On July 13th, the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry held a hearing on “Opportunities in Global and Local Markets, Specialty Crops, and Organics: Perspectives for the 2018 Farm Bill.” This is not the first time a Senate Farm Bill hearing has focused on organic and local foods, but it is worth noting that these topics have become an expected part of the committee’s business. The committee heard from Dr. Ken Dallmier, the President and Chief Operating Officer of Clarkson Grain Company, Inc., an organic grain company located in Cerro Gordo, Illinois; and Theo Crisantes, an organic farmer and Vice President of Operations at Wholesum Harvest, a grower and shipper of organic produce in Amado, Arizona.
From the Great Lakes through the Great Plains, nothing dominates the American agricultural landscape like corn. Thanks to breeding and technology, American farmers are incredibly efficient at growing corn. Last season, corn yields averaged a whopping 175 bushels per acre, and American farmers grew a record 15.2 billion bushels, or 853 billion pounds of corn. 
The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC) and over 100 member organizations descended on Madison, Wisconsin for the annual NSAC summer meeting August 6th – 9th. NSAC policy covers a wide variety of issues, from crop insurance, to plant breeding, to conservation. Organic production was front and center at the meeting. Madison, home to the University of Wisconsin-Madison, is a hotbed of organic research and the surrounding area has hundreds of organic farms. (Pictured right: R&G Miller and Sons, Inc.)
While August is a busy time for many farmers around the country, it is also the time when things slowdown in Washington, D.C. as members of Congress head back home. This August, however, members of the House Agriculture Committee have been crisscrossing the country to hear about a broad array of concerns over the Farm Bill.
Looking to better understand consumers’ increasing interest in where their food comes from and how their food dollars can provide greater support for local food-related businesses and farmers, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis partnered to increase awareness of this opportunity for economic growth in both rural and urban communities.
One limitation faced by small- and mid-scale organic producers is the expense of equipment such as roller crimpers to terminate cover crops for spring planting. In spring 2017, OFRF provided a grant to Justin Keay at Lincoln University in Jefferson City, Missouri to research an effective no-till system that doesn't require the use of expensive equipment.
Please join OFRF in welcoming Laura Ridenour to OFRF’s development team as Senior Development Officer. Laura has a lifetime of experience working with all aspects of food and farming—with and for farmers, chefs, entrepreneurs and retailers, and grassroots food advocates. Beginning with an internship at California Certified Organic Farmers in 1994, Laura has worked for a number of farmer and community-led NGOs from California and Washington DC, to Colorado and Washington State. Along the way, she gained extensive project management, marketing and fundraising skills, and was part of the establishment of two food policy councils.
Last week, OFRF staff had the pleasure of leading a group of sustainable agriculture systems funders on a tour of organic farms in central Florida. It was part of the Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems Funders (SAFSF) forum, and it was the first tour in the forum’s 15-year history to focus exclusively on organic agriculture. OFRF’s Policy Associate, Michael Stein, provided this recap of the tour.
Predicting the capacity of soil to supply nitrogen is an ongoing challenge in organic farming. Organic farmers rely on the breakdown of organic matter through a microbially-driven process for crop nutrition instead of the application of synthetic fertilizers. One of the most frequent requests of organic farmers is to have access to better information about what is happening in their soil.