Home News & Events Alternative Agriculture News -- June '98

USDA Abandons Three Contentious Organic Issues
Agriculture Is To Blame For Polluted Waters
Scientists Search for Alternative Pollinators to Honeybees
Resources
USDA Vows Cooperation With EPA At Animal Waste Summit
Whole Farm Planning Report Surveys Nine Activities
Food Quality Protection Act Advisory Group Named
Positions
Upcoming Events

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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 13, No. 1) features articles on:

• The performance, economics, and adoption of cover crops in Wisconsin cash grain rotations.
• Reduced chemical input cropping systems in the Southeastern United States.
• Small-scale intensive cultivation methods.
• Creating positive incentives for farm composting.

Subscriptions to AJAA are $44 for libraries; $24 for individuals; and $12 for students. Find more information about AJAA at he Wallace Institute website.

Responding to 200,000 "extraordinary" public comments, the USDA last month abandoned its proposal to include the products of genetic engineering, irradiation, and municipal sewage sludge in organic food production, which had been part of the national organic standards the agency proposed late last year.

"USDA is committed to developing national organic standards that organic farmers and consumer will embrace," said USDA Secretary Dan Glickman. "Thousands of commenters requested that USDA issue revised proposed standards, and we intend to do so. The revised proposal will contain fundamental changes from our initial draft."

According to Newsweek (June 1, 1998), "The USDA yanked the proposal back for a rewrite after it took an unprecedented public beating. Some 200,000 people wrote, faxed, e-mailed or spoke up at public hearings to let the USDA know they overwhelmingly rejected the standards, especially if they allowed what became known as the Big Three to be sold as organic: genetically engineered food, irradiated food and food grown in municipal sewage sludge."

USDA also said that many of the public comments asserted that national organic standards must be rigorous and credible. Otherwise, commenters expressed concern that consumers will lose faith in the organic label. "If organic farmers and consumers reject our national standards, we have failed," Glickman said. USDA will evaluate the public comments on the initial proposal and publish the revised proposal later this year.

Newsweek's three-page article asks, "Is there any reason at all to pay extra for organic? Sure....A USDA report documents numerous examples of the environmental threat posed by farm chemicals, including the destruction of fish, wildlife and beneficial insects. Farm workers who apply pesticides and herbicides have disproportionately high rates of some cancers -- and so do their children."

From an environmental point of view, "the lower price tag on conventional produce may be deceptive," according to the article, which argues that "our food supply only seems cheap because its real costs aren't represented by supermarket bar codes." Once the final USDA regulations are in place, by about 2000, "shoppers who choose organic will know for the first time exactly what they're buying."

Runoff from agricultural lands is the biggest source of pollution in the rivers and lakes surveyed in 1996, according to an EPA report released last month. National Water Quality Inventory: 1996 Report to Congress reports water quality conditions in rivers, lakes, estuaries, wetlands, coastal waters, the Great Lakes, and groundwater, and found that as of 1996, about 40 percent of the country's surveyed rivers, lakes, and estuaries are too polluted for basic uses, such as fishing and swimming.

Agriculture is the most widespread source of pollutants in rivers and streams, the report said; agricultural activities may introduce siltation, nutrients, pesticides, and organic matter that deplete oxygen in surface and ground waters. Agriculture is also the most widespread source of pollutants in lakes, where agricultural fertilizers and manure from animal operations can be a major source of nutrients. In lakes, reservoirs, and ponds, nutrients and metals are the most widespread pollutants; nutrients are the most widespread pollutants in estuaries. In estuaries, nutrient overenrichment causes algal blooms, low dissolved oxygen conditions, fish kills, foul odors, and excessive aquatic weed growth.

National Water Quality Inventory is available on the Internet at http://www.epa.gov/305b/.

Scientists at several locations across the country are grooming new bees to become alternative pollinators to the "honeybee population under siege," according to an article in The New York Times Magazine (May 10, 1998).

The honeybee has "a monopoly of sorts in one of the most important aspects of agricultural production," pollinating the great majority of 100 cash crops, including apples, pears, cherries, oranges, peppers, tomatoes, and garlic. "But a combination of deadly parasites and severe weather has now begun to pose a serious threat to Apis mellifera," the article says. "In some parts of the country, almost all feral honeybees and more than half the commercial colonies have been wiped out."

The Forgotten Pollinators Campaign, which stresses the dependence of many threatened or endangered plants on native pollinators that are also becoming rare, argues that America's reliance on the honeybee is unhealthy, and that "the nation's food supply will not be secure until the stable of insects that can serve as reliable pollinators is expanded."

Scientists in Utah, Maryland, and Arizona are doing field experiments with alternative pollinators such as the horn-faced bee, the black carpenter bee, and the blue orchard bee. Some bees won't adapt to all climates, scientists cautioned: "the nation's growers will decide which is the better bee."

Information about the Forgotten Pollinators Campaign is available on the Internet at http://www.Desert.Net/museum/fp/.

• "Agroforestry: Agriculture and Forestry Working Together," a 59-minute video, is available on loan from the National Agroforestry Center, USDA FS/NRCS, East Campus-UNL, Lincoln, NE 68583-0822; (402) 437-5178; on the Internet, http://www.unl.edu/nac
  
  
• "Food Production And Environmental Stewardship: Examples of How Food Companies Work With Growers" is available from Richard Kashmanian; Office of Policy Development; Office of Policy, Planning, and Evaluation (2128); U.S. EPA, 401 M St., SW, Washington, D.C. 20460; e-mail kashmanian.richard@epamail.epa.gov
  
  
• "Investing in the Future of Agriculture: The Massachusetts Farmland Protection Program and the Permanence Syndrome" is $14.95 plus shipping/handling from American Farmland Trust at 1- 800-370-4879.
  
  
• "Growing Vegetables in Wisconsin," a series of five publications with different prices, is available from University of Wisconsin Cooperative Extension Publications, (608) 262-3346.
  
  
• "Organic Certification of Crop Production in Minnesota" is $3 plus $2 shipping from University of Minnesota Extension Service, Distribution Center, 1420 Eckles Ave., St. Paul, MN 55108; 1-800-876-8636.
  
  
• "Northeast Aquaculture: Farming the Waters," a 30-minute video, $10; "Facilities for Roadside Markets," 32 pages, $10.50; and "Guide to Great Forestry and Natural Resources Publications," a publication of 1,300 resources, $13.50, are all available from Northeast Regional Agricultural Engineering Service, (607) 255- 7654; e-mail nraes@cornell.edu
  
  
• "Eco-Labels: The Key to Consumer Support" is $35 from The Food Alliance, 1829 NE Alberta St., #5, Portland, OR 97211; (503) 493-1066; e-mail tfa@thefoodalliance.org
  
  
• California Federation of Certified Farmers' Markets lists 350 farmers' markets on the Internet at http://farmersmarket.ucdavis.edu; for information, contact Susan McCue, UC Small Farm Center, (530) 752-7849; e-mail semccue@ucdavis.edu

The USDA pledged to work with the EPA "as equal partners" to find a solution to the nation's increasing animal waste problems, according to testimony given at the National Animal Waste Management Summit convened by Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) last month in Washington, D.C.

"Animal feeding operations are the biggest conservation issue in agriculture today, bar none," said USDA Secretary Dan Glickman. "We must work together to figure out how we preserve our health, our environment, and a sustainable, economically viable livestock industry....I want to see more breakthroughs that bring producers' economic and environmental interests together."

EPA Administrator Carol Browner also testified about the Clinton Administration's Clean Water Action Plan, which includes a draft strategy to curb pollution runoff from animal feeding operations.

Whole Farm Planning: A Survey of North American Experiments, a new report just released by the Wallace Institute, examines nine whole farm planning activities in the United States and Canada. The survey and analysis concluded that because whole farm planning has not attracted a uniform constituency, it cannot be a simple, straightforward exercise.

Author Elizabeth Higgins also concluded that the environmental regulations that make planning an attractive economic option are driving much of the interest in whole farm planning, and that mandatory farm planning as a part of widespread regulations would likely result in plans that are either focused on single resources or extremely costly. The report also identifies several areas for improvement in most of the whole farm planning programs surveyed. The full report is $10 from the Wallace Institute, 9200 Edmonston Road, #117, Greenbelt, MD 20770; (301) 441-8777; e-mail hawiaa@access.digex.net; on the Internet, http://www.hawiaa.org.

Responding to criticism from industry, environmentalists, and public health advocates, the EPA and USDA have established a Tolerance Reassessment Advisory Committee to advise the agencies on implementation of the Food Quality Protection Act. The committee will explore helping EPA set priorities in considering broad categories of pesticides such as organophosphates, and speed the pace of decisions on pesticide safety.

Committee members representing environmental/consumer organizations and farmworkers are Sara Lynch, World Wildlife Fund; Carolyn Brickey, National Campaign for Pesticide Policy Reform; Ken Cook, Environmental Working Group; Jeannine Kenney, Consumers Union; John Adams, Natural Resources Defense Council; Marion Moses, Pesticide Education Center; Nelson Carrasquillo, C.A.T.A.; and Shelley Davis, Farmworkers Justice Fund. Members representing agriculture and farmers are Bill Spencer, Yuma, AZ; Brad Luckey, Imperial County, CA; Dan Botts, Florida Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Association; Wally Ewart, Northwest Horticultural Council; William Lovelady, National Cotton Council; Jim Czub, National Corn Growers Association; Larry Elworth, Program for Strategic Pest Management; Charles Mellinger, NAICC; Robin Spitko, Plant Pathologist; and Steven Pavich, Terra Bella, CA. A list of all members is available from EPA at (202) 260-4355.

• Central California organic agricultural operation seeks Operations Manager; contact Larry V. Combs, 4909 Stockdale Highway, #289, Bakersfield, CA 93309; (805) 831-0149; e-mail Search4Um@aol.com; fax (805) 831-1839.
  
  
• Food Animal Concerns Trust seeks a Farm Program Manager for its egg production program; send resume to Richard Wood, FACT, P.O. Box 14599, Chicago, IL 60614; e-mail RRWood@ix.netcom.com

For additional listings, see the Sustainable Agriculture Network's Calendar of Events.

• June 24-26, in Traverse City, MI, and July 13-15, in Ames, IA, "Facing a Watershed: Managing Profitable and Sustainable Landscapes in the 21st Century," a workshop sponsored by the SARE Professional Development Program; contact Heidi Carter, Education Coordinator, University of Nebraska, Center for Sustainable Agricultural Systems, (402) 472-0917; e-mail csas007@unlvm.unl.edu
  
  
• June 28, Trust for the Future's Descendants Day will be held in Nashville, TN; contact Bill Howell or Tim Kyne, 2704 12th Ave. So., Nashville, TN 37204; (615) 297-2269; e-mail chowell@edge.net
  
  
• July 1-August 7, Intensive Permaculture Course/Self-Reliance Internship will be held in Basalt, CO; contact Central Rocky Mountain Permaculture Institute, P.O. Box 631, Basalt, CO 81621; (970) 927-4158; e-mail permacul@rof.net
  
  
• July 3-5, "Straw Bale Construction," and July 31-August 2, "Building with Earth and Straw," permaculture programs, will be held in Black Mountain, N.C.; contact Culture's Edge, 1025 Camp Elliott Road, Black Mountain, N.C. 28711; (828) 298-2399; e-mail culturesedge@earthaven.org
  
  
• July 5-9, "Balancing Resource Issues: Land, Water, and People," the Soil and Water Conservation Society's Annual Conference, will be held in San Diego, CA; contact SWCS, 7515 NE Ankeny Road, Ankeny, IA 50021; fax (515) 289-1227; materials are available on the Internet at http://www.swcs.org/
  
  
• July 7-9, Ag Expo will be held at Michigan State University, East Lansing; contact Barbara Brochu, 1-800-366-7055.
  
  
• July 8-10, Fuel Ethanol workshop will be held in South Bend, IN; contact Fuel Ethanol Workshop, 5015 Red Gulch, P.O. Box 159, Cotopaxi, CO 81223; (719) 942-4353; e-mail etoh85@aol.com
  
  
• July 11, Polyface Farm Field Day will be held in Swoope, VA; contact Acres USA, P.O. Box 8800, Metairie, LA 70011; 1-800-355- 5313.
  
  
• July 23, Milan No-Till Crop Production Field Day and Research Tours will be held in Milan, TN; contact Dr. Blake Brown, Milan Experiment Station, 6505 Ellington Drive, Milan, TN 38358; (901) 686-7362; e-mail utmilan@usit.net
  
  
• July 29, "Tools for Transitioning" Field Day will be held in Holtwood, PA; contact Steve Groff, Cedar Meadow Farm, 679 Hilldale Road, Holtwood, PA 17523; (717) 284-5152; e-mail sgroff@epix.net; information is available on the Internet at http://www.cedarmeadowfarm.com

Home News & Events Alternative Agriculture News -- June '98