The Michigan Land Trustees Newsletter

October, 1995

Invocations for Livestock

“Oh God of pig and man,

help Maynard shoot straight,

if you can”

Reverend Swan Huntoon, 1980

It was almost the middle of September by the time I butchered the meat birds I got as chicks last spring. They had been a particularly voracious lot some were nearly the size of turkeys when I did them in. They ate a lot of layer mash and scratch, and they invariably got into the sweet feed and table scraps intended for the goats and pig. They got into the garden and ravaged the cabbage, zucchini and cucumber. I should have kept the free—ranging bastards further away from things. They lived out their days in gluttony and sloth. I hope they were comfortable. Even now, I wince when I think about how much they cost per pound now that they’re wrapped, stacked and sitting in the freezer.

I dread butchering. I’m slow and inefficient-it takes me over an hour to put up three birds. A farmer I know has the same problem. Last spring she bought 50 capons that are all going to die of old age.

I first learned about chickens and other livestock at the MLT School of Homesteading back in 1980. I spent the spring and summer there; enrolled with a dozen or so other college students- “urban discontents,” old Joe Filonowicz called us. Before that, my experience with animals was pretty much limited to a succession of family dogs and a pet goldfish named Igor.

The students had a lot of affection for the farm animals. Sometimes we would feed grain or clover to the milk cows and young steers by band, and we would rub sow bellies if they let us near. Not surprisingly, we were tense on those cool, crisp spring mornings when we gathered with Jon Towne or Maynard Kaufman to slaughter something. To the inexperienced, luring a pig or steer out into the open to plunk it between the eyes with a .22 and cut its throat, then hoist it from the barn rafters to eviscerate and cut it into little pieces was an eye opener. At first, it was grisly work, and nothing at all related to buying ground chuck wrapped in cellophane from a grocery. Self—absorbed as we were, certainly no one else had done this kind of thing since before World war II.

We were eager to attach spiritual significance to the task. Thereafter, whenever a hen was to be stewed, or a hog was to be slaughtered, somebody would fumble for an appropriate invocation before the kill. It was delivered with a mix of solemnity and humor, and our business-like instructors generally indulged us. (By the spring of 1980, the halcyon days of the back—to-the-land movement were over; still, it was months before the grim arrival of Reagan.)

Swan Huntoon usually came up with the best prayers-’Oh God of pig and man...” After all, he was a man of the cloth having been ordained by some dubious religious enterprise with a P.O. in California that he discovered on the inside of a matchbook cover. Back then, after a day’s work on the farm, we would stay up late at night and ponder the nature of things and plot agrarian revolution. We’d play guitars and eat carob brownies and drink lousy homemade wine. Those were profound times.

Fifteen years and a big pile of chicken guts later, I don’t do invocations. Actually, for a while I did. A neighbor showed me how to offer up each bird to the four corners of the Earth. He’s kindly and soft—spoken and has a sweat lodge sitting in the middle of a field of alfalfa. Unfortunately, I’m just not that spiritual. I have a genetic predisposition towards cynicism compounded by the corporate welfare state, Disney, and the expiration of the solar energy tax credit back in 1984. In these crass, material times I try to stay busy to avoid sulking.

I stood before the chopping block in a cold, wet drizzle. I clutched a hatchet with my right hand. In my left were the feet of an overgrown, upside down feathered mutant. I kept thinking that boneless chicken breast was on $1.99 a pound, and that for the next few hours I’ll be standing out in the mud and splattered with blood and feathers. All of a sudden, I began to realize that my family was safe and well—fed and that some day soon these birds would be roasted in olive oil and garlic and made into fine center pieces for the dinner table. I should have offered up an invocation.

After what seemed like a real long time, the last bird was dress—out, washed, patted dry, wrapped and thrown in to the freezer. I then went outside and chased down the dog and brought him in. Next, I took the wheelbarrow and piled the entrails, feathers and other remains of the flock into it and carted them out to the rolling fields. There I left them in heap as an offering to all the carrion-eating creatures above and below. I felt pretty good, and I vowed that next year I’m going to butcher my chickens in July.

Mike Phillips

Food Policy Study

Six communities selected from across the nation will serve as development sites for a local food systems project. The Project is funded by a three—year $140,000 grant from the

W. K. Kellogg Foundation of Battle Creek, Michigan. I will be directing the project in my capacity as WMU professor of political science and environmental studies.

The project, which has a national team of food policy experts, is intended to foster community and economic development by strengthening local food systems to make them more equitable and self—reliant. The work focuses on encouraging local food production and processing, increasing food access and food safety, and seeking sustainable local approaches.

The six sites selected for intensive assistance are located in: Los Angeles, California; Berkshire County, Massachusetts; Rochester, New York; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Austin, Texas; and Pendleton County, West Virginia. Each of the sites selected already has an active community group dealing with one or more of the basic elements of their local food system. More than 60 such groups inquired about the national project and 16 applied for the six available slots. The sites were selected on the basis of the groups’ probable success in implementing structural change in their local food systems. The structures of the six selected groups are quite different, with some focusing on fighting hunger, some addressing environmental issues and others promoting sustainable agriculture. Both rural and urban centers are represented among the sites selected. What they all had in common is that they have put together teams that include several stakeholders from the local food system.

Over the next two years, each of the six groups will receive general advice and technical assistance from the national project team as well as travel grants for four people from each area to attend planning workshops. Each group also will receive a collection of written resources to use in developing a local food policy organization.

Representatives of each of the six sites and the national project team met in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area in May for the first planning workshop. The purpose of the workshop was to begin developing food policy structures for each area and to share information about the different approaches groups already have taken in their areas.

The idea of this project is that we all are sharing information about food policy. A number of these groups have people with great expertise on some aspects of their local food systems such as food safety or hunger. We will be trying to encourage people to look at how to integrate all of the different parts of a local food system.

The six groups, when joined with several existing municipal food policy councils, are expected to serve as a foundation for a nationwide network of such organizations.

Developing an integrated food policy requires that such issues as land preservation, hunger, health, food safety, sustainable agriculture and economic development be considered. Groups at the six sites will be urged to prioritize such issues in their areas and design structures that will address the issues over time.

A second technical workshop is being planned. Project organizers also hope to hold a national conference on local food policy as well as to develop a resource network to help other areas start their own food policy organizations.

The efforts towards raising local awareness about food issues is a matter of economics as well as a social concern. Economic planners in an area need to be aware that 20 to 25 percent of a local economy goes into the production, processing, distribution and sale of food products as well as food recycling and waste handling. All of these processes must be considered at the household, neighborhood, municipal and regional levels to fully integrate a food policy system. Historically and politically, this has been a low priority issue. Everyone assumes that food is something that will always show up. Not everyone is aware of the environmental and social costs of our current system. In the long term, the question of the tremendous energy—intensive nature of our current food systems has to be addressed as rising energy costs could cause food disruptions.

Other members of the project team include Kate Clancy, professor of nutrition at Syracuse University and a founding member of the Onondaga Food System Council; Anne DeMeurisse, executive director of the Minnesota Food Association, which helped write the St. Paul Municipal Food Policy; and Robert Wilson, a chief architect of the Knoxville, Tennessee Food Policy Council. The project is being managed by the Minnesota Food Association.

Ken Dahlberg

Musings and Rationalizations

Many of us envision a better world. Since human nature leaves itself a lot of room for improvement, the responsibility that comes with being the most powerful creature on the planet cannot be underestimated. When we see some of the directions we are headed, or some of the drastic conditions we have created, we may feel compelled to act-to make a difference and control our destiny. Yet too often, we feel powerless. Too often we become apathetic, blame politicians, look to higher powers, or stick our heads in the sand. We see the need for change, but how?

There are several routes. You can go door to door peddling the philosophical wares of an organization that you feel is relevant. You can get up on a soapbox and be declared a radical lunatic. You can move to the fringes of society and make your lone statement via lifestyle. You can become “one of them,” and subtly infiltrate the system in an attempt to influence those to whom you have access.

Many of us have tried variations of any or all of the above. Our cause(s) might have been equal rights, civil liberties, religion, politics, the environment, or any large number of other concerns. We are all entitled to our own persuasions and we tend to believe that ours is the most righteous cause at the time.

It’s possible to go through an evolving process to effect change. Our society has a multitude of influences that are amazingly adept at pulling us this way and that. We continually see new and competing agendas, other sides of the story, and people with differing beliefs. The black and white world encountered in our youth has turned to gray. While our basic beliefs and precepts remain intact, our energies and commitments ebb and flow.

As strongly as we may feel about some things, it is often difficult with our busy lives to find the energy needed to devote to a cause, much less several of them. The endless tasks of every day life manage to dominate our priorities. How then, can we commit to a cause? Everything else seems to compete for whatever moxie we can muster.

Hopefully, when we look at our lives, we can recognize the impact we have made. In many ways we have made a difference. Although each effort may appear minute on its own, together they all combine to make a significant contribution to humanity. We must continue our often evolving efforts by whatever means we make available in the hopes of benefiting each other and the world.

Thom Phillips

(Please note: The following excerpts are from Ken Dahlberg’s presentation to the Kalamazoo City Commission earlier this year. It is in response to attempts to develop WMU’s Lee Baker Farm into an industrial research park.)

A Proposed Zoning Ordinance for

Renewable Resource/Green Space Districts

Presented by Michigan Land Trustees

Kenneth A. Dahlberg, Chairperson

Traditional open space zoning approaches have sought to provide a variety of amenities to city and metropolitan dwellers and have sought to avoid overcrowding. This has been done through a variety of means, but has tended to focus primarily on requiring certain amounts and types of open space for different types of development (residential, commercial, etc). Land has been viewed as something to build upon or to provide amenities.

This proposed ordinance is based on a different approach: that of stressing the importance of land as a renewable resource that needs to be managed in a sustainable manner over multiple generations. Two different levels need to be considered. First, at the level of individual parcels a variety of sustainable uses are permitted. Second, at the level of the city, there is a need to incorporate into city planning a recognition that the general health and economic well-being of cities and metropolitan areas depends in the longer term upon maintaining the health and diversity of their supporting environments.

The proposed ordinance thus calls for an inventory of open space and vacant land within the city. It also calls for an examination of current land use patterns and how they might be coordinated and combined so as to maintain and improve the basic ecological, social, and aesthetic qualities of the city’s landscape, thereby improving the general health and welfare of the city. This process should become part of the updating of Master Plan. Thereafter there should be periodic inventories of the use of all these categories of land.

The combination of two broad types of use (renewable and green space) is based on the recognition that the use of land can be more ore less active and invasive. Also, it recognizes that in many cases multiple and complimentary uses are possible on a specific parcel.

The types of uses permitted under this zoning ordinance would include:

1. sustainable agriculture and/or forestry;

2. community gardens;

3. educational uses directly related to the character of the land;

4. passive recreation

Depending upon the size of the parcel, one or more of these uses could be included.

This type of ordinance is needed in mature cities, such as Kalamazoo, and even more so in rapidly expanding townships and cities such as Oshtemo and Portage.

There are several reasons it is needed. One relate s to the high loss of farmland in Southwest Michigan. In its April, 1994 report, “Farming on the Edge,” the American Farmland Trust identified six counties in Southwest Michigan as constituting one of the twelve most vulnerable areas in the country in terms of the loss of prime farmland. These counties are Kalamazoo, Van Buren, Allegan, Ottawa, Kent, and Ionia.

The soon to be released report of the Michigan Farmland and Agriculture Development Task Force indicates a loss of 616,640 acres or 31.2 percent of the farmland in Allegan, Berry, Berrien, Cass, Kalamazoo, St. Joseph and Van Buren counties between 1954 and 1992. In Kalamazoo County, the loss between 1964 and 1994 was 102,995 acres or 40 percent of the farmland.

Preventing the loss of farmland is only one important part of the larger challenge of making agriculture more sustainable. Michigan Land Trustees has sought to promote sustainable agricultural alternatives that are less environmentally and socially damaging than conventional industrial approaches.

Work done nationally on sustainable agriculture in the last twenty years has been strengthened by the more recent and larger efforts to encourage sustainable development. The UN Conference on Environment and Development held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 was the most visible effort along these lines.

Sustainable development has been defined as “development which meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (World Commission on Environment and Development).

The President has appointed a bi-partisan Council on Sustainable Development which is working to determine the requirements of, and the best approaches to sustainable development. It has a number of task forces including those on sustainable agriculture and sustainable communities.

The ordinance proposed is based upon the concepts and principles of sustainable development and should be compatible with the types of recommendations that the President’s Council will make. More important, it will hopefully stimulate a discussion and dialogue on how to address challenges of sustainability locally.

Board of Directors MLT Updates

David Claremont

Sharon Crotser

Kenneth Dahlberg

Barbara Geisler

Maynard Kaufman

Margaret Laatsch

Lisa K. J. Phillips

Mike Phillips

Thorn Phillips

Jon Towne

In order to increase contact with MLT members, there will be from now on a one or two page summary after each MLT meeting mailed to the membership. (We meet three or four times a year.) In addition, there will be two newsletters-in the spring in the fall. Hopefully, this will and provide more continuity by keeping the membership abreast of issues, causes and projects that we are involved in. Thoughts, comments, poems and essays are always welcome for the newsletter. Please send book and project reviews also.

Mike Phillips, Editor