Publications
2007
--"Farming for the Future" in Outdoor America magazine, a publication of the Izaak Walton League of America
--“Making Healthcare Affordable” and “Innovations in Food Systems” in the Michael Fields Agricultural Institute newsletter2006
--"That's Organic Produce for You!" in Community Connections, a publication of the Minnesota Project. Co-written with Dan Borek.
--"Finding a way to establish a market-driven school farm" on NewFarm.org2005
--"Caribou Coffee criticized" in the Manitou Messenger, the St. Olaf newspaper
Publications featuring STOGROW Farm
2007
• Global Exchange: Creating the Local Green Economy: Success Stories from the Grassroots by Shannon Biggs (Book to be released in September 2007)2006
• The Washington Post – “Conservation Effort Fuels School Rivalry” by Amy Forliti
• Sojourners Magazine – “ Food for Thought” by Steve Thorngate, May Issue
• The Star Tribune – “Local Challenge is a lesson” by Rick Nelson2005
• St. Olaf Magazine – “What Sustains Us” by Erin Peterson, January Issue
• St. Olaf Magazine – “Greener Acres,” September Issue
• The Lutheran Magazine – “Green Campus” by Karl E. Sevig, November Issue
• KARE 11Special with Ken Speaks
• National Wildlife Federation’s Campus Ecology Yearbook
• TIME Magazine, “What’s Cooking On Campus?” by Margot Roosevelt, November 14 th Issue
Writings
Environmental Studies:
-- "Designing a Life: What is Enough?"
"Let me tell you a story. One day last semester I was biking home down a road in India, which was really more of cow path, except a cow path that I not only shared with cows but also children, huge lorries, government buses, chickens, piles of garbage, and many pedestrians. “Home” was a grass hut on an organic farm in an intentional community near the eastern coast of southern India. By grass hut I mean that besides the unused metal lock on the door, 100% of the materials were local and could be composted..."
-- "Mechanization and Standardizations: The Story of U.S. Agriculture since the 1600's"
"Dear friend,
Have you ever wondered why we grow so much corn and soybeans? During mid-October a group of Oles made the trek from Northfield to the Land Institute in Salina, Kansas, the mecca for sustainable agriculture in the Midwest. This question was all I could ponder while gazing out the van window for twelve hours and hundreds of miles. For most of the drive, corn and soybean fields stretched to the horizon. It occurred to me that I hadn’t eaten any corn-on-the-cob, tortillas, cornbread or any recognizable forms of corn recently, nor had canned corn made an appearance on my shopping list. A poll of my fellow travelers produced similar results—hardly any of us had eaten corn for corn’s sake in days...."
-- "The Politics of Obesity"
"A March, 2005 headline on CNN.com brought deeply disturbing news to the American public: “Report: Obesity will reverse life expectancy gains.” For the past 200 years, life expectancy steadily increased thanks to medical advances such as the discovery of antibiotics and vaccines, but this upward trend is no longer guaranteed..."
-- "Design, Ecology, and Ethics"
"Right now, if someone in America wants to be good to the earth and good to future generations, it’s hard. It’s expensive to purchase local, organic food. In the suburbs, to get to work and practice and the store and back home again on a schedule without a car is tricky if not impossible..."
-- "Anoka County: My Hometown Environmental Quality"
"When I returned from India in mid-December, one of the first things I did was take a deep breath. Breathing in Chennai, India was the equivalent of smoking 20 cigarettes a day, and the smog and smells always left a dull ache in my chest. The air in Coon Rapids, on the other hand, was completely unnoticeable. I tasted, smelled, and felt nothing—a welcome change..."
-- A response to David Orr's "What is Education For?"
"I spent a summer working on an organic farm near Stillwater, MN and discovered what it felt like to truly learn. Not just reading some book because I had to and then regurgitate the information back out on a test, but questing for information and experiences because plants were fascinating and learning to drive a tractor was empowering and farming was complex, elegant, challenging and above all, very very real. For a suburban kid who didn’t know what a tomato plant looked like and never had seen the inside of any machine, learning how to grow food, the most necessary thing in life besides water, was the most relevant experience I’d ever had. For the first time in my life, I wasn’t doing something because I needed the grade or the approval; I was doing it because it interested me."
Dayna Burtness -- Senior CIS Web Portfolio -- 2007