OFRF Scientific Congress on Organic Agricultural Research

Scientific Congress on Organic Agricultural Research
A Farmer-Scientist Collaboration to Develop Organic Research Agendas

OFRF is coordinating efforts to develop a national research agenda and a farmer-scientist network for pursuit of multi-disciplinary research & extension on working organic farms. These efforts include:

Organizing a National Planning Team of farmers and scientists from land grant universities, ARS, and CSREES with geographical, commodity and disciplinary diversity.
Commissioning a series of papers to explore the key researchable questions, priorities and possibilities of organic farming systems research.
Conducting a series of regional meetings with farmers and scientists to discuss and design a plan for basic, applied and developmental organic research.
Publication of a national research agenda to include research questions; multi-disciplinary, systems research designs; identification of on-farm research sites and collaborating scientists; budgets; plans for implementation, dissemination of results; extension education and technology transfer; and mechanisms for building the capacity for systems research.

We know that organic farming systems work, but relatively little scientific knowledge exists about how and why organic farming systems perform as they do. There are only a small handful of public research programs dedicated to improving the performance of organic systems. Institutional support for organic agriculture is beginning to happen, and last year Congress authorized a new Organic Agricultural Research and Extension Initiative. While the official taboo against organic research has been substantially cracked, (although certainly not totally dismantled) there is a historical deficit in the capacity to conduct research on organic systems. The ability to effectively utilize new institutional resources is limited by insufficient scientific dialogue in this area and the lack of communication between scientists and organic practitioners.

To help build the capacity for effective research on organic farming, the Organic Farming Research Foundation (OFRF) is planning a new project that will bring producers and scientists together to build an organic research agenda: the "Scientific Congress on Organic Agricultural Research" or SCOAR. In building a scientific dialogue about organic agriculture, we try to establish a peer relationship between farmers and scientists, rather than using a "customer-provider" model. There are certainly language and protocol barriers to overcome, but our premise is that there are equal opportunities for learning and information exchange.

A National Planning Team has been recruited to guide the project's first phases. This groups includes farmers and scientists from land grant universities, ARS, and CSREES with geographical, commodity/system and disciplinary diversity.

An early feature of SCOAR will be a series of papers to explore the key researchable questions, priorities and possibilities of organic farming systems research. These short and relatively informal papers will be solicited in the next few months for circulation this summer. The papers will be used to stimulate the discussion at meetings of the "Congress" and on-line. In addition to the "leading question" papers, a major input into the discussion will be the Results of the 3rd Biennial National Organic Farmers' Survey. This document contains a ton of information on organic farmers' research priorities, management objectives, constraints and other data.

SCOAR will conduct a series of regional meetings with farmers and scientists to discuss and design plans for basic, applied and developmental organic research. Our first planning meeting was held April 2000 in Phoenix, Arizona. The Inaugural Assembly of SCOAR was held January 23-24, 2001 in Pacific Grove, California. Ultimately, we envision publication of a national research agenda to include research questions; multi-disciplinary, systems research designs; identification of on-farm research sites and collaborating scientists; budgets; plans for implementation, dissemination of results; extension education and technology transfer; and mechanisms for building the capacity for systems research.

If you are interested in becoming involved, receiving updates on the SCOAR project, please contact:

Mark Lipson, Policy Program Director
Organic Farming Research Foundation
P. O. Box 440
Santa Cruz, CA 95061
Ph: 831-426-4006/6606
Fax: 831-426-6670
e-mail: mark@ofrf.org