on the other hand, enough water is supplied to keep ice forming, frost damage may be averted. Irrigation should begin as temperatures reach 33-34 degrees and run until the ice melts. Nozzles that produce a mist are better at creating ice without applying as much water and soil saturation as with typical irrigation nozzles. Of course there are limits to how much water should be used. Excessive ice accumulation can also injure plants. Those wanting a more thorough treatment of this subject can go to http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/hil/hil-705.html, http://ohioline.osu.edu/b672/pdf/Irrigation.pdf, http://ohioline.osu.edu/aex-fact/0370.html, and http://tfpg.cas.psu.edu/40.htm, among others. William L. Steenwyk West Michigan District Extension Educator - Commercial Vegetables Michigan State University Extension 9302 Portland Road Clarksville, MI 48815-9731 office phone: 616-693-2193 mobile phone 616-550-2752 fax: 616-693-2317 email: [log in to unmask] 2. Potato virus update Willie Kirk, Plant Pathology and George Bird, Entomology Michigan State University Modified for Organic production by Vicki Morrone Potato plants can become systemically infected with viruses following mechanical transmission or through vectors. Viruses decrease plant vigor and cause mottling, chlorosis and necrosis. Yields are decreased and some viruses cause internal tuber symptoms which can be seen after the affected tuber is cut or peeled. Such crops completely lose their value even though a small proportion of tubers are affected. Some viruses may rapidly kill plants, whereas others cause mild or no symptoms at all and the reaction of different varieties to the same virus can vary. Photosynthetic capability and yield is reduced, but more recently there has been a worldwide increase in viruses that cause tuber necrotic symptoms such as Tobacco rattle virus (corky ring spot) and PMTV (potato mop top virus). Corky ring spot has now been reported in Michigan, but PMTV is confined at present to China, Japan, Northern Europe and Canada but has been reported in Maine. A recent study from the United Kingdom has indicated that PMTV may be principally soil-borne. In Michigan, the most common virus problems are aphid-transmitted diseases such as PVY and its variants. Viral symptoms can be quite different in the year when plants become infected (primary symptoms) from those in plants derived from infected seed (secondary symptoms). For example PVY (severe mosaic), transmitted by aphids such as the soybean aphid, may nearly defoliate potato plants within four weeks after infection and decrease yield. These seed tubers become viral hosts for the following season. The percentage of tubers infected is established during winter grow-outs each year and seedlots can be downgraded if they fail to meet standards. In the following season, plants from infected seed are severely stunted, mottled and die early limiting yield with a high proportion of small tubers. The primary symptoms of some virus infections are mild or, if infection occurs late, plants may show no symptoms. Infected tubers may produce plants with severe symptoms in the following season. Plants infected during the growing season with leaf roll virus transmitted by aphids may show slight rolling of upper leaves, often only on one stem. In the next season, leaf roll infected tubers produce stunted plants with rolled lower leaves that are thickened and brittle. In Michigan, a reduction in leaf roll has occurred due to the use of neonictinoid insecticides that has effectively controlled viruleferous aphids. Organic farmers can use Some viruses produce mild symptoms or none at all in both seasons. Virus X transmitted mechanically by leaf contact, machinery or on clothing, may produce no symptoms whereas in some varieties it causes leaf mottles but does not affect plant vigor or yield. Plants infected with Virus A, also transmitted by aphids, show mild symptoms but in association with Virus X or Y can cause crinkle symptoms. The co-infection of plants with some of PVY and PVO or PVS has resulted in complex reactions that have lead to the appearance of some tuber necrotic strains of PVY known as PVTntn, which can cause necrosis in tubers. In Michigan, when tubers were removed from storages in 2007, substantial internal necrosis was observed in 1-2 percent of the tubers. Symptoms included arcs similar to those caused by TRV (Figure 1). This virus is a member of the genus Tobravirus and is transmitted by a number of species of stubby-root nematodes (Paratrichodorus or Trichodorus spp.). Stubby-root nematodes have been previously reported from Michigan. Corky ringspot can result in substantial losses, with entire potato fields being rejected due to internal tuber damage. Once found, fields are considered permanently at risk to this disease due to the large host range of both the virus and the nematode vector. This disease has been previously found in the United States in California, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Washington, Oregon and likely in Indiana. Management of virus diseases in potato is complicated due to the various vectors that are involved in transmission. Management practices include exclusion and sanitation. Planting of certified seed is generally accepted as the best practice for potato production and growers planting non-certified seed are at risk from virus diseases. Varieties that are immune to a particular virus should be planted, but there is limited knowledge on varietal responses to many of the viruses although Eva, Dark Red Norland, Belrus, HiLite Russet, Kennebec, Monona, Norwis, and Sebago have some resistance or tolerance to PVY. Some varieties of potatoes are susceptible to particular viruses but do not show clear symptoms (Shepody and Russet Norkotah are symptomless carriers of PVY). This can cause problems in susceptible varieties that express symptoms such as leaf necrosis, internode stunting and tuber necrosis. Where possible seed stocks with the lowest virus counts should be planted, PVY is nonpersistent but is transmitted quickly by aphids and insecticides are generally ineffective. Frequent application of mineral oils can be used to reduce spread of PVY by aphids. Reduction of human and mechanical traffic through the field can limit mechanical spread (especially for PVX). Roguing of symptomatic plants and removal of Solanaceous plants such as nightshade and ground cherry with herbicides can help reduce disease. Nematode vectored viruses such as TRV may be transmitted at the root tip into potato plants, then move to the tubers. Soil should be sampled to determine presence of nematodes that transmit TRV. TRV can survive in dormant nematodes for two to four years and nematode populations increase on cereal crops, so rotations should not include them. The use of rotational non-host crops (spearmint and alfalfa) has had limited success in western states. Shepherd's purse and chickweed are viral-reservoirs therefore applications of effective herbicides can limit viral increase. We are currently developing a research program for TRV management in Michigan and will be able in the future to test stubby root nematodes for presence of TRV. Potato disease Extension bulletins Willie Kirk, Plant Pathology A new potato disease scouting guide is now available in addition to seven new high resolution potato diseases MSU Extension bulletins for purchase from the MSU Extension Bulletin Office. The scouting guide includes a calendar of developmental events for the major disease of potatoes in Michigan. The new group of publications includes the recent potato late blight bulletin and bulletins on early blight, pink rot, Fusarium dry rot, Rhizoctonia diseases, potato common scab, white mold and seed piece management. For more information, call 517-353-6740. You can also download these bulletins from the "Extension publications" page as pdf files from the website http://lateblight.org. Also at http://lateblight.org daily updates of potato late blight risk will be available from May 1 for all the MAWN sites in Michigan and updates on extension meetings being held throughout the state. 3. 2008 Michigan Farm Market Directory Now Available LANSING - Just in time for spring bedding plants, hanging flowering baskets, nursery stock, and fresh Michigan asparagus, the 2008 Michigan Farm Market and Agricultural Tourism directory is now available. "This statewide listing of farm markets, U-pick operations, corn mazes, cider mills and much more, has been produced in Michigan since 1980," said Don Koivisto, director of the Michigan Department of Agriculture (MDA). "It remains the perfect pocket guide for those looking for farm fresh Michigan produce, specialty food products like jams, jellies, baked goods, maple syrup and honey, or for family friendly activities down on the farm." The 2008 directory was created by a partnership among the Michigan Farm Marketing & Agri-Tourism Association (MI-FMAT), Farm Bureau Insurance, Michigan Farm Bureau, and the MDA. Copies of the directory are available at all 13 Michigan Welcome Centers and at Farm Bureau Insurance agencies across the state. The 2008 directory has more farm market listings than last year's, features an alphabetical index, and a new regional tab design to help customers find the markets and products they are searching for. It also features 16 full-color pages and an availability chart showing when the various types of fresh fruits and vegetables produced in Michigan are in season. "The Michigan Farm Marketing and Agri-Tourism Association is proud to provide this directory for our customers," said Steve Tennes, MI-FMAT board president and operator of The Country Mill in Charlotte. "Michigan farm marketers are gearing up for a terrific season, and look forward to welcoming visitors to their farms to share our high quality, locally grown food and agricultural products and unique on-farm experiences." In addition to the printed directory, farm listings can be accessed via a searchable database on MI-FMAT's Web site at www.MichiganFarmFun.com. Links to the electronic directory are also accessible from MDA's agricultural tourism Web page at www.michigan.gov/agtourism, the Michigan Farm Bureau Web site at www.michiganfarmbureau.com, and the Farm Bureau Insurance Web site at www.farmbureauinsurance-mi.com. 4. Area schools honored for health-promotion programs http://www.mlive.com/news/citpat/index.ssf?/base/news-24/120973712026573 0.xml&coll=3#continue Friday, May 02, 2008 By Tarryl Jackson [log in to unmask] --768-4941 Three Jackson County schools are getting a pat on the back by the Michigan surgeon general for pushing their students to eat right and exercise. Jackson's Bennett and Cascades elementary schools and Springport High School are among about 100 schools statewide honored by state Surgeon General Kimberly awn Wisdom recently. At Bennett and Cascades, school officials launched a school wellness policy that includes no high-fat or high-sugar snacks during classroom parties or school events. We decided that we needed to be role models for our children,'' said Mary Korytowsky, school nurse for both schools. ``There are other ways to celebrate besides having candy, cake and cookies.'' Teachers, staff and parents were informed of the policy this school year, and staff compiled a list of acceptable snack foods (like fruits, vegetables and pretzels) and non-food items (like stickers and stamps) for these events. Jackson's Hunt Elementary School was honored last year for implementing this policy. ``The teachers have been very innovative in finding ways to celebrate special events,'' Korytowsky said. ``The kids haven't seemed to miss the cookies and candy.'' At Springport High School, staff members wanted students to know the value of naturally and locally grown foods and how eating these foods can benefit their bodies. ``I think a lot of students (in general) often are not aware of what healthy nutrition really is,'' said Principal Chris Kregel. District officials saw this too. They started a nutrition education program through a grant of more than $100,000 funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture through the Michigan Nutrition Network at Michigan State University Extension. Through the grant, the district hired Emily Reardon as the project coordinator to oversee the nutrition course work and activities for all school buildings, and Alison Ruhl as the nutrition teacher for the elementary school. The nutrition education program includes school gardening, where the students grow their own organic fruits and vegetables and serve them during lunch. Also, vending machines are stocked less with caffeinated drinks and more with water and fruit juices. ________________________________________ 5. The revolution will not be pasteurized: Inside the raw-milk underground Harpers Magazine http://harpers.org/archive/2008/04/0081992 By Nathaniel Johnson April 2008- Friday, May 2, 2008 The agents arrived before dawn. They concealed the squad car and police van behind trees, and there, on the road that runs past Michael Schmidt's farm in Durham, Ontario, they waited for the dairyman to make his move. A team from the Ministry of Natural Resources had been watching Schmidt for months, shadowing him on his weekly runs to Toronto. Two officers had even infiltrated the farmer's inner circle, obtaining for themselves samples of his product. Lab tests confirmed their suspicions. It was raw milk. The unpasteurized stuff. Now the time had come to take him down. Schmidt had risen that morning at 4 a.m. He milked his cows and ate breakfast. He loaded up a delivery, then fired up the bus. But as he reached the end of the driveway, two cars moved in to block his path. A police officer stepped into the road and raised his hand. Another ran to the bus and banged on the door. Others were close behind. Eventually twenty-four officers from five different agencies would search the farm. Many of them carried guns. "The farm basically flooded, from everywhere came these people," Schmidt later told me in his lilting German accent. "It looked like the Russian army coming, all these men with earflap hats." The process of heating milk to kill bacteria has been common for nearly a century, and selling unpasteurized milk for human consumption is currently illegal in Canada and in half the U.S. states. Yet thousands of people in North America still seek raw milk. Some say milk in its natural state keeps them healthy; others just crave its taste. Schmidt operates one of the many black-market networks that supply these raw-milk enthusiasts. Schmidt showed men in biohazard suits around his barn, both annoyed and amused by the absurdity of the situation. The government had known that he was producing raw milk for at least a dozen years, yet an officer was now informing him that they would be seizing all the "unpasteurized product" and shuttling it to the University of Guelph for testing. In recent years, raids of this sort have not been unusual. In October 2006, Michigan officials destroyed a truckload of Richard Hebron's unpasteurized dairy. The previous month, the Ohio Department of Agriculture shut down Carol Schmitmeyer's farm for selling raw milk. Cincinnati cops also swooped in to stop Gary Oaks in March 2006 as he unloaded raw milk in the parking lot of a local church. When bewildered residents gathered around, an officer told them to step away from "the white liquid substance." The previous September an undercover agent in Ohio asked Amish dairyman Arlie Stutzman for a jug of unpasteurized milk. Stutzman refused payment, but when the agent offered to leave a donation instead, the farmer said he could give whatever he thought was fair. Busted. If the police actions against Schmidt and other farmers have been overzealous, they are nevertheless motivated by a real threat. The requirement for pasteurization-heating milk to at least 161 degrees Fahrenheit for fifteen seconds-neutralizes such deadly bacteria as Campylobacter jejuni, Listeria monocytogenes, Escherichia coli, and salmonella. Between 1919, when only a third of the milk in Massachusetts was pasteurized, and 1939, when almost all of it was, the number of outbreaks of milk-borne disease fell by nearly 90 percent. Indeed, pasteurization is part of a much broader security cordon set up in the past century to protect people from germs. Although milk has a special place on the watch list (it's not washable and comes out of apertures that sit just below the orifice of excretion), all foods are subject to scrutiny. The thing that makes our defense against raw milk so interesting, however, is the mounting evidence that these health measures also could be doing us great harm. Over the past fifty years, people in developed countries began showing up in doctors' offices with autoimmune disorders in far greater numbers. In many places, the rates of such conditions as multiple sclerosis, type 1 diabetes, and Crohn's disease have doubled and even tripled. Almost half the people living in First World nations now suffer from allergies. It turns out that people who grow up on farms are much less likely to have these problems. Perhaps, scientists hypothesized, we've become too clean and aren't being exposed to the bacteria we need to prime our immune systems. What we pour over our cereal has become the physical analogue of this larger ideological struggle over microbial security. The very thing that makes raw milk dangerous, its dirtiness, may make people healthier, and pasteurization could be cleansing beneficial bacteria from milk. The recent wave of raw-milk busts comes at a time when new evidence is invigorating those who threaten to throw open our borders to bacterial incursion. Public-health officials are infuriated by the raw milkers' sheer wrongheadedness and inability to correctly interpret the facts, and the raw milkers feel the same way about them. Milk as it emerges from the teat, it seems, is both panacea and poison. * * * Schmidt responded to the raid on his farm by immediately going on a hunger strike. For a month he consumed nothing but a glass of raw milk a day. He milked a cow on the lawn outside Ontario's provincial parliament. This was a battle, he said, for which he was prepared to lose his farm. He was ready to go to jail. Actually, he'd been awaiting arrest for more than a decade. For all that time, he told me, he'd carried a camera with him so that he could take pictures when the authorities finally came to shut him down. "And I upgraded. You know, first it was still, then video, then digital came along." The fifty-three-year-old Schmidt doesn't have the demeanor of a rabble-rouser. His temperament, in fact, is not unlike that of the cows he tends. A large man, he moves deliberately, reacts placidly to provocation. He has thin blond hair, light-blue eyes, and pockmarked cheeks. On the farm he invariably wears black jeans, a white shirt, and a black vest. In the summer he dons a broad-brimmed straw hat; in the winter, a black newsboy's cap. When Schmidt emigrated from Germany in 1983, he wanted to start a farm that would operate in a manner fundamentally different from that of the average industrial dairy. Instead of lodging his cows in a manure-filled lot, he would give them abundant pastures. Instead of feeding them corn and silage, he'd give them grass. And instead of managing hundreds of anonymous animals to maximize the return on his investment, he would care for about fifty cows and maximize health and ecological harmony. If he kept the grasses and cows and pigs and all the components of the farm's ecosystem healthy, he believed the bacterial ecosystem in the milk would be healthy, too. Schmidt bought 600 acres three hours northwest of Toronto. There he built up a herd of Canadiennes, handsome brown-and-black animals with black-tipped horns. Most cattle farmers burn off the horn buds-a guarantee against being gored-but Schmidt believes it's better to leave things in their natural state whenever possible. The dangers posed by the horns (like the dangers of drinking unpasteurized milk) weighed less heavily on him than the risk of disrupting some unknown element of nature's design. The farm flourished under his hand. Schmidt set up a cow-share system whereby, instead of purchasing raw dairy, customers leased a portion of a cow and paid a "boarding fee" when they picked up milk. People were technically drinking milk from their own cows. The animals were, for all practical purposes, still Schmidt's property, but the scheme made the defiance of the law less flagrant, and health officials could look the other way. Then, in 1994, the Canadian Broadcasting Company aired a documentary about Schmidt and his unpasteurized product. A few months later he was charged with endangering the public health. Because Schmidt believed that his style of biodynamic farming actually secured the public health, he decided to fight the charges. Newspapers began quoting him on the salubrious powers of raw milk and the detriments of industrial dairy. At this time, strange things started happening around the farm. Vandals broke into his barn. Schmidt found two of his cows lying dead in the yard, apparently poisoned. Then an unmarked van ran his cousin's car off the road. Men jumped out of the van's back and forced him inside, holding him there for two hours. Schmidt hadn't been prepared for the struggle to take this turn. He sent his cousin back to Germany, agreed to plead guilty in court, and sold all but 100 acres of his farm to pay the government fines and cover his lost income. Schmidt is a man of Teutonic certainty, but as he walked into the field soon after he'd sold the land, he was filled with doubt. The morning sun had turned the sky red, and mist hung around the legs of the cattle. While he twitched a stick at his bull, Xamos, to turn him away from the cows, Schmidt wondered whether it was even possible to run a farm in the manner he wanted. If he started selling his milk at industrial prices it would erode his meticulous style of farming. He would lose the direct connection to his customers. He'd have to push his cows to produce more milk. He'd be compelled to adopt the newest feed-management strategies and modernize his equipment. Schmidt didn't see Xamos coming, just felt the explosion as the bull struck him. Even as he hit the ground, the animal was on him, bellowing. It stabbed with one horn and then the other, tearing up the earth and ripping off Schmidt's clothes. One horn sank into Schmidt's belly, another ripped into his chest and shoulder, grazing a lung. Only when his wife charged into the field, flanked by the couple's snarling dogs, did Xamos retreat. Another man might have taken this attack as a sure sign, a demonstration of the folly of seeking harmony with nature. As Schmidt lay there bleeding into the earth, however, he felt only humility. "Nature is dangerous, yes," he would tell me later. "But I can't control it, and I can't escape from it. I can only learn the best way to live with it." By the time Schmidt could walk again, almost six weeks later, he'd decided to continue farming on his own terms. He announced his intentions publicly, but the regulators must have felt that they'd made their point. For years he continued farming quietly, as an outlaw, until the morning that government agents descended on his dairy. After the hunger strike and the other public acts of protest, Schmidt settled in for the long fight. He hired a top defense lawyer in hopes of overturning Ontario's raw-milk ban. * * * In the twenty-five years that Schmidt has operated the dairy, no one has ever reported falling sick after drinking his milk. Yet raw-milk illnesses do crop up. According to the Centers for Disease Control, the United States averages seventy cases of raw-dairy food poisoning each year. In the fall of 2006, for instance, California officials announced that raw milk tainted with E. coli was responsible for a rash of illnesses. It is legal to sell unpasteurized dairy in California, and the tainted milk came from Organic Pastures, in Fresno, the largest of several farms that supply the state's health-food stores. Tony Martin had agonized over buying the raw milk. He'd never brought it home before. He knew that milk was pasteurized for a reason, but he'd also heard that the raw stuff might help his son's allergies. "There was a lot of picking it up off the shelf and putting it back," he said. Chris, his seven-year-old, drank the Organic Pastures milk three days in a row over a Labor Day weekend. On Wednesday, Chris woke up pale and lethargic. On Thursday he had diarrhea and was vomiting. That night he had blood in his stool, and the Martins rushed him to the hospital. Shortly afterward, several other children checked into southern California hospitals. All of them had drunk Organic Pastures raw-milk products, and they all were diagnosed as being infected with a virulent strain of E. coli known as O157:H7. Some of the children recovered rapidly, but two, Chris Martin and Lauren Herzog, got progressively worse. The O157:H7 strain releases a jet of toxins when it comes into contact with antibiotics, so doctors face the difficult decision of allowing nature to take its course or intervening and risking further damage. Chris's doctors administered antibiotics, Lauren's did not, yet both children's kidneys shut down. While Chris was on dialysis, his body became so swollen that his father said he wouldn't have recognized him if he passed him on the street. Chris was in the hospital fifty-five days. Lauren went home after a month but then relapsed and had to return. Both children eventually recovered but may have suffered permanent kidney damage. The illnesses didn't stop raw-milk sales. Even as the state ordered store managers to destroy the milk on their shelves, customers rushed in to buy whatever they could. Several Organic Pastures customers said regulators had simply pinned unrelated illnesses on the milk. They pointed out that siblings and friends of the sick children had drunk the same milk from the same bottles and didn't get so much as diarrhea. Tests for E. coli in one of the milk bottles in question had also turned up negative. Although it seemed implausible that the state would frame Mark McAfee, the owner of Organic Pastures, it certainly was possible that regulators were predisposed to declare raw milk guilty. When state veterinarians came to search Organic Pastures for E. coli, they were surprised to see that the manure they pulled from the cows' rectums was watery and contained less bacteria than usual. Patrick Kennelly, chief of the food-safety section at the California Department of Health Services, confronted McAfee with these facts in an email, writing, "Not only is this unnatural, but it is consistent with the type of reactions that an animal might have after being treated with high doses of antibiotics. . . . Why were your cows in this condition, Mark?" McAfee does not use antibiotics on his organic farm. The state tests all shipments of his milk for antibiotics residue and has never found any. Allan Nation, a grazing expert, offered another explanation: the cows had been eating grass. Grass-fed cows carry a lower number of pathogens, he said. And for a few days in the spring and fall, when the weather changes and new grass sprouts, the cows "tend to squirt," as Nation put it. But grass-eating cows have become so rare that, to California health officials, they seemed unnatural. The norms of industrial dairying had become so deeply ingrained that a regulator could jump to the conclu sion that all milk is dirty until pasteurized. * * * Around the time that Chicago passed the first pasteurization law in the United States, in 1908, many of the dairies supplying cities had themselves become urban. They were crowded, grassless, and filthy. Unscrupulous proprietors added chalk and plaster of paris to extend the milk. Consumptive workers coughed into their pails, spreading tuberculosis; children contracted diseases like scarlet fever from milk. Pasteurization was an easy solution. But pasteurization also gave farmers license to be unsanitary. They knew that if fecal bacteria got in the milk, the heating process would eventually take care of it. Customers didn't notice, or pay less, when they drank the corpses of a few thousand pathogens. As a result, farmers who emphasized animal health and cleanliness were at a disadvantage to those who simply pushed for greater production. After a century of pasteurization, modern dairies, to put it bluntly, are covered in shit. Most have a viscous lagoon full of it. Cows lie in it. Wastewater is recycled to flush out their stalls. Farmers do dip cows' teats in iodine, but standards mandate only that the number of germs swimming around their bulk tanks be below 100,000 per milliliter. When I was working as a newspaper reporter in Cassia County, Idaho, a local dairyman, Brent Stoker, had wanted to raise thousands of calves on his farm and sell them to dairies as replacements for their worn-out cows. Stoker's neighbors, incensed by the idea of all that manure near their houses, stopped the project. Stoker wasn't an especially dirty farmer-dairy associations showed off his farm on tours-but, to survive, dairies must produce a lot of milk, which means producing a lot of feces. I called Stoker recently, to talk dairy and catch up. He was in the middle of another fight with the neighbors. This time he wanted to build a large organic dairy. I said I hadn't taken him for the organic type. "Pay me enough and I am," he said. Organic may mean no antibiotics and no pesticides, but it doesn't necessarily mean grass-fed. When it comes to making milk, grass-fed cows simply can't compete. Stoker's current herd of non-organic cows produce a prodigious eighty pounds of milk per day. That's mostly because they are fed like Olympic athletes. They eat a carefully formulated mix of roughage and high-energy grains. "If you were to try to pasture them, you'd lose production down to about forty pounds," Stoker said. "Of course, the cow would last a lot longer." If you would like to access previous postings to the Mich-Organic listserv you can copy and paste the following URL into your browser address bar http://list.msu.edu/archives/mich-organic.html