Subject: Organic Agriculture and America's Rural Crisis --- by Larry Lack

From: "Noreastah" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 9 Sep 2000 18:28:02 -0400

Organic Agriculture and America's Rural Crisis
by Larry Lack

I'm an organic farm inspector currently living in a city (Portland, Oregon)
where I also help to manage a thriving farmers' market. I've lived in the
country most of my adult life, have been a farm worker and have also farmed
commercially on a small scale. Because I have one foot in the city and the
other in farm country, I'm especially convinced of the need for city and
suburban people--who are the vast majority of North America's population--to
know more about farms and farming.

In an article headlined "Murdering the Family Farm" (Progressive Populist,
Feb. 1, 2000), A. V. Krebs outlines some of the causes of the desperation
that family farmers are experiencing. Much of what he says is certainly
true--corporations, mega-farms, processors and banks are squeezing more and
more family farms out of business. Prices for grains, livestock and other
farm products are so low that they do not pay the cost of farming, let alone
leave anything for farmers to live on. Suicides among farmers are on the
rise. A few farm people have even joined the ranks of the militias or the
so-called "wise use" movement as they look for someone to blame for the
downward spiral of troubles they face.

I think, however, that Krebs is wrong when he blames environmentalists for
contributing to the problems farm communities face. Krebs quotes author Joel
Dyer saying that armchair "pseudoenvironmentalists" have put "thousands of
rural people...out of work with impractical environmental legislation
dreamed up by urban activists who lack practical knowledge of rural life."

Krebs doesn't spell out what legislation Dyer is referring to here, but
presumably the reference is to laws that supposedly regulate pesticides. In
fact the environmental groups that advocate for stronger pesticide laws
(such as NCAP, the Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides; and
NCAMP, the National Coalition Against the Misuse of Pesticides) have strong
farm and rural connections. Unfortunately these groups have had very limited
success in achieving effective pesticide regulation. Every year American
farmers apply more and more chemical pesticides, and for decades every
effort toward reducing pesticide use by banning or seriously limiting the
use of dangerous pesticides has been stymied by powerful chemical companies
and their lobbyists who direct huge payoffs to both Republican and
Democratic politicians, particularly those from farm states. As a result, U.
S. pesticide laws and regulations are notoriously weak and ineffective, and
the food Americans eat continues to be tainted with residues of dangerous
pesticides. These same pesticides contaminate our soil, air and water,
especially in agricultural areas.

While efforts to regulate pesticides in U.S. agriculture have been dismal
failures, there is a viable, practical solution to many of the problems
American farmers face. But this solution gets little or no attention from
Krebs and most others who write about the crisis in rural America.

Organic agriculture offers farmers an alternative to the chronically low
prices that are forcing so many farms out of business. In many parts of
North America, organic agriculture has made substantial progress toward
revitalizing rural communities, but currently only a small percentage of
North America's farms are organic, and organic products account for a
similarly small percentage of farm products sold.

In the United States, organic agriculture is expanding, while conventional
agriculture is in decline or at best stagnant. But the organic method of
farming is still viewed with suspicion by many U.S. farmers who are used to
getting advice from chemical company salespeople or from university
agriculture departments that are heavily endowed and influenced by chemical
companies and bio-engineering firms.

Unfortunately most organic certifiers and other pro-organic organizations
don't have well-developed programs for encouraging conventional farmers to
make the transition from chemical to organic farming, and as a result many
farmers don't have the information they need to evaluate whether going
organic may make sense for them. The USDA Cooperative Extension Service
should be encouraging the transition to organics, but it is not. The entire
USDA bureaucracy has only one extension agent who is a qualified expert in
organic agriculture. (Predictably, he's located in Santa Cruz, California.)

Farming is hard work, and in many cases farming organically is even harder.
Weeds, harmful insects, fungi and other pests must be monitored and managed
much more painstakingly, while beneficial insects and soil organisms are
encouraged. Organic growers must keep up with research about alternative
methods of pest control and apply the results on their farms. They must
learn to control pests using an "ecosystem" approach that requires patience,
because sometimes it takes several years to produce satisfactory results.
Even more important, organic farmers must care for and enrich their soil
with organic matter and non-chemical sources of the nutrients their crops
require, and this is often much more labor intensive than the yearly
applications of chemical fertilizers that conventional farmers use.

But organic agriculture is viable and practical for most crops, and farmers
who are motivated can, without too much trouble, find the information and
resources they need to successfully transition most farm operations--grains,
vegetables, livestock, eggs, herbs, etc.--to the organic method.

More must be done to convince conventional farmers to go organic. Some of
this encouragement should come from organic certifiers and others in the
business of processing, selling and promoting organics. Consumers can also
play a role by letting grocery store produce managers and farmers they meet
at farmers' markets and farm stands know that they want certified organic
produce. Publications can do more by considering the growth and development
of organic agriculture and its potential for helping American farms and
farmers out of the desperate financial and personal circumstances in which
so many of them are trapped.

Organic agriculture certainly can use more friends and advocates. At the
same time, critical attention must be paid to some disturbing trends that
seriously threaten the integrity of the organic movement. The most important
of these is the current effort by large corporations that are trying to take
over organic agriculture and that have in fact already had considerable
success in doing so. As organics has grown, corporations have seen the
potential for profits, and they have been trying to buy control of what was
once a grassroots and family-based segment of agriculture.

General Mills is already the largest buyer of organic grains in the world,
and other corporate giants, including Amway and even Disney, are also
involved in what some people insist on calling "the organic industry." If we
don't reverse this trend and get these corporate gorillas out of organics,
we'll see the idealism that has always characterized organics replaced by
the same trends that are destroying conventional family farming: control by
brokers, processors, banks and middlemen, plus consolidation and the "get
big or get out" mentality. Again, informed consumers will have to play a
role, organizing to insist on grassroots control of organics by family
farmers and family farm coops, not massive food broker-marketers and
multinationals.

Organics should also resolve to supply local and regional markets first. Too
much of the growth in organics is fueled by long-distance international
commerce in export commodities. In poor countries an emphasis on export
crops--even if they are organic--often displaces basic food crops, and the
result is increased poverty and malnutrition. Organic agriculture needs to
come to grips with this ethical dilemma and put more emphasis on growing
food for local consumption.

Also, organic food must not be a luxury that is beyond the reach of most
buyers. As organic agriculture has grown, retail prices have become more
reasonable. Because organic food is believed to be higher quality, healthier
food, it will continue to fetch somewhat higher prices than conventional
produce. But if its market share is to go on growing, organic produce must
be affordable. America should not be a place where some people can afford
food that's fresh and healthy and others have to settle for less.

I certainly agree with Krebs that Americans need to know a lot more about
the conditions that farmers and farm families currently face. We need to
understand that an absurdly small slice of what we pay for farm
products--often less than five per cent--goes to the farmers and farm
workers who grow and harvest this food.

While getting the word out about the severity of America's farm crisis is
vitally important, farm advocates need to do more. We should inform both
consumers and farmers about potential solutions to the crisis that is
destroying our country's heartland. Voices for rural America need to
consider and debate organic and other sustainable methods of agriculture so
that their readers can be fully informed consumers and food activists.
Organic farming is a viable option for many more farmers than those who are
presently farming organically, and changing to organics offers farmers and
farm communities additional benefits by reducing water pollution from
fertilizer runoff and eliminating toxic pesticides that threaten the health
of farm families.

Organic agriculture, which prohibits the use of genetically modified seeds,
can effectively counter the power this out-of-control technology poses to
the future of family farms and farming communities. A fully developed
organic agriculture has the potential to feed the world better and more
efficiently than our present chemical-dependent industrial agriculture can.

We should all do what we can to strengthen the connections between farm
communities and consumers. This work should include supporting a transition
to organics in all sectors of U.S. agriculture and in agriculture throughout
the world. Converting agriculture to the organic method can give us
healthier food and a healthier environment. In my opinion, only a careful
and responsible transition to organics can also ensure a prosperous, stable
and healthy future for the farms and rural communities that nurture and
sustain us all.

from:
http://www.mofga.org/mofgj00h.html