Two former SAFS students, Jared Talaga and Jackie Cosner, are founding farmers in Lansing's Flood Plain Farms. A joint venture between the two and local farmer and food system phenom Neal Valley, this acre of farmland in Lansing's flood plain will serve local markets and restaurants.

Jared graduated from MSU's Urban Planning program, and gathered abundant experience working with the local Southside Farmer's Market and Ingham County Land Bank.  Jackie received her degree in Sustainable and Organic Horticulture; she also brings experiences as a professional chef, MSU student organic farm worm rancher, and farmer and manager of her own neighborhood CSA. All three have abundant gardening experience and energy, which has made them well-known contributors to many efforts in the local Lansing food scene.

Kathy Koch was one of the first graduates of the SAFS program. She is also a graduate of the Student Organic Farm training program and the Horticulture program. Here are a few excerpts from a recent update email from her, edited for this post:

"My AmeriCorps Vista position is assigned to the Monroe Farm Market Cooperative here in Union through The Greenbrier Valley Economic Development Corporation in Lewisburg, WV.  MFM’s main sales are through their year-round online farm market with the majority of their customer base in Charleston, WV which is about a three hour drive from here.  I will be coordinating the onsite farm market which opens this Thursday for the season.   You can checkout our website below as well as our Facebook link.  I have also been doing a project called “Farm of the Week” presenting pictures of the highlighted farm in a video format.......you can checkout two that I’ve done so far.  I’ve also published three articles... for the local papers on the market.........my first-time in print!

The views are really breathtaking here in the far southeastern part of the Valley & Ridge Province of the Appalachian Mountain System.  This part of West Virginia is surrounded by sinkholes and has one of the most extensive cave systems in the world.  From my kitchen window facing northwest, I have a mountain range called the Knobs and to the back facing southeast, I have beautiful Peter’s Mountain which I have up on my Facebook page.  I travel Peter’s Mountain quite a bit as I farm/animal sit for a couple of professors from Radford University in Virginia........Janet and Bruce have a family farm in Waiteville, WV which lies in a valley between Peter and Pott’s Mountain.  Driving over Peter’s Mountain took some getting use to as it is a one lane road and it peaks at around 4,000 ft.  But I feel more comfortable now than I did back in February......though I still refuse to drive it if its raining, snowing or at night.  Sometimes I feel like I’m living in a picture.....its just that beautiful.  The town of Union is the county seat so even though the population is around 800 the town is always hopping during the day.....but at 5:00 pm everything comes to a halt.  Its not too quite though as I live one block over from where route 3 and route 219 meet, so there is always traffic noise.......reminds me of home."

Monroe Farm Market Website
Monroe Market FB page, with media links!

Each year, Annie's Organics awards a few very competitive scholarships to deserving students. This year, MSU took the lead, sweeping up THREE of the 16 awards!

Two Ecological Food and Farming Systems specialization graduate students, Carolyn Lowry and Emily Reiersgaard joined horticulture undergraduate Rachel Cross as deserving award recipients. You might recognize these faces from your classes, or from a visit to the MSU Student Organic Farm...

GREAT JOB, and so glad you were rewarded for your excellent work and future potential.

The compost crew examined the food and animal production waste streams on campus, and examined potential uses for the material. During their exploration of waste on campus, they explored the anaerobic digester, composting facilities at the Student Organic Farm, and explored opportunities to use the waste from Brody cafeteria to feed the new collection of worms out at the student organic farm in their "worm house".

With the guidance of Prof. John Beirbaum, they carried out an experiment to determine best practices and worm tolerance in vermicomposting the "pulper mash" that is created from the Brody cafeteria waste Pulper. Their research contributed to the protocols now used in the worm house, and the project was highlighted at the Michigan Organic Reporting Session in Spring of 2011.