Atlantic FFA Advisor Eric Miller reports club FFA member Malena Woodward presented a paper virtually to the Global Youth Institute on Tuesday, October 13th. Woodward’s paper was on malnutrition in Puerto Rico and provided several options to help solve this issue that affects 1.5 million Puerto Rican’s every year. Malena’s solutions included additional education for school age students with an emphasis on growing food on the island. Puerto Rico imports 85% of the food they need every year.

Malena Woodward (Photo submitted)

Malena said, “I really enjoyed the presentations, I thought it was interesting hearing the ideas of other students and experts trying to solve world hunger as well as hearing their input and giving me more ideas about my topic “. In addition to this experience Malena earned 2 scholarships for Iowa State University. The first was for $500 for participating in the Iowa Youth Institute in April and the second was for $2,000 for participating in the Global Youth Institute this week.

Malena had 8 other students in her roundtable discussion from 5 different states and 1 student from China. Each of these individuals had presentations on Water & Sanitation issues in Ireland, Infectious Disease in Burundi, Sustainable Agriculture in Guatemala, the Education Gap in El Salvador, Climate Volatility in Bangladesh, War and Conflict in Yemen, Policy and Governmental Conflict in Zimbabwe and Water Scarcity in Uganda.

Not only did Malena present to a group of students, she spoke to and was given feedback from 3 distinguished experts in a variety of different fields. Dr. Ruth MacDonald Iowa State University Professor and Chair, Food Science and Human Nutrition. Dr. Glenn Gregorio Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA)Director and Mr. Stan Carlson Former Canadian diplomat and United Nations Official.

On Friday the Global Youth Institute wrapped up with a keynote address by His Majesty King Abdullah II ibn Al Hussein of Jordan and a round table discussion with all of the student participants and more than a dozen government officials CEO’s of nonprofit organizations and Fortune 500 business leaders from all over the world.

ABOUT THE WORLD FOOD PRIZE: The World Food Prize is the foremost international award recognizing the achievements of individuals who have advanced human development by improving the quality, quantity or availability of food in the world. The Prize was founded in 1986 by Dr. Norman E. Borlaug, recipient of the 1970 Nobel Peace Prize. Since then, the World Food Prize has honored 50 outstanding individuals who have made vital contributions throughout the world. The World Food Prize annually hosts the Borlaug Dialogue international symposium and a variety of youth education programs to help further the discussion on cutting-edge global food security issues and inspire the next generation to end hunger.

(Radio Iowa) – The recovery of crops damaged by the derecho in August has been a mixed bag as the harvest nears its end. An estimated three-point-six (3.6) million acres of corn in Iowa got slammed by winds up to 100 miles-an-hour. That left stalks almost flat to the ground and others remained standing with a pronounced tilt. At the Key Cooperative in Kelly, agronomist Ben Hollingshead says some farmers gave up on the damaged crops to focus on preparing fields for next year — but many did attempt to harvest what they could.

“Some of it they might only have got half of it picked up, some of it they did a little better–was it the hybrid, the technique, they kind of got what they got. There’s an infinite number of variables,” according to Hollingshead. He says there’s not any one factor that can be cited with helping a certain field come out better than another. “Whether it regards a choice to do termination or whether it’s a particular hybrid was worse on the wind, I can generally find something to counter that immediately in some other area,” Hollingshead says.

He says most damaged fields were covered by crop insurance, which farmers told him they were grateful to have.

(By Amy Mayer,| Iowa Public Radio)

(Radio Iowa) – The soybean harvest is entering the last lap — while the corn harvest is getting closer to being done after a week of good weather. The U-S-D-A report shows just ten percent of the soybeans remain to be plucked from the fields. That is more than three weeks ahead of last year and two weeks ahead of the five-year average. The northwest, north-central and west-central areas have less than five percent of beans still in the field — while farmers in the southern one-third of the state have at least 20 percent remaining to be harvested.

The corn harvest hit the 65 percent complete mark. That’s more than three weeks ahead of last year and just more than two weeks ahead of average. There is still approximately two-thirds of the corn waiting to be picked in the south-central part of the state — while the rest of the state has at least half of their crop in the bin.

Shelby County Emergency Management Coordinator Alex Londo reports the Burn Ban which was in-place until further notice in Shelby County, has officially ended, due to a low fire danger. The next update will be provided this Thursday, Oct. 22nd.

(Radio Iowa/IPPA) – A Linn County restaurant is the home of Iowa’s “Best Breaded Pork Tenderloin” for 2020. Iowa Pork Producers Association spokesperson, Dal Grooms, says the winning sandwich is sold at the PrairieMoon On Main in the small town of Prairieburg. “It’s about 30 miles northeast of Cedar Rapids and they’ve been in business a few years and had been thinking about what really is a good tenderloin,”Grooms says. “And they decided that they were going to focus on the flavor and the juiciness of the pork rather than the breading — although it is a breaded tenderloin.”

At PrairieMoon On Main, tenderloins are served with lettuce, tomato, onion, and pickles.

Grooms says there were plenty of entries from Iowans in this year’s contest. She says they had more than 390 different restaurants entered by some 4,500 people. “that’s really pretty spectacular when you think about the year we’ve been living through,” according to Grooms. “Some establishments had either closed or reduced the number of service hours they had because of all the pandemic related closures.”

Loren and Amy Lacy have owned the restaurant for about a year-and-a-half. PrairieMoon will receive $500, a plaque, and a large banner to display. IPPA judges selected Birdies, Burgers & Brews, located at Hillcrest Golf & Country Club in Graettinger, as the runner-up in the 2020 contest; that establishment will receive $250 and a plaque from IPPA. Rounding out the top five finalists (in no order) are Bents Smokehouse & Pub, Westgate; The Blind Pig, Cedar Rapids; and Sasquatch Jacks Hideaway Barroom & Grill, Waverly. Those restaurants will receive a Top Five plaque to display.

IPPA received 4,501 nominations for 390 different establishments during the spring nomination period. The restaurant and foodservice committee judged the top 40 restaurants in the summer, scoring each on the quality of the pork, taste, physical characteristics, and eating experience. The winners are announced as part of #Porktober20, or October Pork Month, which celebrates the state’s dedicated pig farmers, local restaurants and their hardworking teams, and a famous Midwest favorite—the pork tenderloin sandwich.

The Pub at the Pinicon in New Hampton won the 2019 contest. For a full list of past winners, visit https://www.iowapork.org/best-breaded-pork-tenderloin-contest/.

This was the 18th annual best tenderloin contest to be held each October during Iowa Pork Month.

(Iowa DNR; DES MOINES) –Fall leaves are beautiful – until they pile up in your yard. But don’t send those precious nutrients up in smoke. Instead, put them to good use. Your leaves, branches and other landscape materials can nourish your lawn, garden or community. It’s as easy as 1 – 2 – 3:

1. Compost.
   Composting leaves and food scraps is a great way to turn this waste into nutrients for your garden. It’s also a great way to get kids outside, learning practical hands-on science. They can start by researching the many types and sizes of compost containers. (For tips on low-tech ways to compost, see a DNR tutorial.) Managing the compost pile provides exercise and a learning opportunity. A good compost mix needs both carbon (dead or dry leaves) and nitrogen (green materials like food scraps and grass clippings). Carry the project forward to spring, and use finished compost to enrich the soil and gardens.
2. Mulching.
   Your lawn will love you if you chop up and leave your leaves in place. Leaves are a free and natural fertilizer and they add organic matter to enrich your soil. Use your regular lawn mower. Or use a mulching lawn mower to shred and mix leaves and grass into your yard.
3. Bag it.
   If you have too many leaves or branches to compost, check with your community to see if they collect yard waste or have a drop-off site. Sometimes there’s a fee, but the upside is that anyone can pick up composted materials for their yards or gardens.

Burning leaves seems to capture the smell of autumn. But breathing leaf smoke pulls pollutants such as carbon monoxide, soot and toxic chemicals into your lungs. While it may smell good, smoke is especially harmful to children, the elderly and those with respiratory problems such as asthma. Turning leaves into nutrients is the healthy way to protect your and your neighbor’s lungs.

w/Brandon Schuering.

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Monona-Harrison-Shelby Counties
336 AM CDT Thu Oct 15 2020

…FREEZE WARNING IN EFFECT FROM 1 AM TO 10 AM CDT FRIDAY…

The National Weather Service in Omaha/Valley has issued a Freeze Warning, which is in effect from 1 AM to 10 AM CDT Friday.

* TEMPERATURES…33 to 29 degrees .

* TIMING… 1 AM to 10 AM

* IMPACTS…Freezing temperatures could kill sensitive vegetation and damage unprotected outdoor plumbing.

* ADDITIONAL INFORMATION… We are now about a week past the typical growing season for the counties in the warning. This will the the last freeze warning of the season.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS…

A Freeze Warning means sub-freezing temperatures are imminent or highly likely. These conditions will kill crops and other sensitive vegetation.

A Burn Ban is now in effect for Guthrie and Adair Counties, until further notice. Emergency Management Coodinator Bob Kempf reports the State Fire Marshal approved requests from Kempf to prohibit open burning in both counties, until such time as the activity does not constitute a danger to life or property.

Kempf made the request after consulting with the fire chiefs in each respective county. Any violation of the proclamation order is a simple misdemeanor.

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa D-N-R is asking deer hunters to take part in a program once again this year that donates venison to help feed the hungry. Coordinator Alicia Plathe says the Help Us Stop Hunger or HUSH program has donated millions of meals since 2003. “Once a hunter is successful in their harvest and they register their harvest — they field dress their deer, take care of it just like it was their own to take to a locker or to process themselves — but instead, they will drop it off at one of our participating HUSH lockers,” Plathe.

DNR HUSH Coordinator Alicia Plathe

She says the deer is then processed for the program. She says the hunter fills out information and the locker processes the deer into two-pound tubes of pure ground venison. Those tubes of venison are taken to the Food Bank of Iowa for distribution. “It’s been a really good partnership for the hunters, especially when they are either done with their hunt or don’t hunt for consumption purposes. They have a good positive outlook for those deer once they are done,” Plathe says.

Plathe says the program was started to help those in need and has been able to supply many meals.”I think we will break 15 million meals that have been donated since the conception of this program — which has been just about 20 years, not quite 20 years ago when it started — so that will be a good milestone for us to hit,” according to Plathe. “The last few years we’ve run anywhere from 25 to four-thousand deer that have been donated through the program. So, it’s not a small number that we are seeing every year.”

You can find information on the HUSH program on the D-N-R’s website at iowadnr.gov.