VOA – CONNECT
EPISODE # 148
AIR DATE 11 13 2020
TRANSCRIPT
OPEN ((VO/NAT))
((Banner))
Saving Sea Turtles
((SOT))
((Bette Zirkelbach, Manager, The Turtle Hospital))
We rescue an average of a hundred sea turtles a year. We
see boat strikes but we see a lot of fishing gear
entanglement. You can really see the impact we, as
humans, are having on our oceans.
((Animation Transition))
((Banner))
Detecting Disease
((SOT))
((Cresten Mansfeldt, University of Colorado Engineering
Professor))
A single sample here is reflective of hundreds of
people's contributions. Instead of saliva samples from 200
to 400 people, we can take more of a combined and
anonymous approach.
((Animation Transition))
((Banner))
Reclaiming the Farm
((SOT))
((Leah Penniman, Founding Co-Director, Soul Fire Farm;
Author, “Farming While Black”))
We learn everything from seed to harvest, as well as the
history of Black, Indigenous farming and land-
based movements and do a lot of work to heal from the
trauma of slavery and sharecropping and the Bracero
program and other types of land-based oppression.
((Open Animation))
BLOCK A
((PKG)) TURTLE HOSPITAL
((Banner: Our Flippered Friends))
((Reporter/Camera/Producer: Jeff Swicord))
((Map: Marathon, Florida))
((Main character: 1 female))
((Sub character: 1 female))
((NATS/MUSIC))
((Bette Zirkelbach, Manager, The Turtle Hospital))
Sea turtles are the oldest animal known to man. They have
been on our planet for over a hundred-million years. They
are an indicator species, a good example of what’s
happening to our marine ecosystems.
((NATS/MUSIC))
((Bette Zirkelbach, Manager, The Turtle Hospital))
Every species of sea turtles in the United States Is listed as
either endangered or threatened. And we want to make sure
that this species does not go extinct on our watch.
((NATS:
Okay, you are so beautiful. Look at you, goodness.))
((NATS/MUSIC))
((Bette Zirkelbach, Manager, The Turtle Hospital))
The Turtle Hospital is located in the heart of the Florida
Keys. It has been rescuing, rehabilitating and returning
turtles to the wild for over 30 years. Not only do we fix sick
and injured sea turtles, but probably the much bigger take in
that is our education and just the value of that education.
We reach out with social media and other types of media on
a global level. Visitors also play a very important role. That
admission fee, that is where we get our budget for our turtle
care.
((NATS/MUSIC))
((Bette Zirkelbach, Manager, The Turtle Hospital))
Kiki, a juvenile green sea turtle, had surgery with Dr. Terry
Norton today. He is from Jekyll Island Authority, Georgia
Sea Turtle Hospital. He is the director there, but he is also
our lead veterinarian. So, we actually fly him in to do sea
turtle surgeries. Fibropapillomatosis is a virus that causes
these horrific tumors. This afflicts over 50 percent of the
green sea turtle population in and around the Florida Keys.
This disease is only found around developed land. There is
a scientific study that was published out of the University of
Hawaii in 2014 that correlated the runoff from pineapple
plantations to the increase of this disease in green sea
turtles. The sea turtle goes under general anesthesia. The
tumors are removed with a CO2 laser.
((NATS/MUSIC))
((Bette Zirkelbach, Manager, The Turtle Hospital))
Kiki’s recovery will probably be a few months. Once a sea
turtle is tumor free, we keep them at the Turtle Hospital for 6
to 12 months just to make sure they don’t regrow those
tumors. We want to make sure they are good and healthy.
Get their blood values built back up before we return them to
their ocean home.
((NATS/MUSIC))
((Bette Zirkelbach, Manager, The Turtle Hospital))
We rescue an average of a hundred sea turtles a year.
Unfortunately, most of them are human impact injuries. Not
only do we see boat strikes but we see a lot of fishing gear
entanglement, trap lines, abandoned anchor lines. You can
really see the impact we, as humans, are having on our
oceans. Chuck is a sub-adult loggerhead sea turtle. He lost
that front right flipper due to a fishing line entanglement.
Amputating a flipper on a sea turtle, it’s a major surgery. It
requires a lot of follow-up care, extensive wound care.
((Bette Zirkelbach, Manager, The Turtle Hospital))
I think some of the treatments that alleviate pain or pressure,
they do calm down for during treatment but for the most part,
as they get healthier, they get stronger and they fight more,
which is actually really a good sign for a wild animal.
((NATS/MUSIC))
((Bette Zirkelbach, Manager, The Turtle Hospital))
Chuck is on the mend and a candidate for release. Believe it
or not, a sea turtle with three healthy flippers is a candidate
to be returned to the wild. So, we have our flippers crossed
for Chuck.
((NATS/MUSIC))
((Bette Zirkelbach, Manager, The Turtle Hospital))
Six out of ten of our rescue calls now come from people that
have been to our hospital and learned what a sick sea turtle
looks like. It’s one thing to tell somebody not to leave your
fishing gear out there but it’s another thing to see this big
majestic dinosaur, a sea turtle, lose their front flipper to that
entanglement and that’s really impactful. So, I feel like that
education is invaluable.
((NATS/MUSIC))
TEASE ((VO/NAT))
Coming up…..
((Banner))
Fitness During COVID
((SOT))
((Brenda Zepf, Mat Fusion Instructor))
We have lots of space and so everybody can do it and feel
safe.
BREAK ONE
PROMO
BUMP IN ((ANIM))
BLOCK B
((PKG)) COVID WASTEWATER
((Banner: COVID Wastewater))
((Reporter/Camera: Shelley Schlender))
((Adapted by: Philip Alexiou))
((Map: Boulder, Colorado))
((Main characters: 1 female; 1 male))
((NATS))
((Popup Banner: The University of Colorado is taking an
innovative approach to monitoring COVID))
((NATS))
((Cresten Mansfeldt, Engineering Professor, University
of Colorado))
Well, we call our project, Project Half Shell, because it's an
homage to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles hanging out in
the sewers.
((Jessice Darby, Engineering Student, University of
Colorado))
Guy in the blue, his name’s Cresten Mansfeldt. He's our
professor. He's done a lot of really cool stuff around the
world with different water systems and epidemiology.
((Cresten Mansfeldt, Engineering Professor, University
of Colorado))
So, that's an interior of a manhole. It's one where it's
servicing the dorms on campus. So, what’s flowing through
here is actually domestic wastewater, things we send down
the drain through the toilets or through showers or laundry
systems. Basically, any drains that are coming out, end up
flowing into these river networks that exist underneath most
municipalities and cities. Here, we're most interested in
what's coming out of the toilets and feces because that
seems to be where individuals can shed the SARS-CoV-
2 virus here.
((Jessice Darby, Engineering Student, University of
Colorado))
COVID is in your intestines and so, even if you don't have
symptoms or before it actually is more of a disease or
infection, it can be found in your intestines. So, if you shed it
into the sewer system, you can kind of determine if people
have it, even if it's before they have symptoms or if they
don't ever have symptoms.
((NATS))
((Cresten Mansfeldt, Engineering Professor, University
of Colorado))
Yeah, so that’s actually, what you're seeing there is a
peristaltic pump.
((Jessice Darby, Engineering Student, University of
Colorado))
What they're doing in the pump is they're helping to set up a
way to collect the flow through 24 hours. It flows into a
jerrycan and then every day, the sample and collection team
will get a few vials of it to send back to the lab to be able to
test whether or not it has COVID in it. There's a huge
sampling team that, when you take it into the lab, they go
through all the procedure to actually find if there's any of
the COVID-19 virus in it.
((Cresten Mansfeldt, Engineering Professor, University
of Colorado))
A single sample here is reflective of hundreds of
people's contributions. So, instead of having to individually
collect saliva samples from 200 to 400 people, barcode all of
the individual ones, we can take more of a combined and
anonymous approach, so that we have a monitoring but not
a diagnostic signal.
((NATS))
((Cresten Mansfeldt, Engineering Professor, University
of Colorado))
If you want to just close that up, we are actually good to be
done. We've got a site operational.
((NATS))
During testing, like we initially turned the system on in early
September, end of August. Pretty much simultaneously, we
started to see a lot of spikes within the system.
((Cresten Mansfeldt, Engineering Professor, University
of Colorado))
This led the administration to actually invoke some of the
social distancing options that were available. We're
returning to a phase where the sewer system is showing that
it's a non-detectable signal for SARS-CoV-2.
((Cresten Mansfeldt, Engineering Professor, University
of Colorado))
Wherever you have mass amount of people in a
specific building, so, at nursing homes, at high schools, this
potentially would provide a lower cost way to monitor a
signal for viruses such as SARS-CoV-2 or other pathogens
over time.
((NATS))
((PKG)) OUTDOOR FITNESS CLASS
((Banner: Outdoor Gyms))
((Reporter: Faiza Elmasry))
((Camera: Mike Burke))
((Map: Springfield, Virginia))
((Main characters: 3 female; 2 male))
((NATS))
Two more. One. Two. Three. Good Stephanie.
((Brenda Zepf, Mat Fusion Instructor))
I've taught this class for probably 12 years. It's a
combination of Pilates and yoga. And so, we combine the
core strength and the strength of flexibility and some
meditation of the Yoga.
((NATS))
And eight more. One.
((Heidi Tryon, Mat Fusion Participant))
It's just nice to be outside and enjoy the fresh air
((NATS))
Two.
((Heidi Tryon, Mat Fusion Participant))
and not be in a closed room. The balance aspect, you have
to work a little harder at whatever you're doing because
there's the uneven surface underneath of you. So, you get
an added exercise that way.
((NATS))
Eleven. Twelve.
((Heidi Tryon, Mat Fusion Participant))
Thankfully, I didn't have to deal with that whole aspect of,
‘Do I go into work with sick kids? Do I stay home? Do I, am
I bringing the illness home to my family?’ Luckily, that whole
component was taken out of the picture because I am
currently retired. But it was unusual that we’re all home.
((NATS))
Three. Four. Yes. Terry. Yeah.
((Laurie Stricklin, Fitness Director, South Run
Recreation Center))
The program that we're doing right now is outdoor fitness
classes.
((NATS))
One. Two. Three. Four.
((Laurie Stricklin, Fitness Director, South Run
Recreation Center))
Due to not having any indoor classes right now for social
distancing and COVID and disinfecting everything, we
needed to implement something to give to the customers.
We're only allowing nine people. We have to make sure the
customers are safe. A lot of customers are not ready to
come inside.
((NATS))
So, what we're gonna do is we're going to do some, a warm
up. We've implemented virtual classes where
((Courtesy: Laurie Stricklin))
you can just click a link and then take classes.
((NATS))
((Patrick Hall, Body Combat Participant))
I was fortunate that my company allowed us to work from
home almost immediately in March. The drawback of that is
that also my workouts were done at the fitness center at
work. So, it really took a toll on my exercise routine.
((NATS))
Oh yeah. I like it.
((Patrick Hall, Body Combat Participant))
The obvious benefit is that I could do this with my 14-year-
old son. Just as my workout routine was affected by not
being able to go to the gym at my office, his workout routine,
not having physical education in school, was also affected.
It's been great to have an opportunity to work on his fitness
as well as my fitness and do something together. It's a
bonding exercise.
((NATS))
((Alexander Hall, Body Combat Participant))
I see the Body Combat has been like a great life-changing
experience. I came from being like, ‘Oh man, I don't know
what to do. The gym is down’ to now be like, ‘Wow, I got the
transformation and I didn't even need to go to the gym.’
((NATS))
Three.
((Brenda Zepf, Mat Fusion Instructor))
We have lots of space and so everybody can do it and feel
safe. A lot of us are at home and maybe we're not in our
office. And so, maybe our chairs aren't right and developing
aches and pains because we're not ergonomically correct.
((NATS))
Nine.
((Brenda Zepf, Mat Fusion Instructor))
And so, we can come here and kind of undo.
((Heidi Tryon, Mat Fusion Participant))
Exercise is very important for the body, not just physically
but also emotionally and especially when we're under times
of stress,
((NATS))
Three. Two. One.
((Heidi Tryon, Mat Fusion Participant))
and make you feel better about yourself, make your body
healthier. It's just a great way to get out there and do
something and not just be stationary or sitting in front of the
television.
((NATS))
Hey, great, great!
TEASE ((VO/NAT))
Coming up…..
((Banner))
Return to the Land
((SOT))
((wendelin, Land Worker, Soul Fire Farm))
This place has really helped me to, sort of, find myself in
the land and to come to understand all of the things that I
can bring to this movement and to our people and back to
the earth.
BREAK TWO
PROMO
BUMP IN ((ANIM))
BLOCK C
((PKG)) SOUL FIRE FARMS
((Banner: Soul Fire Farms))
((Reporter/Camera: Gabrielle Weiss))
((Additional Camera: Camilo de la Uz))
((Previously aired Sept 2019))
((Map: Grafton, New York))
((Main character: 1 female))
((Sub characters: 6 female; 3 male))
((NATS))
((Leah Penniman, Founding Co-Director, Soul Fire Farm;
Author, “Farming While Black”))
We are part of a returning generation of Black and brown
farmers whose grandparents and great-grandparents fled
the red clays of the South to escape oppression. And we’re
realizing that something was left behind in the Great
Migration and that was a bit of our culture, a bit of our
souls, a bit of our connection to our ancestors and the
sacred earth.
((NATS))
((Leah Penniman, Founding Co-Director, Soul Fire Farm;
Author, “Farming While Black”))
Another worm.
((Neshima Vitale-Penniman, Daughter))
Mom, there’s three left.
((Leah Penniman, Founding Co-Director, Soul Fire Farm;
Author, “Farming While Black”))
Oh, ok.
((Neshima Vitale-Penniman, Daughter))
This one looks a little healthier. Maybe I’ll switch it out. It’s a
little sickly little thing.
((Leah Penniman, Founding Co-Director, Soul Fire Farm;
Author, “Farming While Black”))
They grow, sickly little things. It’ll grow. It just needs soil.
((Leah Penniman, Founding Co-Director, Soul Fire Farm;
Author, “Farming While Black”))
My name is Leah Penniman and I’m the founding co-director
at Soul Fire Farm in Grafton, New York.
So, there’s eight of us who live here in season. My family,
including my partner Jonah and our two teenage children,
Neshima and Emet are here all year round in this beautiful,
straw bale, timber frame home that we built from hand. And
additionally, members of our farm team live with us from the
spring through the late fall.
((NATS))
((Neshima Vitale-Penniman, Daughter))
Because I’ve grown up with farming, I never think that
it’s something people are really interested in. It’s like,
oh, that’s just how you get your food. But then, like
hundreds and hundreds of people come to every
single event and it’s like whoa, like, my mom has created
something that people really want to learn about and be
part of and that’s amazing to me.
((NATS))
((Leah Penniman, Founding Co-Director, Soul Fire Farm;
Author, “Farming While Black”))
Soul Fire Farm is a Black, Indigenous, people of color-led
community farm
((Courtesy: Soul Fire Farm))
and we’re dedicated to ending racism and injustice in the
food system.
((Leah Penniman, Founding Co-Director, Soul Fire Farm;
Author, “Farming While Black”))
We do that in three basic ways. We grow a whole lot of
vegetables, herbs, fruits, eggs and pastured poultry,
((Courtesy: Soul Fire Farm))
which we distribute at low prices to people who need
it most, in the communities of Albany and Troy.
The second way is by educating about a thousand new
farmers from Black, Latinx and Indigenous communities
across the country, who come for week-long residential
courses
((Leah Penniman, Founding Co-Director, Soul Fire Farm;
Author, “Farming While Black”))
in sustainable agriculture. And the third and final way is that
we organize very actively for fair laws
((Courtesy: Soul Fire Farm))
that support farm workers, farmers of color
((Leah Penniman, Founding Co-Director, Soul Fire Farm;
Author, “Farming While Black”))
and consumers in the food system.
((wendelin, Land Worker, Soul Fire Farm))
I've been coming to Soul Fire since 2017. This place has
really helped me to, sort of, find myself in the land and to
come to understand all of the things that I can bring to this
movement and to our people and back to the earth.
((Leah Penniman, Founding Co-Director, Soul Fire Farm;
Author, “Farming While Black”))
Buenos días. Good morning. Welcome to Soul Fire Farm.
We’re dedicated to ending racism in the food system and
healing lands and our relationship with land. And part of that
is being in a learning community where we deepen our
understanding of how animals like chickens can be part of
an ecosystem and also how they can feed
the community and especially feed people who otherwise
would not have access to that delicious, vital food.
I'm so excited to be here with all of you for this workshop
on chickens. Most of the participants, who are here for
today's pastured poultry class, are farm workers from Hurley,
New York. Now we want to introduce ourselves.
((Victoria, Farm Worker))
My name is Victoria. I grew up with farm-raised chickens
and I’m here to learn about raising organic chickens.
((Victor, Farm Worker))
My name is Victor and we have plans to return to Mexico
and we want to start a business like this and sell at low
prices to help people out.
((NATS))
((Leah Penniman, Founding Co-Director, Soul Fire Farm;
Author, “Farming While Black”))
It's a little known fact that about 85% of the people who do
farm labor in this country speak Spanish as their first
language. So, if we say we're for food justice
and liberation, it would be very disingenuous to only offer
programming in English that excluded most of the farmers in
this nation. And there’s been a lot of excitement, particularly
from the Latinx farm worker community in our area, to learn
these skills, so that when they do have their own farms and
are no longer working for wages on other people’s farms,
they can implement these integrated livestock and vegetable
systems.
((NATS))
((Leah Penniman, Founding Co-Director, Soul Fire Farm;
Author, “Farming While Black”))
And then we're going to walk around and meet the chickens
on the farm and see how we take care of them, how we
know if they're sick, what kind of houses they need. Then
after lunch, we'll actually take five chickens and we’ll process
them for meat. If you include all of our on-farm and off-
farm programs, we reach over 7,000 people a year, of which
around 2,000 actually come to the farm. And we learn
everything from seed to harvest, as well as the history of
Black, Indigenous farming and land-based movements and
do a lot of work to heal from the trauma of slavery and
sharecropping and the Bracero program and other types of
land-based oppression that seek to really separate us from a
healed and dignified relationship with land.
((NATS))
((Leah Penniman, Founding Co-Director, Soul Fire Farm,
Author - “Farming While Black”))
We call these shelters chicken tractors. I wanted to be able
to move it by myself without a tractor because for the first
few years of the farm, I was managing the farm and I didn't
have any staff or partners in the farm. So, I had to think
about systems that I could do on my own. We also don't
want the meat to be so tough that our customers don't know
how to prepare and eat it. So, keeping them in a smaller
space that moves every day or every other day means they
still get the benefit of pasture but they're not getting so much
exercise that their muscles become very tough.
((NATS))
((Samuel, Farm Worker))
So, raising them like this in smaller cages is better for the
meat, to keep it tender and it cooks faster. So, now I
understand why the meat from my grandmother's hens were
so tough.
((NATS))
((Leah Penniman, Founding Co-Director, Soul Fire Farm;
Author, “Farming While Black”))
You can give a little push and help her. You're
doing perfectly. You're very strong.
((NATS))
((Alex, Community Gardener))
Soul Fire Farm is just really at the vanguard of thinking about
racism in our current food system and how we have to
shatter that together. And so, I've wanted to come and learn
through that lens for a really long time. So, this was the
perfect opportunity.
((NATS))
((Samuel, Farm Worker))
Welcome.
This is it. Goodbye, my chicken friend.
((NATS))
((Leah Penniman, Founding Co-Director, Soul Fire Farm;
Author, “Farming While Black”))
I believe so passionately that we all have the right to have
dignity and belonging as it relates to the earth and to have
agency in the food system and there's just been a whole
history of dispossession and discrimination against certain
people as it relates to land and food. So, a big part of
teaching is about empowering our people and equipping our
people with the skills to take back that dignified relationship
with land.
((NATS))
((Lytisha Wyatt, Instructor, Soul Fire Farm))
We remove the feathers on the side of the neck that we're
going to be cutting from and I cut cross-body. So, I don't cut
this way. I actually come over here, that's what I find
most comfortable, because I'm right-handed. I'm going to
remove the feathers from the left side. So, I want to remove
enough feathers so that I can see what I'm doing.
((Alex, Community Gardener))
So, I'm left-handed.
((Lytisha Wyatt, Instructor))
Right. Since you're left-handed, you would do it on the
opposite side. Yup.
((NATS))
Actually, that’s fine. Yeah.
((Leah Penniman, Founding Co-Director, Soul Fire Farm;
Author, “Farming While Black”))
So, the bird is now considered dead.
((NATS))
((Leah Penniman, Founding Co-Director, Soul Fire Farm,
Author - “Farming While Black”))
We want to build up a generation of people who believe that
they matter and that they're connected to something bigger
than what capitalism would have them believe.
((NATS))
((wendelin, Land Worker))
I was just taken aback by how warm the bodies of these
animals were and learning about the different aspects of
pastured poultry, really, sort of, has affected the way that I
will be consuming poultry going forward.
((NATS))
So, the cut I do is horizontal over here and then comes
around. Make sure you turn it against the….
Four and a quarter, put four.
Four point one.
((Samuel, Farm Worker))
I know how to raise chickens now, how to get eggs. And I
think it is something nice for my family
going forward because now I know how to feed my kids and
I can teach them to feed the grandchildren and future
generations going forward. And hey, even for my neighbors.
((NATS))
CLOSING ((ANIM))
voanews.com/connect
NEXT WEEK ((VO/NAT))
In the coming weeks…..
((Banner))
Oyster Farming
((SOT))
What I love about farming oysters is that every day is
different and we get to work outside and we have flexible
schedules and we get to work with our family.
BREAK THREE
PROMO
BUMP IN ((ANIM))
CLOSING ((ANIM))
voanews.com/connect
SHOW ENDS
EPISODE # 148
AIR DATE 11 13 2020
TRANSCRIPT
OPEN ((VO/NAT))
((Banner))
Saving Sea Turtles
((SOT))
((Bette Zirkelbach, Manager, The Turtle Hospital))
We rescue an average of a hundred sea turtles a year. We
see boat strikes but we see a lot of fishing gear
entanglement. You can really see the impact we, as
humans, are having on our oceans.
((Animation Transition))
((Banner))
Detecting Disease
((SOT))
((Cresten Mansfeldt, University of Colorado Engineering
Professor))
A single sample here is reflective of hundreds of
people's contributions. Instead of saliva samples from 200
to 400 people, we can take more of a combined and
anonymous approach.
((Animation Transition))
((Banner))
Reclaiming the Farm
((SOT))
((Leah Penniman, Founding Co-Director, Soul Fire Farm;
Author, “Farming While Black”))
We learn everything from seed to harvest, as well as the
history of Black, Indigenous farming and land-
based movements and do a lot of work to heal from the
trauma of slavery and sharecropping and the Bracero
program and other types of land-based oppression.
((Open Animation))
BLOCK A
((PKG)) TURTLE HOSPITAL
((Banner: Our Flippered Friends))
((Reporter/Camera/Producer: Jeff Swicord))
((Map: Marathon, Florida))
((Main character: 1 female))
((Sub character: 1 female))
((NATS/MUSIC))
((Bette Zirkelbach, Manager, The Turtle Hospital))
Sea turtles are the oldest animal known to man. They have
been on our planet for over a hundred-million years. They
are an indicator species, a good example of what’s
happening to our marine ecosystems.
((NATS/MUSIC))
((Bette Zirkelbach, Manager, The Turtle Hospital))
Every species of sea turtles in the United States Is listed as
either endangered or threatened. And we want to make sure
that this species does not go extinct on our watch.
((NATS:
Okay, you are so beautiful. Look at you, goodness.))
((NATS/MUSIC))
((Bette Zirkelbach, Manager, The Turtle Hospital))
The Turtle Hospital is located in the heart of the Florida
Keys. It has been rescuing, rehabilitating and returning
turtles to the wild for over 30 years. Not only do we fix sick
and injured sea turtles, but probably the much bigger take in
that is our education and just the value of that education.
We reach out with social media and other types of media on
a global level. Visitors also play a very important role. That
admission fee, that is where we get our budget for our turtle
care.
((NATS/MUSIC))
((Bette Zirkelbach, Manager, The Turtle Hospital))
Kiki, a juvenile green sea turtle, had surgery with Dr. Terry
Norton today. He is from Jekyll Island Authority, Georgia
Sea Turtle Hospital. He is the director there, but he is also
our lead veterinarian. So, we actually fly him in to do sea
turtle surgeries. Fibropapillomatosis is a virus that causes
these horrific tumors. This afflicts over 50 percent of the
green sea turtle population in and around the Florida Keys.
This disease is only found around developed land. There is
a scientific study that was published out of the University of
Hawaii in 2014 that correlated the runoff from pineapple
plantations to the increase of this disease in green sea
turtles. The sea turtle goes under general anesthesia. The
tumors are removed with a CO2 laser.
((NATS/MUSIC))
((Bette Zirkelbach, Manager, The Turtle Hospital))
Kiki’s recovery will probably be a few months. Once a sea
turtle is tumor free, we keep them at the Turtle Hospital for 6
to 12 months just to make sure they don’t regrow those
tumors. We want to make sure they are good and healthy.
Get their blood values built back up before we return them to
their ocean home.
((NATS/MUSIC))
((Bette Zirkelbach, Manager, The Turtle Hospital))
We rescue an average of a hundred sea turtles a year.
Unfortunately, most of them are human impact injuries. Not
only do we see boat strikes but we see a lot of fishing gear
entanglement, trap lines, abandoned anchor lines. You can
really see the impact we, as humans, are having on our
oceans. Chuck is a sub-adult loggerhead sea turtle. He lost
that front right flipper due to a fishing line entanglement.
Amputating a flipper on a sea turtle, it’s a major surgery. It
requires a lot of follow-up care, extensive wound care.
((Bette Zirkelbach, Manager, The Turtle Hospital))
I think some of the treatments that alleviate pain or pressure,
they do calm down for during treatment but for the most part,
as they get healthier, they get stronger and they fight more,
which is actually really a good sign for a wild animal.
((NATS/MUSIC))
((Bette Zirkelbach, Manager, The Turtle Hospital))
Chuck is on the mend and a candidate for release. Believe it
or not, a sea turtle with three healthy flippers is a candidate
to be returned to the wild. So, we have our flippers crossed
for Chuck.
((NATS/MUSIC))
((Bette Zirkelbach, Manager, The Turtle Hospital))
Six out of ten of our rescue calls now come from people that
have been to our hospital and learned what a sick sea turtle
looks like. It’s one thing to tell somebody not to leave your
fishing gear out there but it’s another thing to see this big
majestic dinosaur, a sea turtle, lose their front flipper to that
entanglement and that’s really impactful. So, I feel like that
education is invaluable.
((NATS/MUSIC))
TEASE ((VO/NAT))
Coming up…..
((Banner))
Fitness During COVID
((SOT))
((Brenda Zepf, Mat Fusion Instructor))
We have lots of space and so everybody can do it and feel
safe.
BREAK ONE
PROMO
BUMP IN ((ANIM))
BLOCK B
((PKG)) COVID WASTEWATER
((Banner: COVID Wastewater))
((Reporter/Camera: Shelley Schlender))
((Adapted by: Philip Alexiou))
((Map: Boulder, Colorado))
((Main characters: 1 female; 1 male))
((NATS))
((Popup Banner: The University of Colorado is taking an
innovative approach to monitoring COVID))
((NATS))
((Cresten Mansfeldt, Engineering Professor, University
of Colorado))
Well, we call our project, Project Half Shell, because it's an
homage to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles hanging out in
the sewers.
((Jessice Darby, Engineering Student, University of
Colorado))
Guy in the blue, his name’s Cresten Mansfeldt. He's our
professor. He's done a lot of really cool stuff around the
world with different water systems and epidemiology.
((Cresten Mansfeldt, Engineering Professor, University
of Colorado))
So, that's an interior of a manhole. It's one where it's
servicing the dorms on campus. So, what’s flowing through
here is actually domestic wastewater, things we send down
the drain through the toilets or through showers or laundry
systems. Basically, any drains that are coming out, end up
flowing into these river networks that exist underneath most
municipalities and cities. Here, we're most interested in
what's coming out of the toilets and feces because that
seems to be where individuals can shed the SARS-CoV-
2 virus here.
((Jessice Darby, Engineering Student, University of
Colorado))
COVID is in your intestines and so, even if you don't have
symptoms or before it actually is more of a disease or
infection, it can be found in your intestines. So, if you shed it
into the sewer system, you can kind of determine if people
have it, even if it's before they have symptoms or if they
don't ever have symptoms.
((NATS))
((Cresten Mansfeldt, Engineering Professor, University
of Colorado))
Yeah, so that’s actually, what you're seeing there is a
peristaltic pump.
((Jessice Darby, Engineering Student, University of
Colorado))
What they're doing in the pump is they're helping to set up a
way to collect the flow through 24 hours. It flows into a
jerrycan and then every day, the sample and collection team
will get a few vials of it to send back to the lab to be able to
test whether or not it has COVID in it. There's a huge
sampling team that, when you take it into the lab, they go
through all the procedure to actually find if there's any of
the COVID-19 virus in it.
((Cresten Mansfeldt, Engineering Professor, University
of Colorado))
A single sample here is reflective of hundreds of
people's contributions. So, instead of having to individually
collect saliva samples from 200 to 400 people, barcode all of
the individual ones, we can take more of a combined and
anonymous approach, so that we have a monitoring but not
a diagnostic signal.
((NATS))
((Cresten Mansfeldt, Engineering Professor, University
of Colorado))
If you want to just close that up, we are actually good to be
done. We've got a site operational.
((NATS))
During testing, like we initially turned the system on in early
September, end of August. Pretty much simultaneously, we
started to see a lot of spikes within the system.
((Cresten Mansfeldt, Engineering Professor, University
of Colorado))
This led the administration to actually invoke some of the
social distancing options that were available. We're
returning to a phase where the sewer system is showing that
it's a non-detectable signal for SARS-CoV-2.
((Cresten Mansfeldt, Engineering Professor, University
of Colorado))
Wherever you have mass amount of people in a
specific building, so, at nursing homes, at high schools, this
potentially would provide a lower cost way to monitor a
signal for viruses such as SARS-CoV-2 or other pathogens
over time.
((NATS))
((PKG)) OUTDOOR FITNESS CLASS
((Banner: Outdoor Gyms))
((Reporter: Faiza Elmasry))
((Camera: Mike Burke))
((Map: Springfield, Virginia))
((Main characters: 3 female; 2 male))
((NATS))
Two more. One. Two. Three. Good Stephanie.
((Brenda Zepf, Mat Fusion Instructor))
I've taught this class for probably 12 years. It's a
combination of Pilates and yoga. And so, we combine the
core strength and the strength of flexibility and some
meditation of the Yoga.
((NATS))
And eight more. One.
((Heidi Tryon, Mat Fusion Participant))
It's just nice to be outside and enjoy the fresh air
((NATS))
Two.
((Heidi Tryon, Mat Fusion Participant))
and not be in a closed room. The balance aspect, you have
to work a little harder at whatever you're doing because
there's the uneven surface underneath of you. So, you get
an added exercise that way.
((NATS))
Eleven. Twelve.
((Heidi Tryon, Mat Fusion Participant))
Thankfully, I didn't have to deal with that whole aspect of,
‘Do I go into work with sick kids? Do I stay home? Do I, am
I bringing the illness home to my family?’ Luckily, that whole
component was taken out of the picture because I am
currently retired. But it was unusual that we’re all home.
((NATS))
Three. Four. Yes. Terry. Yeah.
((Laurie Stricklin, Fitness Director, South Run
Recreation Center))
The program that we're doing right now is outdoor fitness
classes.
((NATS))
One. Two. Three. Four.
((Laurie Stricklin, Fitness Director, South Run
Recreation Center))
Due to not having any indoor classes right now for social
distancing and COVID and disinfecting everything, we
needed to implement something to give to the customers.
We're only allowing nine people. We have to make sure the
customers are safe. A lot of customers are not ready to
come inside.
((NATS))
So, what we're gonna do is we're going to do some, a warm
up. We've implemented virtual classes where
((Courtesy: Laurie Stricklin))
you can just click a link and then take classes.
((NATS))
((Patrick Hall, Body Combat Participant))
I was fortunate that my company allowed us to work from
home almost immediately in March. The drawback of that is
that also my workouts were done at the fitness center at
work. So, it really took a toll on my exercise routine.
((NATS))
Oh yeah. I like it.
((Patrick Hall, Body Combat Participant))
The obvious benefit is that I could do this with my 14-year-
old son. Just as my workout routine was affected by not
being able to go to the gym at my office, his workout routine,
not having physical education in school, was also affected.
It's been great to have an opportunity to work on his fitness
as well as my fitness and do something together. It's a
bonding exercise.
((NATS))
((Alexander Hall, Body Combat Participant))
I see the Body Combat has been like a great life-changing
experience. I came from being like, ‘Oh man, I don't know
what to do. The gym is down’ to now be like, ‘Wow, I got the
transformation and I didn't even need to go to the gym.’
((NATS))
Three.
((Brenda Zepf, Mat Fusion Instructor))
We have lots of space and so everybody can do it and feel
safe. A lot of us are at home and maybe we're not in our
office. And so, maybe our chairs aren't right and developing
aches and pains because we're not ergonomically correct.
((NATS))
Nine.
((Brenda Zepf, Mat Fusion Instructor))
And so, we can come here and kind of undo.
((Heidi Tryon, Mat Fusion Participant))
Exercise is very important for the body, not just physically
but also emotionally and especially when we're under times
of stress,
((NATS))
Three. Two. One.
((Heidi Tryon, Mat Fusion Participant))
and make you feel better about yourself, make your body
healthier. It's just a great way to get out there and do
something and not just be stationary or sitting in front of the
television.
((NATS))
Hey, great, great!
TEASE ((VO/NAT))
Coming up…..
((Banner))
Return to the Land
((SOT))
((wendelin, Land Worker, Soul Fire Farm))
This place has really helped me to, sort of, find myself in
the land and to come to understand all of the things that I
can bring to this movement and to our people and back to
the earth.
BREAK TWO
PROMO
BUMP IN ((ANIM))
BLOCK C
((PKG)) SOUL FIRE FARMS
((Banner: Soul Fire Farms))
((Reporter/Camera: Gabrielle Weiss))
((Additional Camera: Camilo de la Uz))
((Previously aired Sept 2019))
((Map: Grafton, New York))
((Main character: 1 female))
((Sub characters: 6 female; 3 male))
((NATS))
((Leah Penniman, Founding Co-Director, Soul Fire Farm;
Author, “Farming While Black”))
We are part of a returning generation of Black and brown
farmers whose grandparents and great-grandparents fled
the red clays of the South to escape oppression. And we’re
realizing that something was left behind in the Great
Migration and that was a bit of our culture, a bit of our
souls, a bit of our connection to our ancestors and the
sacred earth.
((NATS))
((Leah Penniman, Founding Co-Director, Soul Fire Farm;
Author, “Farming While Black”))
Another worm.
((Neshima Vitale-Penniman, Daughter))
Mom, there’s three left.
((Leah Penniman, Founding Co-Director, Soul Fire Farm;
Author, “Farming While Black”))
Oh, ok.
((Neshima Vitale-Penniman, Daughter))
This one looks a little healthier. Maybe I’ll switch it out. It’s a
little sickly little thing.
((Leah Penniman, Founding Co-Director, Soul Fire Farm;
Author, “Farming While Black”))
They grow, sickly little things. It’ll grow. It just needs soil.
((Leah Penniman, Founding Co-Director, Soul Fire Farm;
Author, “Farming While Black”))
My name is Leah Penniman and I’m the founding co-director
at Soul Fire Farm in Grafton, New York.
So, there’s eight of us who live here in season. My family,
including my partner Jonah and our two teenage children,
Neshima and Emet are here all year round in this beautiful,
straw bale, timber frame home that we built from hand. And
additionally, members of our farm team live with us from the
spring through the late fall.
((NATS))
((Neshima Vitale-Penniman, Daughter))
Because I’ve grown up with farming, I never think that
it’s something people are really interested in. It’s like,
oh, that’s just how you get your food. But then, like
hundreds and hundreds of people come to every
single event and it’s like whoa, like, my mom has created
something that people really want to learn about and be
part of and that’s amazing to me.
((NATS))
((Leah Penniman, Founding Co-Director, Soul Fire Farm;
Author, “Farming While Black”))
Soul Fire Farm is a Black, Indigenous, people of color-led
community farm
((Courtesy: Soul Fire Farm))
and we’re dedicated to ending racism and injustice in the
food system.
((Leah Penniman, Founding Co-Director, Soul Fire Farm;
Author, “Farming While Black”))
We do that in three basic ways. We grow a whole lot of
vegetables, herbs, fruits, eggs and pastured poultry,
((Courtesy: Soul Fire Farm))
which we distribute at low prices to people who need
it most, in the communities of Albany and Troy.
The second way is by educating about a thousand new
farmers from Black, Latinx and Indigenous communities
across the country, who come for week-long residential
courses
((Leah Penniman, Founding Co-Director, Soul Fire Farm;
Author, “Farming While Black”))
in sustainable agriculture. And the third and final way is that
we organize very actively for fair laws
((Courtesy: Soul Fire Farm))
that support farm workers, farmers of color
((Leah Penniman, Founding Co-Director, Soul Fire Farm;
Author, “Farming While Black”))
and consumers in the food system.
((wendelin, Land Worker, Soul Fire Farm))
I've been coming to Soul Fire since 2017. This place has
really helped me to, sort of, find myself in the land and to
come to understand all of the things that I can bring to this
movement and to our people and back to the earth.
((Leah Penniman, Founding Co-Director, Soul Fire Farm;
Author, “Farming While Black”))
Buenos días. Good morning. Welcome to Soul Fire Farm.
We’re dedicated to ending racism in the food system and
healing lands and our relationship with land. And part of that
is being in a learning community where we deepen our
understanding of how animals like chickens can be part of
an ecosystem and also how they can feed
the community and especially feed people who otherwise
would not have access to that delicious, vital food.
I'm so excited to be here with all of you for this workshop
on chickens. Most of the participants, who are here for
today's pastured poultry class, are farm workers from Hurley,
New York. Now we want to introduce ourselves.
((Victoria, Farm Worker))
My name is Victoria. I grew up with farm-raised chickens
and I’m here to learn about raising organic chickens.
((Victor, Farm Worker))
My name is Victor and we have plans to return to Mexico
and we want to start a business like this and sell at low
prices to help people out.
((NATS))
((Leah Penniman, Founding Co-Director, Soul Fire Farm;
Author, “Farming While Black”))
It's a little known fact that about 85% of the people who do
farm labor in this country speak Spanish as their first
language. So, if we say we're for food justice
and liberation, it would be very disingenuous to only offer
programming in English that excluded most of the farmers in
this nation. And there’s been a lot of excitement, particularly
from the Latinx farm worker community in our area, to learn
these skills, so that when they do have their own farms and
are no longer working for wages on other people’s farms,
they can implement these integrated livestock and vegetable
systems.
((NATS))
((Leah Penniman, Founding Co-Director, Soul Fire Farm;
Author, “Farming While Black”))
And then we're going to walk around and meet the chickens
on the farm and see how we take care of them, how we
know if they're sick, what kind of houses they need. Then
after lunch, we'll actually take five chickens and we’ll process
them for meat. If you include all of our on-farm and off-
farm programs, we reach over 7,000 people a year, of which
around 2,000 actually come to the farm. And we learn
everything from seed to harvest, as well as the history of
Black, Indigenous farming and land-based movements and
do a lot of work to heal from the trauma of slavery and
sharecropping and the Bracero program and other types of
land-based oppression that seek to really separate us from a
healed and dignified relationship with land.
((NATS))
((Leah Penniman, Founding Co-Director, Soul Fire Farm,
Author - “Farming While Black”))
We call these shelters chicken tractors. I wanted to be able
to move it by myself without a tractor because for the first
few years of the farm, I was managing the farm and I didn't
have any staff or partners in the farm. So, I had to think
about systems that I could do on my own. We also don't
want the meat to be so tough that our customers don't know
how to prepare and eat it. So, keeping them in a smaller
space that moves every day or every other day means they
still get the benefit of pasture but they're not getting so much
exercise that their muscles become very tough.
((NATS))
((Samuel, Farm Worker))
So, raising them like this in smaller cages is better for the
meat, to keep it tender and it cooks faster. So, now I
understand why the meat from my grandmother's hens were
so tough.
((NATS))
((Leah Penniman, Founding Co-Director, Soul Fire Farm;
Author, “Farming While Black”))
You can give a little push and help her. You're
doing perfectly. You're very strong.
((NATS))
((Alex, Community Gardener))
Soul Fire Farm is just really at the vanguard of thinking about
racism in our current food system and how we have to
shatter that together. And so, I've wanted to come and learn
through that lens for a really long time. So, this was the
perfect opportunity.
((NATS))
((Samuel, Farm Worker))
Welcome.
This is it. Goodbye, my chicken friend.
((NATS))
((Leah Penniman, Founding Co-Director, Soul Fire Farm;
Author, “Farming While Black”))
I believe so passionately that we all have the right to have
dignity and belonging as it relates to the earth and to have
agency in the food system and there's just been a whole
history of dispossession and discrimination against certain
people as it relates to land and food. So, a big part of
teaching is about empowering our people and equipping our
people with the skills to take back that dignified relationship
with land.
((NATS))
((Lytisha Wyatt, Instructor, Soul Fire Farm))
We remove the feathers on the side of the neck that we're
going to be cutting from and I cut cross-body. So, I don't cut
this way. I actually come over here, that's what I find
most comfortable, because I'm right-handed. I'm going to
remove the feathers from the left side. So, I want to remove
enough feathers so that I can see what I'm doing.
((Alex, Community Gardener))
So, I'm left-handed.
((Lytisha Wyatt, Instructor))
Right. Since you're left-handed, you would do it on the
opposite side. Yup.
((NATS))
Actually, that’s fine. Yeah.
((Leah Penniman, Founding Co-Director, Soul Fire Farm;
Author, “Farming While Black”))
So, the bird is now considered dead.
((NATS))
((Leah Penniman, Founding Co-Director, Soul Fire Farm,
Author - “Farming While Black”))
We want to build up a generation of people who believe that
they matter and that they're connected to something bigger
than what capitalism would have them believe.
((NATS))
((wendelin, Land Worker))
I was just taken aback by how warm the bodies of these
animals were and learning about the different aspects of
pastured poultry, really, sort of, has affected the way that I
will be consuming poultry going forward.
((NATS))
So, the cut I do is horizontal over here and then comes
around. Make sure you turn it against the….
Four and a quarter, put four.
Four point one.
((Samuel, Farm Worker))
I know how to raise chickens now, how to get eggs. And I
think it is something nice for my family
going forward because now I know how to feed my kids and
I can teach them to feed the grandchildren and future
generations going forward. And hey, even for my neighbors.
((NATS))
CLOSING ((ANIM))
voanews.com/connect
NEXT WEEK ((VO/NAT))
In the coming weeks…..
((Banner))
Oyster Farming
((SOT))
What I love about farming oysters is that every day is
different and we get to work outside and we have flexible
schedules and we get to work with our family.
BREAK THREE
PROMO
BUMP IN ((ANIM))
CLOSING ((ANIM))
voanews.com/connect
SHOW ENDS
