My Page: Courtney Lowery

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Column

Sometimes, banking and farming don’t mix, and the ‘80s farm crisis is proof of that. Debt can prop up farms that maybe shouldn’t be propped up. It can make farmers spend beyond their means and bank on outcomes that aren’t reasonable. It can give a false sense of security in an insecure business.

But, when it’s done right, debt can help a farmer rebound from that one bad year that would have ruined her and give her a new lease on life when a few good years come along. For beginning farmers like us, without the capital on hand to get into the business, debt is necessary to give us the good start we need. 

New West Weekly Ag Roundup

School children across America will be getting more fruits and vegetables thanks to a revision of the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs, published last week in the national register.

The revisions (click here to download PDF), which were published shortly after President Barack Obama signed into law the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, was hailed this week by producers and nutrition advocates, but some weren’t happy that it didn’t include any measures to reduce sugar in school meals.

Also in this week’s food and ag roundup: The New York Times agrees with Dick Armey on cutting farm subsidies, a GMO chicken promises help with controlling avian flu and a new comedy series spoofs extreme local eating. 

Food and Ag News Nuggets

With the new GOP at the Congressional helm and the pressure leaders are getting to cut the budget, the 2012 farm bill may be the first in decades to actually have a shot at reforming farm subsidies.

Past discussions have focused on the inequality of farm subsidies and the philosophical opposition, but this time, the main push behind reform is likely to be a budgetary one.

As Charles Abbott reports for Reuters this week, the $5 billion spent on direct payments to farmers is the most likely to take a hit.

Also in this week’s ag roundup: A follow up on the genetically-engineered alfalfa debate, a look at skyrocketing food prices and a push to take meat off the food pyramid.

Food and Ag News Nuggets

When President Obama signed into law the the Food Safety Modernization Act on Tuesday, the food and ag story of the year, maybe of the decade, came to a close. Or so we thought.

The bill may be law, but the teeth will come in the funding for it and Republicans are warning that, considering this is a new Congress, the real food fight has just begun.

NEW WEST COLUMN

One Friday in early September, I dragged myself out to the field to harvest for the next day’s market, ready to spend hours picking, weighing and sorting the overwhelming bounty a September harvest day brings.

Instead, when I arrived, Jacob shouted from across the field four little, but fearful, words: “We got a frost.”

The forecast had called for 38 degrees, but just in our little spot, that 38 degrees meant freezing. We’d just harvested the first of the tomatoes the week before and the peppers were just starting to put on fruit. It was a cool, wet summer and most of our hot or long-season crops had been seriously hampered. We’d been waiting, hoping, for an Indian Summer. Some of the winter squash – what would feed us and our customers all winter – had just started to flower. We still had five weeks of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) deliveries for our customers and four weeks of farmers’ market tables to fill. 

Generational Farming

My days revolve around turkeys and irrigation, grain cleanings and vegetable plucking.

I’ve joined the ranks of a new wave of young back-to-the-land farmers. But for me, “back” is the operative word.

Just like others in the movement, I jumped into farming for the simpler way of life, the meaningful work and the desire to help myself and my community through food and farming. The difference between many of the others and me, however, is that I should know better.

It’s been one of my biggest challenges in this transition: not allowing “back” to mean backward.

As a younger woman, I had what I thought were much loftier plans. My journalism career was taking off and urban life was agreeing with me – enough that I was ready to make the next leap to larger, more powerful cities, where I could move up and go to art openings and lounge with other 30-somethings at wine bars.

But slowly and surely, I started to see evidence across the country and in Montana too, that farming could indeed work for families and communities alike.

Simultaneously, I was maturing and finding out that where I came from and what I came from were unique and powerful, not at all something to be ashamed of. I started to warm up to the idea of coming home, both to farming and to the prairie. As a journalist and a rural kid, I got more and more interested in the story of rural depopulation and then in how food and agriculture could help revive rural America.

I realized that I held a very powerful tool at my disposal to help reinvigorate at least one rural community: I could buck the trend. I could move home.

Hiring

NewWest.Net is looking for someone to lead our editorial charge. We think it’s pretty close to a dream job for anyone who cares about the West and is interested in the power of online media to change the way we tell stories and interact with our communities.

If you’re interested in being the next editor of NewWest.Net, here is some food for thought.

This opening is an incredible opportunity to be a visionary for the “next phase” of an online news venture that is widely respected as a cutting-edge project in the online journalism scene.

Update

Federal Bankruptcy Judge Ralph B. Kirscher did not mince many words in a decision released this week in the Yellowstone Club bankruptcy case: Tim Blixseth’s “pattern of self-dealing,” is what ultimately led to the crash of the exclusive Montana resort.

But, that doesn’t mean he’ll be on the hook for all the club’s debts. Some, but not all. And, the club’s lender, Credit Suisse, whose loan was at the center of the long, brutal battle over the club’s finances, was no saint either.

A large issue in the resort’s bankruptcy case has been the $375 million loan from Credit Suisse that quickly evaporated after it closed. Not being able to pay that loan back was the crux of the resort’s bankruptcy filing in fall of 2008. The club has since emerged from bankruptcy under new ownership.

Blixseth was accused of pocketing the Credit Suisse loan for private jets and other lavish purchases and the bank was charged with being irresponsible, flippant even, in making the loan. 

News Nugget

A new report from the research group Headwaters Economics shows the number of “green” jobs growing rapidly in the Rocky Mountain West and suggest the clean energy and energy efficiency sectors offer the most promise for the region’s future.

The report defines the “green economy” as “all of those enterprises and individuals who work to provide products, services, and knowledge associated with: clean energy produc­tion, energy efficiency, natural resource conservation, and efforts to curb and clean-up environmental pollution.”

Between 1995 and 2007, jobs in those sectors outpaced the general regional job growth fairly significantly, except in two states (Montana and Utah). Jobs grew by 19 percent overall in the region during that time period, while green jobs grew 30 percent. In New Mexico, the growth was most apparent. Green jobs outpaced the average growth rate 62 percent to 13 percent

Special blog

Last week New West published the first batch of blogs written by the eight university students cycling 700 miles across Montana to explore the state, its opportunities for producing clean energy, and the impacts of climate change.  Now in its fourth year, the University of Montana course “Cycle the Rockies: Energy and Climate Change in Montana,” is offered through the Wild Rockies Field Institute and led by Dave Morris, Nicky Phear, and Noah Pollock. The following is the next installment of the cyclists’ notes from the road, their second week, as they pass through the Musselshell River Valley and meet with local leaders pioneering renewable energy solutions. We hope you enjoy reading about the cyclists’ journey.

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