February 2023 - Organic Farming Research Foundation

Communicating with Legislators workshop series

The Organic Farming Research Foundation is hosting a series of workshops this spring on Communicating with Legislators. The sessions will be free and held remotely. Upcoming session dates are:

Wednesday, March 29th from 3-4:30 pm EST
Thursday, April 13, 12pm-1:30pm EST
Tuesday, April 25, 6pm-7:30pm EST

The workshop is designed to provide researchers with the tools and resources needed to effectively communicate their research and the importance of their work to policymakers and the general public. We will give particular focus on the unique challenges and opportunities of working at public universities. The workshop will cover topics such as:

Communicating research findings to non-experts
Building relationships with policymakers and stakeholders
How to reach out and work with your institution’s Government Relations Office

We will also provide workshop attendees with ongoing opportunities to support issues important to publicly funded research into organic agriculture topics!

Click Here to register for one of our Workshops!

Legislatures were designed to react to information brought to it, rather than actively seek out that information, which is why it is so important to contact your representatives.

Congress is at the beginning stages of drafting the next Farm Bill, and they want to hear from experts like you! Survey data shows that Congressional staffers continue to hold scientists and researchers in high regard, and respect the insight you have to offer.

All are welcome to join these workshop sessions. There is no cost to participate, and the workshop will provide opportunities to network with other researchers, policymakers, and advocacy experts.

Please feel free to reach out directly to Gordon Merrick, OFRF’s Policy & Programs Manager with any questions, (gordon@ofrf.org). We hope to see you in the workshop sessions!

By admin|2024-06-18T18:23:03+00:00February 16th, 2023|Gordon's Policy Corner, News|

Partnerships & Development Director

email: leah[at]ofrf.org

Leah Lawson has been an active and passionate advocate for an equitable food system that uplifts communities and reinvigorates the land for the past decade. She fell in love with agriculture while working on a process evaluation in a small farming community in Maharashtra, India, as part of her Masters’ degree in International Development. The combination of regenerative practices and community-led action left a deep impression on her work. Since then, she has built skills in grant writing, fundraising, board structure, strategic planning, project management, and facilitation, which she uses to further the creation of a strong and inclusive food system.

Leah lives in Chicago, where she has worked for organizations that serve rural and urban farmers, including Angelic Organics Learning Center, one of her favorite places in northern Illinois. She enjoys board service and helping new and young organizations get their footing. She has served on the board of Advocates for Urban Agriculture and North Branch Projects, both community-based orgs. Currently, she sits on the board of Windy City ToolBank, an affiliate of ToolBank USA, where she is helping to establish programming that allows organizations in the region to participate in radical sharing; ensuring everyone has access to tools they need to create, improve, and care for their community.

By office|2024-06-18T18:23:11+00:00February 16th, 2023|Staff|

Highlights from EcoFarm 2023

Kelsey Grimsley, OFRF Office Manager and Program Administrator, and Brise Tencer, OFRF’s Executive Director, recently attended the 43rd annual EcoFarm Conference. In this blog post Kelsey shares their experience at the conference and some of the highlights from thought-provoking sessions and stimulating conversations happening in the organic and regenerative agriculture world.

This year was the 43rd annual EcoFarm Conference held at the Asilomar State Beach and conference grounds in Monterey, California. As EcoFarm puts it, this conference “has brought together farmers, ranchers, and food system advocates to advance just and ecological farming and food systems.” It was four days of skill-building workshops, informative speeches, and challenging conversations that spark motivation for action. This was the first in-person reconvening since the January 2020 conference before the pandemic, and as I arrived, there was a noticeable feeling of comradery in the air. People smiled, waved, and were eager to greet each other with what is now becoming a familiar feeling of gratitude to be together in person.

There’s nothing quite like being in-person talking to folks whose minds are engaged in all the big questions that face the regenerative and organic agriculture community. From water management, to land back initiatives, food justice, organic regulation challenges and more, people were ready to discuss their thoughts and experiences with what seemed like less of a filter and more depth than the normal day-to-day chats. This is why I love coming to these conferences!

I’m a newcomer to the organic agriculture community, bringing my perspective from having worked in sustainability and environmental policy. I was ready to absorb and listen as I headed to the first session of the day, “An Indigenous Panel: Food Sovereignty, Appropriation, and Landback as Integral Pieces of Organic Farming Systems,” with presenters A-dae Romero Briones, a leading voice in food and land systems, and Samantha Hilborn, Laguna and Acoma Pueblos and an Organic Consultant with the Rodale Institute. This session helped create the perfect lens from which to view and approach the rest of the conference, acknowledging that regenerative and organic agriculture theories were derived from Indigenous practice and knowledge.

Next I attended the session moderated by Brise Tencer, OFRF’s own Executive Director. This session was titled, “How to Tap into Federal Funds on your Farm/Ranch.” The presenters included Karen Lowell of NRCS Salinas Station. Stacie Clary of Western SARE, Christopher (Cheetah) Tchudi from TurkeyTail Farm, and Elizabeth Reikowski of Willow Creek Land and Cattle. The discussion was packed with information on all the available avenues of funding. Some suggestions got creative, including my favorite tip coming from Elizabeth to look into CalFire funding for brush and land clearing.

In between sessions there was time to walk the scenic boardwalks of Asilomar State Beach.

After a necessary cup of coffee from Cafe Mam and some pleasant exchanges with several exhibitor booths, my second day at the EcoFarm conference kicked off with a session reviewing the changes and challenges from the recently finalized Strengthening Organic Enforcement (SOE) initiative. This session went into detail on the challenges that farmers and producers will face with the new compliance rules. You can read more about the final published rule here.

The final session stop of the conference was the Farm Bill Town Hall co-hosted by OFRF, the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC), Regenerative Agriculture Foundation, and Roots of Change. OFRF Executive Director, Brise Tencer, again moderated the event and introduced the speakers: Representative Jimmy Panetta, Karen Ross of CDFA, and Jenny Lester Moffitt of USDA Agriculture Marketing Service (AMS). I had brought some of OFRF’s soil health guides and general research information for folks to take, all of which were quickly swooped up by the session attendees. If you’d like to read through more information on the Farm Bill, you can find that here.

As the Farm Bill session wrapped up, the Organic Agriculture Mixer was beginning. Staff from California Certified Organic Farms (CCOF), EcoFarm, and OFRF set up a space for folks to mingle and converse with music, decoration, and organic libations. This was a chance for folks who had been listening to and absorbing the sessions throughout the week to engage with each other in a more casual environment. Events like the organic mixer seem to create a space with no pressure, where people could exchange thoughts and interact in an authentic way, and converse about the values at the base of our work.

We wrapped up our time at EcoFarm talking about what guides us and our outlooks of the future.

By admin|2024-06-18T18:23:47+00:00February 13th, 2023|News|

Cheetah Tchudi & Samantha Zangrilli

Cheetah Tchudi is the Program Director at Butte Remediation and a farmer at TurkeyTail Farm, a small diversified farm serving Butte, County California. Cheetah is a mycologist by training, and at TurkeyTail Farm grows gourmet and medicinal mushrooms as well as manages a diversity of projects including lamb, pork, fowl, fertility management, construction and heavy machinery operation. His wife, Samantha Zangrilli is also a full time farmer. She tends a flock of 100 ducks for eggs and pasture management, helps maintain the pigs and sheep, and manages a 1 acre garden for the production of cut flowers, dried floral arrangements, value added herb products and plant distillates like hydrosols and essential oils.

OFRF staff recently connected with Cheetah at the EcoFarm Conference, and invited him to share a guest farmer blog post with us. In this post, Cheetah talks about how USDA farmer support programs have benefited TurkeyTail Farm, and offers advice on how to approach working with these national support organizations to generate financial support and incentivize your farm projects.

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The Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS, a branch of the USDA) provides farmers, ranchers and timberland owners with funding to employ best management practices. The program is called EQIP: Environmental Quality Incentives Program. This cost-share program provides funding for a diversity of wildlife habitat improvement, soil, and water conservation practices on functional farms. This program is not a grant based system, but is intended to support growers in their efforts, and as such is termed a “cost-share” program. The distinction is significant because it is understood that the USDA funding may not always completely cover the full cost of the work. Nonetheless NRCS support may take you a few steps closer to your ultimate goals.

On our farm we have been working with NRCS for over 10 years. On our land we have completed cost-shares that encompass brush clearing, targeted grazing, erosion control, pasture seeding, and development of bird and bat habitat. Most recently we have drilled an additional water-well for livestock. As part of this cost-share we have a network of gravity fed livestock wells and added water storage capacity, a definite boon in the era of megafires and climate chaos.

The NRCS EQIP has been a great resource for us as ecologically conscious agrarians. It has helped us to incentivize doing what we want to be doing. My advice is to set concise goals, give yourself plenty of time to accomplish the conservation practice, and most of all follow through. It is a process, you have to be committed and know what you’re doing. Agriculture is challenging… You got this.

Let’s talk about the USDA SARE program. SARE stands for Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education. Food, farming and innovation. Let’s unbox it: It’s a program to conduct research and educate farmers, extension agents, and ag professionals. SARE operates in different regions: North Central, North East, South and the West. There are a host of different programs ranging from on-farm research to education. As a farmer, you will want to look into the Farmer/Rancher Grants. If you can work with an educational institution a Producer/Professional grant is also an option.

If you are considering authoring a SARE grant, I encourage you to start early. Their application time is in November and you want to be way ahead of that. I feel the need to emphasize this. You need to be planning two years ahead. Make sure your operational budget for the grant is totally separate from your farm, and plan ahead for tax time.

Grant writing is difficult. You have to apply yourself, and there is no guarantee that your work will pay off. The flip side of that is you can do something radical. You can get the fiscal support you need to answer your questions, something that is important to your career and field of work. And at the same time you can do something nobody has ever done before. Let me reiterate that; you are capable of doing something nobody has ever done before!

As a farmer, you fulfill a fundamental need. You feed people. And sometimes the work we do is overlooked. Federal funding is a way to develop your farm, your career, and get some much needed support. It takes work, but can be hugely rewarding. After all, you’re a farmer. You got this.

By guest author, Cheetah Tchudi

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Learn more:

Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS)

Environmental Quality Incentive Program (EQIP)

Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE)

By admin|2024-06-18T18:24:18+00:00February 8th, 2023|Farmer Stories, News|