{"id":7943,"date":"2021-11-22T08:10:00","date_gmt":"2021-11-22T13:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/?p=7943"},"modified":"2021-11-15T11:10:18","modified_gmt":"2021-11-15T16:10:18","slug":"serving-others","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/2021\/11\/22\/serving-others\/","title":{"rendered":"Serving Others"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Through Colgate\u2019s Upstate Institute, students and staff members have been tackling a variety of food-related issues.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Milk consumption has been on the decline for a number of years, placing further economic distress on dairy farmers who have already been struggling to stay afloat. \u201cWeaker prices and higher feed costs paint an unsettled outlook for the U.S. dairy sector in 2021,\u201d reports the United States Department of Agriculture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To aid Madison County dairy farmers, the Upstate Institute<\/a> has joined forces with the Partnership for Community Development (PCD). \u201cTheir wages and income are always declining,\u201d says PCD Executive Director Jennifer Marotto Lutter, \u201cand it\u2019s making it extremely hard for them to remain dairy farmers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In July, the PCD and Upstate Institute completed Phase 1 of the Madison County Dairy Study. This first step surveyed local farmers to gauge their interest in collaborating on a venture. The concept is modeled on the Hudson Valley Fresh cooperative, formed by three farms that own, process, and sell milk together. \u201cIt\u2019s all done from one location, the farmers own it together, and they get equal payout,\u201d Lutter explains. \u201cThey have much more control over the quality of the brand and the distribution.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She and Upstate Institute Project Director Julie Dudrick organized a dinner where farmers could learn more from Hudson Valley Fresh founder Sam Simon about how that co-op has been successful. \u201cThe reason [Hudson Valley Fresh] started is the same reason we want to start ours: because they want the farmers to make a living wage,\u201d Lutter says. Approximately 45 farmers attended the dinner in fall 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the pandemic hit, it not only delayed progress on the initiative, but it also further reduced the demand for milk when schools and restaurants temporarily closed. \u201cThe first half of the pandemic was a difficult time for [farmers] to envision the future,\u201d Dudrick says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In spring 2020, she reignited the conversation, and the Upstate Institute dedicated some of its own funding to hire consultants to survey Madison County farmers. Ten expressed interest in the possibility of forming a co-op, and several larger dairies called her to learn more. \u201cI think our next step will be to bring these folks together again,\u201d Dudrick says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Upstate Institute and PCD are focused on helping the farmers, but they point out that aiding the local agriculture industry also benefits our communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIndustrial agriculture is one of the largest sources of emissions in the world,\u201d Lutter says. \u201cSo one of the things we need to think about is, how do we feed ourselves as a community? We\u2019re lucky we\u2019re surrounded by farms. How do we keep them viable? I think this is a step toward a solution.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018There Is a Structural Problem\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dipesh Khati \u201922 has been analyzing the challenges facing Madison County dairy farmers from his perspective as an economics and applied mathematics major. This summer, while interning for Cornell Cooperative Extension (CCE), Khati combed through the organization\u2019s reports from the past few years and noticed alarming trends, starting with volatile milk prices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \u201cThe farmers were suffering huge losses and not able to keep up,\u201d says Khati, who found the internship through the Upstate Institute. \u201cAnd as I dug deeper, I started to see that, in Madison County, the size of [some] farms was getting larger, [but] the number of farms was getting smaller.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Next, he read the recent survey facilitated by the Upstate Institute and saw that only 40% of small farms were able to break even. He started thinking, \u201cWhy is that the case, and what can be done?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Khati started conducting his own research, interviewing <\/p>\n\n\n\n

agencies that work with farmers and the farmers themselves. \u201cThere is a structural problem, and I wanted to see it from a problem-solving lens,\u201d he says. Khati broke down the issue by asking: \u201cA lot of the small farms in the area are not able to generate profit. Would that be a problem on the revenue side or on the cost side?\u201d Government price fixing, location, and equipment prices were some of the factors he considered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One potential solution, he\u2019s learned, is increasing the size of the farm as others have done. That entails an increase in investment and cost, but some agencies offer loan assistance. Another option is purchasing older, less expensive equipment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c[To be] forward-looking, we should give farmers some resources for the future and make some preparations to enlarge the scope and the operations so they are efficient in the long run,\u201d says Khati, who applied lessons from a Harvard business class he took online last summer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fall, he\u2019s been writing a summary of his findings and creating a template that assesses factors like cost structures, assets, revenues, and working capital. His work will be published in the CCE\u2019s newsletter that\u2019s sent to farmers in the county.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With plans to enter management consulting after graduation, Khati has viewed his role as developing recommendations that the farmers could potentially use. He\u2019s not approaching the situation as though he\u2019s more knowledgeable than the people actually doing the work: \u201cFarmers have been doing this for years,\u201d he acknowledges. But rather, \u201cHere\u2019s something I saw from my lens. You might find it helpful, maybe not, but it\u2019s worth taking a look.\u201d And, by providing his ideas, he hopes to save them some time because their schedules are so rigorous. \u201cThis is to try to make it easier [for them].\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In Addition<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Juny Ardon \u201923 got her hands dirty with For the Good. <\/strong>Working alongside Utica community members of all ages, Ardon learned how to garden vegetables like peas, onions, potatoes, squash, and cauliflower. The nonprofit provides thousands of pounds of free organic produce every year to members in exchange for their work in the gardens; some of the produce also goes to a local organization that makes meals for those with food insecurity. An educational studies major from Los Angeles, Ardon saw the value in giving children this connection with the earth. \u201cIt was a very natural way of learning,\u201d Ardon says. \u201cIt was magical.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Ardon
Juny Ardon \u201923 at For the Good in Utica<\/strong> <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Grace Leightheiser \u201922 was a busy bee with ADK Action.<\/strong> She installed pollinator gardens throughout the Adirondack Park through the nonprofit organization based in Keeseville. In charge of installing 15 new gardens, Leightheiser communicated with garden recipients, built the beds, sourced the soil, and cared for the baby plants before they were transplanted. \u201cIt has been really cool to meet and work with all of the different garden recipients,\u201d Leightheiser says, \u201cbecause it makes me feel more rooted to the area \u2014 I\u2019m not just a summer tourist, but a real member of the community.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Emma Goldstein \u201921 felt fulfilled with Feeding New York State. <\/strong>Goldstein\u2019s charge was to improve the quality and efficacy of food distribution. She analyzed three-year dairy distribution data from Feeding NYS\u2019s 10 regional food banks, adding the pounds of dairy distributed by four regional food banks and calculating the percentage change of distribution by these programs from 2018\u201320. The goal: providing Feeding NYS with data to understand which food programs in its network have the capacity to increase dairy distribution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a result of Goldstein\u2019s work, Feeding NYS received a grant from the American Dairy Association (ADA) in August, allowing for funding of milk coolers that will improve New York food programs\u2019 ability to distribute dairy. (To date, the ADA has supplied eight coolers to food programs across New York, which is an approximately $25,000 investment.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her second project involved developing a food preference survey to better understand the needs and desires of recipients in the emergency food network. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe information collected has the power to improve the effectiveness of food pantries across the state,\u201d Goldstein says. \u201cThousands of people in the emergency food network will benefit.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014 Lalana Sharma \u201923<\/em>

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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