The Senate Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee held a hearing this week on two important issues related to the future of farming—alternative uses for manure and creating new markets for farm products through farm to school programs.

Senators Mike Waugh (R-York), chair of the Committee, and Noah Wenger (R-Lancaster) held the hearing as part of their Farmers First Agenda that deals with the preservation of farmers and farmland.

Matthew Ehrhart from the Chesapeake Bay Foundation noted livestock in the Bay drainage area (Susquehanna and Potomac river basins) generate over 44 million tons of manure a year, with the Lower Susquehanna area alone producing over 286,000 tons a year.

Lower cost options for handling excess manure through methods like composting “may be the only technology that can be implemented on the ground, full-scale” to deal with the manure problem today, Ehrhart said. He encouraged the Committee to look at incentives for using composted material for fertilizer or soil amendments.

While generating energy from manure through gasification, co-firing with other fuels or with digesters does have a lot of potential, they are more capital intensive and do not eliminate the problem of nutrients, Ehrhart said.

The Foundation recommended not establishing programs to support alternative uses of manure that require long-term subsidies, but instead provide capital funding of up to $100 million over five years to help build facilities.

The Bay Foundation, the Pennsylvania Agricultural Ombudsman from Lancaster and a representative of the Chesapeake Bay Commission all pointed to subsidized manure exports from Delaware and Maryland as problem complicating Pennsylvania’s efforts to deal with excess manure.

In 2004-05, a total of 20,447 tons of manure from Delaware and Maryland was shipped into Pennsylvania as a result of their state subsidy programs, but that was down from 2003-04 when 24,084 tons came to Pennsylvania.

The Delaware Nutrient Management Relocation Program paid farmers up to $18 per ton to ship over 7,842 tons of manure to Pennsylvania in 2004-05 and the Maryland Manure Matching/Transport Program paid up to $20 per ton to ship 12,605 tons, most of which went to mushroom growing operations, according to information provided by Pennsylvania’s Nutrient Management Program.

In terms of nutrient load, Pennsylvania received an extra 1.4 million pounds of nitrogen and 1.2 million pounds of phosphorus in 2004-05, in addition to displacing manure from Pennsylvania farmers shipped to Pennsylvania mushroom operations as a result of the Delaware and Maryland subsidy programs.

The Committee also heard about an innovative nutrition education program run by The Food Trust in Philadelphia that links nutrition education of Kindergarten students with Pennsylvania farm product producers.

The Food Trust operates 19 farmers markets in Southeastern Pennsylvania to help develop new markets for local farm products. Two years ago the group decided to expand its program through a new Kindergarten Initiative.

The Trust developed curriculum materials for use in Kindergarten classes to educate students about adding fruits, vegetables and dairy products to their snacks and meals. But they went a step further by actually making arrangements with farm product producers to have these healthy foods and snacks served in 30 classrooms in eight schools in Philadelphia.

“We believe we have created a win-win for both children and Pennsylvania farmers,” said Bonnie Hallam, with The Food Trust. “The goals of the Kindergarten Initiative are to help children make healthy food choices early and to have them understand where food comes from.”

In addition to the educational materials and snacks, The Food Trust also organizes student visits to local farms.

“Our program has shown that connecting children and their families with delicious, locally-grown food has a significant impact on their eating behavior,” said Hallam.

(See Regulations for final rule on Concentrated Animal Operations)

NewsClip: Solutions Sought for Excess Manure Piling Up on Farms

10/21/2005