We’re picking up the pace of the NYLocal blog after a brief break.
Here’s the new ending of our trailer which we will finish very soon. We’ve added some more jobs that are a part of the world of agriculture in New York State. Please let us know what jobs we’ve overlooked. Your help is very valuable.
Back to vermicompost again, at Cornell University’s vermicompost research page,
http://cwmi.css.cornell.edu/vermicompost.htm
you can find the short 9-minute film:
The film “is a general introduction to the vermicomposting process as a technology that transforms organic wastes into resources and the uses of vermicompost for plant nutrient management and the suppression of plant diseases.”
Produced by the team behind NY Local.
It’s the type of research that will be featured in the stories found on NY Local.
Ending of the NY Local Trailer
NY Local is about agriculture and all of the jobs that are created by agriculture in New York State. The farmer in the field bringing in hay might be one of the oldest images of traditional agriculture. Here we begin our journey through the many many faces of agriculture with a tribute to that old and important job of feeding livestock through a long cold winter. Follow NY Local as we examine all of the jobs that are mentioned in this video.
NY Local will explore the science of agriculture.
To begin with, here is a graphic explanation of the Hydrologic Cycle and the important terms associated with it.
The Hydrologic Cycle English Version
Every farmer depends on water and everyone, both grower and eater, experiences the effects of changes in the Hydrologic Cycle.
NY Local will explore water and agriculture in greater depth.
Speaking in New York City, New York State’s Acting Agriculture Commissioner Darrel J. Aubertine is encouraging New Yorkers to buy and use local agriculture products in their restaurants to meet what he sees as a growing demand for locally produced food.
The New York State Dept. of Agriculture and Markets has set up their “Pride of New York Marketplace” exhibit at the New York Restaurant Show, February 27th to March 1st, at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York City:
The following New York companies are participating in the exhibit at the NY Restaurant Show:
To learn more about NYS’s Dept of Ag and Markets including their “Pride of New York” program, visit their website http://www.agmkt.state.ny.us/
Today I learned at the 2011 New York Farm Show in Syracuse: robots are everywhere on the farm. It should come as no surprise that robotics can take a lot of the backbreaking work out of a backbreaking profession. Tractors did the same in the early part of 20th Century. Farmers can milk three or three and a half times a day with these machines, as well as feed their animals more efficiently.
Here’s a Flipcam video that we shot at the Farm Show.
When this work can be mechanized, it can provide time for other profitable activities. Every farmer wishes he had time to grow or make other things on the farm. And every farmer wishes she had more time to be a better business person. Profitable use of the land can mean more and better jobs in agriculture and it’s related activities. NY Local will pursue these ideas in the future.
NY Local will explore the many new industries that are being created to support agriculture in New York State. Last Fall saw the opening of a new facility that supports growers across New York and across North America.
On October 7, 2010, there was an open house at Wormpower, a vermicomposting operation in Avon, New York. Roger Beachy, the director of USDA NIFA spoke, and we also see Tom Herlilhy from Wormpower, and Eric Nelson, Professor of Plant Pathology and Plant Microbes, from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell University, as well as Allison Jack, PhD candidate in Plant Pathology at Cornell.
Watch the video:
In a subsequent post we’ll explain the science behind vermicompost and why it is so beneficial for starting seedlings. Stay tuned.
Our first post… it’s auspicious that we begin an online version of NY Local on George Washington’s 279th birthday. We’re celebrating one birth with another because the first president, longing for a different life in 1793, said “I would rather be a farmer than emperor of the world.” And he returned to farming when he retired from the presidency.
NY Local will explore the reasons why jobs in agriculture of all kinds, from compost to the consumer, can be rewarding and profitable; how life on the farm, in the city, and in-between is enhanced and sustained by local food, fuel and fiber.
