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Gordon’s Policy Corner: on the ground in DC, Farm Bill updates, and more

From L-R: Abby Youngblood (ED of NOC), Rep. Balint (VT-AL), Dr. Jennifer Taylor (Lola’s Organics), and Gordon Merrick (OFRF)

It has been a busy spring in the policy world this year! With “marker bill season” fully upon us, OFRF is actively working with our coalition and congressional partners to advocate for expanded public support for organic agriculture research. As OFRF’s Policy & Programs Manager, I was down in DC participating in the National Organic Coalition’s fly-in from March 21st to 24th. I met with eight different congressional offices during the week, and the coalition members met with nearly 60 in total! I had the opportunity to voice the importance of organic agriculture research with two Congressional members, Representatives Jimmy Panetta (CA-19) and Becca Balint (VT-AL). The conversation with Rep. Balint happened while we were walking between other meetings, some true sidewalk lobbying! As part of this fly-in, coalition members, including myself, were also able to meet with USDA Undersecretary Jenny Moffitt to speak about strengthening the administrative processes that make up the National Organic Program, and the historic investment in supporting organic producers in the USDA’s Organic Transition Initiative.

Alongside our direct engagement with Congress, we also are actively working to support you in sharing your experiences with these programs and the policy making process! One example is the important work Eric Brennan, PhD engaged in when he presented testimony in a California policy making process, making sure that the policies pursued by the State were grounded in science and reality. You can read about, and listen to, Eric’s testimony here. To further this work, we’ve been offering a workshop series for publicly-funded researchers discussing the unique challenges and opportunities for researchers employed at public universities.

If you want to get involved in advocating for continued and expanded public support for organic agriculture research, please reach out to me, Gordon Merrick, at gordon@ofrf.org. We are developing toolkits for congressional outreach discussing our priorities as well as marker bills we are supporting as they are introduced. Keep an eye out for those materials in future newsletters and communications from us!

And if you want to learn more about the Farm Bill, here are some additional resources that we use in this work:

For a good general and brief explainer of what the Farm Bill is, check out NSAC’s Explainer. NSAC also produced a 2023 Platform, which OFRF has signed on to.
The Congressional Research Service (CRS) offers this Farm Bill Primer publication explaining the Farm Bill process for members and senators.
The Farm Bill Law Enterprise Library offers detailed legal backgrounds and explanations of each title of the Farm Bill, a total of 12 are generally included!
We also want to highlight the Native Farm Bill Coalition’s Gaining Ground report, which offers detailed information and recommendations for the Farm Bill from Tribal Nations and communities.

Eat well,

Gordon

By admin|2024-06-18T18:20:51+00:00April 13th, 2023|Gordon's Policy Corner, News|

Researcher Advocacy Highlight: Eric Brennan

Written by Elizabeth Tobey

Dr. Eric Brennan is an example of what can happen when researchers are in the right place at the right time to lend their expertise to policy decisions.

Dr. Eric Brennan with cereal cover crop samples from Ag Order 4.0 Trials

Brennan is a research horticulturist at the USDA Agricultural Research Service in Salinas, California. He specializes in organic farming systems and climate-smart agriculture, and the policy decision he was able to weigh in on was Ag Order 4.0, a regulatory program that protects groundwater resources from agricultural runoff. This regulation affects over 540,000 acres of irrigated land in the central coast region of California and applies to growers who operate irrigated lands, animal feeding operations, or nurseries. In the press release when the regulatory program was launched, it says “The requirements in Ag Order 4.0 protect human health, protect and restore the beneficial uses of surface and groundwater, and achieve water quality objectives specified in the Central Coast Basin Plan by minimizing nitrogen discharges to groundwater, minimizing nutrient, pesticide and sediment discharges to surface water. The order also requires the protection of riparian and wetland habitat.”

The day before the Ag Order 4.0 regulation was to be adopted, Brennan was given 10 minutes to comment on the regulation. His testimony was based on his long-term systems research on cover crops and compost use in intensive organic vegetable production systems. His presentation is available to watch here. For Brennan, it was the experience of truly being in the right place at the right time, and with the right research to share. “This was the most important presentation I’ve given in my career,” Brennan later said. In ten minutes he succinctly and convincingly argued that the regulation was scientifically flawed and presented cover crop data from the long-term organic system study in Salinas to explain how to fix it.

During the Q&A that followed the presentation, all 5 board members unanimously voted to change the regulation as he had suggested. “It was truly amazing to witness this happen live,” Brennan said. One of Brennan’s colleagues at UC Berkeley even called the hearing a “nail-biter.” The full three-hour adoption hearing is available to watch here.

Trials of cover crop for Ag Order 4.0

Ag Order 4.0, was adopted in 2021 by the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board. In order to meet its goals of protecting water and minimizing discharges this regulatory program establishes nitrogen discharge targets and limits over time, ratcheting down allowed values of N applied minus N removed from 500 pounds per acre by the end of 2023 to 50 pounds per acre by the end of 2051. It provides incentives for farmers to use cover crops, compost, organic fertilizers, and third-party programs to comply with the regulation and protect the environment. And, in part due to Brennan’s informed testimony, and input from colleagues like Richard Smith with the University of California Cooperative Extension, growers can get credits for using cover crops that have a minimum biomass of 4,500 pounds per acres, and a carbon-to-nitrogen ratio equal to or greater than 20 to 1.

Soon after the Ag Order 4.0 regulation was adopted, Brennan and Smith set up several extensive trials funded by the California Leafy Greens Research Board to provide farmers with simple ways to meet the regulatory requirements. Some of this has been published in this paper on predicting cover crop biomass and this 8 minute video. Eric also shares some of his research findings on cover crop nitrogen credits and estimating cereal cover crop biomass in this recent 10 minute video.

Various cover crops growing in the long-term organic systems trial in Salinas

For more of Brennan’s thoughts on these topics, you can read this page on his USDA Agricultural Research Service website, titled My Philosophy or Views on Sustainability & Organic Agriculture.

We applaud Brennan for putting his research into actionable use through civic engagement. His story is a great example of the type of practical research at the USDA-ARS that is helping organic and conventional farmers improve the sustainability of their systems, and informing policy makers so regulations are based in reality and farmers get the support and information they need.

By admin|2024-06-18T18:21:16+00:00April 5th, 2023|News|

Wilson Organic Farms, Chris Wilson

The Organic Farming Research Foundation is honored to share this farmer story, featuring Chris Wilson, business manager and farmer at Wilson Organic Farms. The following article is based off of an interview with Chris that was conducted earlier this year. You can press play below to listen to an edited version of the interview, or click this link to download it and listen later!

Written by Elizabeth Tobey

Chris Wilson remembers the day that the first load of milk from his family’s farm was picked up by the Organic Valley cooperative. The Wilson farm, which has been in the family for seven generations, began the transition to organic in the mid 90s, inspired by a neighbor who was making the switch as well. The certification process takes three years on land that has been receiving inputs that are prohibited under the organic program, and the Wilson family farm also needed to transition their herd of dairy cows. They started the process in 1996 and by 1999 all their crop land was certified organic. January 2nd, 2000 the Organic Valley truck pulled away from the farm for the first time, full of certified organic milk.

Chris Wilson (right) walks the farm with his partner and their child.

Chris Wilson is the business manager, and seasonal labor. The farm, which is located in the driftless region of Wisconsin, has been passed down in his father’s side of the family since it was first homesteaded in 1848. Now it is managed by a network of extended family including several of Chris’s cousins, with seven different families participating in total. Although transitioning the farmland through the generations hasn’t always been easy, it’s something that the Wilson’s don’t take for granted. In a world where access to farmland is one of the biggest barriers of entry into agriculture, inheriting a family farm is a huge advantage. They have worked hard to find ways to ensure that anyone in the next generation who wants to be involved will be able to participate in the farm business, and that older family members who are retiring are also provided for.

Transitioning to Organic

The family originally had some hesitations about making the change to organic production. They started with just a small portion of their farm the first year, but soon went all in, transitioning the full 1000 acres that they were farming at the time. “We had concerns about losing some tools for antibiotics in the livestock,” Chris explains. “But that ultimately ended up being a non-issue as we got into (it), and really the animals, they build up better immune systems and we have less problems today than we ever did when we had those tools.”

“We had concerns about losing some tools for antibiotics in the livestock, but that ultimately ended up being a non-issue as we got into [it], and really the animals, they build up better immune systems and we have less problems today than we ever did when we had those tools.”

Wilson Organic Farms now manages 3500 acres total. Of that, about 2600 acres are in crops, with a mix of alfalfa, forage mixes, corn for silage and snaplage, and grain, wheat, barley, soybeans, yellow peas and occasional other food grade crops. The remaining 900 acres is in pasture, 250 of which supports their dairy herd, and the remainder which is used for heifers and beef cattle.

Wilson Organic Farms began their transition to organics in the mid 90s.

Looking at their farming practices now, Chris says that organic standards reflect the way that they approach farming with the inclusion of livestock. They utilize resources in a “circular motion,” as he says. Livestock fertilize the ground, crops grown in the ground feed the livestock, and all of it contributes to feeding life in the soil. They intensively graze the milk cows, which means they move them daily during the grazing season. As they eat, they leave behind their manure and also trample the ground, the combination of which provides tremendous eco benefits to the soil.

Organic farming principles “lined up with things we were already doing and things that we already believed in,” Chris says. “…and that made it a really easy transition for us, philosophically.” And he adds, “We got the premium for the crop, so we were rewarded for that effort.”

NRCS Partnerships

The Wilson farm has also partnered with their local USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) to design and implement a variety of conservation practices and to support their transition to organic. They have received support for farm infrastructure and implementation of different farming practices through NRCS’s Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) and Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP). Projects that the Wilson farm has implemented have ranged from implementing cover cropping and intensive rotational grazing, installing improved fencing and watering systems, livestock corridors, and creating season-long forage for pollinators. Chris was quick to point out that in addition to the financial support, another aspect of what NRCS has to offer “is the expertise that’s brought to the table.”

“The other aspect of this that doesn’t show up in the dollars and cents is just the expertise that was brought to the table on laying that stuff out and thinking about it holistically. Our NRCS rep happened to be an expert in setting up water infrastructure, so he was able to think about some of the detailed engineering questions.”

Pasture Infrastructure Programs

NRCS cost-share programs assisted Wilson Organics with improved pasture infrastructure.

Through a cost share program, Wilson Organic Farms received financial support for improved pasture infrastructure and installation costs. They installed a six-strand barbed wire fence around the whole perimeter, and hired someone to install it. Chris points out that they had the option to install it themselves, which could save labor costs. They also installed underground water lines throughout the pasture. The NRCS program offered a cost share per linear foot, which Chris says “covered 50-60% of total cost.” This was similar to the support they received for the cow lanes they installed, where the cost share was based on square feet of cow lane. Their local agent was able to help them think through the details and layout of the systems they wanted to install. This financial and logistical support helped the farm transition from large paddocks to a rotational system that improves pasture and soil health.

Cow lanes in action at Wilson Organic Farms.

Cover Cropping

Another project that Wilson Organic Farms implemented with NRCS support was integrating cover cropping into their crop plan. Chris explains that “you sign up the number of acres you want to cover crop” and then there’s a list of cover crops you can use. “It’s been super successful,” he adds. They now have a system in place that includes cover cropping at three different times in the year. The cost share support for this project spans five years.

Wisconsin Honey Bee Pollinator Initiative

The farm also hosts Field Days with their partners, such as NRCS and Organic Valley, to share what they are doing with others.

Wilson Organic Farms has also participated in the Wisconsin Honey Bee Pollinator Initiative, a statewide project to increase pollinator habitat in the grazing landscape. By incorporating a variety of different plants, and shifting the grazing schedule, the farm is able to create an environment where pollinators had continuous access to flowering plants. The seed mix includes lots of clovers and other plants that result in a long season of blooms. This program also required that they only graze each section of pasture every 30 days. That is a core principle of intensive grazing anyway, which was already something that Wilson Organic Farms was practicing. They often wait 40-45 days to rotate cattle back onto the same pasture during the driest parts of the season. This allows the pasture to regrow between grazing. “It’s pretty incredible to see,” Chris says. “I come out to the farm in late April, early May when the dandelions are blooming all the way into the fall when the burdock plants are starting to bloom. And there’s flowers, you can find tons of flowers any day of the year, and there’s tons of bees, tons of pollinators.”

As well as implementing these programs, the farm strives to share what they’re doing and what they’ve learned with others. They typically host at least one field day each year, either in partnership with the NRCS, their local Extension Service, or Organic Valley. Their focus is often on natural resource management on farms. For instance they recently hosted a field day on organic cropping systems and water resource management for farms. Last year their topic was grazing systems. These events invite farmers in the region to come tour Wilson Organic Farms and learn more about the farm programs that are available. For farmers who are curious about what’s available, Chris’s advice is to “meet with your local NRCS agent and start a conversation.” Then, he adds, “Start small. Maybe cover crop a few acres, see how it goes. You can expand if you want or try something else if it’s not for you.”

Distribution

Organic Valley is a farmer-owned cooperative that aggregates and distributes milk products from coast to coast.

Wilson Organic Farms milk continues to be sold to Organic Valley and made into cheese and butter for distribution nationwide. Their milk is also used in many Stonyfield products as well as other store brand products. Organic Valley is a farmer owned cooperative with around 1600 participating farms located across the country. “It is unique,” Chris says, “because it evolved from a group of farmers who wanted to farm using organic principles and reach a consumer who valued those things.” To this day the cooperative is committed to supporting small farms, and member farmers have a strong voice in decision-making.

In addition to the dairy products, Wilson Organic Farms also grows hard red winter wheat, which is sold to a mill 10 miles away. It is ground into flour for Meadowlark Organics, and distributed nationally. They also sell corn and soybeans to local farmers who are raising livestock. And they sell beef cattle off the farm, most of which is processed locally and sold in the local or regional area.

Farming in a Changing Climate

A young calf will grow up on pasture in an organic, rotational grazing system at Wilson Organic Farms.

Like many farmers, the Wilson family has not been immune to the effects of intensified weather patterns. In 2018 and 2019 the region they’re in received unusually high rainfall, sometimes getting several inches in a day, for weeks on end. This kind of weather pattern can make a farm particularly susceptible to runoff and erosion, especially in a region with more sloping terrain like where the Wilson farm is located. Now they’ve had two years of drier than normal weather in 2021 and 2022. Chris describes the recent rain pattern as “scarce but timely,” with the area receiving rain only about once every three weeks. Chris attributes the resiliency of their farm in the face of both extreme rain and drought to the diversity of crops and to the prevalence of perennials in their farm system. They strive to have a living root in the ground as many days of the year as possible. They are able to do this using long and diversified crop rotations, including perennial crop production like alfalfa and grass mixtures. Their crop rotation and cover cropping means that they always follow a crop immediately after it comes out of the field, either with the next cash crop or a cover crop.

You have eco benefits, where you have perennials and cover crops and different things that are grabbing rainfall and filtering it. It’s incredible to see the differences in how that soil can absorb rainfall when it does come and then also weather long periods without rainfall and still stay productive.

The nearly year-round soil cover, and the soil-holding and water-holding capacity of the root systems protects against erosion and helps the soil to absorb water when it does come and then withstand the periods of dryness without losing productivity. Also, because the farm has several different enterprises they are not relying on the success of just one or two crops in order for the farm to have a successful year. This doesn’t make it easy, but it does mean that they’ve been able to watch their fields maintain productivity during adverse weather events.

Here are a sampling of photos from Wilson Organic Farms of the work they have done in partnership with NRCS.

Crimson clover blooms among a diversity of pasture plants at Wilson Organic Farms

A combination of permanent and mobile fences separate the pastures into smaller paddocks for rotational grazing at Wilson Organic Farms

Upgraded electric fences line the cow lanes between paddocks at Wilson Organic Farms.

Several generations of family members help out at Wilson Organic Farms, including the kids!

Dandelions bloom among a healthy and diverse mix of pasture plants.

Mobile electric fences allow the Wilson family to move cows through different paddocks as part of their rotational grazing.

Upgraded water systems help deliver fresh water to livestock throughout the various pastures at Wilson Organic Farms.

New fencing lines the cow lanes between paddocks, making it easier to rotate cattle to new pasture.

Even the youngest members of the Wilson family help out on the farm!

. . .

Links for further reading:

Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP)

Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP)

Wilson Organic Farms

Saving Native Pollinators, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR)

By admin|2024-06-18T18:21:39+00:00April 4th, 2023|Farmer Stories, News|

Highlights from the Southern Cover Crops Council Conference

Thelma Velez, OFRF Research and Education Director, and Mary Hathaway, OFRF Research and Education Coordinator, recently attended the 2023 Southern Cover Crop Council Conference in Baton Rouge, LA. This blog post, written by Mary, shares some of the highlights from thought-provoking sessions and stimulating conversations happening in the world of cover crops.

February 15-16, 2023 the Southern Cover Crops Council (SCCC) hosted their second bi-annual conference in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The conference brought together farmers, researchers, industry professionals, and extension services for two days of knowledge-sharing and networking through producer panels, breakout sessions, poster sessions, and field demonstrations. The conference was also a great opportunity for us to share OFRF’s Southern soil health Guidebook and our new, free online course: Soil Health Strategies for the Southern Region.

The breakout sessions included a wide range of topics, such as: Cover Crop Use in Organic and Vegetable Systems; Utilizing Cover Crop Biomass for Forage; Cover Crop Impacts on Pest and Weed Management; Unintended Consequences of Cover Crops; Choosing Cover Crop Varieties, in addition to sessions on farmer adaptations to equipment, and of course, soil health. As with many good conferences, you can find yourself ruminating on which will be the most interesting or informative sessions to attend. As someone who has felt the fear of missing out on a compelling presentation, I was relieved to find that the conference organizers designed the agenda using a flipped model so that attendees had a second opportunity to participate in any of the given sessions they may have otherwise missed.

The specialty crop farmer panel above was especially lively. From Left to Right, Donna Isaacs, executive director for Campti Field of Dreams, John Bitter, farmer and owner of Frog Song Organics in Florida, Arnold Caylor, former director of North Alabama Horticultural Research Center and farmer, and Ed James, citrus grower and owner/operator at J&R Groves in Florida.

While Donna Isaacs is the ED at Campti Field of Dreams, a Louisiana non-profit focused on outreach and education in historically-underserved communities, she also co-owns and operates DeLaTerre Permaculture Farm, a 14-acre diversified farm where they support and teach beginning farmers how to grow using regenerative organic practices and also implement No-Till Organic Market Garden Production statewide as part of a USDA NRCS Conservation Innovation Grant. John Bitter and his partner, Amy Van Scoik, of Frog Song Organics grow over 80 varieties of fruits, vegetables, and herbs in Alachua County, Florida. They also raise chickens and pork on pasture and integrate their livestock and cropping systems with the use of cover crops. Arnold Caylor has been using cover crops in vegetable production systems in Alabama for many years. He has experience using a variety of mixtures for summer and winter cover crop, including growing brassicas for pest control, cereals for biomass and weed control, and legumes for nitrogen. Ed James, grows citrus on 45 acres and now incorporates about a dozen different annual cover crop varieties. He also educates other citrus growers on the benefits of cover crops provides 100 percent of the nitrogen in his grove with cover crops.

The poster sessions showed a lot of great research is happening at universities across the South with respect to nutrient management, building soil health, and utilizing forage for dairy operations. The highlight of the SCCC was the opportunity to visit the Doyle Chambers Central Research Station at LSU’s Ag Center, where researchers had prepared field demonstrations. While the weather had threatened rain, it held off and gave us a windy overcast day perfect for hay rides through the fields. We learned about the use of technology, such as drones and PlantMap 3D cameras, for measuring cover crop biomass, as well as, the small-scale vegetable garden cover crop mixes comparisons before we had to rush to catch our flights home.

While the producer panels, breakout sessions, and field demonstrations were all very enlightening, I think the true magic of the event happened in the conversations in between sessions. Covid-19 led organizers to cancel the 2021 conference, so us passionate advocates and practitioners in the cover cropping world were happy to gather and share the work that had transpired over the past few years. I was so grateful to get a chance to catch up with colleagues, learn more about ongoing cover crop research, and practical cover crop practices that farmers are integrating into their farm. I can’t wait for the next convening in 2025, Puerto Rico, here we come!

Find out more about the Southern Cover Crops Council and the great work they’re doing here: https://southerncovercrops.org/

Thanks to the folks at Southern SARE for providing a scholarship for my colleague Thelma and me to attend this event!

By admin|2024-06-18T18:22:15+00:00March 20th, 2023|News|

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|

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.

…

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

…

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|

Catching up on the Farm Bill in Gordon’s Policy Corner

As you might have noticed, this Congress has already made some history, taking 15 ballots to elect Kevin McCarthy speaker of the House. As that dust settles, the rules of the House have been agreed upon, and committee membership gets finalized, we at OFRF and our partners are getting a clearer picture of the Farm Bill landscape. One thing remains abundantly clear, that agricultural research continues to be a bright spot for bipartisan legislation, and we are excited to leverage that fact this Farm Bill cycle.

If you missed it, we published a piece in the Organic Farmer Association’s Organic Voice, “Stepping Up To T he Organic Research Challenge: The 2023 Farm Bill Must Grow Investments to Meet Growing Demand.” In it, we lay out our three priorities for organic research for the 2023 Farm Bill. First, increase the organic research funding at the Agricultural Research Service to represent its market share, producing environmentally and economically sound management systems for all producers. Second, continue to support and develop the investments the National Institute for Food and Agriculture has been making in organic agriculture research. Lastly, fully fund and expand the Organic Market and Data Initiative.

By admin|2024-06-18T18:24:32+00:00January 13th, 2023|Gordon's Policy Corner, News|

Farmers on the Frontlines: Climate Change and the Farm Bill

2023 Farm Bill Presents Opportunities for Farmers and Ranchers on the Frontlines of Climate Change

By Elizabeth Tobey and Gordon Merrick

Farmers and ranchers, the people who produce our food, are often on the frontlines of challenges facing our society. Among the most pressing of those issues is the changing climate and an industrial food system that prioritizes profits over the health and wellbeing of people and the planet. Combined with the unprecedented loss of biodiversity, these three issues have even been called a triple threat to humanity.

Image from Frontiers article “Narrow and Brittle or Broad and Nimble? Comparing Adaptive Capacity in Simplifying and Diversifying Farming Systems”

These challenges are interrelated. The current standard methods of conventional food production are an outgrowth of the technological and chemical advancements of the mid 20th century, which resulted in a rapid increase in the ability to export calories in the form of commodity crops, such as corn and soy. This production depends on the ubiquitous use of cheap agri-chemical fertilizers and pesticides, and continued expansion of farmer-debt (as discussed in this article and this article) to increase scale and maintain technological relevancy. This ‘get big or get out’, petroleum-dependent production system decreases biodiversity and weakens the landscape’s capacity to be resilient and adapt to our changing climate. It also makes our food system vulnerable to even slight shifts in things like crop production or labor availability.

Farmers often keenly feel the challenges presented by warmer temperatures, increased flooding, and other extreme weather events. Caroline Baptist is the owner of the River Valley Country Club, a small farm in Washington state. “Farming on a floodplain and a floodway can be a challenge, and changes in climate over the years have only exacerbated this issue,” Baptist says. “The property owner from whom I lease land remembers experiencing 1-2 major floods a year when he first began farming in the area in 1993. More recently, we’ve seen these numbers double and triple.” Describing a recent flooding event Baptist says, “Some areas of the farm were under water by 15 feet and accessible only by canoe. This flood and every flood since is a sobering experience, illustrating clearly that the climate crisis is real, and it affects farmers firsthand.”

Past farm policies that favored the ‘get big or get out’ model led to increases in monocultures. The resulting abundance of commodity crops in the food system correlates with increases in processed foods, and associated adverse health effects in low-income and systemically underserved communities (more on that here).

SCF Organics brings fresh produce to people experiencing food deserts.

Shaheed Harris is the farm manager at Sumpter Cooperative Farms (SCF) in South Carolina. Among many other endeavors, SCF runs the Midlands Organic Mobile Markets, which are a suite of vans that directly distribute locally grown organic foods to the food deserts in the Midlands region of South Carolina. This project aims to address the need for equitable food access in communities in nearby metro areas with limited access to healthy foods. “Those places are areas … where they don’t have a grocery store,” Harris explains. “A lot of people don’t have vehicles to drive and they’re basically living on the nearest equivalent of a gas station. So they’re eating out of a gas station and getting chips and all types of processed foods that don’t really have a lot of nutrition.” Through the Midlands program, Harris says SCF aims to serve the people in these areas who would not otherwise have access to fresh healthy foods.

The farm bill is a package of legislation, updated once every five years, that sets the stage for our food and farming systems. The current farm bill expires in October of 2023, and a new suite of legislation will be developed and put into action. This farm bill cycle is a ripe opportunity to make solid advances towards a just transition to a new type of production that both mitigates and adapts to our changing climate, supports the health of the land and the people producing our food, and can help prevent food insecurity by increasing the amount of organic, nutritious food on American’s dinner plates.

Because of their place on the front lines of these challenges, farmers and ranchers represent a vibrant space of innovation and creativity to meet them. Our farmers and ranchers answering these challenges should be sources of inspiration on policy tools and instruments for the 2023 farm bill.

Clover cover crop, to be tilled back into the soil.

Jesse Buie is the president of Ole Brook Organics in Mississippi. One of the main environmental factors that Buie deals with is a lot of rain which can cause leaching of nutrients from the soil. To combat this he focuses on building healthy soil by making sure that he is constantly adding organic matter. At Ole Brook Organics they do this primarily by incorporating all the plant matter back into the soil. Any grasses or crop residue left after a crop is harvested are chopped up and tilled back into the fields, forming a closed-loop of nutrient cycling.

At SCF Harris is dealing with the opposite environmental concern: too little water. They have addressed this challenge by implementing Dry Farming practices that he learned from his family’s farming heritage. This style of farming, which combines unirrigated crop production with shallow cultivation offers a promising alternative in times of uncertain water resources.

Building resilience to economic disruptions has led some farmers to increase their use of local inputs, processors, and distributors, avoiding or lessening the impacts of supply chain disruptions in global markets. And as an added benefit this localization increases the access to nutritious, culturally appropriate, and tasty food that can connect communities.

Rotational grazing can be a tool for healthy pasture management.

Dayna Burtness is a farmer at Nettle Valley Farm in Spring Grove, Minnesota, raising pastured pigs. “We’ve been able to build community while building land resiliency,” she explains. “We’re able to work with nearby farmers and fruit growers to take non-marketable produce and turn it into delicious pork, which is benefiting everyone! It reduces the amount of food waste and helps other farmers put what they grow to good use. We are working hard to help create a different type of food system, we just wish there was more public support to really kick this change into overdrive.”

Federal research, conservation, and market development programs created and funded in the Farm Bill make all of these things possible, but expanded support is necessary to continue to support farmers and create a healthier future for people and the planet. If you want to get involved in advocating for a better food system, Ariana Taylor-Stanley (ariana@sustainableagriculture.net) at the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition or Gordon Merrick (gordon@ofrf.org) at the Organic Farming Research Foundation!

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Links for further reading:

Narrow and Brittle or Broad and Nimble? Comparing Adaptive Capacity in Simplifying and Diversifying Farming Systems, Frontiers

Green Revolution: History, Impact and Future, by H.K. Jain, available through most book suppliers

Chicken farmers say processors treat them like servants, AP News

Farmers and animal rights activists are coming together to fight big factory farms, Vox

2021 Tied for 6th Warmest Year in Continued Trend, NASA Analysis Shows, NASA

The 2010s Were the Hottest Decade on Record. What Happens Next?, Smithsonian Magazine

Americans are eating more ultra-processed foods, Science Daily

Ultra-processed foods and adverse health outcomes, The BMJ

Examining the Impact of Structural Racism on Food Insecurity: Implications for Addressing Racial/Ethnic Disparities, National Library of Medicine

Black, Indigenous, and People of Color Community at Disproportionate Risk from Pesticides, Study Finds, Beyond Pesticides

Equitable Access to Organic Foods: Why it matters, Bread for the World

What is the Farm Bill, National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition

Hunger and Food Insecurity, Feeding America

By admin|2024-06-18T18:26:15+00:00January 9th, 2023|Gordon's Policy Corner, News|

OFRF and FFAR Fund Research on Increasing the Productivity and Market Value of Pulse Crops for Arid Organic Conditions

(SANTA CRUZ, CALIF. – December 23, 2022) – The Organic Farming Research Foundation (OFRF) and the Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research (FFAR) are pleased to announce its sixth award for the 2021/22 OFRF organic research grant cycle. Dr. Travis Parker of University of California – Davis was awarded $19,970.00 to research dependable pulse crops for arid regions that promote the ecological and financial sustainability of organic farms.

Legume crops provide plentiful plant protein and have several agronomic advantages for organic farmers, including the ability to fix atmospheric nitrogen. Certain legume species and varieties provide further advantages, including extreme heat tolerance, low water requirements, and high market value. Despite this, little is known about their yields in organically-managed arid environments, and little breeding has been done to improve their agronomic performance.

This research will screen diverse cowpeas and tepary beans to identify varieties that can outcompete standard commercial pulses, and evaluate and select varieties of common bean specifically for organic environments. Researchers will also use novel sequencing and molecular biology techniques to identify the genes governing the most valuable heirloom common bean seed color patterns.

By evaluating specific pulse varieties, researchers hope to find varieties with higher yields, while conducting genetic investigation that will facilitate genetics-informed breeding of high-value, high-productivity beans. A greater understanding of these traits will help lead to more widespread adoption of pulse crops for more dependable and resilient organic rotations in arid regions.

This year’s research grant program prioritized farmers, early career researchers, and BIPOC applicants. The six projects chosen focus on climate mitigation and building on-farm resilience and have been awarded a grand total of $119,817 in funding. The 2021/22 cycle was made possible by a $66,000.00 grant from FFAR and matching funds from OFRF and its research partners.

To date, OFRF has invested over $3 million in 361 grants across North America to advance scientific knowledge and improve the ecological sustainability and economic prosperity of organic farming systems. All OFRF-funded research must involve farmers or ranchers in project design and implementation, take place on certified organic land, and include strong education and outreach components. All research results are freely available in OFRF’s online database.

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Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research
The Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research (FFAR) builds public-private partnerships to fund bold research addressing big food and agriculture challenges. FFAR was established in the 2014 Farm Bill to increase public agriculture research investments, fill knowledge gaps and complement USDA’s research agenda. FFAR’s model matches federal funding from Congress with private funding, delivering a powerful return on taxpayer investment. Through collaboration and partnerships, FFAR advances actionable science benefiting farmers, consumers and the environment.
https://foundationfar.org/

Organic Farming Research Foundation
The Organic Farming Research Foundation (OFRF) is a non-profit foundation that works to foster the improvement and widespread adoption of organic farming systems. OFRF cultivates organic research, education, and federal policies that bring more farmers and acreage into organic production. Project results are shared freely at ofrf.org. OFRF also provides free access to all of its educational materials and resources.
http://ofrf.org

By admin|2024-06-18T18:26:29+00:00December 21st, 2022|Press Release|