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Alternative Agriculture News For
September, 1997, from the Henry A. Wallace Institute for Alternative
Agriculture.
Headlines:
Senate
Committee's Title Bill Includes New Initiative
Organic
Standards Are "Good News," Says Wall Street Journal
New
Report Examines Industrialized Agriculture, Marketing
Settlement
Allows Dairy Products to be Labeled BGH-Free
SARE
Requests Proposals for Innovative Marketing
Positions
Pesticides Are Culprits Behind Britain's Disappearing Birds
Swissair
Now Serving Organic Food on Its Flights
Senator
Leahy Wins Organic Leadership Award
Resources
Upcoming
Events
Back Issues
©1997, Henry A. Wallace Institute
for Alternative Agriculture, 9200 Edmonston Road, #117, Greenbelt, MD 20770.
Phone: (301) 441-8777. E-mail:
hawiaa@access.digex.net.
This newsletter is also available to subscribers to the
sanet-mg
listserv. To subscribe, send a message to:
almanac@ces.ncsu.edu. Leave the
subject line blank and in the body of the message type only: subscribe sanet-mg
Subscription information
for the hard-copy version is available at the Wallace
Institute website.
In addition to this monthly newsletter, the Henry A. Wallace Institute for
Alternative Agriculture publishes the American Journal of Alternative
Agriculture, a quarterly, peer-reviewed journal of research on alternative
agriculture. It is a scientific forum for disseminating technical, economic,
and social research findings about the character and requirements of alternative
agriculture systems.
The current issue (Volume 12, No. 1) features a
comparison of organic versus conventional grain production in the Mid-Atlantic
region, with an economic and farming system overview. Other articles examine:
- A laboratory experiment involving nutrient release from decomposing crop
residues.
- Farm structure, market structure and agricultural sustainability goals in
New York state dairying.
- Farmers' commitment to continued use of the late spring soil nitrogen test
- Local food systems and sustainable communities.
- Community-controlled economic development as a strategic vision for the
sustainable agriculture movement.
Subscriptions to AJAA are $44 for libraries; $24 for individuals; and $12
for students. Find more information
about AJAA at he Wallace Institute
website.
Senate Committee's Title Bill Include New Initiative
The Senate Agriculture Committee last month approved the "Agricultural
Research, Extension, and Education Reform Act of 1997," or research title,
whose centerpiece is a new five-year research initiative with mandatory funding
levels greater than those of the Fund for Rural America.
The "Initiative
for Future Agriculture and Food Systems," which would be funded at $780
million over five years, would underwrite research in its first two years for:
- food genome mapping
- biotechnology
- natural resource management, including precision agriculture
- food safety and food technology
- new uses and products for agriculture commodities
After those two years, the Research Education and Economics Advisory Board
would determine the initiative's future research priorities.
The
Senate bill extended funding for the Fund for Rural America through 2001, at its
current $100 million annual level. Under the bill, 50% of these funds would be
allocated for rural development, 33% for research, and 17% for either purpose at
the discretion of the Secretary of Agriculture. The Senate bill also
incorporates a precision agriculture bill as an authorization for the USDA to
conduct precision agriculture research.
The new research
initiative, which emphasizes "technology silver bullets" such as
precision agriculture and genome mapping, could eventually be merged with the
Fund for Rural America, which emphasizes rural development, according to
Kathleen Merrigan, Senior Analyst for the Wallace Institute. "We hope that
won't happen, and would oppose that," she said.
The debate
about the research title will be focused on the new Initiative, according to
Merrigan. Questions to be resolved include:
- Will the House of Representatives approve the bill's mandatory research
funding?
- Will the money needed to fund the new research initiative be successfully
taken from savings from nutrition programs, as proposed in the Senate bill?
- How will the trend of creating mandatory funding programs affect
appropriations for research and extension in the long run?
The full Senate is expected to vote on the research title bill this month.
Anticipated Organic Standards Are "Good News," Says
Wall Street Journal
Long-anticipated federal organic standards, expected this fall, will be "good
news for consumers who want more options for healthful dining, and the standards
to back them up," according to The Wall Street Journal (August 18,
1997).
The standards could be published in the Federal Register
any time between now and Christmas, according to Kathleen Merrigan, Senior
Analyst for the Wallace Institute and a member of the National Organic Standards
Board.
"Consistency of standards will lead to less misuse of
the term 'organic,' and better information for consumers," according to the
article. "Public appetite is expected to push annual organic sales, now at
$2.5 billion, to $10 billion within five years, according to the USDA. ... The
look of organic produce has changed. ... Organic growers can offer better
variety and quality because of the industry's overall growth, and because of
higher demand in the processed food market."
After the proposed
standards are released, the National Organic Standards Board will meet to
compare the standards to the Board's recommendations to the USDA, and respond
collectively to them, Merrigan said. According to The Wall Street Journal,
consumers can also examine the government's organic guidelines and "offer
their feedback" on the Internet's World Wide Web at
http://www.ams.usda.gov.
New Report Examines Industrialized Agriculture, Marketing
A new report from the Wallace Institute focuses on the rise of "industrialized"
agriculture and the increasing popularity of direct marketing of agricultural
products.
"In industrialized agriculture, farm-level control
over agricultural production operations is being replaced by corporate control,
which relegates farm-level workers to the role of hired labor," according
to Reorganizing U.S. Agriculture, the second installment in the
Institute's ongoing investigation of structural change in U.S. agriculture. "In
direct marketing, farmers exercise substantial control over their products, from
cultivation or weaning to final sale."
The report looks at
- the legal environment in which industrialized agriculture and direct
marketing have evolved
- how they have affected the distribution of control within agriculture
- what measures have been taken to alter that distribution of control.
It recommends research to answer questions posed by the changing structure
of agriculture. The report is $6 from the Wallace
Institute , 9200 Edmonston Road, #117, Greenbelt, MD 20770. Phone: (301)
441-8777. E-mail:
hawiaa@access.digex.net.
Settlement Allows Dairy Products to be Labeled BGH-Free
A settlement announced last month between the state of Illinois and a
coalition of organic food companies allows manufacturers to say on their labels
that they don't use bovine growth hormone (BGH). Illinois is one of four
states, along with Hawaii, Nevada, and Oklahoma, that had forbidden these labels
in the past.
"Illinois's 1994 decision to do so basically
stopped anti-BGH labeling across the country because it is not feasible for
companies such as Ben and Jerry's to label their products differently for
individual markets," according to The Washington Post (August 15,
1997).
Ben and Jerry's had sued Illinois last year, charging their
ban on the labels violated the company's right to inform their customers of
their products' contents.
SARE Requests Proposals for Innovative Marketing
The North Central Region Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education
(SARE) program is requesting applications for competitive grants addressing
Innovative Marketing Strategies.
Priority areas include improving producers marketing relationships
with local and regional consumers and businesses, assisting with development of
community markets, and examining consumer preferences of local food.
The
call for proposals is available on the World Wide Web at
http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/ncrsare.
For more information, contact the NCR SARE Office at (402) 472-7081; e-mail
sare001@unlvm.unl.edu. Proposals
are due January 23, 1998.
Positions
- Henry A. Wallace Institute for Alternative Agriculture seeks a part-time
administrative assistant to support the staff of the Institute's Agricultural
Policy Project. Send resume and cover letter to Kate Clancy, Wallace Institute,
9200 Edmonston Road, #117, Greenbelt, MD 20770.
- Sustainable Agriculture Coalition seeks a policy associate to work on
family farm and environmental issues. Call (202) 547- 5754 for complete job
announcement. Send cover letter, resume, references, and writing sample to the
Coalition, 110 Maryland Ave., NE, Box 76, Washington, D.C. 20002 by October 31.
- Rural Development Leadership Network seeks individuals to earn a degree
while working in rural community development. Contact Starry Krueger,
President, RDLN, P.O. Box 98, Prince Street Station, New York, N.Y. 10012; (212)
777-9137; e-mail
HN1580@handsnet.org.
Pesticides Are Culprits Behind Britain's Disappearing Birds
Great Britain's birds are disappearing, and "the main culprits posing
the threat to birds are pesticides, not by killing them directly but by removing
the food sources from the fields and hedges on which our birdlife depends,"
according to an article in Living Earth (July, 1997), published by the
Soil Association of England.
"The threat that pesticides pose to
farmland wildlife is highlighted graphically by the shocking decline in numbers
over the last 25 years of once extremely common birds such as the blackbird,
starling, lapwing and tree sparrow," the article says, summarizing the
research done by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.
Pesticide
use in Great Britain has been steadily rising since the 1970s: "cereal
crops are now sprayed with six times as much fungicide as in the '70s and twice
as much herbicide." The Society is pressing for major support for organic
farming to combat the birds' decline, the magazine reports.
"In
a whole farm system, where there is a range of habitats, where no sprays are
used...and where conservation principles are woven into commercial production,
the opportunities for wildlife are bound to be greatly enhanced," it
concludes.
Swissair Now Serving Organic Food on Its Flights
Swissair is now serving organically-grown products in all classes of its
in-flight food service on its flights departing from Switzerland.
"The
trend towards healthier foods is increasing all over the globe," according
to the airline. "Swissair sees this as a chance to contribute to the
health and well-being of its passengers."
In a recent survey of
Swissair's frequent flyers, respondents felt that "organically-grown
products should be used as much as possible." Within three years, the
airline's "Naturalgourmet" organic food service is expected to be
expanded to cover Swissair's entire route network, according to the airline,
which is working with BioSuisse, the association of Swiss organic farmers, and
the Swiss Consumer Protection Association on the project.
Senator Leahy Wins Organic Leadership Award
Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT), a member of the Wallace Institute's
President's Council, is the first recipient of the Organic Trade Association's
Organic Leadership Award, which will be presented to him this month. The new
award acknowledges "leadership and vision in the furtherance of organic
agriculture," and is being given to Senator Leahy for his "leadership
in sponsoring the Organic Foods Production Act and his long-standing support of
organic agriculture," according to the association. "During his
23-year tenure on the Senate Agriculture Committee, Leahy has been a steadfast
supporter of organic agriculture and farmers."
Resources
- "Steel in the Field: A Farmer's Guide to Weed Management Tools"
is $18 from Sustainable Agriculture Publications, Hills Building, University of
Vermont, Burlington, VT 05405-0082; (802) 656-0471.
Short review.
- "New Opportunities For No-Till Rotations" is $8.95 from No- Till
Farmer, P.O. Box 624, Brookfield, WI 53008-0624; 1-800-645- 8455.
- "Good Earth Guide" to organic growers is $5 from Ohio Ecological
Food and Farm Association, P.O. Box 82234, Columbus, OH 43202; (614) 294-3663.
- "Sustainable Agriculture in Montana: Its Social, Economic and
Agronomic Impacts" is available from Alternative Energy Resources
Organization, 25 S. Ewing, #214, Helena, MT 59601; (406) 443-7272; e-mail
aero@desktop.org.
- Sandy Bar Ranch seeks people interested in collective living and
permaculture; contact the Ranch, P.O. Box 347, Orleans, CA 95556; (916)
627-3379; e-mail sandybar@earthlink.net.
- "Tough to Swallow: How Pesticide Companies Profit from Poisoning
America's Tap Water" is $23 from Environmental Working Group, 1718
Connecticut Ave., NW, #600, Washington, D.C. 20009; (202) 667-6982; or on the
World Wide Web at http://www.ewg.org.
Upcoming Events
For additional listings, see
the
Sustainable
Agriculture Network's Calendar of Events.
- September 30-October 1, Biomass Fuel Cell Power for Rural
Development/Ethanol Fuel Cell Workshop will be held in Nebraska City, NE;
contact Jean Ku, Energy Research Corporation, (203) 825-6215; e-mail
erc!jku@attmail.com.
- October 3, "Provender Alliance's 20th Annual Conference: Cultivating
Green Economics" will be held in Wilsonville, OR; contact Kathleen Downey,
Provender Alliance, (541) 688-4415; e- mail provender@aol.com.
- October 3-5, "Winning Justice Step by Step," the 4th National
Grassroots Convention of the Center for Health, Environment, and Justice
(formerly Citizens Clearinghouse for Hazardous Waste), will be held in
Arlington, VA; contact CCHW Convention, P.O. Box 7010, Falls Church, VA 22040;
(703) 237- 2249.
- October 4, 3rd Annual PASA Harvest Festival will be held at Walnut Acres
Organic Farms in Penns Creek, PA; contact Lauren Shorsher, Pennsylvania
Association for Sustainable Agriculture, (814) 349-9856.
- October 4, "Hoes Down Harvest Festival," the 11th Annual
Celebration of Rural Living, will be held in Guinda, CA; October 5, Organic Farm
Bus Tour will be held in Capay Valley, CA; for both events, contact Dru Rivers,
Committee for Sustainable Agriculture, PO Box 222, Guinda, CA 95637; (916)
796-3464.
- October 4, Farm Aid '97 concert will be held in Dallas, TX; contact Farm
Aid, (617) 354-2922; e-mail Farmaidl@aol.com.
- October 6, "Agricultural Research Institute 46th Annual Meeting:
Agricultural Funding Now to Ensure Food for the Future" will be held in
Rockville, MD; contact ARI, (301) 530-7122.
- October 6-8, "Partnerships for Global Ecosystem Management: Science,
Economics and Law," the 5th Annual World Bank Conference on Environmentally
and Socially Sustainable Development, will be held in Washington, D.C.; contact
the World Bank, ESSD5, Room S7- 040, 1818 H St., NW, Washington, D.C. 20433.
- October 7, "Sustainable Beef Management Workshop" will be held in
Springfield, TN; contact Ann Wells or Ron Morrow, NCAT/ATTRA (Appropriate
Technology Transfer for Rural Areas), 1- 800-346-9140.
- October 11, "Pesticides, Communities, and Change: Celebrating 20 Years
of Activism" will be held in Portland, OR; contact Becky Long, Northwest
Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides, (541) 344-5044.
- October 15-18, "Local and Global Communities: Complexity and
Responsibility," the 9th International Conference of the Society for Human
Ecology, will be held in Bar Harbor, ME; contact Dr. Melville Cote, Executive
Director, c/o College of the Atlantic, 105 Eden St., Bar Harbor, ME 04609;
e-mail
sheconference@ecology.coa.edu.
- October 17-19, Biointensive Sustainable Mini-Farming Workshop will be held
in Waimea, HI; contact Cynthia Raiser Jeavons, 5798 Ridgewood Road, Willits, CA
95490; (707) 459-0150.
- October 18-22, Water Environment Federation's annual meeting will be held
in Chicago, IL; contact WEF, 1-800-666-0206; e-mail
confinfo@wef.org; on the World Wide Web,
http://www.wef.org.
- October 19-24 or October 26-31, "Herbicide Action," a course on
herbicides in plants and the environment, will be held at Purdue University,
West Lafayette, IN; contact S.C. Weller, (765) 494-1333; or Kathy Hyman,
1-800-359-2968 or (765) 494-2758.
- October 24-26, annual meeting and first national conference of the
Community Food Security Coalition will be held in Los Angeles, CA; contact Andy
Fisher, CFS Coalition, P.O. Box 209, Venice, CA 90294; (310) 822-5410; e-mail
afisher@aol.com.
- October 28-31, "Regenerative Agriculture for the 21st Century"
will be held in Kutztown, PA; contact Jane Fisher, Rodale Institute, 611
Siegfriedale Road, Kutztown, PA 19530; (610) 683-1428; e-mail
Jfishe@rodaleinst.org.
©1997 Committee for
Sustainable Farm Publishing
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