And folks, funks, jazzes, and klezmers. This eclectic band
added a jolt of exuberance to the SEJ conference’s Saturday night party at the
(Photo from band’s Web site)
Be warned, though, that the music that accompanies that article is much more bluegrass-y and much less funky than what we heard at the Leopold Center. The band’s own Web site describes their style as Balkan rock or Balkan funk. You can find the Web site here. It includes music and video clips.
Credit: Emily Gertz
Saturday is a great day to come up for air during the conference, since the Saturday farmers market is just one block away, ringing the Capitol Square.
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After spending the day Thursday at the Crave Brothers dairy - an innovative farm that uses conventional (non-organic) farming methods - I found it an interesting contrast Thursday night to meet an organic dairy farmer who lives just five minutes away from the Crave farm.
Jim Miller runs R&G Miller and Sons, Inc. farm in Columbus, Wisc., with his brother, cousins, and other relatives - 11 families in all. The farm has 300 dairy cows and 2,000 acres of crop land, plus a new grass-fed beef operation.
I met Miller at the SEJ conference at a reception put on by Organic Valley, a co-op of about 1,400 organic farmers started here in Wisconsin. The Thursday evening receptions are traditionally a time to mix and mingle with some important players in the environmental arena. The Organic Valley reception featured samples of milk, of course, along with tasty treats like carrot and parsnip cake with cream cheese frosting.
Miller, who has been on the Organic Valley board of directors for 11 years, was happy to tell his farm's story. He said his family decided to go organic after his father died of colon cancer at age 65 in 1992. His father was the one who did all the spraying of pesticides and other farm chemicals, and Miller had no desire to continue the practice. He blames the chemicals for the early demise of many farmers in his father's generation.
"All his friends who did the spraying were either dead or had Parkinson's," Miller said.
Earlier today, Tom Crave told me his family considered going organic but decided against it. "We felt we'd have to give up too much technology," Crave said, referring to genetically modified seed for crops that feed the cows. (See my earlier post for more on the 1,000-cow Crave farm and their cheese-making business.)
In contrast, Miller said he didn't feel he was giving up anything to go organic. "Our crops are just as good," he said.
Miller said he gets $26 per hundredweight of milk, which is more than twice as much as the $12 conventional dairies get. The price differential makes up for the extra costs and paperwork associated with a certified organic farm and eliminates the dizzying price fluctuations that most dairy farmers live with, he said.
Miller also touted the nutritional value of his products, explaining that Organic Valley's "pasture butter," which is made only from milk obtained from pastured cows, has levels of beneficial omega-3 fatty acids as high as fish oil. All of Miller's livestock are put to pasture about seven months of the year, he said.
"We would never go back to conventional," Miller said.
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