www.tilth.org

Transcripción

www.tilth.org

tilth (fr. OE “tillian” + th):
A. the quality of cultivated soil.
B. cultivation of wisdom
Volume 20, No.5
FREE
and the spirit.
Organic
Market
the
Albany, OR
PERMIT NO. 188
PAID
PRSRT STD
U.S. POSTAGE
November /
December, 2009
N ovember / D ecember 2009 • I n G ood T ilth • V olume 20, N umber 5
www.tilth.org
Page Filling the basket
November / December 2009
Vol. 20, No. 5
ISSN # 1065-1527, 2009
Oregon Tilth
Editor, layout and ad sales:
Andrew Rodman
Contributing writers:
Angela Ajootian, Kathy Dang, David Lively,
Jack Gray, Harry MacCormack,
Will Newman, Andrew Rodman,
Joel Preston Smith, Chris Schreiner,
Sarah DeWeerdt and Conner Voss
Subscriptions are free with Oregon Tilth
membership, which begins at
$30/year ($40 outside U.S.).
Reprints by permission.
The marketplace for organic and sustainably harvested food is a dynamic place
indeed. The Organic Trade Association’s
2009 Organic Industry Survey finds that
U.S. sales of organic products “both food
and non-food, reached $24.6 billion by
the end of 2008, growing an impressive
17.1 percent over 2007 sales despite tough
economic times.”
Yet this information does little to illuminate the stories behind the numbers.
Challenging economic times bring the
basics into sharper focus. An inescapable
fundamental is that quality food equals
health and good food is life.
The marketplace meanwhile, becomes
the arbiter of the success or failure of all the
work and passion that go into producing
quality sustenance.
This edition looks at milk, seeds, small
growers and the efforts that retailers are
taking to get their houses in order.
The folks at the Organic Seed Alliance were good enough to let me interview
them, to find out what the key concerns
and challenges are in this emerging organic
Cover collage by Andrew Rodman
Contents
Getting creamed Advocacy
Tilth’s future
Tilth’s mission
Organic
seeds
Oregon Tilth, Inc. is a
Never
let
your guard down
501(c)(3) non-profit organizaOn
flowing
uphill
tion that supports and promotes
Organic
in
Oregon
week biologically sound and socially
Getting
our
house
in
order
equitable agriculture through
Get
big
or
get
out
education, research, advocacy and
Food miles
product certification.
Many green winters
Since its inception in 1974, Tilth has
DIY made easy
brought together rural and urban producers and consumers around land stewardship
Feast of fava
and healthy food. Oregon Tilth administers
Tooling around
educational programs, supports sustainable
agriculture research and policy, and offers
organic certification to producers and food
handlers throughout the Americas. For more
information about any of the exciting programs
of Oregon Tilth, please call on us:
Oregon Tilth, Inc.
470 Lancaster NE • Salem, OR 97301
4
6
7
8
10
11
12
14
15
16
21
26
28
29
En Español
Los Semilleros
Millas Antes de que Coma
32
35
Research Reports
Classifieds
Calendar
Membership
38
41
45
47
sector-one that I had assumed was a simple
case of not enough supply for the demand.
The produce camp, represented by
Oregon pioneers David Lively, Harry MacCormack and Will Newman, speak well to
the strategies of being viable, stealthy and
fluid in times as strange as these. These
voices are most fitting given the celebrations around Organically Grown in Oregon
Week, happening while this edition took
shape.
The dairy perspective can best be
described as “everyone wants to food, but
precious few want to produce it.” So it goes
with markets of scale.
The mantra of “get big or get out” is
such a prevailing notion that the focus of
this edition is decidedly geared towards the
smaller producers. This is not to diss the
exceptional work larger producers are doing
to fill our larders, but rather to offer tools
and resources for those just getting into the
game.
Sometimes the smallest voice can be
the most compelling.
--Andrew Rodman
$
Dairy
page 4
seeds
page 8
$
Office: (503) 378-0690,
(877) 378-0690
Fax: (503) 378-0809
[email protected]
www.tilth.org
Page N ovember / D ecember 2009 • I n G ood T ilth • V olume 20, N umber 5
Guard
page 10
Oregon Tilth Staff Directory
ADMINISTRATIVE
CERTIFICATION PROGRAM
Quality Control Director
Chris Schreiner, [email protected]
(503) 566-3012
Administrative Assistants
Michelle Borene, [email protected]
(503) 566-3013
Amanda Brown, [email protected]
(503) 566-3020
Jenny Smith, [email protected]
(503) 566-3011
OEC Program Manager
Kathy Dang, [email protected]
(503) 779-4631
Garden Coordinator
Conner Voss, [email protected]
(503) 798-8906
Applegate Growers
(Jacksonville, OR)
Beaucoup
(Sherwood, OR)
Mary R. Bock
(Saint Mary, MO)
CITRO ROD, CITRICOS
DE ABASOL
(Cd. Victoria, Tam)
Cottage School Acres
(Green Ridge, MO)
Four Bar B
(Junction City, OR)
Jason French
(West Concord, MN)
John Stalley, [email protected]
(503) 779-3041
Inspectors
Andy Bennett, [email protected]
(541) 760-9328
Jody Berry
Wild Carrot Herbals
Processing Program Assistant
Darin Jones, [email protected]
(503) 566-3026
Reviewer - Inspectors
Mike Dill, [email protected]
(503) 566-3010
Mike Mountain, [email protected]
(503) 566-3018
Kate Carman
Carman Ranch
David Granatstein
WSU Center for Sustaining Ag
and Natural Resources
Miguel Guerrero
OMRI
Darryl Williams, [email protected]
(503) 566-3027
MIDWEST OFFICE
Midwest Certification Coordinator
Dave Engel, [email protected]
(608) 637-8594
Inspector: Robert Caldwell,
[email protected] (608) 606-2317
Adam Zimmerman
ShoreBank Enterprise Cascadia
Pat Moore, [email protected]
(541) 621-1777
Enviro. Ed. Coordinator/AmeriCorps
Randall Cass, [email protected]
(503) 638-0735
Amador & Vicki Aguirre
(Carlton, OR)
Technical Specialist
Gwendolyn Wyard, [email protected]
(503) 566-3017
Callyn Kircher, [email protected]
(503) 566-3025
RESEARCH AND EDUCATION
AB Fronsdahl Organic
Farms
(Klamath Falls, OR)
Farm Program Manager
Tiffanie Huson Labbe, [email protected]
John Caputo, [email protected]
(503) 798-8216
Information Tech Specialist
Heather Smith, [email protected]
(503) 779-5873
New Growers:
Processing Program Manager
Connie Karr, [email protected]
(503) 566-3022
Reviewer - Inspectors
Andrew Black, [email protected]
(503) 779-5876
Financial Accounts Manager
Catherine Steffens, [email protected]
(503) 566-3021
Editor, In Good Tilth
Andrew Rodman, [email protected]
(503) 779-3929
Certification Director
Kristy Korb, [email protected]
(503) 566-3024
Inspection Coordinator
Kelly O’Donnell, [email protected]
(503) 566-3015
Farm Program Assistant
Erin Jensen, [email protected]
(503) 566-3014
Dave Manlove, [email protected]
(503) 378-0690 x 424
Oregon Tilth
Board of Directors
Global Certification Program Manager
Jim Pierce, [email protected]
(503) 779-9063
Latin American Specialist
Garth Kahl, [email protected]
(503) 507-4122
New
OTCO certified farms & processors
since August, 2009
Rudy Jr. & Susan Gingerich Simply Aquaponics Hawaii (Clermont, IA)
(Honomu, HI)
Hillside Acres
(Omro, WI)
Staunton Farms
(Tulelake, CA)
Ke Ola Farm
(Keaau, HI)
Thistle Vineyard
(Portland, OR)
Lost Springs Ranch
(Burns, OR)
Windberry Acres, Inc.
(Saint Mary, SD)
David R. Miller Jr.
(Darlington, WI)
New Processors:
Wilbur & Ruby Miller
(Shipshewana, IN)
Barnhardt Manufacturing Co.
(Charlotte, NC)
Jeremy Post
(Rock Springs, WI)
Biosecur Lab, Inc.
(Otterburn Park, Quebec)
Ozark Acres Farm
(Seymour, MO)
Century Foods International
(Sparta, WI)
Pine Knob Organic Farm
(Soldiers Grove , WI)
Chelten House Products, Inc.
(Napa, CA)
Sauvie Island Organics
(Portland, OR)
Colorado Sun Oil Processing,
(Lamar, CO)
Condor Snack Company
(Denver, CO)
Naturepedic
(Cleveland, OH)
Custom Research Labs, Inc.
(Gardena, CA)
Natures Paradise
(Santa Ana, CA)
Ella’s Kitchen Inc.
(Pittsburgh, PA)
Picat Ltd
(Dallas, TX)
Giusto’s Specialty Foods
(South San Francisco, CA)
Simmons Pet Foods, Inc.
(Siloam Springs, AR)
Grafton Village Cheese
(Brattleboro, VT)
Sunshine Dairy Foods
Management, LLC
(Portland, OR)
Juguera Allende, S. A. De C. V
(Allende, NLE)
Kiko Foods, Inc.
(Kenner, LA)
My Sous Chef
(Joseph, OR)
Terra Firma Botanicals, Inc.
(Eugene, OR)
Unit Pack Co., Inc.
(Cedar Grove, NJ)
Welcome Dairy, Inc.
(Colby, WI)
Oregon Tilth now certifies: 600 organic processors • 694 organic
growers
•5
restaurants
retailer
N ovember
/ Dorganic
ecember 2009
• I n G ood T ilth&• V1olume
20, N umber 5
Page Photo by Joel Preston-Smith
Getting
creamed
“I lost my land, a single tractor
took my land. I’m alone and I am
bewildered.”
— John Steinbeck, from The Grapes of Wrath.
By Joel Preston-Smith
In the final scene of John Steinbeck’s classic, The Grapes of
Wrath, Rose of Sharon— the landless, orphaned daughter of a
failed farmer, hiding in an abandoned barn and grieving the death
of her stillborn child—cradles an elderly, starving man in her arms,
and draws him to her breast, to suckle. After 534 pages of dust and
destitution, Steinbeck offers this final, harrowing image as a moral
beacon—if the displaced and dispossessed are to find salvation, to
heal the land and their families, they would only do so by cooperating, by sheltering and feeding one another.
It’s somewhat ironic then, that 70 years after the novel’s
publication, “cooperative agreements” and a surplus of milk, some
argue, are starving dairy farmers into bankruptcy, deprivation and
suicide. John Kinsman, president of Family Farm Defenders, based
in Madison, Wis., calls the current milk debacle “the worst crisis
for farmers since the Great Depression.”
Throughout America, dairy farms—both organic and conventional—are failing, awash not in dust, but in milk. The alleged
surplus has driven the price of raw conventional milk to its lowest
level since 1940, says Kinsman, and has dairy farms teetering on
the brink of extinction.
Irene Lin, a policy analyst for the National Family Farm Coalition, headquartered in Washington, D.C., says the U.S. has lost
80 percent of its dairy farms in the past 30 years, but not since the
Dust Bowl have so many farmers faced such a dire future.
Kinsman, who is also secretary of the Coalition’s executive
board, says his nonprofit wants the federal government to restruc-
Photo by Joel Preston-Smith
Dairy’s
uncertain future
ture the dairy industry, and enforce the National Organic Program
rules. The Coalition supports Senate Bill 1645 (formerly Senate Bill
889), the Federal Milk Marketing Improvement Act of 2009, which
would allow the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture to base the price
of conventional milk on the national average cost of production.
The price is currently influenced by a host of factors, but largely
by the price of cheese as it is traded in the dairy pit of the Chicago
Mercantile Exchange.
The Coalition wants the feds to dictate conventional milk
prices, and thus break what Lin describes as a “corporate monopoly on milk,” orchestrated by industry giants such as Dean Foods,
Kraft Foods and a handful of conglomerates. To illustrate the need
for government oversight, Lin cites a $12 million fine levied December 16 last year by the Federal Commodities Futures Trading
against Dairy Farmers of America “for attempting to manipulate
cheese cash markets” at the Chicago stock exchange.
“We’re dealing with a very flawed pricing system controlled
by a very few corporate entities,” Lin says. “That system has led
us to a price collapse that you can only describe as a depression.
Conventional milk is bringing a price lower than we had in 1980.”
U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (D-VT) has asked the U.S.
Justice Department to investigate “possible antitrust violations”
by Dean Foods, which the senator claims controls 70 percent of
the dairy market in the northeast. Dean, he argues, posted record
profits in the first quarter of 2009, whilst the company cut payments to farmers from $19.50 per hundredweight in 2008, to less
than $11 this July.
Continued on page 18
Page Photo by Connie Karr
Oregon Tilth
staffers at the
Organic
Education
Center
Advocacy
On August 26th, Andrew Black spoke
about organic local food at the Sidney
Lezak Project’s conference called “Fixing
Food: What Ails Us & The Economy” at
Camp Westwind, on the Oregon Coast.
On September 14, at the Farm and Food
Leadership Conference in San Antonio
TX, Dave Engel was on a panel discussion “Certified or Not Certified: How
do Farmers and Consumers Make the
Choice?” The conference was co-sponsored
by Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance and
Texas Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association.
September 17, Conner Voss and Garth
Kahl hosted a tour of the Organic Education Center and Luscher Farm to staff from
the USDA’s Foreign Agriculture Service.
September. 22-23, Garth Kahl attended
the hearings for the proposed National
Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement in
Monterey, Calif. Working in concert, a
number of other conservation and organic
farming groups including the Wild Farm
Alliance, Community Alliance with Family
Farms, and the National Organic Coalition,
OTCO presented testimony in opposition the Act, which OTCO believes would
have serious detrimental consequences for
organic growers and the environment, while
doing little to decrease the incidence of
food-borne illness.
September 24, Kathy Dang, Conner
Voss, and Randall Cass hosted a tour of
the Organic Education Center, Luscher
Farm to Agriculture Extension Agents
from around the nation as part of the 2009
Annual Meeting and Professional Improve-
ment Conference of the National Association of County Agriculture Agents in
Portland, September 20-24, 2009.
October 7, as part of the GoGreen Conference in Portland, Ore, Chris Schreiner
partnered with ODA staff to host a “lunch
and learn” session highlighting sustainable
business practices and opportunities for the
Food and Agriculture sector.
October 28, Andrew Black gave an educational presentation about organic certification and sustainable agriculture at the
National College of Natural Medicine as
part of the 2009 Portland Master Vegetarian Program.
Hey Editor!
Write, email
[email protected].
Tilth is great, again more usable fodder for my growing
endeavor.
–Lydia Avery, Alsea, Ore.
Dear Oregon Tilth, the people who make that organization
come alive. My goal as a 53 yr. old farmer former science teacher
is to find sustainable work style-oriented partners in buying rural
land to start a “tent and breakfast/organic farm/ropes challenge
course.”
I would enjoy having experienced farmer/gardeners to correspond with so we can learn from each other. I am reading all I
can find on organic gardening, small business topics, agroforestry
and other topics.
I believe there are compassionate non-judgemental people
out there. I wish everyone there much peace, joy and love.
–Denzel Tittle, 66072-179 A-3, POB 7000
FCI, Texarkana, TX 75505.
Charting Oregon Tilth’s
By Chris Schreiner
At the recent Organically Grown in Oregon Week
awards luncheon, I was
reminded of how much the
organic movement has grown
and changed in its relatively
short history. Attending an
event that brings together
pioneers and new faces in the
organic industry helps bring
to focus the big picture of our
collective efforts; both where
we’ve been and where we’re
heading.
NCAT’s Rex Dufour leads an activity on in-field soil quality assessment in Monmouth, Ore. at an an
Like the organic moveOrganic-Conservation Cross Training session organized by Oregon Tilth and the Ore. NRCS office with fundment, Oregon Tilth has
ing support from the WSARE Professional Development Program.
experienced significant and
Brand is priceless – Oregon Tilth’s name and reputation for
rapid change. In the eleven years I’ve worked for the organization,
leadership,
integrity and quality must be protected, maintained
the staff increased fourfold and the operating budget increased
and enhanced. While our roots are based in the Pacific Northby a factor of five. While such growth is indicative of success, it
west, our reputation and services have expanded to a national and
also presents challenges. Managing this kind of dynamic growth
international audience.
requires clear vision, resolute purpose and the agility to respond to
People are our biggest asset – We want to cultivate a comunexpected and demanding changes.
munity of support through meaningful relationships and interacTherein lies the value of strategic planning. In 2009, Oregon
tions. The only way to successfully offer expanded, high-quality
Tilth’s Board of Directors and Executive Management Team began
services that align with our stellar reputation is by employing
a strategic planning process. At the outset, five goals were identiexceptionally qualified people. We must also continue to develop
fied. A new strategic plan must be:
strategic partnerships that can leverage unique resources and
• Consistent and supportive of Oregon Tilth’s original mission
expertise to help us achieve our goals. In Oregon, we worked to
• Cohesive and integrated across the organization
establish a formal Letter of Cooperation creating a framework
• Realistic and practical
for collaboration among partner organizations and agencies on
• Clear on a bequest investment strategy
organic program activities. Signatories included the Director of
• Measurable – progress is quantifiable
the Oregon. Dept of Agriculture, Chairperson of the Oregon
State Board of Agriculture, Director of the Oregon Field Office
The strategic plan was developed using a variety of tools and
of the USDA National Ag Statistics Service, Oregon NRCS State
input. An “as is” analysis was developed using the Strengths, WeakConservationist, OSU Dean of Agriculture and Executive Mannesses, Opportunities, Threats (SWOT) framework. Input inagement of Oregon Tilth.
cluded a 2009 survey of Oregon Tilth staff as well as the extensive
Communication – As our staff increases and our audience
2008 survey of certified operators, members and partner organizaexpands, we must enhance both external and internal awareness
tions externally conducted by Opinion Dynamics Corporation.
of Oregon Tilth’s services and activities. We must use diverse and
From this work, we developed strategic goals for the organization.
progressive communication formats that reflect the diverse audiBy comparing our “as is” status with our strategic goals, we identiences we are trying to reach. Our communication formats include
fied the gaps and have begun formulating a plan on how to get
the bi-monthly publication In Good Tilth (with some content
from where we are today to where we want to be in the future.
published in Spanish), our website, monthly eNewsletters, a
In formulating the strategic plan, several interrelated and key
Facebook page and a Twitter account. Oregon Tilth staff attends
themes emerged.
hundreds of events each year at locations near and far – representOregon Tilth doesn’t make “widgets”; we offer and deliver
ing our mission at trade show booths, information tables, as well
services. Our primary services are third-party certification to
as workshop and training presenters.
standards that align with our mission; educational offerings to conThrough effective strategic planning, Oregon Tilth strives to
sumers, growers and manufacturers; advocacy efforts addressing
maintain
firm roots, encourage healthy growth, and bloom with
state, national and international policy; and helping shape research
increased
mission fulfillment.
agendas that respond to the needs of our stakeholders. We want to
expand our services and differentiate on quality.
Chris Schreiner is Oregon Tilth’s Quality Control Director.
Page Photo by Chris Schreiner
Strategic course
Seedy fellows
Photo by LPhotos by Jared Zyskowski, Organic Seed Alliance
Talking shop
Scott Chichester cleans
organic spinach seed at
Nash’s Organic Produce
in Sequim, Wash.
Seed is the ultimate input, and the organic seed market
continues to be challenging and dynamic.
Recently, Andrew Rodman spoke with the Organic Seed
Alliance’s Matt Dillon and John Navazio about some of the
trends in this emerging market.
Matt–This year I had a representative of a large dairy call
me up looking for a sorghum seed for their growers that was
certified organic. All of the seed companies that I directed this
grower to were sold out.
There continues to be a lack of commercially available varieties to meet the field and market needs of farmers. It is happening in field crops, and continues to happen in vegetable crops.
Many of the vegetable seed companies report selling out early in
the year, out of key varieties, organic hybrids in particular.
The over-arching issues that continue to come up in organic
seed are availability and appropriateness. Estimates remain between five and 10 percent of the seed planted by organic farmers
is actually organic seed, and the rest is conventional non-treated.
Those estimates come from talking to people in the industry.
From the very beginning, the organic community was
reliant on two sources for our seeds; the conventional sector,
which has little to no interest in organic seeds, and second,
heirloom seed companies, which were more focused on gardeners and small quantities of seed. Organic producers made due for
decades, and in many cases certainly their needs have been met,
the conventional varieties have been good enough, the heirlooms
have been good enough for them to produce and thrive. But
“good enough” varieties and optimum varieties are two different
things.
John– There is the whole issue of varieties bred for the farmer’s cultural practices.
The best breeding is done for the environment and the practices of farmers. That’s
what’s optimum.
When organics started hitting the
big time, the best organic farmers took
commercially bred varieties, that have not
been bred for their cultural practices, and
tweaked their cultural practices within
organics…they scoured through what is
available, trialed it all out, and found the
ones that are closest to fitting their needs.
Andrew–What do you mean by cultural practices?
John–Say you are planting corn at a
certain date because you don’t want it to rot
in the soil. If you are a conventional farmer,
you are using the corn varieties with seed
treatments.
If you are doing early cultivation to
kill weeds, or flaming to kill weeds as an
herbicide, that is a cultural practice.
Matt–If an organic farmer doesn’t have
the chemical seed treatment in the corn to
prevent diseases, like rotting in the cold soil
or early emergence in cold soils, this could
push planting to a later date, which could
cause them to have less of a yield or incur
other risks later in the season.
John–All of those conventional corn
breeding programs have an attitude of:
that’s not a problem, we have these state
of the art seed treatments with thiram pesticides. So our growers don’t worry about
that. In fact, we are going to use those seed
pesticide treatments even in our breeding
program to artificially avoid that reality that
every organic farmer in the field is facing.
Matt–There’s even the genetic element
of how a plant responds to cultivation.
John–Like when you have your tines
on, you are disrupting the soil very close to
the plant or throwing the soil back. Conventional farmers that are using herbicides
don’t need nearly as much cultivation. If
you are truly breeding a plant good for
organic farmers, it has to be tough enough
to have soil thrown up on it.
The percentage used of organic seed
is one thing, the percentage of seed being
used that is appropriate and most ideal for
the cultural conditions and market conditions are even lower than just the basic
seed.
The first organic seed companies that
The state of organic seed
John Navazio assesses the
maturity of a carrot seed
crop at Nash’s Organic
Produce in Sequim, Wash.
ventured into the movement early on are
finding success. There is a lot of growth
in the true 100 percent seed companies.
Their sales are up because they are making
improvements in their production quality
and practices.
They are finding that growers are increasingly purchasing their seed.
Some of the
For more than 30 years,
conventional seed
Down To Earth has been
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seen that the ororganic fertilizers and
ganic market is not
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home and garden
that it continues to
products to farms,
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they become interand garden centers.
ested in potentially
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seed lines into organic production.
Very few of
these companies
however, are makCall Today for Our
ing the plunge
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Part of the reason is that there is hesitancy
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Down To Earth offers a
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Organic Materials
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DTE_IGT_NOVDEC_09_AD
Page Pioneer
Perspectives
Never let your guard down
By David Lively
I quote Matthew Dillon of the Organic
Seed Alliance, from his article “Organic
Food Integrity Starts with Seed Integrity” in
the latest issue of the PCC Sound Consumer:
“I respect those who don’t like war
analogies, but I have sat at the table with the
Monsanto executives of the world and we dangerously delude ourselves in thinking they can
be convinced of our concerns through anything
other than grassroots fights, litigious assaults,
and peace treaties negotiated from a place of
power. Unfortunately, as in all wars, there are
costs to both sides and the organic movement
will not leave this scenario without scars.”
On my daily walk this morning, I was
thinking along similar lines – specifically,
about some of the responses I have heard
from my peers over the last few weeks, as
anti-organic material has hit the press.
After all this time, we still possess the
ability to be naïve about what we are dealing with. It is charming in a way, but the
problem with it is that we have been living
Page 10
with positive
press and rapid
trade growth for
so long that we
have become
convinced of
our strength, addicted to success
and somewhat
lazy in our sense
of urgency.
In the U.S.,
we are insulated
enough that
we can almost
pretend that the
biggest issues are
whether we are
going to hold on
to our growth
rate and whether
the image of
organic will
remain relatively
untarnished.
Meanwhile, the
world is burning, as Vandana
Shiva made
adamantly clear
at the Organicology conference in early 2009.
The reality is, we are engaged in a
global war between agri-business and agroecology. Ultimately, I believe there will be
an outcome, and it will provide for only
one survivor. For a positive outcome for
human beings, and even more so for all of
the other life on this blue and green ball,
it is imperative that agro-ecology be that
survivor.
I think it is becoming increasingly
imperative that we frame circumstances accurately, as Matthew has done – this is not
just about “choice” in the marketplace, or
the “pastoral” that Michael Pollan refers to
when we tell the story of organic farming.
This is about a struggle much bigger and
deeper than most of us really want to deal
with, yet it is our fate to do so.
I don’t suggest we take this battle into
the supermarkets or into the “pastoral”,
but let’s make sure that as professionals
we are never surprised, or take the time
to be offended, by what comes at us in
the way of bad press, legal action, or even
conspiracy.
When I accepted the Oregon Tilth
Visionary of the Year Award for OGC a
few years back, I noted that in the 1980s,
“Congressman Jim Weaver spoke to us at
length about various matters, including the
chain of consequence that starts with volcanos and results in the disruption of weather
patterns, crop loss and war. Weaver also
provided us with high praise as visionaries
for change, which we remain today.
“I was amazed that someone of his
status held organic farmers in such esteem.
“At the time, we were under withering
fire. The Reagan Administration had taken
direct action to crush the barest presence of
organic thought in the Federal government.
If you called Lane County Extension and
asked for advice in organic techniques, you
were told it was not possible. The Douglas
County Extension agent was on a declared
mission to prove that there was no reason
for using organic practices. Conventional
growers and the ag-biz system they were
a component of scoffed at us, sometimes
directly to our faces.
“And they were all correct in doing
what they did, of course, because we were
absolutely as threatening to their professional world-view as they suspected we
were. We had come to take apart and
reconstruct as much of the U.S. ag-system
as we could get our hands on.”
That purpose has driven me all of
these years.
Let’s remember that when you go
after someone’s world view and economic
interests, they are going to bite back, and
in the case of the war between agri-biz and
agro-ecology, it is gonna be a very big bite
coming at you.
At Organicology in 2011, I hope we
can press the truth of this struggle, once
more, upon participants, and that their
embracing of the need to be warriors in this
fight will move us further toward resolution. Meanwhile, as our friend Buzz Lightyear exhorts, “To infinity, and beyond!”
David Lively is the Marketing Director
at the Organically Grown Company and
has been in organics as a grower, field
manager, buyer and account representative going on 30 years now.
Pioneer
Perspectives
On flowing uphill
By Harry MacCormack
Small-small farms and market gardens
operate in a marketing reality dominated by
large-small farms. We all know the accepted
entrepreneurial practices of very “successful”
larger-small farms. They include high levels
of management, staffs of 10-50 or more
employees, large capital investments in
farm equipment, grow-tunnel-greenhouses,
walk-in refrigerators, processing-market
preparation lines, refrigerated trucks large
enough to handle multiple farmer’s markets
in many locations and CSA drops in those
locations, wholesales to Organically Grown
Company or other distributors, retailers,
and restaurants throughout the region.
These larger-small farms often operate on
20 acres or less. But with high overhead
costs, their consumer prices are geared to
an economy of high-end, urban, customers
also used to lifestyles based in the rewards
of economic success.
Their farm budgets are often in the
quarter to million dollar range. These are
the stars of the organic market place.
Economic marketing reality for smallsmall farms in this high-stakes business
atmosphere can seem daunting, especially
to entry-level growers who may not want
to participate in the small farm marketing
version of the dominate corporate
paradigm. Is there another way?
This question led me to the ancient
wisdom of the I Ching #46, Pushing
Upward. The image poses choices between
effort as opposed to progress, vertical ascent
versus expansion. The metaphor reflects the
growth pattern of wood in soil: “direct rise
from lowliness to power and influence”.
Pushing upward is made possible by
modesty and adaptability. Individual
activity, work, brings good fortune. Upward
growth of wood adapts by bending around
obstacles, moving upward without haste,
without rest. This requires devotion to
character, without pause.
How does such wisdom possibly
guide a struggling small-small grower
participating in a market economy?
First of all, you have to decide your
economic survival. Do you really want to
rely on your total economic needs coming
from growing the foods you love? I remind
you in this consideration of two facts: Over
70 percent (USDA figures) of all American
farms rely on at least one source of offfarm income to remain viable. Amish and
Pennsylvania Dutch farming tradition holds
that one man can effectively farm two acres.
(More land requires horses, machinery,
ever-larger capital and employees.)
In our high-tech world there are
ways for small-small farms to gain market
share. Usually they rely on introducing
yourself and your produce to a very local
community in a way that doesn’t really
compete with larger-small farms. Most
large farmer’s markets , local restaurants
and alternative natural type food stores are
dominated by the larger small farms. So
what kinds of sales are left?
Use internet communication to your
advantage. That might include My Space
or even Twitter as ways of letting potential
unaligned customers know what you have
and who you are. Send out a weekly list
from which they can choose, set up an
order date, and tell you whether they will
pick-up at your location or whether you
need to deliver. Your distinct advantage:
Picked and delivered same day produce.
For greens, especially, this translates into a
distinct nutritional advantage that larger
operations cannot emulate. We’ve used
this process for a season at Sunbow Farm.
We’ve attracted a whole new number of
consumers as a result. At-the-farm pricing
allows us to be affordable, an attempt on
our part to address the complaint that
farmer’s market prices are often as high
or higher than natural foods store prices.
Optional home delivery in our nearby town
is just what new moms, retired semi shutins, and those too busy to go to markets
love.
Along the same lines, a group of
growers in the Eugene area offer a virtual
farmer’s market through
www.EugeneLocalFoods.com. Together
they pool produce, which comes to a drop
point once a week. Internet orders are
coordinated by the organizers, who charge
a fee for service. Again, this model makes it
possible for small-small growers to operate
with some of the advantages of a larger
small grower while offering same day fresh.
Both of the above marketing strategies
appeal to younger, urban, working
families who want the best food, fresh,
and affordable. The small-small farm has
more leeway with pricing because of lower
overhead. Even so, set the pricing so that
you pay both expenses and yourself.
Another strategy is to see yourself
as a grower-organizer, and act on that
perception. Working with a neighborhood
organization, a church, a community
center, retirement facility, you can help
initiate small grower based buying clubs.
This activity can extend to small growers
being backyard or community garden
based. Seeing an urban or suburban
area as a farm, sharing space, rotations,
equipment, labor, can be an effective
way to grow lots of food, feed lots of
people, and market what you grow, to that
community, or even as a collective stand in
a larger farmer’s market. Operations along
these lines in L.A. and Chicago have been
featured on national T.V. recently.
These small, small marketing
suggestions all allow for lower local pricing,
because they are not rooted in high
overhead. CCA or community cooperative
agriculture , (as different from CSA
community supported agriculture) need not
require up-front payments. Organization
and trust replace that factor as a planned
season unfolds with one or many small
growers feeding many middle to lower class
families – or even the poor and homeless
– as a market. In an organized, food-based,
community effort individuals support each
other as the basic exchange rate, bending
around dollars per hour with labor for
food trades, marketing with an eye to the
well-being of those who have, economically
speaking, the least rather than the most.
Again, such an effort is not possible
when trapped in the entrepreneurial
model currently dominating markets.
For instance, it is not usually the case
that a neighborhood farmer’s market is
established limiting the size of stall space,
effectively excluding the larger small farms.
(We did this at the original Portland-based
People’s Wednesday market)
The very definition of marketing
is radically different in the examples
mentioned. Rather than simply growing as
part of regional or even local commerce,
re-organizing business agreements allows
small to remain small and stealthy. This
practice will attract an appreciate clientele
who support what you do, no matter what
your size.
Harry MacCormack is a co-founder
of Oregon Tilth, an original Oregon
organic farmer, a teacher and an author.
Page 11
Celebrating an
entwined history
Compiled by Andrew Rodman
In recognition of organic farmers, processors and distributors in the State
of Oregon, Governor Ted Kulongoski proclaimed September 14-20, 2009, as
“Organically Grown in Oregon Week.”
The harvest time saw a bounty of events from celebrations, to workshops,
to farm tours to tastings. These events celebrated the rich culture of sustainable
agriculture in the Northwest.
Since 1988, Oregonians have proudly commemorated Organically Grown
in Oregon Week, giving kudos to our thriving organic industry and the leaders of
Oregon’s organic movement.
David Lively, Marketing Director at Organically Grown Company gave
credit where it was due for the origins of this event. “Way back in the 1980s,
when many of us owned different bodies and more brain cells, a farmer from
Oregon’s Southern Coast, Marnie McPhee, took it upon herself to find a way to
celebrate. Marnie contacted a handful of vets and trade activists, determined to
1989- Lynn Coody and Jack Grey
rewrite and lobby to pass Oregon Organic Foods Law (the oldest organic law
in the U.S.) using both Tilth Certification Standards and the first attempt at a
materials list-based standard.
1988 - Oregon Gov-
ernor Neil Goldschmidt
declares first “Organically
Grown in Oregon” week.
1987 -1989
Oregon Tilth Standards used as model
for Washington Dept.
of Ag. proposed
program, Texas Dept.
of Ag program, Japan
proposed program,
Hawaii, Idaho and
Colorado.
1973 - Oregon passes first
1987- First edition of
organic legislation in U.S.
1984 - One-page certification
1986 - Oregon Tilth incor-
rules written by Bob Cooperider/ Willamette Valley Tilth President. 12 farms certified under
these rules.
Page 12
porated as non-profit. Tilth’s
Yvonne Frost (and committee) begin certification as a
business.
Standards and Guidelines
For Oregon Tilth Certified
Organically Grown: written
by Harry MacCormack,
edited by Lynn Coody.
Organic pioneers: Alan Kapuler
at top, and below: Harry McCormack (left) and Yvonne Frost
(right).
Photo by Andrew Rodman
Photo courtesy Ashland Food Coop
Onward to a
organic future
Organically Grown week was marked by workshops, tastings and farm visits, like
this one organized by the Ashland Food Coop to Fry Family Farm near Medford.
OSU’s Anita Azarenko accepts the The Organic
Policy Award from Kim Leval, chair of the Oregon
Organic Coalition during a luncheon celebration.
create a statewide grassroots, guerilla marketing campaign focused
on the positive.”
“Eventually, Organically Grown in Oregon became the model
for Organically Grown Week, a national promotion carried out by
the Community for Sustainable Agriculture. After the formation
of the Organic Trade Association, the event became the Organic
Harvest month, held in September, across the U.S. This is not the
first time our work has provided a template for national policies.”
As part of the celebration, The Oregon Organic Coalition
hosted an awards luncheon in Portland at the EcoTrust building,
August 15, heralding our modern-day organic pioneers.
Oregon Organic mentionables included scientist Alex Stone
from OSU, for her work in establishing the Northwest Farmerto-Farmer Exchange, her position as National Director of the new
collaborative www.eOrganic.info and studies of organic potatoes,
which have earned her national acclaim.
On the retailer end, the Ashland Food Cooperative (established 1972) was honored as the first grocer in Oregon to earn
Oregon Tilth’s Certified Organic retailer designation for its entire
operation. The co-op supports efforts across the state to bolster
the organic food industry, and is among the nation’s top ten food
cooperatives in sales.
The Wholesaler Award went to Organically Grown Company,
formed in 1978 to support Oregon’s organic farmers. Since then,
OGC has opened distribution facilities in Eugene and Portland,
and in Kent, Washington. OGC is the Northwest’s largest wholesaler of fresh organic fruits, vegetables and herbs, employing more
than 160 staff, working with more than 500 vendors serving more
than 250 natural and fine food stores and restaurants throughout
western Oregon and Washington.
The Livestock Farmer Award went to Jon Bansen, Double J
Jerseys, Member of Organic Valley Farmer-Owned Cooperative.
Double J Jerseys’ dedication to organic dairy has led to wide recognition, including leading Organic Valley’s Farmer Ambassador
Program for the western U.S., Polk County Soil and Water’s 1997
Conservation Farmers of the Year, and Oregon Tilth’s Producer of
the Year Award in 2006. Jon extols the virtues of organic farming
and grass-based dairying and is considered a “grazing guru” in
organic dairy circles.
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Page 13
Photo courtesy of PCC Natural Markets
Finding real green
Redmond Dairy Cooler at PCC Market shows the installation of LED (light emitting diode) lights. They require about
one-fourth of the electricity of fluorescent lights, produce less
heat than incandescent bulbs, and last far longer.
Page 14
By Andrew Rodman.
There is increased public
demand for “sustainable”
and “socially responsible”
products, and more businesses touting practices and
products as “green,” “carbon
neutral,” and “fairly-traded”
in the organic marketplace.
At the same time, companies are looking for ways
to increase efficiency across
the board to remain healthy
in a down economy.
The smart companies are
the ones that are achieving
both.
One tool that companies have is by partnering
up with the Food Trade
Sustainability Leadership
Association (FTSLA), a
new non-profit that offers a
variety of valuable educational programs, including
strategies for measurement
and reporting, strategy and
goal setting, zero waste,
carbon footprint reduction, sustainable packaging,
renewable energy, resource
conservation, ethical practices, marketing/communications and more.
Natalie ReitmanWhite, FTSLA Executive
Director states that, “We
have a long way to go to
achieve resilient sustainable
food systems. We continue to depend on many
nonrenewable and polluting resources (i.e. fossil
fuel) in our operations, and
over -harvesting of precious
natural resources (i.e. soil
degradation & fresh water).
The organic food trade
provides a strong platform
for advancing sustainability—based on principles of
agro-ecology and biodiversity, avoiding toxic and
persistent inputs nature
cannot process, deriving
most fertility from renew-
able sources. Our goal is to bring these
principles into the entire business model
from seed to plate.”
The FTSLA’s “Sustainability Tool
Kit” gives members practical advice and
strategies for implementing a sustainability
program from step 1, and staff provide
ongoing consulting.
Natalie says her group has been sharing
skills with a number of businesses, including growers, processors, shippers and manufacturers, that have been working towards
evaluating the “footprint” of their operations and pursuing opportunities for improvement. She says, “The organic trade’s
orientation and history uniquely positions
us to be early adopters in developing and
modeling the innovative practices that can
move us closer to our ideals.”
Down in Noti, Oregon, WinterGreen
Farm underwent the process of self-evaluation, and founding member Jack Gray
concluded that, “One of our most dramatic
findings was the amount of gas and diesel
used running around the farm between
fields and barns. In our crop rotation,
we moved most of our CSA and Farmers
market production back to our home place
from a rented field two miles away. The
energy saved was startling. This information pointed out just how significant a cost
internal transportation is for us.”
Up in the Puget Sound area, Seattle
based PCC Markets have taken on multiple initiatives to lighten their “footprint,”
including the ban of single-use plastic shopping bags, a heavy focus on green construction, introducing double-sided transaction
receipts, replacing paper shelf tags with
electronic point-of-purchase displays, and
initiating company-wide recycling and
composting procedures. All of which have
contributed to significant waste reduction.
Diana Crane, Director of Sustainability at PCC Natural Markets states that,
“Consumers today can’t help but be aware
of – or at least question – the impact their
buying decisions makes on their communities, the environment, their health and their
financial stability.”
PCC received the 2009 Green Washington Award, the 2009 Best Workplace
Recycling and Waste Reduction and firstever Sustainability Excellence Award, in
recognition of their work.
Out in the heartland, the HQ of Or-
Get big, or head
FTSLA
for the
ganic Valley Coop improved their already
substantial efforts at being even more green
and environmentally responsible.
Jennifer Harrison, Organic Valley’s
Sustainability Program Manager at Organic
Valley Coop enthuses that, “Committing
to the FTSLA has given us the opportunity to share our process and to learn from
others in the industry. The metrics and
reporting formats developed by the FTSLA
has helped us to streamline the reporting
and to measure ourselves against what others in the organic industry are doing in a
pre-competitive environment.”
She notes that Organic Valley has been
working to engage their entire supply chain
“from our farmers, to our processors, our
packaging and transportation/freight providers on measuring their footprints.”
Natalie White says, “We seek to engage
companies who feel a sense of urgency
about the state of the planet and society,
and that believe their businesses should
have a truly balanced triple bottom line.
We focus on achieving tangible progress towards sustainability by working with ‘early
adopters’ who are willing to innovate and
try new approaches. We also aim to create
a community of practice where members
will share ‘what works’ and undertake joint
projects, accelerating progress towards our
collective vision and enhancing business
relationships.”
Jennifer Harrison is pragmatic about
the work they are doing. “These days it is
all about measuring. If you aren’t measuring, you aren’t proving the impact your
sustainability initiatives are having on the
environment, economy or your community. Statements without proof are
greenwashing.”
For more information about the work of
FTSLA, including their Declaration of
Sustainability, and educational materials see www.ftsla.org.
For information about Organic Valley
Coop, or to see their impact calculator
visit www.organicvalley.coop.
PCC markets are all over the Puget
Sound area, and viewable online at
www.pccnaturalmarkets.com.
By Will Newman II
I’ve been thinking about two issues
that plague most farmers:
1. What is the purpose of the business
– making profits or providing
quality products?
2. How big is enough?
As a farmer I have faced them.
As a business consultant, a fair
number of my clients have been small- to
medium-size farms, and they have all
faced these same issues.
Farms follow a common pattern in
their development. The first few years
are taken up with developing growing,
harvesting, and marketing practices, and
trying to make ends meet.
Once the farm is operating successfully, usually after three to five years, the
grower faces these questions.
The answers will determine the future success of the farm, because they will
guide every business decision that follows.
Putting returns first, in my experience, invariably leads to failure, as product quality and service steadily deteriorate
in the quest to increase profits.
Deciding to focus on improving
product and service, along with charging
adequately is an approach that leads to
lasting success.
The question of “right-sizing” is
particularly difficult for growers. Agriculture is a part of the natural world, not
the industrial world, while our economic
system is based on industrial principles.
Because of this embedded industrial economic worldview, agricultural “experts”
always push for bigger, e.g. Agricultural
Commissioner Earl Butz’s often quoted
“Get bigger or get out!” University researchers, funded primarily by industrial
agriculture, support this approach. Lenders and suppliers also favor larger operations over smaller.
All of this flies in the face of measurable realities. Generally small farms are
better farms. They are more productive
per square foot and less polluting. They
yield more calories of food energy per
calorie of input, and are more profitable. And most ignored by industrial
agriculture: food from small farms is
generally more nutritious than food from
?
industrial operations. In addition, small
farms strengthen and add resilience to local
economies.
There lies the dilemma: virtually all
structural, economic, and academic support is for larger, industrial approaches to
production and distribution, while virtually
all approaches that lead to quality food are
small, decentralized and based on natural
cycles.
Natural and organic food businesses
have become a very successful part of the
food system precisely because they have
favored quality over profits. This focus
on quality has generally meant keeping
operations smaller and more tuned to local
markets than the bulk of the food industry.
This success has been a threat to
industrial agriculture. The reason successful natural and organic food businesses are
called “niche markets” is to diminish their
importance and to obscure the fact that
they are successful precisely because they
address the production and distribution of
quality food outside the industrial business
model. When the organic portion of the
market became too large to ignore, organics
was co-opted by industrial agriculture, and
it has been a constant fight to maintain
standards ever since.
We continue to hear, as we have for
decades, that small farms are not viable.
The reality is that they have been, they are,
and they will continue to be. We continue
to hear that we must get bigger or get out.
We do not. Throughout the world it is
small, organic, local farms that produce
the best food available, and at reasonable
prices.
The past success of the organic and
natural food movement is founded on an
understanding that food is not an industrial product, and cannot be produced or
distributed as if it were. Our continued
success will be based on maintaining the
integrity of that vision.
And we will be helping to build a
sound, sustainable economy in the process.
Will Newman is a long-time organic
farmer at Natural Harvest Farm near
Canby, Ore., and a co-founder of the
Oregon Sustainable Agricultural Land
Trust.
Page 15
Miles from where I eat
By Sarah DeWeerdt
In 1993, a Swedish researcher calculated that the ingredients of a typical Swedish breakfast-apple, bread, butter, cheese,
coffee, cream, orange juice, sugar-traveled
a distance equal to the circumference of
the Earth before reaching the Scandinavian
table. In 2005, a researcher in Iowa found
that the milk, sugar, and strawberries that
go into a carton of strawberry yogurt collectively journeyed 2,211 miles just to get
to the processing plant. As the local-food
movement has come of age, this concept
of “food miles” -roughly, the distance food
travels from farm to plate-has come to
dominate the discussion, particularly in the
United States, the United Kingdom, and
parts of Western Europe.
The concept offers a kind of convenient shorthand for describing a food
system that’s centralized, industrialized, and
complex almost to the point of absurdity.
And, since our food is transported all those
miles in ships, trains, trucks, and planes,
attention to food miles also links up with
broader concerns about the emissions of
carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases
from fossil fuel-based transport.
In the United States, the most frequently cited statistic is that food travels
1,500 miles on average from farm to
consumer. That figure comes from work
led by Rich Pirog, the associate director
of the Leopold Center for Sustainable
Agriculture at Iowa State University (he is
also behind the strawberry-yogurt calculations referenced above). In 2001, in some
Page 16
of the country’s first food-miles research,
Pirog and a group of researchers analyzed
the transport of 28 fruits and vegetables
to Iowa markets via local, regional, and
conventional food distribution systems.
The team calculated that produce in the
conventional system-a national network
using semitrailer trucks to haul food to
large grocery stores-traveled an average of
1,518 miles (about 2,400 kilometers). By
contrast, locally sourced food traveled an
average of just 44.6 miles (72 kilometers)
to Iowa markets.
In light of such contrasts, the admonition to “eat local” just seems like
common sense. And indeed, at the most
basic level, fewer transport miles do mean
fewer emissions. Pirog’s team found that
the conventional food distribution system
used 4 to 17 times more fuel and emitted 5
to 17 times more CO2 than the local and
regional (the latter of which roughly meant
Iowa-wide) systems. Similarly, a Canadian
study estimated that replacing imported
food with equivalent items locally grown in
the Waterloo, Ontario, region would save
transport-related emissions equivalent to
nearly 50,000 metric tons of CO2, or the
equivalent of taking 16,191 cars off the
road.
What’s “Local?”
But what exactly is “local food” in the
first place? How local is local?
One problem with trying to determine
whether local food is greener is that there’s
no universally accepted definition of local
food. Alisa Smith and J.B. MacKinnon, authors of The 100-Mile Diet, write that they
chose this boundary for their experiment
in eating locally because “a 100-mile radius
is large enough to reach beyond a big city
and small enough to feel truly local. And
it rolls off the tongue more easily than the
‘160-kilometer diet.’” Sage Van Wing, who
coined the term “locavore” with a friend
when she was living in Marin County,
California, was inspired to eat local after
reading Coming Home to Eat, a chronicle of
author Gary Paul Nabhan’s own year-long
effort to eat only foods grown within 250
miles of his Northern Arizona home. She
figured that if Nabhan could accomplish
that in the desert, she could do even better
in the year-round agricultural cornucopia
that is Northern California, so she decided
to limit herself to food from within 100
miles.
There’s some evidence that a popular
understanding of local food is, at least in
some places, coalescing around this 100mile limit. A 2008 Leopold Institute survey
of consumers throughout the United
States found that two-thirds considered
local food to mean food grown within 100
miles. Still, a variety of other definitions
also persist. Sometimes local means food
grown within a county, within a state or
province, or even, in the case of some small
European nations, within the country. In
the United Kingdom, reports Tara Garnett
of the Food Climate Research Network,
“on the whole, organizations supporting
local are now less likely to put numbers on
things.” Meanwhile, rural sociologist, Clare
Hinrichs of Pennsylvania State University,
has found that in Iowa local has shifted
from signifying food grown within a
county or a neighboring one to food grown
anywhere in the state. For some in the
agricultural community, promoting and
eating “local Iowa food” is almost a kind
of food patriotism, aimed at counteracting
the forces of globalization that have put the
state’s family farmers at risk.
All of those are perfectly valid ways of
thinking about local. But they don’t have
all that much to do with environmental
costs and benefits.
Tradeoffs
In any case, warns Pirog, food
miles/kilometers don’t tell the whole story.
“Food miles are a good measure of how far
Rethinking “local” food
food has traveled. But they’re not a very
good measure of the food’s environmental
impact.”
That impact depends on how the
food was transported, not just how far. For
example, trains are 10 times more efficient
at moving freight, ton for ton, than trucks
are. So you could eat potatoes trucked in
from 100 miles away, or potatoes shipped
by rail from 1,000 miles away, and the
greenhouse gas emissions associated with
their transport from farm to table would be
roughly the same.
The environmental impact of food
also depends on how it is grown. Swedish researcher Annika Carlsson-Kanyama
led a study that found it was better, from
a greenhouse-gas perspective, for Swedes
to buy Spanish tomatoes than Swedish
tomatoes, because the Spanish tomatoes
were grown in open fields while the local
ones were grown in fossil-fuel-heated
greenhouses.
That seems obvious, but there are
subtler issues at play as well. For example,
Spain has plenty of the warmth and
sunshine that tomatoes crave, but its main
horticultural region is relatively arid and
is likely to become more drought-prone
in the future as a result of global climate
change. What if water shortages require
Spanish growers to install energy-intensive
irrigation systems? And what if greenhouses
in northern Europe were heated with
renewable energy?
Perhaps it’s inevitable that we consumers gravitate to a focus on food miles-the
concept represents the last step before
food arrives on our tables, the part of the
agricultural supply chain that’s most visible
to us. And indeed, all other things being
equal, it’s better to purchase something
grown locally than the same thing grown
far away. “It is true that if you’re comparing exact systems, the same food grown in
the same way, then obviously, yes, the food
transported less will have a smaller carbon
footprint,” Pirog says.
But a broader, more comprehensive
picture of all the tradeoffs in the food
system requires tracking greenhouse gas
emissions through all phases of a food’s
production, transport, and consumption.
And life-cycle analysis (LCA), a research
method that provides precisely this “cradleto-grave” perspective, reveals that food
miles represent a relatively small slice of the
greenhouse-gas pie.
In a paper published last year, Christopher Weber and H. Scott Matthews of
Carnegie Mellon University, wove together
data from a variety of U.S. government
sources into a comprehensive life-cycle
analysis of the average American diet. According to their calculations, final delivery
from producer or processor to the point
of retail sale accounts for only 4 percent
of the U.S. food system’s greenhouse gas
emissions. Final delivery accounts for only
about a quarter of the total miles, and 40
percent of the transport-related emissions, in the food supply chain as a whole.
That’s because there are also “upstream”
miles and emissions associated with things
like transport of fertilizer, pesticides, and
animal feed. Overall, transport accounts
for about 11 percent of the food system’s
emissions.
By contrast, Weber and Matthews
found agricultural production accounts for
the bulk of the food system’s greenhouse
gas emissions: 83 percent of emissions occur before food even leaves the farm gate.
A recent life-cycle analysis of the U.K.
food system, by Tara Garnett yielded similar results. In her study, transport accounted for about a tenth of the food system’s
greenhouse gas emissions, and agricultural
production accounted for half. Garnett
says the same general patterns likely also
hold for Europe as a whole.
There’s something about dairy
The other clear result that emerges
from these analyses is that what you eat
matters at least as much as how far it
travels, and agriculture’s overwhelming
“hotspots” are red meat and dairy production. In part, that’s due to the inefficiency
of eating higher up on the food chain-it
takes more energy, and generates more
emissions, to grow grain, feed it to cows,
and produce meat or dairy products for
human consumption, than to feed grain
to humans directly. But a large portion of
emissions associated with meat and dairy
production take the form of methane and
nitrous oxide, greenhouse gases that are
respectively 23 and 296 times as potent
as carbon dioxide. Methane is produced
by ruminant animals (cows, goats, sheep,
and the like) as a byproduct of digestion,
and is also released by the breakdown of all
types of animal manure. Nitrous oxide also
comes from the breakdown of manure (as
well as the production and breakdown of
fertilizers).
In Garnett’s study, meat and dairy accounted for half of the U.K. food system’s
greenhouse gas emissions. In fact, she
writes, “the major contribution made by
agriculture itself reflects the GHG [green-
Page 17
Pros and cons of CAFOs
Continued from page 5
“Declining income is a huge crisis for farmers and the communities that depend on them,” Lin argues. “Our contention
is that we need a new pricing system and we need new antitrust
measures that take corporate control away from the system.”
Doug Sinko, who serves as a liaison between Western dairy
farmers and Organic Valley, says there’s a 7-10 percent overproduction of organic milk nationally. “The surplus means that
some people don’t have markets for their milk,” says Sinko, who
once operated what he says was the first certified organic dairy in
the Pacific Northwest, in Myrtle Point, Ore. Organic Valley has
dropped its pay price to farmers $2 per hundredweight since January, Sinko notes and has instituted a quota program to stem the
tide of milk.
Earlier this year, distributor HP Hood cancelled eight dairy
contracts for farmers in Maine, and demanded a production cut of
15 percent by the majority of the state’s 14 organic milk producers. Hood also cancelled 22 contracts in California, according to
the California Farm Bureau Federation. The New York Times reported May 28 that 32 dairy farms in Vermont have closed down
since December first.
Ed Maltby, Executive Director of Northeast Organic Dairy
Producers Alliance in Deerfield, Mass., argues that the flood of
organic milk is largely due to lax enforcement of the National
Organic Program (NOP). “They [the processors and distributors
of organic milk] have been taking on farms whose quality isn’t
high, whose organic standards aren’t high. Lack of enforcement on
key parts of the organic legislation on origin of cows and access to
pasture,” he claims, “grew the milk supply very rapidly.”
Maltby says that some smaller dairy operations have taken
a lesson from the CAFO (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations), shirking the NOP’s recommendations, but still market
themselves as organic. “There are some 300-cow herds that don’t
graze at all,” Maltby observes.
Approximately 9,900 CAFOs operate in the U.S, producing
Page 18
more than 50 percent of the animals stock consumed in the nation,
according to a 2008 report authored by Doug Gurian-Sherman,
a senior scientist for the Union of Concerned Scientists in Cambridge, Mass. The watchdog defines a dairy-or-beef CAFO as an
operation hosting more than 1,000 animals.
Gurian-Sherman has argued that small dairy farmers are at a
competitive disadvantage with CAFOs, given that the enormous
industrial operations often qualify for federal subsidies to reduce
their environmental impact, thus passing the costs of production
onto U.S. taxpayers. A dairy CAFO can qualify for up to $450,000
in individual grants, the report notes. Organic dairies, with a
decidedly smaller environmental impact, don’t generate enough
pollutants to present a significant threat to the environment, and
therefore can’t suckle at the federal teat. CAFOs may have netted
as much as $125 million in environmental protection subsidies in
2007, Gurian-Sherman notes.
There are 20 large organic industrial dairies in the U.S., according to the Organic Consumers Association, in Finland, Minn.
The Association claims that combined, CAFOs produce as much
as 40 percent of the nation’s organic milk supply.
In a direct challenge to CAFO’s, the Northeast Organic Dairy
Producers Alliance has petitioned the USDA to adopt new NOP
rules, clarifying a national standard for access to pasture. Namely,
the alliance has proposed that organic dairy livestock over six
months of age “must graze on pasture during the months of the
year when pasture can provide edible forage,” and that “grazed feed
must provide significant intake for all milking-age organic dairy
cows.”
Bruce Pokarney, director of communications for the Oregon
Department of Agriculture, says that almost all of Oregon’s conventional dairies, numbering somewhere between 500-600 operations, are classified as CAFOs. The largest, according to the state
Department of Environmental Quality, manages 16,000 cattle.
The state legislature funded a “Dairy Air Task Force” in 2007,
to study a narrow range of environmental impacts by CAFOs.
After meeting in session eight times, the task force published a
report noting that CAFOs are “very thorny issues” and evoke
“deeply held, diverse opinions.” The committee recommended that
the state consider tax credits to CAFOs, in order to encourage wise
environmental practices, but also set 2015 as the target date for
when its target air-quality goals would be mandatory.
Ed Zimba, an organic dairy farmer in Deford, Mich., believes
that CAFOs are unfairly judged on size alone; he says it’s more important to question whether a given dairy is adhering to the rules
of the National Organic Program. “I don’t care if they’re milking
one cow, or a thousand cows,” says Zimba, “as long as they’re grazing like they should be.”
Zimba, who says he milks 300 hosteins and crossbreds on a
farm certified organic by the Kentucky Department of Agriculture,
adds, “There are dairies that milk 50 cows that don’t have access to
grazing. We’re more concerned about the integrity of organic, than
about how many cows someone milks.”
Zimba, who serves as an at-large member of the Northeast Organic Dairy Producers Alliance, says he grazes his herd from about
May 1 to Nov. 15—opening day for Michigan’s deer season, when
cows are healthier indoors than out to pasture. He also argues that
CAFOs aren’t getting an unfair competitive advantage by tap-
Challenges in the bust
ping into federal grants for environmental
protection. Zimba points out that the same
types of grants are available at the state and
county level, throughout the U.S., for small
farms that want to limit their ecological
footprint.
Arden Tewksbury, a Pennsylvania dairy
farmer and head of Progressive Agriculture,
is the principal author of Senate Bill 1647,
sponsored in the legislature by Pennsylvania senators Arlen Specter and Bob Casey.
Tewksbury, a retired dairy farmer, and
executive director of Progressive Agriculture
Organization, in Meshoppen, Penn., says,
“It doesn’t matter who you are, whether
you’re conventional or organic; if you’re in
the dairy business, you’re in serious trouble.
Tewksbury says that U.S. dairy farmers are
estimated to gross $16 billion less in 2009
than they did in 2008. “That’s just loss of
revenue, without calculating costs rising
from 25 to 35 percent.”
There were approximately 350,000
dairy farms in the U.S. in 1981, Tewksbury
observes, when President Ronald Reagan
deregulated the dairy industry. “Now we’re
down to 57,000. Hawaii has five farms,
into the organic dairy marketplace hoping
as of 2007. Every state has been hemorto cash in on the growing market.” He conrhaging dairy farms. In 1992, there were
cludes that “The new competition caused
131,000 licensed dairy operations. Today
high prices. Just as the recession set in, the
we have less than half of that.”
organic dairy supply was over stimulated
He says his legislation, which he coand this era came to an end. The recession
authored with neighboring farmer George
had an immediate impact on the organic
Carlin, would pry loose the stranglehold
dairy market which dropped from a 25
CAFOs have on both organic and convenpercent growth rate down to zero percent.”
tional dairy operations. “What used to be
To look at recent dairy stats is like
family farms has been taken over by these
opening an artery. Conventional dairy
huge facilities that poison the land and the
farmers in Wisconsin are paid $9.50 to $11
community. They’re shipping grain from
for every 100 pounds (one hundredweight)
Iowa to produce milk in Pennsylvania,
of unprocessed milk, Kinsman notes. But
that’s sent to a processor in New York that’s the cost of production for Wisconsin farmthen sent back to the shelf in Iowa. You
ers, according to the USDA’s Economic
can’t run a business like that and call it
Research Service, was $21.81 per hundredsustainable. What we want is a sustainable
weight as recently as July. Organic Valley
market, and we want a fair price for our
was paying its Vermont dairy farmers, with
milk.”
higher feed and production costs, $26.50
George L. Siemon, CEO of Organic
that same month.
Valley sums it up thusly, “Around 2004,
The high costs of production, comorganic milk became short for an extended
bined with dwindling income, has farmers
period as organic dairy experienced double
begging bankers for extended credit, selling
digit growth. During the tight supply
off equipment or “accepting” foreclosure.
situation, many new competitors
entered
09InGoodTilth.qxd
5/19/09 10:34 AM Page 1
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An industry both
tender and robust
a new variety, as well as infrastructure for
growth chambers and disease and pathology testing for the plant.
Andrew–So even though the market
for organic seed has been shown to be
strong, there’s still the uncertainty of making back the investment.
Matt–Even though they can sell the
seed for more, they cannot sell it for that
much more.
The majority of conventional companies still don’t care about organic in one
way or another, and will likely never convert their lines to organic. So a farmer who
uses a specific variety owned by only one
company, if that company is never going
to convert to organic, that farmer could be
in a situation where they would never have
the variety they want produced organically.
The other issue that comes up with
soybeans and corn, and increasing concern
in brassica crops, and of course with chard,
is the contamination with genetically engineered crops. At the Organic Seed Alliance
we are having farmers call us and ask, “how
can I be certain that the organic seed I am
purchasing is free of genetic contamination?” Some of those calls are from people
who just don’t understand contamination
and their concern that their carrots may
be contaminated, those are rare and those
Page 20
are usually gardeners that are calling, not
farmers. Farmers are calling and asking questions about field corn and sweet
corn, about brassica crops, about beets
and chard, and they are frustrated in some
degree that they don’t have that information, and can’t seem to get that information clearly from those companies. There
is a push right now for further testing
of organic seed, but of course it is a very
precarious situation because organic seed
companies who test for contamination, and
test positive for GE contaminants that they
recorded and tell their customers, their
customers are likely not buying. They have
no recourse to pay for their crop loss. It is
a difficult situation for the seed companies,
but meanwhile farmers are nervous they
might be contaminating their fields with
contaminated organic seeds. Some of the
companies do test, but very few of them
have an open policy, or print much about
it in their catalogs because they are not sure
they will have any recourse for liability.
OSA’s goal is to try to create better
feedback loops and communication between farmers, researchers, seed companies
to improve all parties’ understanding of the
potential benefits that come from further
investment in the trialing of organic seed
systems, and try to get beyond the conflicts
and into solutions.
We also are doing an in-depth questionnaire for the seed
industry and asking
them questions about
their perceptions
and attitudes about
farmers’ purchasing
organic seed, and asking the organic seed
industry questions
about what are the
road blocks they face,
the technical obstacles in production
and disease obstacles
in the field production of plants. I think
this is going to tell us
a lot.
We are going to be doing another
questionnaire for certifiers about their
questions, concerns and experiences around
seed issues, and organic food companies
that buy on contract from farmers about
their perceptions, and what their future
needs are. Processors or food companies are
looking for quality traits that they can get
out of good genetics.
Right now this is the most important
thing: increased education across sectors to
understand how we can work together and
move this forward, rather than drop dead
deadlines of “farmers must use organic seed
by this date or else” or the opposite of “oh,
eventually it will catch on.”
In 2010, in cooperation with the
Midwest Organic Farming Conference,
OSA will be hosting a “State of Organic
Seed Symposium.” It’s a working meeting to actively discuss what is working
and what is not in organic seed systems.
We want diverse representatives from the
organic community at this event, not just
the seed heads. We will be building off of
the National Organic Action Plan to create
an Organic Seed Action Plan. To work together to minimize contamination, and to
improve the overall quality of organic seed
so that organic farmers have the seed they
need. If you’re interested in attending the
symposium, look for info on the OSA web
site. There’s also links to the questionnaires
I mentioned. We really need organic farmers and food companies to fill these out.
We think there does need to be a
stimulated, dynamic dialogue amongst all
of the parties in the organic community
on this issue. Now is the time to engage in
it. The organic seed sector is at an exciting
place, and its true potential will emerge if
we work on it collaboratively as a community.
Matthew Dillon and John Navazio cofounded Organic Seed Alliance in 2003.
Matthew serves as the director of advocacy. John is the senior plant breeder.
For more information on the State of
Organic Seed Report, symposium, and
questionnaires please go to
www..seedalliance.org/advocacy.
Oregon celebrates new pioneers
The Organic Policy award went to
Anita Azarenko, head of OSU Department
of Horticulture, which under her guidance,
has become a leader in the field of organic
fruit and vegetable production. Anita and
her husband are also stewards of a 160-acre
diversified family farm producing organic
fruit and hazelnuts, pasture-based beef
cattle, hay and timber.
Winter Green Farm won the award
for crop farm. Although the farm has been
organic since its inception in the 1970s,
Jack Gray and Mary Jo Wade had it certified organic in 1984, before the word “organic” had legal definition. A decade later,
Gray participated in drafting Oregon’s
Organic Standards Law, which defined
the term. Today, Winter Green Farm is an
exemplar of biodynamic and sustainable
farming systems and has inspired a generation of Oregon’s organic farmers.
Katy Coba, Director of Oregon Department of Agriculture remarked, “What
an amazing ride it has been in Oregon.”
In 2000, 83,297 acres where certified as
organic. “In 2008, there has been a 39
percent increase in the amount of acres
certified as organic. We are now at over a
115,000 acres in Oregon that are certified
as organic.”
Katy also acknowledged the challenges. “For a lot of farmers and ranchers in
the state, it’s a time to hold on and weather
the storm, and hope the economy turns
around.
“On the flip side, (there are) amazing
opportunities now for agriculture and in
particular organic agriculture. Consumers
are more interested in where their food
comes from, how it is grown, and wanting to connect directly if they can with the
farmer or rancher who raises that food, and
thank them for the great work they do.”
A statement by former Oregon organic
farmer and current Congressman Kurt
Schrader was read by proxy, “I hope many
people will take advantage of the many opportunities you are providing to tour local
organic farms, taste local organic produce
and other foods and learn about healthy
soil. Oregon has particular reason to be
proud of our organic industry, which has
long been a pioneer in the country. Oregon
is a model for the country. Thank you for
the work you do to keep Oregon’s organic
agriculture industry as a standard for the
country.”
Many green winters
WinterGreen Farm’s Jack Gray spoke at
the Organic Grown in Oregon celebration
luncheon. Here are some of his remarks.
By Jack Gray
The changes in organic in the last 30
years have been staggering. It has changed
from a social movement that was dominated by youthful environmentalists, to a
dynamic industry searching for a sustainable balance.
The organics industry has gotten
smarter, more professional, and more impactful on society as a whole. Throughout
this period there has been two organizations that have had the most impact on me.
The first is Oregon Tilth, and the other
is Organically Grown Company. Oregon
Tilth, in the 1980s was a support group to
me, a group of like-minded people that got
together, shared successes and failures and
had social gatherings.
There was peer-review certification.
Farmers would get together, ask a few
questions, kick the dirt around, and make a
decision as to whether the farm was organic
or not.
You can see over time, the incredible
changes that have happened, and Oregon
Tilth has gone through that. Over those
years, and many hours of volunteers and
staff, it has really become a respected and
international organization. They have
certified over 1300 farms, processors and
restaurants.
OGC has had a similarly meteoric rise.
Back in the day it was a farmers marketing
coop, and at that time, the markets were
just starting to open up. I can remember
organizational meetings where rototillers
and tractors were put up for loan collatoral.
I can remember the first employees.
Now it has grown into a company, a
grower staff-owned business in Oregon,
Washington and beyond.
When we started growing organically,
there wasn’t much information out there.
There were no organic advisors around,
and a handful of extension that would talk
to us. We really had to search them out.
In conventional ag, there was out and out
hostility to what we were doing. Over time,
things opened up and started flowing.
The world of organics is very different
now. There were tradeoffs along the way,
but throughout all of this, organics has
remained a force in agriculture.
Food
is special. It
is not just
a commodity. It is a
source of
health, a
source of
life, and
really needs
to be treated with respect. To grow this
food we need to concentrate on nurturing
natural ecosystems, to feeding the living
soil. We must continue to take care of the
earth. That’s where it began with organics,
and that’s where its focus must remain.
Sometimes when you work at something you believe in so passionately, like
working the farm or raising a child, or
promoting organics in Oregon, it’s easy
sometimes to have self-doubt. Is anyone
out there listening to me? Are my kids going to share my values?
I asked Ariel, my 14 year old daughter
what I should say at this event. She said,
“Dad, you should say that it’s been a privilege to grow healthy food for people and
every seed on this farm is planted with care
and compassion and grows love.”
Page 21
Beyond the carbon footprint
house gas] intensity of livestock rearing.”
Weber and Matthews come to a similar
conclusion: “No matter how it is measured,
on average red meat is more GHG-intensive than all other forms of food,” responsible for about 150 percent more emissions
than chicken or fish. In their study the
second-largest contributor to emissions was
the dairy industry.
Nor are these two studies unique in
their findings. A group of Swedish researchers has calculated that meat and dairy
contribute 58 percent of the total food
emissions from a typical Swedish diet. At a
global level, the UN Food and Agriculture
Organization has estimated that livestock
account for 18 percent of all greenhouse
gas emissions-more even than all forms of
fossil fuel-based transport combined.
“Broadly speaking, eating fewer meat
and dairy products and consuming more
plant foods in their place is probably the
single most helpful behavioral shift one can
make” to reduce food-related greenhouse
gas emissions, Garnett argues.
Weber and Matthews calculated that
reducing food miles to zero-an all-but-impossible goal in practice-would reduce the
greenhouse gas emissions associated with
the food system by only about 5 percent,
equivalent to driving 1,000 miles less
over the course of a year. By comparison,
replacing red meat and dairy with chicken,
fish, or eggs for one day per week would
save the equivalent of driving 760 miles
per year. Replacing red meat and dairy
with vegetables one day a week would be
like driving 1,160 miles less. “Thus,” they
write, “we suggest that dietary shift can
be a more effective means of lowering an
average household’s food-related climate
footprint than ‘buying local.’”
However, Weber acknowledges, “these
calculations were done assuming that local foods are no different than non-local
foods.” And that’s not always the case. For
example, local-food advocates also emphasize eating seasonal (often meaning fieldgrown) and less-processed foods. Those
qualities, along with shorter distances from
farm to table, will also contribute to lower
emissions compared to the “average” diet.
Food marketed in the local food
economy-at farmers’ markets and through
community-supported agriculture (CSA)
schemes-is frequently also organic. Organic
Page 22
food often (though not always) is associated with lower greenhouse gas emissions
than conventionally grown food, because
organics don’t generate the emissions associated with production, transport, and
application of synthetic fertilizers and
pesticides.
Organic food also has other environmental benefits: less use of toxic chemicals
promotes greater farmland biodiversity,
and organic fields require less irrigation
under some conditions. Because local food
is so frequently talked about in terms of
food miles, its environmental benefits have
largely been couched in terms of greenhouse gas emissions. But food’s carbon
footprint “can’t be the only measuring stick
of environmental sustainability,” notes
Gail Feenstra, a food systems analyst at the
University of California at Davis Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education
Program.
Finally, farmers who market locally
are often relatively small in scale, and
can more feasibly adopt environmentally
beneficial practices such as growing a
diversity of crops, planting cover crops,
leaving weedy field borders or planting
hedgerows that provide a refuge for native
biodiversity, and integrating crop and
livestock production. In short, Weber says,
“the production practices matter a lot more
than where the food was actually grown. If
buying local also means buying with better production practices then that’s great,
that’s going to make a huge difference.”
Of course, the relationship between
local food marketing and sustainable
agricultural practices is far from perfect. A
small farmer can still spray pesticides and
plow from road to road. Not all farmers-market vendors are organic. Clare
Hinrichs, who calls herself an “ardent”
farmers-market shopper, nevertheless
acknowledges that “the actual consequences-both intended or unintended-[of local
food systems] haven’t really been all that
closely or systematically studied.”
How green is my valley?
So, is local food greener? Not necessarily. But look at the question from the
opposite direction: if you’re a consumer
interested in greener food, the local food
economy is currently a good place to find
it. By the same token, a farmer who sells
in the local food economy might be more
likely to adopt or continue sustainable
practices in order to meet this customer
demand. If local food has environmental
benefits, they aren’t all-or perhaps even
mainly-intrinsic to local-ness. Or, as
Hinrichs has written, “it is the social relation, not the spatial location, per se, that
accounts for this outcome.”
For local food advocates like Sage Van
Wing, that interaction between producer
and consumer, between farmer and eater, is
precisely the point. Regarding food miles,
Van Wing says, “I’m not interested in that
at all.” For her, purchasing an apple isn’t
just about the greenhouse gas emissions
involved in producing and transporting the fruit, “it’s also about how those
apples were farmed, how the farm workers
were treated”-a broad array of ecological,
social, and economic factors that add up
to sustainability. Interacting directly with
the farmer who grows her food creates a
“standard of trust,” she says.
Christopher Weber, who followed a
vegan diet for 10 years and calls himself
“somewhat of a self-proclaimed foodie,”
agrees: “That’s one thing that’s really great
about local food, and one of the reasons
that I buy locally, is because you can actually know your farmer and know what
they’re doing.”
Van Wing says that her approach to
local food has evolved over time-she started
out trying to eat within a 100-mile radius,
but now she simply tries to get each food
item from the closest source feasible. Foods
that can’t be grown nearby are either rare
treats or have disappeared from her diet
altogether. “I just don’t do things that
don’t make sense,” she says. Her statement
echoes journalist and sustainable-agriculture guru Michael Pollan, who in his recent
book In Defense of Food offers a commonsense guide to eating ethically and well:
“Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”
You could sum up the ecological case for
eating locally by adding one more sentence:
“Mostly what’s in season and grown not
too far away.”
Yet there are limits to this commonsense approach. In many areas, the climate
is such that eating local, seasonal, fieldgrown produce would be a pretty bleak
proposition for much of the year. Large
concentrations of people live in areas not
Food
miles
suited to growing certain staple crops; it’s
one thing to forego bananas, but quite
another to give up wheat. And population
density itself works against relocalization of
the food system. Most of the land within
100 miles of large cities such as New York
is itself very built up; where will the farmland to feed us all locally come from? (By
the same token, that very situation makes
preservation of what farmland remains all
the more important, a goal that buying
from local farmers can help advance.)
In this sense, life-cycle analyses of the
current food system offer a paradoxically
hopeful perspective, because they suggest
that, if the goal is to improve the environmental sustainability of the food system as
a whole, then there are a variety of public
policy levers that we can pull. To be sure,
promoting more localized food production
and distribution networks would reduce
transport emissions. But what if a greater
investment in rail infrastructure helped to
reverse the trend toward transporting more
food by inefficient semi-truck? What if
fuel economy standards were increased for
the truck fleet that moves our food? Or, to
name one encompassing possibility, what if
a carbon-pricing system incorporated some
of the environmental costs of agriculture
that are currently externalized? Local food
is delicious, but the problem-and perhaps
the solution-is global.
This article appears courtesy of The
Worldwatch Institute, an independent
research organization recognized by
opinion leaders around the world for its
accessible, fact-based analysis of critical
global issues. Its mission is to generate
and promote insights and ideas that
empower decision makers to build an
ecologically sustainable society that meets
human needs.
Court finds USDA violated
federal law by allowing
genetically engineered
sugar beets on the market
Government Failed To Evaluate
Environmental and Economic Risks
of Monsanto Product
In a case brought by the Center for
Food Safety and Earthjustice representing a coalition of farmers and consumers,
a Federal Court ruled September 22, that
the Bush USDA’s approval of genetically
engineered (GE) “RoundUp Ready” sugar
beets was unlawful. The Court ordered the
USDA to conduct a rigorous assessment of
the environmental and economic impacts
of the crop on farmers and the environment. The federal district court
for the Northern District of
California ruled that the U.
S. Department of Agriculture’s
Animal and Plant Health Inspection
Service violated the National Environmental Policy Act when it failed to
prepare an Environmental Impact Statement before deregulating sugar beets
that have been genetically engineered
(“GE”) to be resistant to glyphosate
herbicide, marketed by Monsanto
as Roundup. Plaintiffs Center
for Food Safety, Organic Seed Alliance, Sierra Club, and High Mowing Seeds, represented by Earthjustice
and the Center for Food Safety, filed
suit against APHIS in January 2008,
alleging APHIS failed to adequately assess
the environmental, health, and associated
economic impacts of allowing “Roundup
Ready” sugar beets to be commercially
grown without restriction.
“This court decision is a wakeup
call for the Obama USDA that they will
not be allowed to ignore the biological
pollution and economic impacts of gene
altered crops,” stated Andrew Kimbrell
Executive Director of the Center for Food
Safety. “The Courts have made it clear that
USDA’s job is to protect America’s farmers and consumers, not the interests of
Monsanto.”
While industry asserts that the adop-
tion rates of GE sugar beets has been high,
food producers have shown reluctance in
accepting GE beet sugar. Over 100 companies have joined the Non-GM Beet Sugar
Registry opposing the introduction of GE
sugar beets, and pledging to seek wherever
possible to avoid using GM beet sugar in
their products:
www.seedsofdeception.com/includes/
services/nongm_sugar_beet_registry_display.cfm .
Page 23
A LWAY S P U R E - A LWAY S N AT U R A L
Nancy’s family
of Organic
Yogurt, Soy and
Organic Kefir
Nancy’s is delighted to support family farms who have made a
commitment to sustainable organic farming practices.
Manufactured in the U SA by:
P.O. B ox 307, C anby, OR 97013
888-877-7665
[email protected]
Certified Organic
by Oregon Tilth
Springfield Creamery Family owned and operated since 1960 Eugene, Oregon
w w w. n a n c y s y o g u r t . c o m
HEALTHY LIVING SOIL
Earthworm Cocoons (Eggs)
Organic crops start
with the seed.
Plant Organic.
Fa r m B e t t e r .
UÊHigh-yielding regionally-specific hybrids
and varieties
UÊextensive testing program
UÊexperienced dealer network
to locate a dealer go to
More information is available under our “Cocoons” webpage and our “Worms” webpage in
our website. We also sell earthworms, worm
castings, and worm bins.
www.blueriverorgseed.com
or call 800-370-7979.
Corn | Soybeans | Alfalfa | Red Clover | Sudangrass
Page 24
Earthworms are important
for soil fertility and sustaining agriculture. They play an
important role in the creation
of healthy, productive soils.
Earthworms feeding and burrowing activities
incorporate organic amendments into the soil,
enhancing decomposition, humus formation,
nutrient cycling, and soil structure development.
Earthworm burrows persist as macropores which
provide low resistance channels for root growth,
water infiltration, and gas exchange. These
incredible earthworms are a vital component in
the living biosystem that is healthy “living” soil.
www.bwcnfarms.com
Page 25
Book Review
D.I.Y. made
easy
By Angela Ajootian
Krause Publications, a special interest
publishing house, is running a series that
focuses on simple ways to achieve more
sustainable homes that you can be proud
of. Their “Simple Living” shelf, catchword
“Eco-Friendly,” is a good collection of well
vetted authors sharing their wisdom on a
range of topics from cosmetics to composting. Titles include Grow Your Own Tree
Hugger by Wendy Rosenoff and Sheds: The
DIY Guide for Backyard Builders by David
Stiles. The two books I read were Natural
Alternatives for You and Your Home and
Your Eco-Friendly Yard: Sustainable Ideas to
Save You Time, Money, and the Earth.
Casey Keller is a professional natural
product formulator with many years of
experience in the industry, lecturing, and
writing. She worked with Krause Publications to bring about this nifty, Natural
Alternatives for You and Your Home. In 207
well-packed pages, she provides recipes for
personal care, cleaning, and beauty items.
A reaction might be, “Why is this important to me? I don’t spa or use makeup.”
Well, your soap, shampoo, and lip gloss
can easily be made at home. Recent lapses
in consumer product purity, especially in
items for infants or children, should be
reason enough to investigate small DIY
Page 26
projects. Lean budgets can be addressed
with the wise consumer strategies that she
endorses because it is cost effective and a
great way to reduce/reuse/recycle many
clever items. Soap, lovely jars, garden herbs,
and pretty canisters are a few items that can
be reprocessed to make excellent gifts or
even embellish a business with additional
product. Casey’s professional background
informs her presentation and product range
so you get an amazingly diverse book that
is nice to simply look at.
The provided cost comparisons
are telling. For example, along with
the recipe for Antioxidant Moisturizing Night Eye Cream With Vitamin E
she includes a comparable cost sheet of
- Homemade:$1.02/2oz. Este Lauder tm
:$48.00/2oz. Burt’s Bees: $24.99/2oz. Her
recipe is easy to follow and colorfully illustrated. If you want to dive headfirst into
making a vast array of quality products, she
will take you there. The book details pet
care, pest control, potting soils and plant
care products, household cleaners and energy tips, first aid items and so much more.
The holism of organic life often forgets to
include the bodily indulgences that keep us
sane and relaxed as well as attending to the
needs of our skin and hair. The home spa
section includes an assortment of easy to
make and naturally wonderful scrubs, oils,
butters, crèmes, salts and enhancements.
The vast majority of her listings include
helpful tips or related information. The
book is laden with inspiring pictures, which
differs greatly from the usual backyard
snapshots present in many organics texts.
As such it is a lovely gift that would cross
many social boundaries.
There are also recipes for housecleaning treatments, pet care products, salves and
ointments, window cleaners, laundry cleaners and insect repellants. All the ingredients
are easily attainable and affordable, and the
instructions are easy to follow, with step-bystep photos.
Tom Girolamo is a professional landscape designer and certified permaculture
instructor. His first book, Your Eco-Friendly
Yard: Sustainable Ideas to Save You Time,
Money, & the Earth, is a lively manual for
repeatable success in your back yard design.
Permaculture employs systems found in
nature to enrich and enhance our immediate environment.
His voice is sure and quite forward
without being overbearing. The core of his
Book Review
Spilt milk
Guides
thesis is that you shouldn’t have to work
hard and spend a lot of money to have a
landscape you are happy with. Tom knows
the main reason people fail to enjoy their
yard is improper planning, many people
design inside the home then outside the
home, when we should let the land inform
our interior spaces to achieve true harmony.
A substantial period of research should be
spent learning about your backyard ecology,
ideals, personal preferences, and realistic
time commitments before the shovel ever
hits the ground.
The second chapter is devoted to
debunking the sacred standbys of standard
eco-friendly yards. Rain barrels, composting, tilling, native plants and retaining walls
are fairly tilted at. His main issue with many
of these practices is inefficiency of time or
money, which ultimately turns people away
from permaculture. He studies the individual before making appropriate recommendations and a personal questionnaire
is included in the book. Over the decades
he has witnessed four main personas of
permaculturally-minded people; fun, easy
going, bold and perfectionist. He wants
great results for everyone and knows how to
generate them.
Not only does this book come with
personalized schematics, it has a multitude
of handy demonstrations and tips to help
you achieve hassle-free sustainable landscaping. Solar panels, a bistro table, easy paver
pathways, a brick oven, champagne bottle
fire pit, drip irrigation, and mulching tricks
are but some of the projects in the text. He
loves tools and has a chapter devoted to
the good, the bad and the ugly out there.
Perhaps the most appreciable example of his
candid wisdom regards buying pets for the
kids. He urges people to obtain useful pest
nabbing, manure producing, scrap eating
laying hens over rabbits and rodents. “What
can you do with a rabbit? You can’t eat it,
because the kids would freak out.”
Word.
See www.krausebooks.com for a
catalog of these, and other illuminating
titles.
Angela Ajootian is a writer and a do it
yourselfer residing in Philomath, Ore.
Bruce Drinkman, an organic dairy farmer
in Glenwood City, Wis., says he and his
wife recently cashed in her IRA in May, in
order to pay expenses and the principal on
a farm-credit loan.
“We’re not doing very well at all,” he
admits. “The banks don’t want to work
with us. There’s no forgiveness, and we’re
living check to check at best.” He says he’s
getting $14 per hundredweight for his
milk, but the production costs are $35.
His wife needs medications for her blood
circulation. She isn’t getting them. He says
he recently bought a $10 pair of reading
glasses at Wal-Mart, rather than spend
$300-$400 for an eye exam and prescription lenses.
Hilde Steffey of Farm Aid recently
told the National Family Farm Coalition
that hotline calls in July for emergency help
were up 500 percent at her relief agency,
compared with the same period in 2008.
“There was a time when every 80 acres
around here had a dairy farm with chickens and hogs,” says organic dairy farmer
Kinsman, who milks 36 cows on the rolling
hills of Sauk County, “and they sent their
children to college.”
Now a third of them are dropping out
of high school. When the food you sell
is worth only half its value, you look on
yourself as foolish.”
Kinsman says his land is divided into
rolling hills and flats—the latter the product of an advancing ice sheet roughly 170
miles wide, which ironed Wisconsin into
what would become America’s iconic pastureland, and enabling Milwaukie legislators, roughly 10,000 years later, to proclaim
milk the official state beverage.
“It looks like Stonehenge,” Kinsman
laughs, but then observes that he’s comparing Sauk County to an abandoned civilization. “It’s a beautiful area that should be in
dairy farms,” he laments. “They’ve all sold
out or are about to sell out, or they’re bankrupt. There’s a lot of divorce, a lot of anger,
families in crisis. Farmers won’t admit it,
and families won’t admit it.”
Kinsman says he knows of farmer suicides related to failed—or failing—dairies,
but prefers to not name anyone specifically.
While dairy farmers are seeing smaller
and smaller milk checks, both production and corporate dairy profit continues
to rise. The latest data available from the
U.S. Agricultural Statistics Service points
out, for example, that cheese production
rose 1.6 percent in 2008 over 2007 figures.
Butter production (1.64 billion pounds)
was up 7.3 percent over 2007 numbers.
Whey was down 2.3 percent, but “American-type cheese” was up five percent. The
USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service, in
a September 17 report, notes that rising dry
milk prices are “increasing buyer interest
and transaction volume.”
Why, then, are farmers seeing little of
the green? Maltby says the organic dairy
market is expected to grow 3-4 percent
in 2009, compared with 20 percent in
previous years. Slower growth, combined
(arguably) with overproduction, means
that farmers are overextended; dairying is a
capital-intensive industry, and it’s just not
that easy to unburden oneself of cattle and
equipment if the market suddenly (or even
hesitantly) stagnates. Nor is it easy to shrug
off farm-credit loans.
Since January 2008, U.S. milk prices
have fallen by nearly half, from $20.50 per
hundredweight (45kg) to $11.40 this June,
according to the London based journal
The Economist. Belgian dairy farmers
protested falling milk prices September 16
by spraying an estimated 40,000 gallons of
milk over fields in Marche-en-Famenne, in
southern Belgium.
In May, the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee set aside $585 million for
direct farm loans, but Lin notes that without price supports for milk, the emergency
funds will dry up quickly. Tom Vilsack,
USDA Secretary of Agriculture, met with
organic dairy farmers at a West Salem,
Wisc. rally July 17, and promised the vocal
crowd that his agency is taking a closer look
at corporate dairies and processors.
“We are focusing on rules that will
level the playing field so that small and
medium size producers have a fair shot,”
Vilsack said at the rally, organized by the
Cornucopia Institute, in Cornucopia,
Wisc. “We are, as you are, asking questions
about how producers can make so little and
how others who are in the chain can make
so much.”
Joel Preston Smith is a Portland-based
writer.
Page 27
Photo by Kathy Dang
Cool Tips For Hot Gardens
Feast of fava
Favas coming on strong at the Organic Education Center.
Yard
&
Garden
By Kathy Dang
Now that the garlic is in the ground, and the garden is
bedded down for winter, there’s one last task to do before
perusing seed catalogs and making plans for next spring…
Plant fava beans! Originally from the Mediterranean,
favas have long been enjoyed around the world. Favas are
among the easiest crops to grow and help build your soil
too, so why not try growing your own this fall?
Plants are incredibly cold hardy, making them one
of the last crops that can be directly sown into our cool
fall soils. Varieties include Aquadulce, Broad Windsor,
Guatemalan Purple and Sweet Lorane. With every new
variety grown, I’m always surprised at the diversity of size,
color, and flavor that this unique crop has to offer. The
Aquadulce is extra cold hardy and grows up to 30 inches
tall. Broad Windsor, on the other hand, towers over other
spring crops topping out at 48 inches high. Guatemalan
Purple produces stunning dark purple beans that are delicious eaten fresh, or as dry beans, and Sweet Lorane is a
flavorful, small seeded variety.
Planting fava seeds in November will yield an early
summer harvest. Before planting, mix a couple inches of
compost into your topsoil to increase drainage and build
soil tilth. If space is limited, stagger seeds in an offset
pattern 8-10 inches apart, rather than planting in rows.
After sowing seeds, mulch the garden bed with 2-3” inches
of straw or leaves. This will help protect the soil against
Page 28
Phot
Tooling around
Yard
&
Garden
C
E
F
G
H
I
A
Tools that make any project
a breeze include the:
Photo by JConner Voss
A. Broadfork
B. Hori-Hori knife
C. Harvest Knife
D. Felco Clippers
E. Digging Fork (Spading Fork)
F. Chopping Hoe
G. Cultivator
H.Hula Hoe
I. Collinear Hoe
By Conner Voss
A good hand tool is not to be taken lightly. It enables us to
manipulate our environment, efficiently, for a specific purpose. In
many ways, tools are the defining artifacts of civilization – implements of intention, necessity, innovation, and creation. Through
tools we create culture, and through culture, stories are told about
the human endeavor.
When working in the garden, my body tells the tale of value
in hand tools. As an extension of our extremities, quality equipment works beyond the corporeal capacity to accomplish a variety
of tasks in only a fraction of the time – with minimal stress. I
believe that proper use of the proper tool is the difference between
garden pain and garden pleasure.
One thing I appreciate more than buying a sweet new or
recycled tool is realizing its great potential in the garden. However,
there’s nothing more disappointing than when one tool suddenly
becomes two pieces. Here are some things to look for in a worthy
apparatus:
The Handle Attachment: Back in the day, blacksmiths
would forge the head of a tool out of one solid piece of metal,
creating a long collar into which a hardwood handle was tightly
shaped. Sturdy rivets were then pounded through metal and
wood, fastening both together into a durable package. This
method requires more skill, more materials, and more time, so
mass-produced tools are hardly ever built to last. If you’re tool
shopping, look closely at how the handle and implement are
attached.
The Edge: “If you want to chop a tree quickly, spend twice as
much time sharpening your axe.” – Chinese Proverb
Due to their dullness, many store bought tools will drain
your energy reserves as fast as your wallet. If your implement
is blunt, chipped, or rusted, an electric-powered angle grinder
can be helpful for re-establishing a fine cutting edge. Likewise,
a single-cut bastard file is an essential back pocket item for
constant edge maintenance when working in the garden. It is
important to keep in mind that if the metal is soft it will be
Page 29
Cool Tips For Hot Gardens
B
D
Of tools quality and considerations
easy to sharpen initially, but lose its edge
quickly. Conversely, if you are dealing with
hard, high carbon steel it will take significantly longer to sharpen, but hold an edge
very well. Either way, a sharp hoe will make
you smile, while a dull hoe will make you
sweat.
Size, Weight, and Balance: Does the
tool feel good when you hold it? Can you
imagine working with it for hours on end?
Does it fit your grip, stature and stance?
Generally, it’s far easier to buy a tool that
fits our body than to try fitting our body to
the tool. For example, a weeding hoe has a
curved neck, with the cutting edge facing
the handler. The top of the hoe should
rest easily on the ground, allowing you to
pull the cutting edge toward you, slicing
weeds just below the soil surface. If this
angle isn’t quite right for your stature, it’s
worth seeking a different hoe, or finding a
way to bend the neck to the proper angle.
One tool that suites you well is better than
a whole tool shed full of ache inducing
objects.
One tool is hardly enough, however,
to carry us through our seasonal tasks with
grace and aplomb. From heavy weeding,
to furrowing, to light cultivation, and bed
preparation, there is definitely a tool for
the job. Over the past few years my home
tool shed has become unbearably crowded
with the new, the old, the broken, and the
long forgotten. With a weakness for garage
sales, I thrive on tool treasure, and now it’s
time to host a garage sale of my own. This
winter, anything that wasn’t put to service
last season will be considered extraneous.
Things are just getting too crowded, and
anyway, I’ve got to make room for more
tools.
The chosen few:
The following list is constructed for the
home gardener with a plot 10k sq. ft. or
smaller. Also, it is assumed that this gardener’s
arsenal already contains: wheelbarrow/garden
cart, shovel, sharpening file/grinder, pitchfork,
and soil rake.
Broadfork – two long handles, wide
base, multiple long tines, step-in.
Excels at: deep aeration, breaking up heavy
clay soils, minimizes compaction,
fluffing.
Page 30
Considerations: difficult in hard dry soils,
very heavy, two handles to break,
expensive.
Cultivator – long handle, multiple
sharp curved fingers/tines, used in a
pulling motion.
Excels at: breaking crust, light weeding,
rough, shallow bed preparation.
Considerations: will not dislodge established weeds, tough to use in compacted soils.
Hula hoe – long handle, stirrup with
Small knife/harvest knife – small,
light, super-sharp, brightly colored
handle.
Excels at: thinning, harvesting, cutting
twine
Considerations: not great for weeding, will
need constant sharpening, easy to lose.
Hand pruner – Felco #7’s,
Excels at: pruning and trimming small
branches/twigs.
Considerations: moving parts need to be
cleaned and oiled.
Excels at: heavy weeding, turning soil, bed
preparation.
Considerations: stooping with short
handle, tines can bend, disrupts soil
profile if turning.
Despite the rugged nature of my
favorite tools, they all need periodic care
for a long useful life. Generally, I strive to
oil the wood handles with linseed oil once a
year in the fall. This keeps those hardwoods
in supple, crack-free condition. During the
season, after each use, we use a wire brush
to scrape any clingy soil from the metal
parts. A bucket full of sand, with a little bit
of added oil, is also a great after-garden dip.
The sand helps remove grime, and the oil
repels rust-causing moisture during storage. Be sure to return your tools to a dry
resting place, out of the sun. For safety’s
sake, repair any cracked handles before they
explode during use. If released, the torque
in a broadfork handle is enough to do some
serious damage. Lastly, as much for you as
for the tool, keep those edges sharp. Sharp
is safe!
If you’re looking for some good oldfashioned tools, please check out the work
of these cool craftspeople. Consider their
work an investment in your gardening
future!
Heavy chopping hoe - long handle,
Some cool tool resources
two sharp sides, articulates, cuts on
push and pull.
Excels at: quick accurate weeding, light
cultivation in beds, maintaining soil
structure.
Considerations: not for large woody
weeds, stirrup will need to be sharpened/replaced.
Co-linear hoe – long handle, sharp
narrow head, multiple edges, used on
pull stroke.
Excels at: precision weeding, thinning,
making small seed furrows, cutting
larger weeds.
Considerations: small implement, not for
heavy compacted soils.
Spading fork – short D-handle, step-in
big sharp cutting edge.
Excels at: heaving weeding, breaking
clumps, rough bed prep, shaping beds
Considerations: chopping action is hard
on body, needs to stay sharp, can be
heavy.
Hori-Hori knife – heavy-duty knife,
slightly cupped (trowel), serrated side.
Excels at: heavy hand weeding, planting/
transplanting, cutting roots, clearing
beds.
Considerations: not a great trowel, serration won’t cut super woody debris
Red Pig Tools: www.redpigtools.com/
servlet/StoreFront
Meadow Creature:
www.meadowcreature.com/
broadfork.php
ProHoe – maker of the Rogue Hoe:
http://web.inetba.com/prohoe/
aboutus.ivnu
Conner Voss is the Organic Education
Center Garden Coordinator
Fava faves
Getting your
compaction from heavy winter rains, and
fava beans ready
encourage deep, anchoring roots. Mulch
to eat requires
also suppresses weeds that would othera simple 2-step
wise try to establish themselves in between
process.
young plants.
Step 1: Open up
In the spring, fava flowers provide an
each pod to expose
important early nectar source to beneficial
the beans.
insects, including native mason bees. They
Step 2: Peel off
also have secondary nectar sources called
the thin skin covextrafloral nectaries - tiny openings located
ering each bean.
on modified leaves that provide additional
This second step
nectar for attracting “good guys” to the
is a little trickier.
garden.
I’ve found that
Beginning in mid-May, bean pods
after removing the
plump up letting you know they are
beans from their
almost ready for harvest. When their pods
pods, submerging
become so heavy they point down toward
them in boiling
the soil, it’s fava picking time! Generally,
water for a couple
the pods near the bottom of the plant will
minutes then
ripen first, so start harvesting beans near
straining and coolthe soil, gradually working your way up to
ing them, makes
the top as the other pods ripen. The beans
peeling the skin
inside should be sweet and nutty tasting.
around each bean
Flowers are also edible and have a flavor
much easier. At
similar to green beans. I can rarely hold
this point, your
myself back from picking a few flowers as I
fava beans are
nibble my way through the garden in early
ready to eat, enjoy!
spring. Just remember, any flowers you
You can also let the entire pods dry on
pick won’t have a chance to mature into
the plant and eat them as dry beans. They
fruit so sample sparingly.
are ready to harvest when you can hear
A member of the legume family, favas
beans rattle inside the pod when shaken.
are natural nitrogen fixers, another bonus
Remove the pods and place them in paper
for the organic gardener. As the plants
bags. Hang in a cool, dry place for 3-4
grow, they take nitrogen out of the atmoweeks to continue drying.
sphere and fix it onto their roots with the
Favas get a bad rap for being high
help of special root growing
bacteria known as Rhizobium. After the beans are
harvested, pull up the plants
to see these nitrogen nodules
on your plant roots. By
rotating your favas around
the garden from year to year,
not only are you growing
a delicious protein packed
crop for yourself, you’re also
building healthy soil. After
harvesting your favas, plant a
nitrogen-loving plant to take
advantage of any residual niet er ilth
n
trogen that was fixed into the
Organic hats! One size fits all! Qty. ____
soil. Crops such as spinach,
@$15 each. Organic Tees. Black or White,
lettuce, kale, broccoli and
male or female cut. Specify size, color, _______
chard are great to plant after
___________Qty. @$18 each.___
Fruit Stickers. 1000 roll for $20. Qty.____
favas and make for a nice
Organic Label Cards 500 for $10. Qty.___
succession of leafy greens to
FREE
BUMPERSTICKER W/ ORDER!
enjoy in the fall.
G
Y
T
maintenance because of the prep work
involved obtaining their beans. But once
you eat your homegrown favas, you’ll
fall in love with their nutty, buttery, and
slightly bitter flavor, and you’ll know your
efforts were well worth it.
Kathy Dang is the Organic Education
Center Program Manager
O !
Hats, Organic T’s
& Bumper stickers
available from
www.tilth.org
Send order with
check or credit
card number to
Oregon Tilth •
470 Lancaster Dr.
NE, Salem, Ore.
97301 or shop
online at www.
tilth.org!
Page 31
Escoja historias en Español
Los Semilleros
Scott Chichester (Nash? S
de Productos Orgánicos)
orgánicos limpieza de
semillas de espinacas
El insumo más importante son
las semillas, y el mercado de semillas
orgánicas continúa siendo un reto y
oportunidad latente. Recientemente tuve
una charla con Matt Dillon y John Navazio de la Alianza de Semillas Orgánicas
(Organic Seed Allianc, OSA por sus siglas
en inglés)acerca de las tendencias de este
mercado emergente.
Matt- Este año me llamó un representante de una procesadora grande de lác-
Page 32
Congreso parlante
teos que estaba buscando semilla de sorgo
para sus productores que están certificados
como orgánicos.
Todas las casas semilleras a las que
refería este productor, estaban sin semillas.
Aún sigue habiendo una falta de
variedades comercialmente disponibles para
cumplir con las necesidades de cultivo y
de venta de los agricultores. Está pasando
con los cultivos de grano y sigue pasando
con los cultivos de vegetales. Muchas de
las empresas semilleras reportan que ya no
tienen de estas semillas apenas iniciado el
año, de las variedades más indispensables y
particularmente de los híbridos orgánicos.
Los problemas principales que
continúan con las semillas orgánicas son la
disponibilidad y que sea la adecuada. Los
cálculos siguen siendo que solo el 5 o 10%
de las semillas que utilizan los agricultores
orgánicos sea orgánica, el resto es semilla
convencional sin tratamiento. Esos cálculos
salen de lo que se platica con la gente de la
industria.
Desde sus inicios, la comunidad
Escoja historias en Español
El Estado de las Semillas
Orgánicas
orgánica se apoyaba en dos fuentes para
obtener sus semillas; el sector convencional, que tiene poco o nulo interés en las
semillas orgánicas y segundo, las empresas
de variedades tradicionales, que estaban
más enfocadas en la siembra de traspatio o
a pequeña escala. Y con eso la han estado
sobrellevando por décadas, en muchos de
los casos sus necesidades han sido cubiertas, las variedades tradicionales han sido
lo suficientemente buenas para producir y
prosperar. Pero las variedades ‘suficientemente buenas’ y las mejores variedades son
cosas totalmente diferentes.
John- Está el caso de las variedades
cruzadas que toman en cuenta las prácticas
culturales del agricultor. La mejor cruza
está hecha para el ambiente y las prácticas
culturales de los agricultores. Eso es lo que
es una mejor variedad.
Cuando los orgánicos se metieron a
las grandes ligas, los mejores agricultores
orgánicos tomaron las mejores variedades
cruzadas comerciales, que no habían sido
cruzadas para sus prácticas culturales y
reajustaron esas prácticas dentro de lo
orgánico… buscaron entre lo que había
disponible, lo pusieron a prueba, y encontraron las que mejor cubrían sus necesidades.
Andrew-¿A qué te refieres con prácticas culturales?
John-Digamos que estas plantando
maíz en cierta fecha porque no quieres que
se te pudra en el suelo. Si eres un agricultor
convencional, vas a estar usando una variedad de maíz con tratamientos en la semilla.
Si estás cultivando tempranamente
para no tener maleza, o quemando, como
herbicida para no tener maleza, esa es una
práctica cultural.
Matt—si un agricultor orgánico no
tiene ese tratamiento químico en el maíz
para prevenir las enfermedades, como la
pudrición en el suelo frío o la emergencia
en los suelos fríos, esto podría obligar a una
siembra más tardía, que a su vez podría
causar que tengan un menor rendimiento
o bien incurrir en otros riegos más adelante
en la temporada.
John-Todos esos programas de cruza
de maíz tienen una actitud de: ese no es
ningún problema, tenemos estos tratamientos de semilla muy innovadores con pesticidas thiram, para que nuestros agricultores
no se tengan que preocupar de eso. De
hecho, vamos a usar esos tratamientos de
semilla con pesticida en nuestros programas
de cruza para cubrir la realidad que todo
agricultor orgánico tiene que enfrentar en
el campo.
Matt- Incluso también existe la
cuestión genética de cómo las plantas
responden cuando se cultivan.
John- como cuando estás usando tus
implementos pesados, estás perturbando el
suelo cerca de la planta o dañando el suelo.
Los agricultores convencionales que están
utilizando herbicidas, no necesitan tanta
cultivación. Si en realidad estás cruzando
una planta que sea buena para los agricultores orgánicos, debe ser lo suficiente buena
como para aguantar que le echen mucha
tierra encima.
Matt- El porcentaje de semillas orgánicas que se usa es una cosa, el porcentaje de
las semillas que se están usando que son
apropiadas y las ideales para las condiciones
culturales y de mercado, son incluso más
bajo que la semilla más básica.
Las primeras empresas de semillas
orgánicas que
se aventuraron en el
movimiento
orgánico desde
temprano, han
tenido éxito.
Hay mucho
crecimiento
en el 100% de
las empresas
semilleras. Sus
ventas han
subido porque
están haciendo
mejoras en
la calidad de
producción y
sus prácticas.
Se han encontrado con que
los productores
están incrementando la
compra de sus
semillas
Algunas
de las empresas semilleras
convencionales han visto que el mercado
para las semillas orgánicas no es una moda,
que está aquí para quedarse y que continua
teniendo un incremento y se han interesado
en probablemente hacer la transición de sus
líneas de semillas a la producción orgánica.
Aun así muy pocas de estas empresas,
están haciendo el cambio para hacer las
cruzas para los sistemas orgánicos. Parte de
la razón de esto es que existe la expectativa
acerca de la viabilidad financiera y de que si
tiene sentido. Es muy caro cruzar y probar
cualquier tipo de planta. Toma tiempo y
dinero, puede tomar de 10 a más años cruzar una nueva variedad, además la infraestructura para las cámaras de crecimiento y
las pruebas de enfermedades y patología de
la planta.
Andrew- Así que, a pesar que el
Mercado para las semillas orgánicas se ha
mostrado fuerte, hay aún una incertidumbre de invertir
Matt- A pesar de que si pueden vender
la semilla por más, no la pueden vender por
mucho más.
La mayoría de las empresas comerciales
Continuado en la pagina 34
Page 33
Una Industria Tierna y Robusta
tener una información clara de esas empresas. Hay una presión actualmente para que
hagan muestras de las semillas orgánicas,
pero claro que está apenas iniciándose esa
situación por que las empresas semilleras
que se están haciendo pruebas y que salen
positivas de contaminación por OMG, les
dicen a sus clientes y lo más seguro es que
sus clientes no le compren. Esas empresas
no tienen el recurso para paga un cultivo
perdido. Es una situación difícil para ellas,
Continuado desde la pagina 33
pero mientras tanto, los agricultores están
no están interesadas en las semillas orgáninerviosos de que puedan contaminar sus
cas de ninguna forma, y muy posiblemente
suelos con semillas orgánicas contaminadas.
jamás convertirán sus líneas a orgánicas.
Algunas de las empresas si se hacen pruePor lo que si un agricultor orgánico que
bas, pero muy pocas, tienen una política
utiliza una variedad específica propiedad
pública o la imprimen en sus catálogos por
de una empresa, si es empresa no va a
que no están seguras de tener el dinero para
convertirse a orgánica, el agricultor podría
pagar alguna pérdida.
estar en esa situación donde jamás tendrán
La meta de OSA es tratar de crear una
esa variedad que quiere producir orgánicamejor retroalimentación y comunicación
mente.
entre los agricultores, los investigadores
Otra preocupación que emerge con
y las empresas semilleras para mejorar el
la soya y el maíz, y que cada vez aumenta
entendimiento de las partes de los posibles
más con los cultivos de brásica y por subeneficios que vendrían de la inversión
puesto con las acelgas, es la contaminación
en las pruebas de los sistemas de semillas
con los cultivos de la ingeniería genética.
orgánicas y tratar de sobrepasar los conflicEn la Alianza de Semillas Orgánicas hemos
tos y la creación de soluciones.
tenido llamadas de agricultores que nos
También estamos realizando un cuespreguntan ‘¿Cómo puedo estar seguro de
tionario a fondo para la industria semillera
que la semilla orgánica que estoy comy preguntándoles acerca de lo que creen
prando está libre de la contaminación
y de las actitudes de los agricultores para
genética?’ Algunas de las llamadas son de
comprar semilla orgánica y también les
personas que aún no entienden de la conestamos haciendo preguntas acerca de los
taminación y se preocupan que posibleobstáculos que enfrentan en el camino,
mente sus zanahorias pudieran estar concuales son los obstáculos en la producción y
taminadas, pero esas llamadas son escazas y
las enfermedades que representan un obstágeneralmente provienen de productores de
culo en la producción del campo. Creo que
traspatio, no agricultores. Los agricultores
esto nos va a dejar mucha información.
están llamando para hacer preguntas del
También elaboraremos un cuestionmaíz para grano o para consumo humano,
ario para los certificadores, acerca de sus
acerca de las brásicas, de los betabeles y de
preguntas, preocupaciones y experiencias
las acelgas, y se sienten frustrados por no
que existen en el tema de las semillas, así
contar con la información y no poder obcomo a las empresas de alimentos orgánicos
que comprar a contrato de los agricultores,
acerca de sus percepciones y
LOCAL GRASS-FED MEATS
cuáles son las necesidades futuCERTIFIED ORGANIC PRODUCE
ras de los procesadores que están
• ANTIBIOTIC/HORMONE-FREE
POULTRY
buscando cualidades de calidad
• BULK FOODS, HERBS & SPICES
• NUTRITIONAL SUPPLEMENTS
que vienen de la genética de los
• HOMEOPATHIC REMEDIES
• LOCAL PRODUCTS
productos alimenticios.
• CARROT/WHEATGRASS JUICE
• FINE WINE & BEER
Ahorita esto es lo más
• WINE TASTING SECOND THURSDAY
importante: incrementar el
OF EACH MONTH DURING ARTWALK
Member governed since 1971
conocimiento de los sectores
Coos Head Food Store
para entender cómo podemos
1960 Sherman, Hwy. 101 S. ◆ Downtown North Bend
541-756-7264
trabajar juntos para sacar esto
Page 34
adelante, en vez de dar una fecha límite
diciendo “los agricultores deben usar semillas orgánicas para esta fecha, si no…” o lo
opuesto “ah, algún día todos lo harán”.
En el 2010 la OSA en cooperación
con el Congreso de Agricultura Orgánica
de la región Norocentral de los E.U.A
tendrán un “Simposio Estatal de Semillas
Orgánicas”. Es una reunión de trabajo para
discutir activamente de lo que está y no
funcionando en los sistemas de semillas
orgánicas. Queremos una representación
diversa de la comunidad orgánica en este
evento, no solo los conocedores. Estaremos
desglosando el Plan de Acción Nacional
Orgánico para crear un Plan Nacional de
Semillas Orgánicas. Para trabajar juntos para minimizar la contaminación y
mejorar en todos sus aspectos la calidad
de las semillas orgánicas con el fin de que
los agricultores orgánicos tengan la semilla
que necesitan. Si está interesado en asistir
al simposio visite la página de la OSA
para encontrar mayor información. En
la misma página encontrará ligas a los cuestionarios que mencioné. Necesitamos que
los agricultores y empresas procesadoras de
alimentos los llenen.
Consideramos que debe existir el
dialogo dinámico y productivo de todas
las partes de la comunidad orgánica que
está involucrada en este tema. Ahora es
el tiempo de involucrarse. El sector de
semillas orgánicas está en su apogeo, su
verdadero potencial emergerá si trabajamos
colaborativamente como una comunidad.
Matthew Dillon y John Navazio
iniciaron a Organic Seed Alliance en el
2003. Matthew sirve como director de
apoyo. John es el principal productor de
plantas.
Para mayor información acerca del
Reporte, Simposio y Cuestionario de
Semillas Orgánicas, por favor diríjase a
http://www.seedalliance.org/Advocacy/
Millas antes de que coma
Por: Sarah DeWeerdt
Traducido por: Odilia Hernández Onofre
En 1993, un investigador suizo calculó que
los ingredientes típicos de un desayuno suizo de
manzana, pan, mantequilla, queso, café, crema,
jugo de naranja y azúcar; viajaban una distancia
igual a la circunferencia de la Tierra antes de
llegar a la mesa Escandinava. En el 2005, un
investigador de Iowa, E.U.A demostró que la
leche, azúcar y fresas que van en un embase de
yogurt de fresa acumuladamente viajaba 2,211
millas (3,558 Km) solo para llegar a la planta
procesadora. A medida que el movimiento de
consumo-local se ha puesto de moda, este concepto de “millaje de los alimentos” o “kilometraje de los alimentos” - que significa en pocas
palabras la distancia que un alimento tuvo que
viajar desde el huerto o granja hasta el plato
donde va a ser consumido – ha venido a ser el
centro de las discusiones, particularmente en
los Estados Unidos, el Reino Unido y algunas
partes del occidente de Europa.
Este concepto ofrece un tipo de código
para describir un sistema alimenticio que
es centralizado, industrializado, y con una
complejidad que casi llega al punto de ser
absurdo. Y, debido a que nuestros alimentos
son transportados todas esas millas en barcos,
trenes, camiones y aviones, la atención del
kilometraje de los alimentos también se liga con
las preocupaciones acerca de las emisiones del
dióxido de carbono y otros gases que provoca el
efecto invernadero que proviene del transporte
a base de combustible proveniente de fósiles.
En los Estados Unidos, la estadística citada
más frecuentemente es que los alimentos viajan
en promedio 1,500 millas para llegar del huerto
al consumidor. Esta estimación viene de Rich
Pirog, director asociado del Centro Leopold
para la Agricultura Sustentable de la Universidad del estado de Iowa (él es el mismo que
hizo los cálculos del yogurt que se citó anteriormente. En el 2001, en algunas de las primeras
investigaciones del kilometraje de los alimentos
en los Estados Unidos, Pirog y un grupo de
investigadores analizaron el transporte de 28
frutas y verduras a los mercados de Iowa por
sistemas de distribución de vía local, regional
y convencional. El equipo de investigadores
calculó que los alimentos en el sistema convencional – una red nacional que utiliza camiones
de carga de un solo eje para llevar alimentos
a una cadena de tiendas grande – viajaba un
promedio de 1,518 millas (cerca de 2,400 kilómetros). En contraste, un alimento de origen
local solo viajaba un promedio de 44.6 millas
(72 kilómetros a un mercado de Iowa.
Poniendo bajo la luz esos contrastes, la
admonición de “come lo regional” viene
a ser sentido común. Y ciertamente, en
el nivel más básico, a menos millas de
transporte menos emisiones. El equipo de
Pirog encontró que el sistema de distribución convencional usa de 4 a 17 veces más
combustible y emite de 5 a 17 veces más
CO2 que los sistemas locales y regionales (la
última refiriéndose al estado de Iowa). Así
mismo, un estudio canadiense estimó que
si se reemplazaran los alimentos importados
con sus equivalentes cultivados localmente
en la región de Waterloo, Ontario, les ahorraría emisiones relacionadas al transporte de
cerca de 50,000 toneladas métricas de CO2,
o el equivalente a sacar 16,191 carros de
circulación.
¿Qué significa “local”?
Pero, en primer lugar, ¿qué es exactamente “alimentos locales”?
Uno de los problemas de tratar de determinar si los alimentos locales son mejores
para el ambiente es que no hay una definición universal aceptado de lo que es un
“alimento local”. Alisa Smith y J.B. MacKinnon, autores de La Dieta de 100 Millas
(The 100 Mile Diet), escriben que ellos
escogieron ese límite para su experimento de
consumir localmente debido a que “un radio
de 100 millas es lo suficientemente grande
para salir fuera de los límites de la ciudad y
suficientemente pequeño para que aún se
siga sintiendo local y se dice más fácilmente
que “la dieta de los 160 kilómetros.”
Sage Van Wing, que acuñó el término de “locavoro” con una amiga cuando
estaban viviendo en el condado de Marin
en California, siendo inspirada a comer
alimentos locales después de leer Coming
Home to Eat (Llegando a Comer en Casa),
una crónica del autor Gary Paul Nabhan
de su propio esfuerzo de comer por todo
un año solo alimentos que eran cultivados
dentro del radio de 250 millas de su hogar
en el norte de Arizona. Sage dedujo que si
Nabhan pudo lograr eso en un desierto, ella
lo podía hacer mejor en la cornucopia agrícola que es el norte de California, así es que
decidió limitarse a un radio de 100 millas.
Hay evidencia suficiente de que existe
un entendido popular de lo que es alimento
local, por lo menos en algunos lugares, que
se acerca mucho a este límite de 100 millas. Una encuesta realizada por el Instituto
Leopold a los consumidores de los Estados
Unidos en el 2008 reveló que dos tercios
de ellos consideraban a un alimento como
local si se cultivaba o producía a no más de
100 millas. Aún así, todavía persisten una gran
variedad de definiciones. En algunas ocasiones,
local significa alimentos producidos dentro del
condado, dentro de un estado o provincia, o
incluso en el caso de algunas naciones europeas
pequeñas, dentro del mismo país. En el Reino
Unido, como reporta Tara Garnett de la Red
de Investigación del Clima Alimenticio (Food
Climate Research Network) ”a grandes rasgos,
las organizaciones que apoyan lo local cada vez
más, están renuentes a poner números en las
cosas.” Mientras tanto, el sociólogo rural Clare
Hinrichs, de la Universidad Estatal de Pensilvania, han encontrado que en Iowa lo local ha
cambiado de referirse a una pequeña comunidad a todo lo producido dentro del estado. Para
algunos en la comunidad agrícola, promover y
consumir “alimentos locales de Iowa” es como
un tipo de patriotismo alimenticio, que tiene
como fin contrarrestar las fuerzas de la globalización que ha puesto a varias familias agrícolas
en riesgo.
Todas esas son formas validas y perfectas
de pensar en lo que es local. Pero no tienen
mucho que ver con los costos y los beneficios
ambientales.
Compensaciones
En cualquier caso, advierte Pirog, el
kilometraje/millaje de los alimenos no cuentan
la historia completa. “El kilometraje de los
alimentos son una buena medida de cuán lejos
han viajado los alimentos. Pero no son una
buena medida del impacto ambiental de los
alimentos.”
El impacto depende de cómo fueron
transportados esos alimentos, no tan solo de
que tan lejos lo hicieron. Por ejemplo, los trenes
son 10 veces más eficientes moviendo los fletes,
tonelada por tonelada, que los camiones de
carga. Así es que podrías comer papas que viajaron en camión de 100 millas de lejos o papas
que fueron transportadas en rieles de 1,000
millas de lejos y las emisiones de gases de efecto
invernadero asociadas con su transporte desde
la huerta a la mesa serían casi iguales.
El impacto ambiental de los alimentos
también depende de cómo son cultivados. La
investigadora suiza Annika Carlsson-Kanyama
dirigió un estudio que demostró que era mejor,
desde la perspectiva de la emisión de gases de
tipo invernadero, que los suizos compraran tomates españoles que suizos, porque los tomates
españoles eran cultivados al aire libre mientras
que los suizos eran cultivados en invernaderos
calentados con combustible derivado de fósiles.
Eso parece obvio, pero también hay otras
cosas en juego. Por ejemplo, España cuenta
Continuado en la pagina 36
Page 35
En Español
Re evaluando el sentido de “local”
Continuado desde la pagina 35
con suficiente calor y sol que les encanta a los
tomates, pero su principal zona hortícola es
una región que es relativamente árida y muy
susceptible a las sequias en un futuro debido
al cambio climático global. Y ¿qué tal que
si la falta de agua, obligara a los agricultores
españoles a instalar sistemas de irrigación que
consumieran mucha energía? Y ¿qué tal que los
invernaderos del norte de Europa se calentaran
con energía renovable?
Quizás sea inevitable que nosotros como
consumidores giremos hacia un enfoque de
millaje de los alimentos – el concepto que
representa el último paso antes de que los
alimentos lleguen a nuestras mesas, la parte de
la cadena de abasto agrícola que es más visible
a nosotros. Y que ciertamente, si todas las otras
cosas se midieran por igual, es mucho mejor
comprar algo que se cultivo en la localidad que
algo que se cultivo a lo lejos. “Es verdad que si
estás comparando sistemas exactos, la misma
comida cultivada de la misma manera, entonces obviamente, sí, los alimentos con menos
transporte tienen una huella de carbón más
pequeña” dice Pirog.
Pero una imagen más amplia y compleja
de las compensaciones en el sistema alimenticio
requiere el seguimiento de todas las emisiones
de gas con efecto invernadero de todas las fases
de la producción de los alimentos, el transporte
y el consumo. Y el método de investigación del
Análisis del ciclo de vida (LCA, por sus siglas
en inglés), provee precisamente esta perspectiva
de “desde la cuna hasta la tumba”, revela que el
millaje/kilometraje de los alimentos representa
una pequeña rebanada de este pastel de emisión
de gases de efecto invernadero.
En un periódico publicado el año pasado,
Christopher Weber y H. Scott Matthews, de
la Universidad de Carnegie Mellon, entrelazaron datos de varias fuentes de gobierno de los
Estados Unidos en un análisis comprensivo del
ciclo de vida de la dieta de un americano típico.
De acuerdo a sus cálculos, la entrega final de
un productor a o procesador al punto de venta
solo es responsable del 4% de las emisiones
de gases de efecto invernadero en los Estados
Unidos. La entrega final solo es la cuarta parte
del total de millas, y el 40% de las emisiones
relacionadas con el transporte en toda la cadena
del abastecimiento de alimentos. Eso se debe
a que existen las millas de “corriente arriba” y
emisiones asociadas con cosas como el transporte de fertilizantes, pesticidas y alimento para
los animales. Englobado, el transporte es el
responsable de solo el 11% de las emisiones del
sistema alimenticio.
En contraste, Weber y Matthews en-
Page 36
contraron que la producción agrícola es la
responsable de la mayoría de las emisiones
de gases de efecto invernadero del sistema
alimenticio, el 83% de las emisiones ocurren
antes de que el alimento salga de su lugar de
producción. Un estudio reciente del análisis
del ciclo de vida del sistema alimenticio del
Reino Unido, realizado por Tara Garnnett,
arrojó resultados similares. En su estudio, el
transporte solo contaba por la decima parte
de las emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero y la producción agrícola era el responsable de la mitad. Garnett menciona que
muy seguramente se seguía el mismo patrón
en todo Europa.
Algo hay también en las lecherías
Otro resultado muy claro que sale de estos análisis es que lo que consumes importa
por lo menos igual a lo mucho que viaja, y
uno de los puntos rojos en la agricultura son:
la carne roja y la producción de lácteos. En
parte esto se debe a que la ineficiencia aumenta entre más arriba de la cadena alimenticia se consuma, el unir eslabones consume
más energía y genera más emisiones, para
producir los granos, alimentar a las vacas
y producir carne y lácteos para alimentar a
los humanos, que alimentar granos directamente a los humanos. Pero una gran porción
de las emisiones asociadas con la producción
de carne y lacteos se transforma en metano y
oxido nitroso, gases de invernadero que son
23 y 296 veces, respectivamente, más potentes que el dióxido de carbono. El metano
es producido por los animales rumiantes
(vacas, chivos, ovejas y sus similares) como
un subproducto de la digestión y también es
liberado en la descomposición del estiércol
(al igual que en la producción y descomposición de los fertilizantes).
En el estudio de Garnett, la carne y
los lactes contabilizan por el 50% de las
emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero del
sistema alimenticio del Reino Unido. En
realidad, ella escribe, “La contribución más
grande hecha por la agricultura se refleja en
la intensidad de los gases de efecto invernadero cuando se cría al ganado.” Weber y
Matthews llegaron a una conclusión similar:
“No importa cómo se mida, en promedio
la carne roja es más intensa en la emisión
de gases de efecto invernadero que todas las
otras formas de alimentos.” Responsable de
más de 150% más emisiones que los pollos y
los peces. En su estudio, el segundo contribuidor más grande de las emisiones fue la
industria lechera.
Estos dos estudios no son los únicos en
sus resultados. Un grupo de investigadores
suizos han calculado que la carne y los
productos lácteos contribuyen con el 58%
del total de las emisiones de los alimentos
de una dieta suiza típica. A nivel global,
la Organización de la Naciones Unidas de
Alimentos y Agricultura ha estimado que
el ganado es responsable del 18% de todas
las emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero
– incluso más que todas las formas de combustible derivado de fósiles- que se utiliza en
el transporte.
“Hablando con palabras simples,
comer menos carne y productos lacteos
y más plantas en su lugar de origen, es
probablemente uno de los cambios de
conducta más significativos que uno puede
hacer para ayudar” para reducir la emisión
de gases de efecto invernadero relacionados
con los alimentos, recomienda Garnett.
Weber y Matthews calcularon si se
redujera el kilometraje de los alimentos- una
tarea muy difícil de lograr- solo reduciría
la emisión de gases de efecto invernadero
asociados con el sistema alimenticio en un
5%, que equivaldría a manejar 1,000 millas
menos en el transcurso de un año. En comparación, reemplazar la carne roja y lácteos
con pollo, peces o huevos un día de cada
semana ahorraría lo equivalente a manejar
760 millas por año. Reemplazar la carne
roja y lácteos con vegetales un día de cada
semana sería como manejar 1,160 millas
menos. “Por lo tanto” concluyen “sugerimos que el cambio en la dieta puede ser
más efectivo para que un hogar disminuya
su huella climática relacionada a como se
alimenta que ‘comprar local’”
Sin embargo, Weber reconoce, “estos
cálculos fueron hechos asumiendo que
los alimentos locales no tenían ninguna
diferencia que los que no lo son.” Y ese no
siempre es el caso. Por ejemplo, el consumir
productos locales casi siempre promueve
que se coma lo que está de temporada que
generalmente quiere decir que fue cultivado
en un huerto y que los alimentos son menos
procesados. Esas cualidades, aunado con
distancias más cortas entre el huerto y la
mesa, también contribuirán a disminuir
las emisiones si se compara con una dieta
“típica.”
Los alimentos que se comercializan en
una economía local – como los mercados de
los agricultores (farmer´s markets, en inglés)
y a través de los programas de agricultura
apoyada por la comunidad (CSA, por sus
siglas en inglés)con frecuencia son orgánic-
En Español
Más allá de la huella de carbobo
os. Los alimentos orgánicos generalmente
(no siempre) están asociados con menores
emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero que
los alimentos cultivados de forma convencional, debido a que los orgánicos no generan
las emisiones asociadas con la producción,
transporte, aplicación de los fertilizantes y
pesticidas sintéticos.
Además, los alimentos orgánicos también ofrecen otros beneficios ambientales: el
uso de menos químicos tóxicos promueve
una mayor biodiversidad en los huertos, los
terrenos orgánicos requieren menos riegos
bajo algunas condiciones. Debido a que
los alimentos locales se han calificado tan
frecuentemente por su kilometraje/millaje,
sus beneficios ambientales se han calculado en términos de las emisiones de gases
de efecto invernadero. Pero, la huella del
carbón de los alimentos “no puede ser la
única vara para medir su sustentabilidad
ambiental,”considera Gail Feenstra, un
analista de los sistemas alimenticios del
Programa de Educación e Investigación de la
Agricultura Sustentable de la Universidad de
California Davis.
Finalmente, los agricultores que comercian localmente son en escala, relativamente
pequeños y pueden por lo tanto adoptar
prácticas que son benéficas al ambiente,
como: cultivar una diversidad de cultivos,
plantar cultivos de cobertera, plantar cultivos
de zacate en las orillas de sus terrenos o plantar setos vivos que provean un refugio para la
biodiversidad nativa e integrar cultivos con
producción de ganado. En resumen, comenta Weber “las prácticas de producción, son
más importantes que donde se cultivó un
alimento. Si comprar local también significa
comprar de un mejor sistema de producción,
entonces eso es fantástico, eso si va a hacer
una enorme diferencia.”
Por supuesto que la relación entre el
mercadeo de los alimentos locales con una
agricultura sustentable está muy lejos de
ser perfecta. Un producto pequeño puede
aplicar pesticidas sintéticos y usar maquinaria pesada. No todos los vendedores de los
mercados de los agricultores son orgánicos.
Clare Hinrichs, que se llama así misma una
“ferviente” compradora en los mercados de
los agricultores, está completamente consiente que “las consecuencias actuales – intencionadas o no- de los sistemas alimenticios
locales, no han sido realmente estudiados
sistemáticamente y a conciencia.”
¿Qué Tan Verde Es Mi Valle?
Así que ¿la comida local es más
amigable al ambiente? No necesariamente.
Pero mira a esa pregunta en la dirección
opuesta: si eres un consumidor interesado
en alimentos más amigables al ambiente,
la economía de alimentos local es actualmente un buen lugar para encontrarla. Por
la misma moneda, un agricultor que vende
sus productos en la economía local podría
con mayor posibilidad adoptar o continuar
prácticas sustentables con el fin de cumplir
las demandas de sus clientes. Si los alimentos locales tienen beneficios en el ambiente,
no se debe todo – o quizá ni siquiera esa
sea la razón principal de que sean “locales”.
O como Hinrichs ha escrito, “es la relación
social, no la locación espacial, per se, lo que
cuenta para dar un buen resultado.”
Para lo que apoyan a los alimentos
locales como Sage Van Wing, esa interacción entre un productor y un cliente, un
agricultor y un consumidor, es precisamente
la razón de ser. Si se refiere al kilometraje/
millaje, Van Wing comenta “No estoy para
nada interesada en eso.” Para ella, comprar
una manzana no solo tiene que ver la emisión de gases de efecto invernadero que se
liberaron en producir y transportar esa fruta,
“también tiene que ver como se cultivó esa
manzana, como se trataron a los trabajadores en el huerto donde se cultivó”- una
gran gama de factores ecológicos, sociales y
económicos que juntos suman la sustentabilidad. El interactuar directamente con el
agricultor que cultiva sus alimentos crea un
“estándar de confianza”, nos comenta.
Christopher Weber, que siguió una
dieta vegetarian extricta por 10 años, se
llama así mismo “un autoproclamado gourmet” está de acuerdo: “Eso es algo fascinante
de los alimentos locales, y una de las razones
por las que yo compro localmente, es porque
realmente puedes llegar a conocer a tus agricultores y saber lo que están haciendo.”
Van Wing dice que su enfoque en los
alimentos locales ha evolucionado con el
tiempo – inició tratando de comer lo que
se producía en un radio de 100 millas, pero
ahora simplemente trata de conseguir cualquier artículo de comida de la fuente más
cercana. Los alimentos que no se pueden
cultivar cerca de vive o son un capricho muy
raro o bien han desaparecido totalmente
de su dieta. “Simplemente no hago cosas
que no tienen sentido” comenta. Su frase
hace eco con el gurú de agricultura sustentable y periodista Michael Pollan, que en su
libro más reciente In Defense of Food (En
Defensa de Los Alimentos) ofrece una guía
de cómo comer bien y éticamente: “Come
alimentos. No demasiado. En su mayoría
plantas.” Podrías sumarte al caso ecológico con
una oración más: “En su mayoría lo que sea de
temporada y que no se cultive muy lejos.”
Aún así hay límites a este acercamiento
de sentido común. En muchas áreas, el clima
es tal, que no se pueden consumir alimentos
locales o de temporada, los productos alimenticios que se cultiven en un huerto sería una
propuesta muy escueta la mayor parte del año.
Muchas personas viven en áreas que no son
aptas para cultivar productos de primera necesidad; es una cosa dejar de comer los plátanos, y
otra muy diferente dejar de comer el trigo. Y la
densidad de población es una de las razones por
las que no se puede hacer la relocalización de
los sistemas alimenticios. La mayor parte de la
tierra dentro de las 100 millas de grandes ciudades tal como Nueva York, ya está pobladas;
¿de dónde vendrán las tierras agrícolas para alimentarnos localmente? (Por esa misma razón,
esa misma situación hace que la conservación
de la tierra agrícola sea más importante, una
meta a la que se puede avanzar si compramos
de los agricultores locales.)
En este sentido, el análisis del ciclo de vida
del sistema alimenticio actual sugiere que, si
la meta es mejorar la sustentabilidad ambiental del sistema alimenticio en su totalidad,
entonces hay una variedad de palancas de
políticas públicas que pueden ayudar a jalar.
Para estar seguros, promover la producción
de alimentos y las redes de distribución más
localizada reduciría las emisiones debido al
transporte. Pero ¿qué tal que se invirtiera una
gran cantidad en la infraestructura ferroviaria
para disminuir la tendencia de transportar más
alimentos por el método menos eficiente de los
camiones de carga? ¿Qué tal que se incrementara los estándares económicos para el flete de los
camiones que transportan nuestros alimentos?
O por nombrar una buena posibilidad, ¿Qué
tal que si los sistemas de precios del carbono
se incorporaran algunos de los costos ambientales de la agricultura, que en la actualidad
son externalizados? Los alimentos locales son
deliciosos, pero el problema- y posiblemente la
solución- es global.
Este artículo es cortesía de The Worldwatch
Institute, una organización de investigación independiente reconocida por los líderes en opinión de
todo el mundo por su análisis accesible y basado
en estadísticas en temas globales. Su misión es
generar y promover el entendimiento y generar
ideas que activen la mente de personas para tomar
decisiones para construir una sociedad ecológicamente sustentable que llene las necesidades de la
humanidad.
Page 37
Research Reports
Honey bees toss out Varroa mites
Honey bees are now fighting back
aggressively against Varroa mites, thanks to
Agricultural Research Service (ARS) efforts
to develop bees with a genetic trait that
allows them to more easily find the mites
and toss them out of the broodnest.
The parasitic Varroa mite attacks the
honey bee, Apis mellifera L., by feeding on
its hemolymph, which is the combination
of blood and fluid inside a bee. Colonies
can be weakened or killed, depending on
the severity of the infestation. Most colonies
eventually die from varroa infestation if left
untreated.
Varroa-sensitive hygiene (VSH) is a
genetic trait of the honey bee that allows
it to remove mite-infested pupae from
the capped brood–developing bees that
are sealed inside cells of the comb with
a protective layer of wax. The mites are
sometimes difficult for the bees to locate,
since they attack the bee brood while these
developing bees are inside the capped cells.
ARS scientists at the agency’s Honey
Page 38
Bee Breeding, Genetics and Physiology
Research Unit in Baton Rouge, La., have
developed honey bees with high expression
of the VSH trait. Honey bees are naturally
hygienic, and they often remove diseased
brood from their nests. VSH is a specific
form of nest cleaning focused on removing
varroa-infested pupae. The VSH honey
bees are quite aggressive in their pursuit of
the mites. The bees gang up, chew and cut
through the cap, lift out the infected brood
and their mites, and discard them from the
broodnest.
See this activity in the attached video
link here: www.ars.usda.gov/is/br/bees/
index.htm.
This hygiene kills the frail mite
offspring, which greatly reduces the lifetime
reproductive output of the mother mite.
The mother mite may survive the ordeal
and try to reproduce in brood again, only to
undergo similar treatment by the bees.
To test the varroa resistance of VSH
bees, the Baton Rouge team conducted
field trials using 40 colonies with varying
levels of VSH. Mite population growth
was significantly lower in VSH and hybrid
colonies than in bee colonies without
VSH. Hybrid colonies had half the VSH
genes normally found in pure VSH bees,
but they still retained significant varroa
resistance. Simpler ways for bee breeders to
measure VSH behavior in colonies were also
developed in this study.
This research was published in the
Journal of Apicultural Research and Bee World.
–ARS is the U.S. Department of
Agriculture’s chief intramural scientific
research agency.
Crowded house
The population explosion in poor
countries will contribute little to climate
change and is a dangerous distraction from
the main problem of over-consumption in
rich nations, a study has found.
It challenges claims by leading
environmentalists, including Sir David
Attenborough and Jonathon Porritt, that
strict birth control is needed to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions.
The study concludes that spending
billions of pounds of aid on contraception
in the developing world will not benefit the
climate because poor countries have such
low emissions. It says that Britain and other
Western countries should instead focus on
reducing consumption of goods, services
and energy among their own populations.
David Satterthwaite, of the
International Institute for Environment
and Development, a think-tank based in
London, analysed changes in population
and greenhouse gas emissions for all
countries between 1980 and 2005.
He found that sub-Saharan Africa had
18.5 per cent of the world’s population
growth and only 2.4 percent of the growth
in carbon dioxide emissions. The United
States had 3.4 percent of the world’s
population growth but 12.6 percent of the
growth in carbon dioxide emissions.
China’s one-child rule had resulted
in a sharp decline in population growth,
but its CO2 emissions had risen very
rapidly — 44.5 percent of the growth in
global emissions — largely because of the
increasing number of Chinese enjoying
Western levels of consumption.
Dr. Satterthwaite, whose study is
published in the peer-reviewed journal
Environment and Urbanization, said:
“A child born into a very poor African
household who during their life never
escapes from poverty contributes very
little to climate change, especially if they
die young, as many do. A child born into
a wealthy household in North America
or Europe and who enjoys a full life and
a high-consumption lifestyle contributes
Research Reports
far more — thousands or even tens of
thousands of times more.”
The Optimum Population Trust
called for population restraint policies to
be adopted by every world state to combat
climate change. The call was endorsed by
Sir David Attenborough, James Lovelock
and Jonathon Porritt.
-Ben Webster, Environment Editor,
www.timesonline.co.uk
One-time herbicide use has
lasting impact
Matt Rinella, a Montana State
University affiliate and an ecologist at
the Fort Keogh Agricultural Experiment
Station in Miles City, recently published
the results of a 16-year study in the journal
Ecological Applications.
Rinella and his colleagues found
that, due to an application of the
herbicide Tordon made 16 years prior,
native wildflowers--including Missouri
goldenrod and yarrow--had been reduced
to precipitously low levels and the target
invasive weed (leafy spurge) had potentially
increased. Although the herbicide
dissipated after a few years, the plant
community was permanently altered.
“There is some evidence that some of
the native forbs went locally extinct,” said
Rinella.
When herbicide wasn’t used, many
native forbs did similarly well in grazed and
non-grazed plots. Plots that were sprayed
and grazed fared better than plots that were
sprayed but not grazed. Cattle grazing can
benefit native forbs because cattle prefer
eating grass to forbs. Additionally, cattle
trample the soil, loosening it for seeds that
are inadvertently sown by cows. However,
Missouri goldenrod and yarrow did not
recover, regardless of grazing.
“The critical question was, ‘Which
was worse for native biota, invaders or
things done to control invaders?’” asked
Rinella.
Rinella’s study was a continuation
of a research project started by one of
his graduate committee members, Bruce
Maxwell, now faculty in land resource and
environmental science at MSU.
“A study like this can tell us a lot
about the long-term target and non-target
effects of herbicides, so it’s nice that Matt
could keep working on this project,”
Maxwell said.
Maxwell
studied the
effectiveness
of herbicide
use in
controlling
leafy sprurge,
an invasive
plant, as part
of his graduate
research from
1982-1984.
He made
observations
after 10,000 acres were sprayed--minus
several areas covered with tarps--at the NBar Ranch near Grass Range, Mont. Fences
kept cattle out of some of the sprayed
plots and some of the non-sprayed plots,
creating a mosaic of plots that were sprayed
and grazed, sprayed and not grazed, not
sprayed and grazed, and not sprayed and
not grazed.
“Our cautionary tale is told using
herbicide-treated grassland, but our results
should be considered wherever invasive
species management damages native
species,” said Rinella.
–www.montana.edu/cpa/news/nwview.
Matt Rinella, (406) 874- 8232,
[email protected].
Page 39
Page 40
Classifieds
Organic claims made in the
classifieds are not verified!
Organic Products,
Services & Equipment
Marine phytoplankton, alive in ocean
water concentrate. 400 times the energy of
any known plant. Contains sea minerals that
are absent or may be low, even in organic
produce. Pamela Melcher, (503) 946-8048;
[email protected].
For sale. 8’ wood posts, 7’ steel posts $3.00
each with discount for qty.
(503) 585-1694.
Certified Organic grass and clover hay.
3 string bales. Lloyd Bansen, Yamhill, Ore.
(503) 662-3026.
For Sale: 2009 certified organic alfalfa hay.
2nd and 3rd cuttings; in 20T lots or more.
Crane, Oregon (541) 493-2541.
Organic fish fertilizer. Non-smelly, no heavy
metals, liquid for drip and spray, 13% amino
acids, 17 nutrients, quickly absorbed by foliar
or drench, giving you great results. WSDA
listed and University tested. See at www.
vistagro.com, or call at (503) 434-0414.
Microbe rich, compost and compost teas.
Compost in retail ready bags (1.5 cu/ft) or
bulk purchases. Call for prices FOB or delivered. OMRI approved. MarWest/Harmony
Jack Farms Scio, Ore. (503) 910-5690.
Edible, Medicinal, and Native Plants for
the Pacific Northwest. Locally grown and
Certified Organic by Oregon Tilth. Fern
Hill Nursery in Cottage Grove, OR. For a
catalog or plant list, visit www.fernhillnursery.com or contact Devon at (541) 9423118 or [email protected].
Farm trained, calm Belgian draft horses.
Sustainable power! Farm-raised and trained.
David and Deborah Mader, Horsepower Organics, Halfway, Oregon. OTCO since 1993.
(541) 742 - 4887; email [email protected].
Pasture raised meats. Grassfed and finished
beef, pastured pork, lamb and goat raised on
dedicated pasture. Pastured poultry; soy-free
broilers and heritage turkeys. Raw milk dairy.
Selling at the Eugene and Portland (PSU)
farmers markets. Any day but Sunday. www.
deckfamilyfarm.com,
(541) 998-4697.
Certified organic alfalfa, grass hay and rye
hay! Will deliver lots under three tons. Southcentral, OR. Call Leon Baker,
(541) 576-2367.
Fresh certified organic seed garlic. Grown in
Hood River, Oregon. Farm direct. Gourmet
hardneck and softneck varieties. Certified organic by Oregon Tilth since 2002. Bulk prices
available. (541) 386-1220;
www.hoodrivergarlic.com.
Certified Organic Garlic Seed for sale. Several varieties available. Visit us at www.lonesomewhistlefarm.com, call (541) 345-3415
or stop by the farmers market in Eugene.
$13/pound for seed stock.
Certified organic cover crop seed! Farm-direct, organic crimson clover. Call Jim Bronec,
Praying Mantis Farm, Canby, Ore.
(503) 651-2627; [email protected].
Cranberries, certified organic and frozen.
25 pound box, $100. Periodic deliveries up
Highway 101 and I-5. Just a few 1100 lb.
totes available @ wholesale. Place your cranberry order now for the 2009 harvest
in October and November. Call us at (541)
348-2370; email [email protected].
Certified organic, pastured, grass-fed beef,
goat and heritage turkey meat for direct
sale. Natural pastured whole chickens and
eggs. Aerated compost and compost tea (bulk,
bagged and applied). Contact Harmony
J.A.C.K. Farms, Scio Ore. Lumber from certified organic land is available. www.HarmonyJackFarms.com or (503) 769-2057.
Certified organic herb plants. Rosemary 4”
to 5 gallons. Figs, lemongrass, lavender, plus
many more rare or unusual varieties. For more
info call Brennan at (503) 678-5056;
[email protected].
Certified organic grassfed beef and lamb.
Your clean source for protein, Omega 3 fatty
acids, CLA’s and the good cholesterol! E. Ore.
raised - ecologically grown and humanely
handled. Check our website: www.doublediamondranch.us or call (541) 853-2320;
[email protected].
Organic alfalfa hay and winter barley seed
for sale. 3000 N 7500 W. Abraham, Utah
84635. (435) 864-5400; [email protected],
[email protected].
Top quality certified organic seed garlic,
many varieties. Contact Ryan at L&R Farm
soon, our best seed garlic will sell out fast.
(541) 846-0602.
Certified organic Steptoe barley seed, 80#
bags. OTCO certified. (503) 581-8224. or
email: [email protected].
Certified organic cayuse oat seed and common winter rye. $25/50 lb bag, $900/ton or
$825/ton (bulk tote discount).
Herbs, spices and seaweed also available.
Quantity price breaks. Pacific Botanicals,
Grants Pass, OR (541) 479-7777
[email protected]
Land for Sale
Comfortable, 3 bed./2 bath manufactured
home on 5 acres, excellent condition, nice
yard, lots of trees, E. of Burns, OR. Call
(541) 493-2541.
2 acres for sale just north of Cottage Grove.
So. facing river view acs. Elec. and nat. gas adjoin. Old terraced road runs thru nice woods.
Unique pot. anagama kiln/greenhouse/home
site with due diligence. Secluded, private,
$75k/offer. Email [email protected].
Certified Organic dairy. 49.9 acs., 390
CAFO permit. Fully operational w/ 3 bd.
home. Turner, Ore. Make offer.View at www.
agribis.com/listing--98.html. Contact: terry@
agribis.com, (503) 559-3200.
Orchard for sale in La Grande, Ore.! 2.5
acs. orchard with 250 heirloom fruit and
nuts trees, comes with a charming 4 bd. /2
ba. home, shop, barn and irrigation well. Call
Amy Briels, broker with John J. Howard &
Assoc., at (541) 910-8538;
[email protected].
For Sale: Wisc., 4 Ac. farmette, Near Viroqua/LaCrosse/Mississippi River. Tillable/pasture/wooded; Some biodynamic preps have
been applied starting in 2004. Gambrel roofed
Page 41
Land for sale
granary, converted into 3 bd., 2 ba. cottage
home; no flooding. Combo wood/propane
heating, newer 2-car garage w/wood furnace.
Barn (currently fitteåd for horses/goats).
$139.900; Call owner: (608) 637-6529.
20 Tilth certified acs. in SW Coast Range
1 hr. from Eugene. Homestead/nursery w/
over 5K sq’. greenhouses. 11 acs. forest. Creek,
well, spring fed pond. Diverse orchard. 20’ x
30’ shop w/ concrete pad. 20’ x 40’ Mobile
Home w/ improvements. 20’Yurt. Wood
heated sauna. farm equipment and nursery
materials. $289,000. Contact Patricia Atkins
at Windemere Realty (541) 913-9257
Near Tidewater: 37+ acs. on river. Unique
straw bale home built 1999, sitting in mtn.
meadow w/ 3 bd.-2 ba. 2160 sq.’ 2 bd.-2
ba. guest home (M.H.) 4 bay machine shed,
greenhouse. Lg. orchard. Nat’l forest 3 sides.
Coldwell Banker Mt. West. Andy Alsko
(800) 637-5263.
Near Salem: 51 acs. w/ hilltop manor estate
approx 4290 sq.’ 4 bd.-3.5 ba. 3 bd.-2 ba.
mfg. home. Barn, shop, 2 ponds, 5 min. to I5/ 35 acres of 22 yr. old firs. Coldwell Banker
Mt. West. Andy Alsko (800) 637-5263;
[email protected]
Lebanon. 44 acs., vacant land, 38x80’ metal
shop bldg, well. Approved for septic, creek w/
irrigation rights. Coldwell Banker Mt. West.
Andy Alsko, (800) 637-5263;
[email protected].
Salem. 59 acs irrigated farmland. Class 1 & 2
soils. Part leased for nursery. Coldwell Banker
Mt. West. Andy Alsko, (800) 637-5263;
[email protected].
Andy Alsko, (800) 637-5263;
[email protected].
Noti. 20 acs. on Poodle Creek. 2 story farm
style home blt. 2005 3/2.5 1965 sq’ Lots of
pasture/gardening area. Just off Hwy 126. .
Coldwell Banker Mt. West. Andy Alsko, (800)
637-5263; [email protected].
Alsea. 22 acs. 2 homes. Creek thru property.
Small orchard. Machine shed. Garden area.
Coldwell Banker Mt. West. Andy Alsko,
Eola Hills. Oregon’s Wine Country. Parcel
#1- 13+acs. w/2 ba. mfg. home, south views,,
great for small vineyard. Parcel #2- 24+acs
w/2 bd. home, small orchard, nice tree cover.
South and west exposure. Ideal setup for vineyard and winery. Coldwell Banker Mt. West.
Andy Alsko, (800) 637-5263;
[email protected].
Near Molalla - 53 acs. ready for cattle/horses.
Main ranch house plus mfg home. 87x90’
barn for stalls or hay storage. Would make
great equestrian center. Two mi. to town.
Cross-fenced. Timber. Fabulous 70 gpm. well.
Coldwell Banker Mt. West. Andy Alsko (800)
637-5263; [email protected].
Near coast at Lakeside: 141 acs. in your
“own valley.” Noble creek thru property where
coho spawn. 3 bd.-2 ba. mfg. home + sm.
guest house. 2 barns. Machine shed. Coldwell
Banker Mt. West. Andy Alsko (800) 6375263; [email protected]
Mulino. 4.7 acs 1620 sq’ 3/2 home plus
35’x80’ shop and 40’x60’ barn. Room for
2 acs of garden. Coldwell Banker Mt. West.
Andy Alsko, (800) 637-5263; [email protected].
34+ acre certified organic farm by Oregon
Tilth, water rights. well - 250 gpm, river
frontage. Rich river bottom soil, great for
vegetables and grain. Newer custom built
1-level home with valley view, 2445 SF, hardwood floors, vaults, stone fireplace, large deck.
Includes barn, garage & other outbuildings.
$694,900. Contact Robin Babb, Broker at
503-495-3665 or [email protected]
Eugene. 5.3 acs 1556 4/2 home plus 45’x100’
barn w/ 45’x50’ indoor arena, 5 stalls and
tackroom. 2nd barn for hay storage. Coldwell
Banker Mt. West. Andy Alsko, (800) 6375263; [email protected].
43 acs., 3 bd., 2 ba. solid farmhouse, barn,
small orchard. 12,000 sq.’ glass greenhouse.
17 acs. 2nd growth. 7’ deer/elk fence. Trees,
pasture, creek, lake. 35 minutes to Eugene.
Call Jean (541) 937-2837.
Beaver Creek. 50 acs 3166 sq’ 3/2 home plus
shop and barn. Marketable timber. Approx
25 acs. in pasture. Coldwell Banker Mt. West.
564 acs. certifed organic, 400 irrigated.
Dairy quality alfalfa. Complete with equipment, 13-acre pond, wildlife. S. Central
Oregon. (775) 849-2025.
Page 42
20 – 40 acs. Secluded with drilled well,
meadow, small stream/wetland and forest
land. Qualifies organic 40 yrs. Approved
building site for 3 homes under Measure 49.
20 acs. $285,000, 20 acs. $329,000, Both
$529,000 cash. Call Ginny (971) 678-8407
or (503) 794-2737.
6.2 acs., S. Ore. Applegate, New 3 bd./ 3 ba.
strawbale home, organic farm/gardens, gridtie solar, outbuildings, seasonal creek, pond,
backs to BLM, $480K, (541) 324-1244.
Land + house for sale. 2/3 ac. near Oregon
City, with huge deerfenced garden area with
raised bed, fruit trees, berries, grapes with
drip irrigation system, more! 1676 sq.’ house
built 1978 with 3 bd. 2 ba, bamboo floor,
multi-level covered decks, hot tub on deck off
master suite and bath, cedar siding. $270,000
Contact: L. Monk (503) 287-0523; or email
[email protected].
Salem. 50+ acs. on Willamette R. w/ 35 acs.
water rights. Cedar home 2797 sq.’ 4 bd. 2
ba., country kitchen, large barn, matted stalls.
1000 sq’ storage building. Near I-5 and Ankeny Wildlife refuge. Andy Alsko C/B Mtn.
West (800) 637-5263.
Dallas 43+ acs. w/ remodeled 2 story farmhouse 2800 sq.’ 4 bd. 1.5 ba. Large shop/garage combo. 3 tier vintage barn. Water rights
to creek/pond. Ideal for vineyard. Near Hwy
22. Andy Alsko C/B Mtn. West
(800) 637-5263; [email protected]
Elkton 49 acs. w/ 4000’ Umpqua R. frontage. 2 story barn used for cattle. RV setup near
river w/ water, elec. and TV dish. 20 mi. from
Reedsport on Hwy 38. Buildable property.
Andy Alsko C/B Mtn. West (800) 637-5263.
For sale, 156 acres certified hay farm w/
shop, barn, house, 500 gpm. well, pivot machine. Lakeview, Ore. $340,000. Call
(541) 947-2712, (928) 502-1765, cell.
28 acs, 10 mi upriver of Yachats. Meadow,
woods, riverfront. $212,000. Chris Watkins,
(541) 270-6774, [email protected].
Opportunities
Employment, Internships
& Opportunities
Seeking 1 or 2 persons desiring self-sufficiency to share a farm.We grow fruits and
vegetables and have a young orchard. We are
2 adults with an extra house to rent for a trial
period. 1/2 hr. west of Eugene. Preference to
people with skills. Contact
[email protected] or (541) 485-1426.
Permaculture Shared Housing, just north of
Vancouver, WA. vacancy in daylight basement. $400 month plus share utilities. Couple
must be willing and able to garden organically,
live permaculturally, working off rent by helping with garden at an hourly rate in the rest of
the yard. Beverly Doty (360) 574-1343;
[email protected].
Easy tempeh making. Model for a small
business working with local farmers producing
a healthy food for the local community. See
www.maketempeh.org.
Seeking land. Mercy Corps Northwest’s Immigrant Agriculture Project is seeking land to
lease in the Portland metro area: plots of 1/4
acre and greater for individual participants,
and a training site of 2+ acres. David Beller,
(503) 236-1580 x200.
[email protected].
Seeking intern for start-up farm operation.
Have equipment, land, water, certification,
and a market of people drooling for the first
crop! Crop share, and willing to split profit.
Looking for a younger, quiet, committed individual willing to work a reasonable amount of
time for a fair profit. Dr. Hayden and Dawn
Sears at [email protected].
Seeking hard working field hands on
established organic farm in SW Oregon.
Grow and pack diversity of roots, veggies, tree
and vine fruits and seeds. Will weed, harvest
and do maintenance. Send resume to Hi Hoe
Produce at Bluebird Farm, 1785 Caves Camp
Rd., Williams, Ore. 97544. (541) 846-6676.
Organic grower with family seeks farm.
Seeking to partner-up in joint venture raising
diverse vegetables, eggs, livestock, etc. supporting market stands, restaurants, and a CSA.
Just because you slow down, your farm doesn’t
have to. [email protected].
Want to buy land. Williams, Applegate, Jacksonville or Grants Pass area for permaculture.
10-40 acres, good water, good soil. Secluded,
quiet with small house, cabin or yurt site.
Approx. 3 acres for rent or lease.
Greenhouses, loamy soil, well water, irrigation
tractor, forklift available, pole barn, near Jacksonville, Ore. Could be certified, negotiable
(541) 951-2950.
Safely detoxify with natural cellular defense.
Purified, micronized, liquid zeolite. Removes
heavy metals, herbicides, pesticides, depleted
uranium, etc. Absorbs free radicals, buffers the
body toward alkalinity, inhibits viral replication, improves liver and immune functioning, brings greater mental clarity and energy.
Home business opportunity. Pamela Melcher.
[email protected].
www.mywaiora.com/472784.
(503) 946-8048.
Room for rent on a permaculture homestead in Cottage Grove, OR. We are looking
for someone who is ecologically conscious and
socially interactive. We are two miles from
town in a forested setting with gardens and a
nursery on site. Rent is $300/month plus utilities. Contact Devon at (541) 942-3118 or
[email protected].
Two acres for very reasonable rent or lease.
McKenzie River bottom land near Walterville,
Ore. Excellent S/SW exposure, gently swaled
loamy pasture. Irrigation well, no pump. Serious inquiries. Organic only. Email: girving@
internetcds.com, or call (541) 741-7336.
Organic Asian pear and apple orchard.
Looking to enter into a lease or crop-sharing agreement with experienced grower. Our
brand label fruits are in demand and are sold
both wholesale and mail order. Contact (541)
673-7775, fax 957-5121; karl@rubenberger.
com, www.asianpearsorganic.com.
Farming opportunity/carpentry. Corvallis.
Looking for a motivated farmer to overseer,
farm a portion of the land, and help with
maintenance in exchange for free rent and a
portion of your profits (negotiable). I have
market connections and access to a tractor.
Carpentry skills a plus. Call (541) 766-8083,
or email [email protected].
FEATURED GROWERS:
JIM & LINDA CALKIN
Heavenly
Harvest Farm,
Located between
Corvallis &
Albany
Experienced, landless, organic grower looking for 1 to 5 acres (or large city lot) to rent/
lease/use for CSA/Market Garden operation
in or around Portland or Eugene. Housing
on-site or off. (503) 313-5239;
or email [email protected].
Couple looking to buy farm land or form
land partnership. Experienced in organic
farming and permaculture design. Contact
Lauren and Brian at [email protected].
Seeking to help a Willamette Valley organic
farm expand by buying adjacent property
and leasing to the farmer at an reasonable rate.
Concerned with sustainability of Oregon’s
food supply. Alan at
[email protected].
Home business opportunity. Organically
Grown, Raw Superfoods. Goji Berries, Maca,
Blue Green Algae, Cordyceps Mushrooms,
Noni, etc. Pamela Melcher. pamelamelcher@
gmail.com www.noblelifeelements.com/radiance. (503) 946-8048.
SUPPLYING THE
CO-OP WITH APPLE
CIDER, APPLES, BROCCOLI,
CAULIFLOWER AND MORE!
North Store:
541-452-3115
29th & Grant
Open 7-9 daily
GROWER-DIRECT
South Store:
541-753-3115
1007 SE 3rd St
Open 9-9 daily
PRODUCE, ALL YEAR.
WWW.FIRSTALT.COOP
Page 43
Organic is who we are.
At NewOrganics, we’re passionate about what we do. We believe
that the organic industry improves the world around us, and we
have built our lives and our business around this philosophy.
The farm
of a New
Organi
It’s not just what we do. It’s who we are.
When you work with NewOrganics, you benefit from:
› Dedicated and responsive purchasing agents who are
truly interested in you and your operation
› Business integrity in all of our interactions with growers
and customers
› Effective communication; clear, prompt, and truthful
› Knowledgeable staff who are experts in market trends,
organic requirements, and quality concerns
cs grow
er in Sa
skatche
wan.
NewOrganics is
currently contracting:
›
›
›
›
›
›
Corn
Edible beans
Flax
Spelt
Soybeans
Wheat
We are also seeking JAS certified, JAS
equivalent, and EU certified crops.
Organic
& Non-GMO
Ingredients
Learn more at www.NewOrganics.com or call us at 888.541.GROW ext. 243
We’re passionate
about what goes into our herbs
...and about what doesn’t.
s gluten-free capsules
s no excipients or fillers
s no GMOs (genetically modified organisms)
Please visit our new website at
www.oregonswildharvest.com
Pure. Safe. effective. Our harvest is in your hands.
Page 44
October 30 - 31, Washington State Sheep Producer Annual
Convention, Spokane. Information: (509) 968-9320.
October 31 - December 20, Cowlitz County Historical Museum.
Kelso, Wash. Smithsonian Traveling Exhibit - Key Ingredients:
America By Food. See www.keyingredients.org.
November 5 - 10, Creating Community: Establishing & Maintaining Thriving. Lost Valley, Dexter, Ore. Ecovillages, Intentional
Communities, & Retrofit Neighborhoods. deeply informed by
permaculture and by the global ecovillage culture. See
www.lostvalley.org or call (541) 937-3351 x 106.
food safety program; and specific information about identifying and
addressing food safety risks on the farm. (503) 281-2500; http://
foodsafety.wsu.edu/ag/index.html.
November 7, Sustainable Saturday Series, 21 Acres, Woodinville,
WA. Learn and participate in a variety of activities showcasing and
demonstrating sustainable agriculture and environmental stewardship. Steve Dahl,(206-442-2061) www.21acres.org.
November 6, Dinner Class: Thanksgiving Dinner with a Red
Bourbon heritage turkey. Kookoolan Farms, Yamhill, Ore. Call
(503) 730-7535.
November 3-5, National Organic Standards Board Meeting,
Washington, D.C. The NOSB assists in developing standards for
substances to be used in organic production. NOSB committees will
present recommendations on a variety of issues. (202) 720-3252, or
visit www.ams.usda.gov/nop.
November 7, Cheesemaking Class: Italian Hard Cheeses and
Ageing/Asiago. Kookoolan Farms, Yamhill, Ore. Learn the basics
of all hard cheesemaking, particularly Italian hard cheeses (using
thermophilic culture) and with Asiago cheese as the demonstration.
(503) 730-7535.
November 5, NW Organic Farm Food Safety Summit. Portland.
Sheraton Portland Airport Hotel. Update on pending food safety
regulations and industry mandates; A forum for discussing and
exploring issues and concerns pertaining to establishing an on-farm
November 6 - 9, Sustainable Mini-Farming Workshop, Willits,
California. An opportunity for in-depth learning of GROW BIOINTENSIVE® philosophy and techniques, which have been developed
Page 45
Calendar
Deadline for January / February calendar listings is November 20!
by the Ecology Action staff over a 37-year period. Contact Ecology
Action (707) 459-0150.
November 6 - 7, Ebey’s Forever conference & Community
Event. Coupeville, WA. celebrates American’s rural roots through
sustainable ag, historic preservation, and local stewardship. See
www.ebeysforever.com, (360) 678-6084; emi_morgan@partner.
nps.gov.
November 11 - 12, Pacific NW Vegetable Assoc. Conference
and Tradeshow. Three Rivers Convention Center, Kennewick,
WA. (509) 585-5460.
November 13 - 15, Tilth Producers of Washington Annual
Conference Yakima, WA. Friday symposium: Advanced Topics in
Organic Farming with Amigo Bob Cantisano. Will feature more
than 20 workshops, with a keynote address by Dr. E. Ann Clark of
the University of Guelph. See www.tilthproducers.org.
November 15, Local Harvest Dinner. Sleeping Lady Mountain
Resort, Organic Garden and Kingfisher Dining Lodge, Leavenworth, WA. Wine and cheese tasting, and dinner. See www.
sleepinglady.com.
November 18, Residential Basics of Going Solar. Portland. This
free workshop covers the basics of why solar is a smart choice for
Oregon homeowners. (503) 231-5662; [email protected].
November 19, Organic Production Opportunities. Woodland,
CA. Addressing soil fertility and pest management issues in certified organic farming. Seminar will feature speakers on fertility,
weed/pest control and other issues. (916) 539-4107;
see www.organicfertilizerassociation.org.
November 26, Small Acreage Ranching and Farming Course.
Pasco, WA. Assess the potential of your on-farm enterprise and
apply successful whole farm management principles to your small
farm operation. (509) 545-3511; Email [email protected].
wa.us.
December 3, Proposal deadline. Grants can range from $6,000
for individual farmers up to $18,000 for groups of 3 or more
farmers. Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program
(NCR-SARE) Farmer Rancher Grant Call for Proposals is now
available online at http://sare.org/ncrsare/cfp.htm.
December 3 -16, Winter Permaculture Design Course. Lost
Valley Educational Center, Dexter, Ore. Practical Steps to Creating
a Self-Sustaining World See www.lostvalley.org.
December 3 - 5, Acres USA Conference, St. Paul, MN. The
standard for innovation and learning. Farmers and consultants
from every side of eco-farming who come together to share their
experience and expertise. For more information, visit www.acresusa.com/events/events.htm.
December 4, 24th Annual Sustainable Agriculture Conference, Black Mountain, North Carolina. An amazing educational
opportunity for experienced farmers, new farmers, gardeners and
activists alike. See www.carolinafarmstewards.org.
December 7, Washington State Horticultural 105th Annual
Meeting. Wenatchee, WA. The largest gathering of orchardists,
shippers, suppliers and vendors in the nation. Call (509) 6659641; [email protected].
December 8 - 13, A Winter Intensive — On the Spiritual
Foundations of Biodynamic Agriculture, Rudolf Steiner College, Fair Oaks, CA. Covering various aspects of biodynamics and
anthroposophy, through discussions, hands-on sessions, lectures,
and artistic activities. (916) 961-8727; www.steinercollege.edu,
[email protected].
December 10, Winter Lights Festival. Brush Prairie, WA. Wisteria Gardens Winter Lights Festival brings community members
out to enjoy fresh, crisp winter air, hear local musicians, and pick
up some unique farm & garden gifts. (360) 667-0414.
January 20 - 23, Ecological Farming Conference. Pacific Grove,
Calif. With over 60 workshops the Eco-Farm Conference is the
largest sustainable agriculture gathering in the western United
States. See www.eco-farm.org for details.
January 24 - 27, US Composting Council Conference and
Tradeshow. Orlando, Florida, The ultimate composting conference! Email [email protected]; (631) 737-4931.
Page 46
Supporting Membership
Your membership fee gives crucial support to Tilth’s Research & Education
programs, entitles you to a one-year subscription to In Good Tilth, gives you free
classifieds and reduces your admission fee at Tilth-sponsored events. $10 more
enrolls you in the Oregon Tilth Yard and Garden program. Additional donations
to Oregon Tilth Research & Education are welcomed! Detach and mail with your
check for $30 ($40 outside U.S.), plus $10 for the Yard and Garden program, if
applicable, to:
Address
County
City, State, ZIP
Phone
Email
Enclosed is my membership fee plus a
Research & Education donation of ____.
Enclosed is my additional $10 for one year for the
Yard and Garden program.
I am a current member with a new address.
Catagory
Support Tilth’s Mission
Name
Voting Privilege
Benefits
Oregon Tilth, 470 Lancaster Dr. NE,
Salem, Oregon 97301
Save a stamp, renew your membership online at www.tilth.org.
Dues
Individual
1 Vote
-In Good
Tilth subscription
-In Good
Tilth Subscription
classifieds
in IGT
-Free -Free
classifieds
in IGT
-OTCO
directory
-Discounts
(1 person)
to(1)
events
-Discounts (1 person) to events
$30/year($40 outside U.S.)
$150 ($160 outside U.S.)
Lifetime
Household
1 Vote
Primary Member Identified
-In Good
Tilth Tilth
subscription
-In Good
Subscription
classifieds
in IGT
-Free -Free
classifieds
in IGT
-OTCO
directoryto(1)
-Discounts
(2 persons)
events
$45/year($55 outside U.S.)
$225 ($235 outside U.S.)
Lifetime
Non-profit
1 Vote
Organization
Primary Member Identified
-In Good
-In Tilth
Good subscription
Tilth Subscription
-Free -Free
classifieds
in IGTin IGT
classifieds
-OTCO
directoryto(2)
-Discounts
(5 persons)
events
$60/year ($70 outside U.S.)
$300 ($310 outside U.S.)
Lifetime
For-profit
1 Vote
-In Good
-In Tilth
Good subscription
Tilth Subscription
classifieds
in IGTin IGT
Organization
Primary Member -Free -Free
classifieds
Identified -Discounts
-OTCO
directoryto(2)
(5 persons)
events
$100/year ($110 outside U.S.)
$500 ($510 outside U.S.)
Lifetime
Please
Pleaseallow
allowsix
sixto
toeight
eight
weeks
weeksfor
fordelivery
deliveryof
of
InInGood
Tilth
.
Oregon
Good Tilth. Oregon
Tilth
Certified
Organic
Tilth Certified Organic
growers,
growers,processors
processorsand
and
restaurants
restaurantsare
areeligible
eligible
for
complimentary
for complimentary
membership.
membership.IfIfyou
youare
areaa
certified
certifiedoperator
operatormaking
making
an
anadditional
additionaldonation,
donation,
please
pleaseindicate
indicateyour
your
status.
status.For
Forquestions
questions
about
membership
contact
about membership contact
Oregon
OregonTilth,
Tilth,
(503)
(503)378-0690.
378-0690.
THANKS FOR
YOUR
SUPPORT!
I do not want my name
listed as a new member.
New Oregon Tilth Supporting Members - with a total of 731
A Perfume Organic LLC
Peter Betts
Kristine Biernacki
Bittersweet Farm
Mary R. Bock Living Trust
Camas Permaculture
Classic Wine Vinegar Company, Inc.
Conscious Living Systems
Betty DeHamer ---Lifetime
High Elm Farm
Hood River Organic
Carol Ann Johnson
Carter Latendresse
Ann Munson
Naturepedic
Regine Neiders
Catherine N. Steffens
Sandy Hill Ranch
Katherine Farrell
Shauna Flanigan
Kat Green
Golden Canyon Ranch
J. Michael Reid & Joy Peuterbaugh
To Your Health Sprouted Flour Co.
WFM, Inc.
Yale Creek Ranch
Bold = Yard &
Garden
Regional Chapters
B Street Project,
Forest Grove
Contact Terry O’Day,
(503) 352-2765
Corvallis Garden Club
Meetings are the second Sunday of every month.
Contact Colin King,
(541) 758-0316
In Good Tilth online
Visit the IGT page on the Tilth site for a listing of distribution sites, select online articles,
display ad rates and specs, deadlines for themeissue articles, classified and calendar listings,
and sending letters to the editor.
Visit www.tilth.org.
Page 47
Beware of IMPOSTERS!
(funny hats are always a tell-tale sign)
Make sure you are using genuine Aza-Direct
in your insect control program.
Flexible & Friendly
For use on organic and conventionally
grown crops up to and including the
day of harvest
Highly Rened
Formulated with minimal impurities to
make the purest azadirachtin insecticide
available
Proven Performance
Multiple modes of action – insect growth
regulation, anti-feeding, repellency, and
reproductive disruption
Broad Spectrum
Activity on a wide range of pests including
aphids, borers, true bugs, caterpillars,
psyllids and thrips
For a FREE gift: www.AzaDirectORT.com
For product information: (800) 883-1844
Aza-Direct is produced by a
patented, eco-friendly process
and can be used on organic and
conventionally grown crops.
This is a genuine Gowan Company advertisement. Don’t be fooled by other less superior advertisements. Aza-Direct® is a registered trademark of
Gowan Company, LLC. EPA Reg. No. 71908-1-10163. Always read and follow label directions.
AD09-14021_oregon-tilth 012109
Page 48

www.tilth.org

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