USDANEWS VOLUME 56 NO.7 - AUGUST 1997

The Ideal Infant Food
"Loving Support Makes Breastfeeding Work."

That's the theme for the year-long campaign which USDA formally launched on Aug. 6, with an event to promote breastfeeding and support breastfeeding mothers. The campaign, which included Secretary Dan Glickman proclaiming the first week of August as "WIC National Breastfeeding Week," is focusing on mothers who participate in the Food and Consumer Service's Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, or "WIC." That program provides participating recipients with supplemental food, nutrition counseling and education, and access to health services.

"Young China, here, looks like a pretty healthy WIC baby," concludes FCS's Alice Lockett (center), as she and FCS's Carrie Ainsworth-Wright (right) discuss the benefits of breastfeeding with China's mom, Sandra McLaughlin. It was all part of a year-long campaign which USDA recently launched to promote breastfeeding and support breastfeeding mothers.
--Photo by Bob Nichols

According to WIC program analyst Alice Lockett, the WIC staff has been trying for years to launch a campaign to promote breastfeeding--one that would appeal to varying needs and diverse cultures. The Breastfeeding Promotion Consortium, a group of 25 federal government and private health interests that work together promoting breastfeeding, proposed the idea of a promotion in 1990.

Subsequent legislation provided funding for the project--although, as Barbara Hallman, chief of FCS's Policy and Program Development Branch, observed, it has been "a shoestring effort to change nutritional behaviors."

The major goals of the campaign are to increase breastfeeding initiation and duration among WIC recipients. The hope, said WIC program analyst Gerry Howell, is that publicizing this societal issue will increase the general acceptance of breastfeeding in the U.S., as well as emphasize the importance of "making health professionals aware by training them and getting the word out."

The campaign includes the distribution of kits for health professionals which emphasize the importance of breastfeeding.

According to WIC team leader Paula Carney, the need for the campaign was based on feedback from focus groups. "They revealed," she said, "that the major barriers to breastfeeding, such as embarrassment, lack of support from partners, family, and friends, plus busy schedules, still exist."

"These barriers are being addressed by our campaign materials," she said.

The breastfeeding promotion project is being implemented by 10 pilot WIC state agencies--in Arkansas, California, Iowa, Mississippi, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, West Virginia, and the Chickasaw Indian Tribal Organization. The participating entities will promote breastfeeding among both WIC and non-WIC mothers by using radio, TV, and billboard advertising, plus pamphlets, posters and other materials.

"Our continuing challenge," observed Hallman, "is to find new, creative, exciting, and supportive ways to assure that breastfeeding becomes the infant feeding method of choice--not only for WIC women, but for all American mothers." ¤

--Carrie Ainsworth-Wright

Hey! Get Your Paws Outa My Pies!
We're really into summer now--and that means lots of little four-legged wildlife critters roaming around the land. But when they roam through the backyards of suburbia, some of its two-legged residents get nervous--even if the four-legged creatures actually lived there first.

So what's a human to do for guidance on how to cope? They can call USDA's toll-free "Nuisance Wildlife Information Hotline."

"We've been advising a fair number of people who just don't know what to do about wildlife that they perceive to be a problem in their home or yard," noted Bill Clay, the associate deputy administrator for wildlife services in the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.

Effective July 29, "wildlife services" in APHIS is what used to be called "animal damage control," and it is the agency's mission area responsible for mitigating conflicts between humans and wildlife.

APHIS currently runs "nuisance wildlife hotlines" in Maryland, Vermont, and Wisconsin. Those hotlines received over 24,000 calls in 1996, with callers seeking advice from APHIS wildlife services specialists on a variety of "nuisance wildlife problems" ranging from squirrels in the attic to bears in the hot tub.

Les Terry, the Annapolis-based Maryland state director for wildlife services for APHIS, explained that most folks are calling from suburban areas where wildlife has adapted to living in close proximity to people. "For the most part," he said, "wildlife--such as raccoons, squirrels, birds, groundhogs, white-tailed deer, bears, and geese--are searching for food when they come into conflict with people."

"So we often advise people to change the environment around their home," Terry added. "That includes making garbage inaccessible, changing landscape vegetation around the house, and moving cat and dog food indoors."

"And it seems," Terry quipped, "that in Maryland, every squirrel in the state is living in someone's attic."

He emphasized that wildlife animals are often protected in some way by federal, state, or local regulations. "This means that, if a caller wants to simply blast away at a bird, or trap and kill a critter instead, we need to say 'wait; that might be illegal--and let's look for a less drastic solution'."

Rich Chipman, an APHIS wildlife biologist based in Montpelier, Vt., said that last year the toll-free "nuisance wildlife hotline" in his state received 3,356 calls about rabies, a spreading epidemic in that area.

According to John Maestrelli, APHIS's wildlife services state director for Wisconsin, based in Madison, about ten percent of the more than 11,000 calls received in that state in 1996 were related to black bear problems.

One bear walked into a house and ate fresh pies in the kitchen "Yogi Bear-style."

Another call concerned a bear that kept visiting the caller's outdoor hot tub. "The bear's hair was clogging the tub jets," he said. "So we trapped and relocated the bear."

I bet they never have that problem on "Melrose Place"... ¤

--Ed Curlett

From an Army Post to a Firehouse
It's August, it's hot, it's dry--and that means it's also the most vulnerable time for fires, both on national forests around the country and in small, rural communities nationwide. Especially for communities located outside city limits, fire protection can be an expensive proposition.

But Natural Resources Conservation Service employees in Illinois have found a way to save money on fire-fighting equipment by helping to obtain surplus equipment and vehicles from military installations.

This vehicle used to be a U.S. Army utility truck and was painted with green and black camouflage. But now, with the help of NRCS's Jim Wallace (left) and NRCS volunteer Joe Fasig, it's a bright red water tank used in fighting fires in Ava, Ill.

According to Jim Wallace, coordinator of the Shawnee Resource Conservation & Development Council for NRCS in Marion, Ill., NRCS has been helping to obtain the surplus items--for free--by participating in the federal government's Federal Excess Personal Property program. NRCS works in conjunction with the Forest Service and the Illinois Department of Natural Resources's Division of Forest Resources to obtain the equipment.

"What's remarkable about the federal excess program," Wallace noted, "is that it gives desperate rural communities the chance to use equipment that they need and that they would never be able to obtain on their own." He explained that the equipment is officially put on loan from the Forest Service and the Illinois Department of Natural Resources.

Joe Fasig, a retired NRCS employee, volunteers to literally track down the items of surplus military equipment that can be converted for firefighting use.

He uses a truck provided by NRCS to retrieve the surplus items, and regularly visits such military installations as Scott AFB, Ill., Ft. Leonard Wood, Mo., and Ft. Knox, Ky.

"There's great competition for the excess equipment because there are so many communities in need," Fasig observed.

He added that there is, of course, a trail of paperwork associated with the transfer of federal excess property through the system.

But Wallace and Fasig have been successful in their efforts. For instance, they helped the Rural Fire Protection District in Xenia, Ill., to obtain an old Army 4-wheel-drive truck.

"It wasn't much to look at, but the vehicle was in great shape," recounted Jerry Ridgeway, that district's fire chief. "We paid for a paint job and put a tank and hose system on it--and we were ready for action."

"With the cooperation of the various agencies involved," added Wallace, "we've all been able to place more than $11 million worth of vitally needed firefighting equipment in rural communities in need, around the state." ¤

--Paige Mitchell-Buck

A Facelift--with USDA-Developed Items
USDA employees have been doing volunteer work in area schools around the country for years, assisting through such efforts as tutoring, computer work, and repair and renovation.

But recently some employees added a new twist to that volunteer effort: they helped clean up a school by using materials that USDA helped to develop.

Specifically, USDA employees recently gave Washington, DC's Van Ness Elementary School a facelift while using environmentally safe products developed with support from USDA's Alternative Agricultural Research and Commercialization (AARC) Corporation.

Starting early on a Saturday morning, volunteers removed graffiti, cleaned bathrooms, painted, and did landscaping work. Products used to clean the school included a soy-based graffiti remover and a citrus-based cleaner.

Both products were developed through USDA's AARC Corporation. Part of USDA's Rural Development mission, it makes investments in mainly rural-based companies to help commercialize industrial--i.e., "non-food'--products made from agricultural or forestry materials or animal byproducts.

According to Sheila Milburn, a management analyst with the Management Services Division in the Office of Operations, who coordinated the event, approximately 30 volunteers from OO and the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service participated, as well as volunteers from Xerox Corporation.

The volunteers used the USDA-developed soy-based graffiti remover, called "Soy Clean," to clean the bathrooms. Eric Hill, an OO senior management support services specialist, said, "Once we wiped down the doors and walls with the graffiti remover, they looked like they had just been painted."

Employee volunteers used the USDA-funded, citrus-based cleaner called "Citra-Solv," mainly to mop floors and clean landscaping tools. Some used the cleaners to remove paint from their faces and hands.

"Volunteers," Hill pointed out, "said they felt safe about using the products because those products had been made from natural, environmentally safe materials."

According to Ron Buckhalt, director of marketing and communications for the AARC Corporation, AARC is a government entity administered by USDA--and also functions as a corporation. The Corporation maintains a revolving fund in which repayments from investments are placed for reinvestment in other companies or product lines.

OO volunteers Barbara Jameson (left) and Stan McMichael aren't afraid of a little paint on their faces--as long as they have the USDA-developed cleanser nearby to remove paint from their faces and hands.
--Photo by Charles Stoutamire

"AARC buys stock in, and forms a partnership with, mainly rural-based companies that are developing these products," he explained. "And we are selective about the companies we decide to invest in."

Buckhalt pointed out that a great deal of consideration goes into selecting a company in which to invest because AARC expects to recover its investments, plus a premium for the risk it has assumed. The AARC Corporation also considers whether the products are developed using agricultural materials, whether their development will lead to rural job creation, and whether the products have the potential to be successful on the market.

Rochelle Margasak, store manager of USDA's Employee Services and Recreation Association (ESRA) in Washington, DC, said that USDA employees in the Washington metropolitan area are presently being used as a test market for some of the AARC-developed products.

For example, USDA employees may now find that various items--including the citrus cleaner, all-purpose soap, air freshener, and waterless hand cleaner--are available for purchase at USDA's ESRA store.

"We're happy to see our store," she affirmed, "being used as a test market to see if folks are willing to buy these products." ¤

--Lena Hogan

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