Vote YES on Issue 2

Believe it or not, each and every resident of not only my state, but our entire country, has some connection to the traditional occupation of farming. Whether they have experienced the hardwork and satisfaction of exhibiting a market animal at a county fair, visited a local farm as a part of a school or leadership visit, or simply purchased meat and animal products at our local grocery, each citizen has somehow made a conscious decision to support local agriculturalists.

While many take these luxuries for granted, I consider my community blessed with such strong agriculture supporters, programming, and funding. Personally, I feel quite fortunate to be able to travel only minutes from home to see how my food is produced. Area farmers and livestock producers literally connect the farm gate to the consumer plate, as they provide a healthy and safe food supply for our community.

The very safety of that food supply is in jeopardy in the Buckeye state. The Humane Society of the United States has made their agenda in Ohio quite clear: slowly erode, and eventually banish, animal agriculture. Much like their most recent campaign in California, Wayne Pacelle and other HSUS officials have promised an Ohio invasion in 2010 if compromises aren’t made on the production of our livestock.

In an effort to protect our largest industry, Ohio farmers, politicians, commodity organizations, and business leaders have joined together in an effort to keep HSUS from controlling our right to local, safe, and efficient production of animal products. Passing in the Ohio House and Senate in July of 2009, a bipartisan resolution was created to put Issue 2 on the ballot. Issue 2, a proposed constitutional amendment, would create the Ohio Livestock Care Standards Board. This board will enable Ohio livestock and poultry farmers to continue to provide excellent care to their animals, while also protecting our food supply and keeping affordable, locally-raised food available for consumers.

It is more important than ever that we not only spread the word about Issue 2 around Ohio, but educate other agriculturalists in the United States about the potential consequences extreme animal activist groups could create with their unreasonable requests. If these groups had their way, it would almost guarantee higher food costs for consumers, put food safety at risk, increase the amount of food imported to Ohio, cause thousands of family farmers to go out of business, and endanger the overall health and well-being of Ohio's flocks and herds.

To continue support for Ohio’s largest industry, I spend much of my time educating voters on the importance of Issue 2. As a state, and an industry, must take a stand by voting YES on Issue 2 on November 3^rd. By maintaining excellent care of food animals in our state, Issue 2 will help to ensure the availability of safe, locally-grown, affordable meat, milk and eggs. By passing Issue 2, each voter will also help sustain the viability of Ohio’s agriculture community, including the jobs it provides and the many economic contributions it makes. Issue 2 will protect our local family farms, and will keep animal control where it belongs—right here in Ohio.

Summer in full swing!

The last few weeks have been both busy and fun for me. The weekend of the 26th I was honored to be a bridesmaid for my dear friend Angela Pickerel, as she married the love of her life, Arik, and became Mrs. Witker! While we worried and worried about the sweltering weather approaching, Saturday turned out to be a perfect day for the big event! With beautiful flowers by Todd Sheets, Angie and Arik said their "I Do's" at Bethlehem Church and followed with a fun-filled reception at Riverview Banquet center in Pemberville.

Heading back from an exhausting weekend, I completed my 3rd (yes, it was only 4 days) week at Farm Credit Services of Mid-America. I really like all the staff here in Washington Court House and have a great time learning about the organization and checking things off my project t0-d0 list.

This past weekend brought more wedding bells (and fireworks), as my cousin Kylie married Paul Lemon on on the 4th of July Saturday. The wedding at St. Al's was beautiful, with another awesome reception at the Lenhart Grand Ballroom at BGSU. After the wedding, I headed to the fireworks in BG with some friends, and home to rest up. Wrapped up the weekend with a family cook-out Sunday and some homework-- how exciting! It was great to see lots of family over the long holiday weekend!

6 am came early this morning, as I am back to work for the rest of the week. Just keep plugging away at my marketing projects for Farm Credit and my online classes to finish up my degree at Ohio State!

Hope all is well with my "followers"

Stacie

Summer is finally here!

After a grueling 26 hour course load this quarter, I can say I am DONE! Today ended my finals week, and after studying, taking tests, and turning in a final paper, spring quarter is over. While this is my last spring quarter--as an undergrad-- I am super excited for summer to begin. ** to the right is my good friend Renee Starkey and I with our Top Ten Senior awards at the CFAES Banquet.

Speaking of summer, I have so much to look forward-- my next few weeks look like this:

This weekend (June 12th) I will be traveling home friday night to attend my good friend Angie's Bachelorette Party at Put-In-Bay on Saturday. Sunday I will make a quick visit to Columbus to carry the college banner and assist in spring commencement ceremonies. Sunday night I will return home once again, and help Aunt Joan enjoy her week at the lake on Monday and Tuesday.

Wednesday starts my internship at Farm Credit Services of Mid-America in Washington Courthouse, OH. I am very excited to work for such a great organization, and am eager to learn more about farm lending.
** to the left is the awesome cake FCS got me for my bday during training!

June 26th brings a very exciting weekend-- as I will be headed home as early as possible on Friday to get ready for Angie Pickerel and Arik Witker's wedding. I am very honored to be serving as a bridesmaid for Angie, and am sure to have a great weekend full of memories as I attend their rehearsal dinner and wedding.

Fourth of July brings about another big weekend- as my cousin Kylie Korsnack will be getting married here in Bowling Green. I am very excited to see a lot of my family who will be in town for the wedding!

Things start to wind down for a while after the weddings, but no fear, August brings about more excitement, as I will have county fair, state fair, and of course GRADUATION to look forward too!


In the mean time, thanks to all of you for your Birthday wishes! I was able to enjoy my birthday over the entire weekend with family dinners, lunches, and tons of time with my close friends. I was even lucky enough to celebrate my birthday the following weekend when I traveled to see Uncle Howard, Aunt Denise, James and Brittany outside of Dayton! I am so blessed!

** Chad, me, and Brittnay out in BG on my 21st Birthday!

As a follow up to my birthday-- Grandma Wenig got me a really neat address book and recipe box for my 21st birthday. If all of you, and yes I mean ALL, would take a second to think of a favorite recipe (or two or three) of yours or something we have shared together and send that to me -- along with your address for my address book-- I would really appreciate it!

Love to all!
Stacie

Plans for 2009....

After much debate, advice from others, and some real soul-searching, I finally have plans for next year. With much enthusiasm, I will still remain a student in the fall of 09. I will be starting a masters program in Agricultural Communications and will still be in the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences here at Ohio State. While my job search yielded offers, and serious consideration with Syngenta, my love and pride for Ohio State cannot be denied.

**at the right, Me, and my friends and neighbors Jena and Gus spell out the O-H-I-O tradition in D.C. in March.... with a little help from the Washington Monument of course!

I feel very fortunate to have this opportunity, and owe much thanks to the faculty I have worked with over the past three years, in addition to my mentors in the Dean's office, for their help in providing me this opportunity. . As many of you know I am an active College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences Ambassador where I spend a lot of my free time recruiting students to the university and our specific college. During my graduate admissions process, I knew I had made the right decision when these roles were reversed, and the faculty and administration of CFAES made special efforts to retain me in their graduate programs. I am so very EXCITED to start back in a new role and am eager to share with all of you as this next phase unfolds.

**picture is of my best friend, Erin, friend Dustin Brown, and I at the Wood County 4-H Camp Counselor reunion a few weeks ago!

In other news, we are almost half way through spring quarter!! Classes, clubs, and preparing for our College Recognition Banquet are keeping me quite busy. On May 7th I will be serving as a narrator for our college wide banquet and will be named a Top 20 Senior-- one of our college's top awards. In addition to our college awards, I will be having dinner (along with other students) next week with E. Gordon Gee-- Ohio State University President, as I am recognized as in the President's Salute to Outstanding Academic Achievement.


Oh.. and if I couldn't forget-- I bought a new car! Well actually a mid-size SUV-- but none-the-less... I am now a proud owner of a red Mercury Mariner (yes, Uncle Bob and I are twins) and passed on my blue chevy truck to a 16 year old first time driver at home!

Hope this finds all of you well! Make sure to email, call, or heck-- COME VISIT me!

With love,
Stacie

Back in the States!

Needless to say, I had the time of my life in Brazil this winter. I hope each of you enjoyed following along as I posted my thoughts, activities, and a few pictures about my journey through Central America. I was so very fortunate to travel to wonderful places, learn so much about the agribusiness and production agriculture climate in Brazil, and meet so many amazing people throughout the 6 weeks. ** To the right is a picture of my host family and I on one of my last nights in Piracicaba!

So.. you are probably wondering... Whats next for me?

Well, that is a good question-- and if I knew for certain, I would share my plan with all of you. BUT- with many opportunities still out to jury, I will just update you on what I have been doing in the 4 weeks since my return to the states.

I have been able to spend quite a bit of time at home in Bowling Green. From family game nights, attending Cate's first 4-H meeting with her and a few basketball games, catching up with family and friends, and getting some quality rest and relaxation, I have stayed quite busy.

In addition to time at home, I have also spent some time in Columbus catching up at club meetings and such. Two weeks ago I spent 2 days in Minneapolis interviewing for a job with Syngenta Seeds, and I spent last week in Washington D.C. with my Alpha Zeta Partners group studying organizational change by meeting with several agriculturally-related organizations.

Now, I find myself back at home for just 5 more days before school starts back up again for Spring quarter! I am very excited for my spring quarter classes and schedule (Yes, I am a dork) and for the spring excitement on campus in Columbus.

When spring quarter wraps up in June, I will be staying in Columbus for the summer to complete an internship with Farm Credit Services of Mid-America and will be taking my FINAL 2 Classes at Ohio State before graduating in August!

Eleven day trip!!

We headed off last wednesday night to begin our 11 day trip all around Brazil. As of tonight, we are in our 5th hotel and have at least made pit stops in nearly 20 cities. While the last 4-5 days have started running together with little sleep and long bus rides in between-- I will try to recap a few of the highlights.

- Friboi/JBS Beef Processing Plant- here we got to walk through the whole process-- literally from unloading the truck, stun gun, removing the skin, halving, cuts, and all the way to processed corned beef ready for the shelf!! Very interesting, but definitely not for those with weak stomachs!

- Nova India Semen Farm- we got to visit this farm, featuring over 30 head of Brazil's top bulls, and tour their holding pens, embryo transfer facility, laboratories, and even watched them make a few collections.

- Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture- we visited the Brazilian equiavlent to the USDA yesterday and got to learn about the different sectors of agriculture around the country, ask lots of questions, and drew many conclusions about the similarities and differences between agricultural support programs in the US.

- CNA (similar to US Farm Bureau)- one of the most interesting places we visited! We spoke with representatives about lobbying the government, agricultural education and vocational training, and the leadership among Brazilian farmers in controlling policy decisions.

- HOT SPRINGS!! Best day ever! We got to spend the entire day Saturday at a Brazilian equivalent outdoor water park! After 8 hours of floating thru the lazy river, fighting the waves in the wave pool, and reading an entire book, I was sufficiently RED but loved the relaxing day!

Other visits have included: ABCZ- Brazilian Zebu Cattle Association, Beef Feedlots, Driving Tour of the Capital of Brazil-- Brasilia, visit to INMET- the national meteoroloy institute of Brazil, any several road stops along the way!!

With 5 more days of travel left before heading back to Piracicaba, we are running low on sleep and are quite sick of sitting on our bus for 4-5 hours a day, but are ENJOYING every minute!!

**sorry no pictures, internet is kind of slow and pictures take far too long to upload!

Nature Girl 2 - - Santos and Sao Paulo

This past week and weekend we spent 4 days in Santos and Sao Paulo-- both cities east (closer to the ocean!!) of Piracicaba. After traveling wednesday night, we started out on our second hiking journey first thing thursday morning. This time we were going to hike along the coast, visit some lowland estuaries, and eventually end up at a BEACH! Beginning with the end in mind-- I was easily able to get through the mud and mountains knowing that shortly we would be sunbathing on the beach. Upon our arrival, we all stripped down and spent an hour or so in the ocean. We then walked along the beach (we were the only people there!) and explored for a while before heading back to the bus.

Friday morning came early, as we set out for the Porto de Santos-- one of the largest ports in Brazil and South America. Here we visited with the port authority, and traveled down to one the bays to tour the ADM facility. We met with the ADM elevator operators and got to tour their storage and ship load out facilities. I found this especially interesting after spending my summer internship at a Cargill Barge load out facility. **left view from one of the terminals, right Gus and I-- past and future Cargill interns in our hard hats!

After grabbing a quick lunch, we went to the Santos aquarium and then on a 2 hour boat tour of the port and surrounding areas. It was really interesting to see all the products that are handled throughout the port, and it was great to relax on the boat with the group for a few hours. Friday night we spent at a local shopping mall and retired early to get ready for another busy day on Saturday.

Saturday was a pretty relaxing day as well, spending all morning at the Sao Paulo Zoo and the afternoon at the Sao Paulo Art Museum. It was cool to see all of the animals, compare with the Toledo and Columbus Zoos, and enjoy the sunshine. The art museum was very different, but they had a neat Chinese art exhibit with many pieces focused around the olympic games.

Saturday Night was a definite cultural experience-- as our whole group headed to a Samba club in Sao Paulo. We got there at 11-- which was very early for them-- and waited around til after midnight when the crowds starting rolling in. While we received many stares from Brazilians, we still danced the night away, regardless of how rediculous we probably looked. Sunday morning we shopped at the "Hippie Market" downtown and ate lunch at a traditional Brazilian BBQ. This restaurant served us over 32 different cuts of meat (bite size pieces) along with cheese, potatoes, and a salad bar, for over 3 hours!! Needless to say it was pretty quite as everyone easily fell asleep onthe ride back to Piracicaba last night!!

Overall a very good weekend!! Spending three days in class this week before heading off for an 11 day trip!! Have been able to get some souvenirs but hoping to find some more things in the next week or so!! Ohhh.. and one special person should be receiving a piece of mail in the next few days!! Watch your mailboxes to see if you are the lucky one!!

P.S. For those of you wondering... ** I have yet to find Juan Valdez or a Dick's Sporting Goods store!! hahaha : )

Weekend with Host Family

After returning from touring on Friday, we quickly showered, packed, and got ready to be picked up by our host family. The father, little brother and sister-- Marco, Joao Vitor, and Cintia, came to pick me up around 7:15. We headed to their house-- only about 10 minutes from the hotel. Upon arriving I met the rest of the family, took a tour of their home, and sat down for dinner with the whole family. Later in the evening went over to Marco's parents home on the other side of the city where I learned to make Fezuada (a native dish of Pork and Black Beans). Being that it was a long day, we headed home and went to bed early friday night.


Saturday morning -- for the first time in Brazil-- I got to sleep in! When I got up my host Mom-- Cleide-- had made a delicious breakfast. Cleide and I then walked about 5 blocks to visit Cintia (sister) at the clothing store she works at. When we got home we changed our clothes and packed our bags to head 30 minutes out of Piracicaba to a summer cottage. We spend all afternoon swimming, having Brazilian BBQ, dancing, and playing cards. It was a lot of fun-- and was definitely something very similar to many of our summer cookouts in Ohio!

Saturday night we headed back to the city-- got cleaned up and ate some more (Brazilians love to eat!!) Vinicius (brother), Cintia (sister), and Cleber (their cousin) and I headed out around 10 o'clock to visit some of their friends and go to a few bars around Campus. We had a great time and met a lot of people-- even some who spoke english!

Sunday was absolutely perfect-- as all we did was sleep, watch movies, and eat. It reminded me of being at home as well... especially when my host dad Marco turned on his favorite show TWO AND HALF MEN!! We talked about how that was my dad's favorite show too! (It is really amazing how much American music and television programs Brazilians follow). Everyone slept in, ate lunch, watched 27 dresses, and got cleaned up before I headed back to the hotel around 7. All-in-all it was a great weekend with a great family. I really enjoyed spending time with such wonderful people-- and could find some many similarities between my family and theirs.

Friday Touring.

Friday was spent touring around Piracicaba-- seeing the central market (much like the North Market in Columbus) and visiting the Cathedral in the town square. We were able to spend some time shopping, walking around, and took a lot of cool pictures. After lunch in the downtown area-- we headed down by the Piracicaba river and took more pictures at an old abandoned sugarcane mill.
We spend the afternoon touring Coplacana-- a local sugarcane cooperative. Coplacana has its headquarters in Piracicaba, but has several branch locations to serve all of its members. We were able to tour their office building, their seed and animal feed divisions, chemical warehouse and their supply store. They were truly a full service co-op-- complete with a automotive center to help their farmers out with anything they needed. After leaving Coplacana we headed outside Piracicaba to visit a new biodiesel plant. The new plant will be online in about 10 months-- and will be able to process several different grains to produce biodiesel. This was one of my favorite stops thus far, as I was able to ask a lot of questions to help compare and contrast the differences between biodiesel and ethanol production.

Flowers, and Palm Trees, and Oranges.. Oh My!!

We took a break from classes yesterday to travel out of Piracicaba to tour different farms, agribusinesses, and processing facilities. We started off on the wrong foot, as our bus driver got us lost and almost 2 hours late to our first tour. Our first stop was at Veiling Hollambre-- one of the largest flower markets in all of Brazil. Here, nearly 500 flower buyers gather each day to bid on a variety of different native and exotic species. We got to walk through the thousands of racks of flowers, watch as buyers bid on flowers, and talk with a worker from the market.



From there we visited a 25 acre greenhouse that produces many ornamental products to sell at the market. Gustavos--manager of the operation-- showed us several different species of palm trees, both native Brazil.. and others extremely rare brought back from other countries. Gustavos was a graduate of ESALQ-- the school we are studying at-- and in addition to a tour, he shared with us his career path, marketing and entreprenurial advice, and other information about trade and agriculture in Brazil.
** left some cactuses in colorful pots, and right.. MUMS!

After leaving the greenhouse we switched industries, now on to citrus. We toured a seed generation and seedling facility. Here, they produced seedling for lime, lemon, and orange trees. We toured the greenhouses and learned about the bud grafting process for selecting different traits. From there we stayed with the same group of guides and traveled on to a orange processing facility. Oranges are brought in by the producer, put in a special holding room to ripen, and are then cleaned , inspected, and package for delivery. Our last stop of the day was at a GIANT orange grove. We got to walk down into a valley, surrounded by orange trees, pick one off the tree, and ENJOY. The day in all was a definite VITAMIN C overload-- as at everystop we have oranges, orange juice and more- but definitely a very fun day!

Pictures....

No new news to report.. but uploaded more pictures and wanted to share them with you all. As requested, I will try to take some pictures with me in them!!

** As we drove uphill all day... we decided to stop and take some pictures!




** On the left, Friday night when we finally got our luggage we were extremely happy! Me smiling and embracing my missing suitcase!!

** On the right, Jena and I at the dairy co-op we visited. We wore white rubber boots to tour the milk and yogurt processing facility.





**To the right is most of our group after a night out to dinner with our Brazilian friends. Heitor, Eloisa, and Jackie-- all students at ESALQ-- are spending almost every day traveling, learning and teaching us more about Brazilian culture.

Weekend in the Mountains

While I had thought it was difficult sitting through 8 straight hours of class every day last week, little did I know what was in store for our weekend adventures. We checked out of our hotel at 7 am saturday morning to head out on a long bus ride to visit a large farmer near Sao Pedro. Carlos-- owner and manager of the farm-- showed us his 350 head dairy barns and parlor, explained the 3 cycle harvest he practices, and shared other interesting facts about sugarcane, corn, and soybean harvests in Brazil. It was very interesting to learn about the government participation in Brazilian agriculture. Carlos shared that there are no government subsidy programs for his crops, no insurance options, and no help in drought years, leaving many farmers bankrupt after a bad 2008 crop.

After leaving his farm, we headed a half hour to dairy co-op. This co-op is a venue for nearly 100 small dairy farmers to market their milk around the state. We toured the processing plant, taste tested their pinapple, strawberry, and coconut yogurt, and also visited one of the participating farmers in the area. We wrapped up saturday with dinner at Intervales state park and stayed in a cabin for the evening.

Sunday was quite the adventure. We got up early, put on old clothes and boots, and headed out for a nearly 10 mile hike through caves and rainforest. While this would be a difficult task in itself, it had rained the entire night and day before, making all trails (especially hills!!) extremely slippery and muddy. We hiked up and down the mountains for nearly 2 hours before reaching our first cave. Here we crawled inside, scaled across the rocks, and got to see a beautiful waterfall. While it was quite the process, with me falling down 3 times and getting a handful of thorns along the way, the scenery was breathtaking. One cave down, we hiked to a meadow area to eat lunch and rest up before Cave 2. The second cave was quite different, as we waded knee-waist deep in water the entire time over much easier terrain. About 3 hours later we walked back into camp, physically exhausted, and quickly showered and boarded the bus to head back to Piracicaba.




This week is full of class for 3 days, visiting Brazil's largest flower market, and spending the weekend with our Host Family somewhere around the state. Stay tuned for more pictures and an update later this week or over the weekend!!!

**This is supposedly a fountain of Healing Holy Water in a park we visited. When asked where the the water came from Jena, my AZP friend, responded, "I'm sure its piped straight from America"

First day in Brazil...

After a two hour flight to New York, an extended 6 hour layover at JFK, another 10 hour flight to Sao Paolo, and dealing with the airlines after losing almost 20 of our suitcases, we finally set off to Piracicaba. We were all extremely excited to meet our advisor from ESALQ- Shirota- outside the airport in a fabulous bus. (Definitely more spacious and comfortable than out flights!)

We made the two hour bus ride, with one pit stop for lunch, and unloaded what luggage we did have at Antonio’s Palace--our home sweet home for the next 6 weeks.

This afternoon we headed out for a walking tour of ESALQ. ESALQ is a branch of the University of Sao Paolo, which is one of the largest universities in the country with over 80,000 students. The official name of the university we will be studying at is—Escola Superior de Agricultura Luiz de Quiroz. The “Luiz de Quiroz” part of the university’s name is for one of the original founders. We also got to visit the main academic building of ESALQ, home to the dean’s office.
We continued to walk around campus, seeing various academic buildings and touring the dairy farm. It was very interesting to learn about some of the graduate students’ research projects regarding the nitrogen content in dairy based feeding plans. We also got to see their milking parlor and nearby grove of rubber trees. To finish up our evening we ate at Monte Sul. Here we tried a variety of different foods, and filled our plates with different meats, salads, and my favorite—desserts.

Great day all-in-all.. as discovered we are 3 hours ahead of Ohio time.. so nearly 11 here already. Will update with more information soon! Pictures are taking forever to upload now.. but I will try to post some tomorrow!

Shipping out in 3 days!!

As I prepare to leave for Brazil on MONDAY, I am anxiously preparing for the exciting six weeks ahead. I spent most of this morning organizing all of my things and beginning the packing process. Surprisingly, I think I will be able to fit everything I want to take in the two suitcase (50 lbs each) limit!!

Throughout my 6 weeks in South America, I will try my best to update my blog once or twice a week, uploading news of our travels and some exciting photos. You all have been added on my email list, and will receive updates when I add a new post! Hopefully you all enjoy hearing about my travels and adventures south of the Equator.. and would love to hear from you all through commenting on here or by email at wenig.12@osu.edu!

Happy 2009!