The American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, Soil Science Society of America (Tri-Societies) collectively represent more than 12,000 individual members around the world. Last week the societies held an International Annual Meeting in Tampa, Florida to discuss Managing Global Resources for a Secure Future. Overall, the goal of the meeting is for the scientific societies to build collaborating partnerships in the agronomy, crops, and soils science fields for the advancement of agricultural knowledge. OFRF, along with many organic researchers from around the world, attended the meeting to showcase how organic agriculture can play a key role in managing global resources for a secure future.
OFRF is pleased to announce the publication of its new educational guide titled, Avoiding Pesticide Drift Impacts on Organic Farms. Spray drift is a public health concern and an issue for organic farmers who suffer negative consequences should their organic fields become contaminated by pesticide drift. This guide provides steps organic farmers can take to reduce drift onto their farms, as well as practices conventional farmers can implement to reduce impacts on neighbors. 
How do farmers increase long-term soil health on their operations? This was the question at the center of the workshop held by OFRF on October 30th at the California Small Farm Conference in Stockton, California. The panel of speakers included Joanna Ory and Mark Lipson of OFRF and Joji Muramoto from UC Santa Cruz. The speakers discussed the characteristics of healthy soil and practices that growers can use to build healthy soils on their operations.
OFRF will host an Organic Poster Session at the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture’s (PASA) winter conference being held February 7 - 10, 2018 at the Penn Stater Conference Center in State College, PA. We invite the submission of research abstracts for posters to by December 20, 2017. 
Dean McIlvaine of Twin Parks Organic Farm in Wayne County, Ohio, has operated an 850-acre organic grain farm since 1985. He grows organic corn, soybeans, spelt, oats, wheat, rye, clover, and has recently expanded into a rotating cow and calf grass fed beef operation to add to the farm’s diversity. Dean markets the farm’s products nationally and internationally. His father Dale purchased the farm in the mid-70’s and farmed conventionally until Dean transitioned it to an organic operation—following his college dream and his personal beliefs that organic food is healthier and better for the environment.
Congressman Doug LaMalfa (R-CA) has joined the growing bipartisan effort to increase funding for the USDA Organic Agriculture Research and Extension Initiative (OREI). As a co-sponsor of the Organic Agriculture Research Act (HR 2436) Rep. LaMalfa joins fellow Agriculture Committee member, Congressman John Faso (R-NY), California Congressman David Valadao (R-CA), and 50 other Members of Congress who have signed on to support the bill. 
A new series of videos is now available from the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) on organic farming topics, ranging from healthy soil to pasture management. The first video in the series provides an overview of organic agriculture and the assistance NRCS offers to organic and transitioning farmers and ranchers.