Honeybees are what some may think of as whimsical, mythological creatures that turn flowers to fruit.  According to the EPA and USDA, their Midas touch, helps to produce approximately one-third of the food and beverages we consume in the U.S. every year¹. In recent years, however, honeybees have seen a rapid decline.  Farmers across the U.S., who for years have relied on honeybee hives to pollinate their crops, have reported large numbers of colony loss.  For many years, the reason for honeybee decline was an enigma.  In the mid-90’s when my dad kept bees, a mite, known as the Varroa mite, was the reason for most colony deaths.  My dad, like many hobby beekeepers I imagine, gave up after losing hives for 3 consecutive years.  Farmers, however, could not give up.  Giving up meant a loss of both their crops and their livelihood, and as the years progressed the reasons for colony losses became more and more mysterious.  In an effort to better identify the reasons behind honeybee colony losses in the U.S., researchers across the nation have been testing several different factors that may contribute to colony loss.

On May 2, 2013, a statement was released by the USDA and EPA announcing the findings of several years of research conducted by researchers across the U.S.

In summary the statement announced that, according to the 2012 National Stakeholder Conference on Honeybee Health, a network of federal researchers, managers, and researchers at Penn State University, the following factors are greatly impacting honeybee health in the U.S.:

• The parasitic Varroa mite and a new virus species, causing Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), are largely contributing to honeybee colony deaths across the U.S.  In addition, the Varroa mite is increasingly becoming resistant to chemicals, used to kill the mite.
• Genetic diversity is lacking in many honeybee colonies in the U.S., resulting in decreased resistance against the Varroa mite and other diseases.
• Poor nutrition among colonies, resulting from pesticide-treated crops and lack of diverse forage, is also decreasing disease resistance among colonies.
• A lack of coordination between growers and beekeepers on best practices, with regard to pesticides and bees, is contributing to colony loss.
• Pesticides present a challenge to bee health and more research needs to be done to explore pesticide exposure and effect on bee health.

As the findings suggest future policy needs to address pesticide use, methods of chemical pest control of the Varroa mite, increasing genetic diversity among colonies, and land use management.  I think that two of the large factors here of greater concern are pesticide use and land use management.  Both factors would require some very large systematic policy changes.  To speak to the first of these, pesticide use:  Limiting pesticide use on just one farm will not do the honeybee any favors.  Honeybees know no property line boundaries, and they are known to fly up to 5 miles or more away from their hive in search of pollen².  What happens then if the neighbor’s farm is applying pesticides?  Or what if the landscapers in the subdivision next to the farm are applying pesticides?   A systematic policy approach to pesticide use that impacts the timing of application and quantity used is therefore in order.  Such an approach would have to function at levels of policy beyond the municipal and state levels.  Land use management would also require systematic change.  Providing bees diversity in their food sources is suggested to increase disease resistance.  By decreasing forest fragmentation (i.e. increasing forest connectivity) around agricultural areas, as well as increasing the diversity of the crops planted on farms, diversity in food sources for bees can be achieved.  Local governments can play a role in forest conservation in agricultural areas.  Increasing the diversity of crops on farms, however, is a larger issue that would require a systematic change in the way that agriculture is currently done in the U.S.  Increasing diversity in crop selection also means moving away from large acres of monoculture crops, a favored approach to agriculture in the U.S..  As farm size increases and the monoculture approach to agriculture increases, we need to be careful not to make ourselves more vulnerable to diseases and pests that not only affect our bees, but also our crops.  By increasing biodiversity on farms both through crop selection and conservation of forestlands around farms, both our crops and our bees will be healthier.  It seems to me as though honeybees are taking on the role as the ecological indicator species for our agroecosystems.  The struggling of an ecological

indicator species makes us aware that a balance has been disrupted in the ecosystem. We, therefore, cannot ignore the honeybees distress much longer.   A change in the way we do agriculture and manage our agroecosystems is vital for the future success of our food system.

1.  USDA and EPA Release New Report on Honey Bee Health.  May 2, 2013. http://content.govdelivery.com/bulletins/gd/USDAOC-795a36

2.   Ribbands, C.R. “Flight Range of the Honey Bee.”  Journal of Animal Ecology.  Vol.2 , No. 2,  1951.  http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/1541?uid=3739776&uid=2129&uid=2&uid=70&uid=4&uid=3739256&sid=21101991005473

This April, I had the privilege of touring Chapel Hill Creamery in Chapel Hill, NC. I took away two major lessons from my visit and would like to use this blog post to share them with friends and visitors of the Duke Campus Farm.  First, the potential for selling a locally made “value added” product like cheese.  Second, the major benefits of “closed-loop farming.”  But first, let me set the scene.

Chapel Hill Creamery

The 37-acre operation began with a handful of Jersey dairy cows and has grown to support over 30 Jerseys, along with two oxen, barnyard poultry, and hogs.  The milking parlor has six milking machines and the girls are milked twice a day.  The dairy cows are rotationally grazed, which I saw during my visit.  The girls were roaming across a 2-acre field, quietly munching on luscious ryegrass and lounging in the mid-spring sun while contentedly chewing their cuds.  In my work I have seen hundreds of herds of dairy and beef cattle, so let me say: These were some happy cows.

Like many states, North Carolina has outlawed the sale of unpasteurized or “raw” milk, meaning anyone who wishes to sell milk must have access to a pasteurization tank.  You can imagine that Flo and Portia who own the farm did not make this sizable investment when they opened their business with just six Jerseys, instead opting to turn their cows’ milk into cheese.  Portia and Flo however, do not make simply one type of cheese from their herd – they now produce and market seven different cheeses.

Our group sampled three of the Chapel Hill Creamery cheeses.  There is the buttery and creamy “Carolina Moon” cheese that spreads on bread, a raw milk “Hickory Creek” cheese that is full-flavored, and the “Dairyland Farmers Cheese” that is equally moist, smoky, and tangy.  The Dairyland Farmers Cheese was my personal favorite, and while slowly eating it my mind raced with what types of flavorful dishes would benefit from its strong smoky flavor.

Portia and Flo retail their cheeses at multiple farmers’ markets and sell them wholesale to local grocers like the Maple View Country store and Whole Foods.  At this time their sales are divided roughly 50-50, with half of their cheese being sold directly to consumers at farmers’ markets and the other half being sold at food retailers.  When small farmers market their goods, a mixture of wholesale and retail sales is often preferred because grocery stores purchase in bulk and with consistency (depending on your contract).  Selling retail at farmers’ markets gives the farmer the biggest financial return because they remove the middleman.  By combining the two, local farmers like Portia and Flo can have an income that is profitable and reliable. They also benefit from selling cheese, because it is a value-added product.

Benefits of value added products

So what is a value added product? Basically, it means you take a raw product, process it somehow, and sell it at a higher cost because of the added resources and labor.  For Portia and Flo, this means they milk their cows and then use their cheese-making facility built onto the back of their milking parlor to produce wheels of delectable cheese.  For local farms, value added products can be delights like jams, jellies, pickled eggs, sausages, bacon, butter, yogurt, and yes, even Mapleview ice cream.

For Portia and Flo, raising a reasonable number of dairy cows was the life they wanted, and selling cheese was the way to make it pay for a number of reasons.  First, they add value and reduce input costs by making cheese on-site, meaning no fuel and transportation costs are added until it is actually time to take cheese to market.  Second, they diversified their product line by selling seven types of cheese, meaning if you don’t like the tanginess of the Dairyland Farmers Cheese you can instead try their 2012 NC State Fair Best of Show Calvander cheese.  Finally, they found a niche market because no one nearby made dairy cheese.  Additionally, there is an ethereal added value some customers receive from purchasing locally made goods from a farm whose animals have exceptional living conditions.

While the Duke Campus Farm does not sell value-added products, we do have workshops that feature food processing, like with kimchi and kombucha.  The Duke Campus Farm does however practice a closed-loop farming system like Chapel Hill Creamery.

Closed-loop Farming

To understand the benefit of closed-loop farming, think about all the inputs necessary to grow vegetables or in this example, make cheese. To make cheese you need cows (check), land (check), grass (check), water (check), and fertilizer.  The dairy cows at Chapel Hill Creamery are rotationally grazed which means a large portion of their diet comes from grazing. While Portia and Flo rotate their cows on a very structured system, their manure input will not equal the amount of nutrition they removed from the soil.  So, do they drive down to the local farm store and purchase chemical fertilizer by the ton? Certainly not!

Instead, hog waste is occasionally spread on fields to restore depleted nutrients and organic matter.  The hog waste comes from their own herd of roughly 15 pigs that live on the farm in an outdoor enclosure.  When asked, Portia said that she had never planned to have pigs but it made the most economic sense for their needs.  When she said this, she wasn’t just referring to their waste, but also their diet.

When Portia and Flo began making cheese they produced a surplus of whey as a byproduct.  In the past farmers would just dump the whey and call it a loss, but the material eventually became classified as an animal waste which means there is now a mountain of regulation about waste-whey.  So, the option emerged: do they install a wastewater treatment system that can properly break the whey down for disposal, or find an alternative way of making it disappear.  They chose the alternative method and invested in hogs hungry for whey.  The hogs consume every drop of whey the dairy cows produce in exchange for some supplemental feed and soft hay bedding, far less demanding than a state-approved wastewater treatment system!  As mentioned, the whey-fed hog waste is put back on the fields to fertilize grass for the cows, plugging a hole where nutrients would have quietly left the farm and increased the rate of soil depletion.

Once their time on the farm comes to an end, the whey fed hogs are processed at a North Carolina slaughterhouse and then make their way to the customer base.  Whey fed pork is a niche product in the meat market, with more people trying it because they have heard that the meat is better-marbled, more flavorful and produces a more tender hog altogether.

Portia and Flo’s hogs are also another example of a value-added product because whey fed pork is a specialty meat that is hard to find.  If anything were to happen to their cheese income, they also have pork as a secondary source of revenue.  By closing the waste-loop on their farm, Portia and Flo saved tens of thousands of dollars they would have spent on a wastewater treatment system, added an on-site source of animal waste aka fertilizer, and successfully turned a problematic byproduct into bacon.

Conclusion

At this time, the Duke Campus Farm produces fruit and vegetables and does not have animal waste to use as fertilizer (hog waste cannot be spread near food for humans, just grass for cows).  We do, however, value composting residual plant and vegetable matter.  This way, nutrients that were stored in leaves, stems, and dented watermelons make their way back into the soil for the next crop.

All in all, I hope that you (readers) are now familiar with the concepts of value-added products and closed-loop farming.  These critical principles of local farming help make ends meet for businesswomen like Portia and Flo, who have more freedom to work on their next gold medal cheese and give more attention to their cows to check for sickness, rather than worrying about the legality of their production’s byproducts and if fertilizer is affordable this year.

DCF’s tomatoes are taking off, thanks to constant care and pruning from farmer Lee, and we’re all still looking forward to their arrival. But right now we’ve been gettin our hands dirty with another of our crops, you guessed it, potatoes.

We’re at the transition point between harvesting the last of our winter/spring crops– we’re near out of beets and radishes, our snap peas are long gone, as are all our leafy greens except chard (which, if you’ve visited us at market these past few weeks, has been as big as palm fronds, but anyway)– and planting, cultivating, and eagerly awaiting our summer crops (besides tomatoes: peppers, eggplants, beans, melons, cucumbers, and okra).

In the middle of all  this, we have our potatoes, which are also on the way out. We’ve got about a row left to harvest at this point. Now we’re not an educational farm for nothing. We’ve all learned something this summer about growing potatoes, myself especially. Although I did help with sweet potato harvest last fall, I’ve never had much hand in the growing process till now. So, similar to last post, I thought I’d post a few photos to document the process

Among the tasks of potato maintenance was hilling the beds. Hilling entails raking the soil surrounding the plants into more steep and rounded mounds, which helps make the soil less compact and ensures proper water runoff**.

Another–a daily fixture for a while–was picking off pesty potato beetles. This is one of the many perks of being organic; no pesticides and few predator bugs meant we all spent a good amount of time squashing potato beetles, which eat away at the leaf of the plant and risk ruining the whole thing.

We harvested the first of our potatoes about three weeks ago… using broadforks or pitchforks, we dig into the soil a few inches away from the base of plant, and force the soil up. The rest is a bit messy, sometimes just digging around for gold(en potatoes) and sometimes just pulling the plant by its roots.  Here’s where my asterisk comes into play. Although we did hill the beds, with such a wet and rainy spring, and with the clay soil of DCF, the water got to some of ‘em faster than we did. Lessons learned for next year, though– hill often and get ‘em out early. Don’t get all dewey-eyed for the tomatoes quite yet.

Can’t believe it’s already the middle of June! Summer crops continue to grow as our last beets and radishes have been harvested (photos of beet jam coming soon!) We’ve had fun treasure-hunting in the potato rows, and as Katie wrote in her last post, our tomato beds are works of agricultural art (or at least we think so).

The farm team is busy as usual managing the summer season, but we found some time to hop over to Prodigal Farm last week to hang out with goats (and Prodigal’s super friendly and knowledgeable staff)! Goats are simply great — they have unique personalities, and I find their size to be nicely manageable (as compared to, say, a cow or pig). Emily S. and Katie spent the morning vaccinating baby goats while Lee and I tattooed the yearlings. The baby goats’ names all begin with F (how couldn’t you love a little goat named fruitloop?), and the yearlings’ names began with E (Ewok and Elvis were personal favorites). Prodigal’s owners, Kat and Dave, operate both the farm and an on-site dairy where they make a wide array of tasty cheeses.

The baby goats love their new friend from the Duke Campus Farm!

Our crew really appreciated how the Prodigal folks took time to show us the ropes (I can’t say I’ve tattooed goats before…) — by the end of the morning, we all felt quite comfortable handling our new animal friends, and I learned so much about everything from goat health to cheese-making. We definitely hope to help out at Prodigal again!

We also hopped back over to Frog Pond Farm this week for some quality time in the blueberry field. Frog Pond is open for public picking on Wednesday evenings 4-8pm, and if you don’t make it out in the next few weeks you are missing a delicious summer treat!

Workday volunteers talk about why they think Duke needs a sustainable campus farm.

http://dukechronicle.com/article/i-am-what-i-eat