5/31/12

Today was our last day of class!!! We had a Locavore Brunch out by the ridges and put put course. It was a beautiful day. Everyone prepared local foods to bring. We talked about all the foods and where they came from and how to prepare them. All of the dishes were great!! I loved the kale chips because I have been meaning to make those for forever. We also went over other major things we have done in class like eating for two dollars a day. I liked to hear about everyone else experience since we never really discussed them in class before. 

5/29/12

Today we went to the Holter Holstein Farm. The farmers daughter, Alissa, gave the tour and a representative from the American Dairy Association helped out in explaining things when needed. The farm has been a family business for over 60 years. It has about 350 milk cows. I thought all of their procedures were very impressive and thought out. The facility was very clean and they have very strict regulations. They explained a lot about the cow milking parlor. This farm thing is definitely something you need to grow up in to be able to accomplish there's a lot a lot you need to know to accomplish a clean farm! 

5/24/12

We had a guest speaker today named Karen Bakies, RD, LD. She is the Student Affairs Director with the American Dairy Association Mideast. She talked to us about how to communicate the nutrition messages we are trying to get across. We learned that the American Dairy Association has been around since 1915. They provide scientific-based nutrition info to the media physicians, dietitians, nurses, educators, and consumers. American Dairy Association is funded through dairy farmers. She covers the states of Ohio and West Virginia. There are 3,099 dairy farmers in Ohio. She taught us a lot about how to give presentations and keep people interested so we can effectively translate our message.

5/22/12

Today we worked within our groups. It was nice to get time to get together and work on our projects.

5/18/12

Today was absolutely beautiful! We got to get off campus again and go to the Good Earth Farm. The owners name who spoke to us was Paul Clever. His wife and him are founders of the farm. I was amazed at this farm and how it was non-profit. I give them props for being able to pull that off. The purpose of the farm is to provide food for pantries with healthful good quality produce. Many pantries lack this. This farm also serves as a place to give education to visitors who are often lacking the experience of seeing where our food comes from. Good Earth Farm serves 60 people a week on the produce and dairy they make. So there is a big plot dedicated to produce and to the cattle they have. The farm is funded by donations and grants. However it got a jump start by the generosity of the neighbors who gave him the plot of land out of the kindness of their hearts. I believe the monitoring and evaluating of the farm is done by  Paul and his wife. I overall  thought this project was an excellent idea and wish that their were more places like it to help consumers be able to attain fruits and vegetables more easily,

5/15/12

We had another guest speaker today Melissa Alfano. She is the director of Athens and Perry county WIC. WIC stands for Woman Infants and children and is a supplemental food program for pregnant breastfeeding women. There are other criteria that WIC includes for one to recieve they benefits. Some of the purpose of WIC is to improve pregnancy outcomes, reduce infant mortalitly and provide infants and children with a healthy start to life. Funding for WIC is 100% federal funding. SOme programs that WIC does are as follows: nutrition education and classes, breastfeeding classes, supplemental foods, farmers market coupons and younger and older solid classes. The food packages are specific meaning they cant just spend the money as they chose I think this is a good idea so it forces them to buy more nutritionally optimal foods.


The Second part of class we watched a webinar, it talked about cancer and its importance in the US today. The webinar was done by Cheryl Rock from the American Institute of Cancer Research. There are many clinical trials being done in order to examine diet modification can have an affect on breast cancer occurrence.  She also talked about diet's influence on epigentetic events. Which seems interesting and may come into play more in the future.

5/10/12

Today we went to the compost facility. It was nice to be outside on a beautiful day. Annie lau8rie Cadmus is the director of sustainability who is in charge of facilitating projects and programs that foster sound campus stewardship and commitment to sustainability goals. The expansion of the compost facility is one of her current projects. She told us all about how the facility works and what additions are being made. She said this as of no is not a cost efective program. But it is sustainable and ecologically friendly. It is funded by a grant as of now when its done OU will cover the funds.

The Ecohouse is designated to three students a year who keep the house sustainable as well as work on a project. There is also a community garden free of cost to anyone.