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

Report Profiles Profitable Alternative Farming Practices
Most Sustainable Ag Funding Survives Senate Vote
Land Institute Redefines Agriculture
EPA Awards Grants to Reduce Pesticide Use
Position
Europe Steers Clear of Genetically Altered Food
Honeybee Populations Are At Lowest Levels in Decade
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This newsletter is also available to subscribers to the sanet-mg discussion group. 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 13, No. 2) features articles on:

• The start-up of a successful alternative dairy farm in Wisconsin.
• Feedlot manure nutrient loadings on South Dakota farmland.
• Organic vegetable production in the United States.
• Natural terrace formation through vegetative barriers on hillside farms in Honduras.
• Erosion effects on soil moisture and corn yield on two soils in Tanzania.
• A behavioral approach to alternative agriculture research.

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

Innovative and successful farmers around the country are "switching from conventional pest management practices, which are heavily reliant on pesticides, to profitable alternative agricultural practices that substantially reduce pesticide use," concludes a report published last month by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).

The report, "Fields of Change: A New Crop of American Farmers Find Alternatives to Pesticides," profiles 22 farmers who produce fruits, vegetables, grains, cotton, and dairy in 16 states: California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, New York, North Carolina, Texas, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin.

"All of the farmers made the conversion from conventional pest management systems to alternative pest management systems while maintaining, and in many cases improving, the profitability of their operations." The farmers now use alternative techniques such as scouting and monitoring for pest and natural enemy population levels; using precision pesticide application equipment; rotating crops and planting cover crops; switching to biologically-based pest control products; and using conservation tillage, irrigation management, and soil-building.

The report makes five policy recommendations that would facilitate the widespread adoption of alternative pest management practices:

• Implement an education and technical assistance program.
• Increase investment in sustainable and organic farming systems research and extension programs.
• Salvage the Administration's Integrated Pest Management initiative.
• Increase availability of technical and financial cost-share assistance and incentive programs.
• Define terms and create rewards in the marketplace for foods grown using alternative pest management methods.

"Fields of Change" is $14 plus $3 shipping from NRDC, Publications Department, 40 West 20th St., New York, N.Y. 10011; (212) 727-4486. An executive summary and portions of the text are available from the publications page at NRDC's website: http://www.nrdc.org/nrdc/nrdcpro/fppubl.html

Federal funding in Fiscal Year 1999 for most sustainable agriculture programs, which was cut in several areas by the U.S. House of Representatives in June, survived a vote by the Senate last month.

Here are the appropriations approved by the Senate for several sustainable agriculture programs:

• SARE: $8 million appropriation approved for the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education program, the same as FY98.
• SAPDP: $3.3 million appropriation approved for the SARE (Chapter 3) Professional Development Program, the same as FY98.
• ATTRA: $1.3 million appropriation approved for the Appropriate Technology Transfer for Rural Areas, the same as FY98.
• OFPA: $1 million appropriation approved for the Organic Food Production Act, the same as the House appropriation and an increase from the FY98 appropriation of $500,000.
• CFO: All funds deleted for the Conservation Farm Option, the same as the House. FY98's appropriation was $15 million.
• EQIP: $200 million appropriation approved for the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, an increase from the House appropriation of $174 million, and the same as the FY98 appropriation of $200 million.
• WRP: $90.2 million appropriation approved for the Wetlands Reserve Program, a decrease from the House appropriation of $97.7 million and from the FY98 appropriation of $219 million.
• CFSA: $2.5 million appropriation approved for the Community Food Security Act, the same as the House appropriation.
• FRA: All funds deleted for the Fund for Rural America, the same as the House. The Farm Bill did not authorize any FRA funds for FY98.

The Land Institute in Salina, Kansas, is "the spiritual home for a growing group of farmers, scientists and prairie visionaries who are quietly redefining the meaning of agriculture," according to an essay in "The Millennium Notebook" of Newsweek (July 6, 1998).

Farmers are now using "heavy machinery and an ever-expanding arsenal of fertilizers and insecticides. But the machines destroy the soil, and modern agriculture has been blamed for everything from bland tomatoes to poisoned water and the death of the family farm. Researchers at The Land Institute think they see a way out. They call it 'natural-systems agriculture,' the idea being that we can farm more effectively, and less destructively, by mimicking nature, not subduing it."

Natural prairies are made up of a mix of different plants, most of them perennials. But grain farmers have selected annual varieties of grains, and fewer of them. The article asks, "Couldn't stable mixes of grains, legumes and oil seeds be grown together in the same field, keeping pests and weeds to a minimum just as a natural prairie does?"

Today, however, experiments at The Land Institute show that mixed fields can actually outproduce single crops, under some conditions. "If [Institute Director Wes] Jackson can persuade the world to re-examine the way we farm, he might just buy us another millennium or two."

The EPA last month awarded grants totaling almost $500,000 as part of its Pesticide Environmental Stewardship Program, whose goal is to reduce pesticide risk in agricultural and non-agricultural settings. Many of the grants emphasize integrated pest management.

Grant recipients and their projects are:

• University of Maine, to evaluate less toxic pesticide alternatives.
• Vermont Department of Agriculture, to educate homeowners about safe pesticide use.
• New York State Agricultural Experiment Station, Cornell University, to develop a spraying structure to improve pesticide use in apple orchards.
• University of Delaware, to reduce herbicide applications on irrigated corn.
• University of Georgia, to use IPM in mid-season peach production.
• North Carolina State University, to demonstrate effectiveness of biopesticides in apple orchards.
• Michigan State University, to develop pest ecology and management training materials for farmers.
• Texas Agricultural Experiment Station, to promote the use of contour filter strips that reduce agricultural runoff.
• University of Nebraska, to provide farmers with information on organic grain farming.
• Iowa State University, to reduce pesticide use and increase IPM with support of weather data.
• Montana State University, to test effectiveness of aeration as a method of controlling insects in large grain containers.
• Lodi-Woodbridge Winegrape Commission, to develop and implement integrated farming programs for winegrape growers.
• University of California Agriculture Research and Education Program, to develop and distribute information on integrated farming systems for field and row crops.
• Washington State Department of Agriculture, to establish a state program to assist growers with sustainable farming practices.

• Massachusetts Audubon Society's Drumlin Farm in Lincoln, MA, seeks a crop production manager for 13-acre organic operation; send cover letter, resume, and references to Stacy Miller, Drumlin Farm, South Great Road, Lincoln, MA 01773; fax (781) 259-7941.

Throughout the world last year, more than 30 million acres of commercial farmland were planted with genetically modified seeds -- 10 times as much as the year before -- "but not one of those acres was in the 15 countries of the European Union," according to The New York Times (July 20, 1998).

European consumers "are in open revolt over the prospect of a future in which nature has somehow been altered by people holding test tubes....The debate here about how -- and whether -- to unleash the most powerful tools of modern biology says much about the cultural and philosophical differences between pragmatic and risk-ready American, where genetic technology that focuses on food has largely been accepted, and the far more reticent people of Europe."

There are several reasons for the European conservatism, according to the article: " a strong environmental movement rooted in the 19th-century philosophy that nature is as wise as man, a fear of drastic change, and the unusually large number of small farms still run by families who are reluctant to end practices that have been honed over centuries."

Throughout the country, a combination of parasites, disease, and pesticides has sent bee populations plummeting to their lowest levels in decades, according to The Washington Post (July 20, 1998).

Honeybees are the primary pollinators for 90 fruit and vegetable crops, from almonds to avocados, contributing directly or indirectly to a third of the food Americans eat. "The number of managed bee colonies dropped by 25 percent in the United States in a single season, from 1995 to 1996, with similar declines noted in several European countries," the article said.

In Pennsylvania, apple growers are scrambling to find imported bees to pollinate their orchards, and commercially managed bee colonies suffered losses of 50 percent in three years.

Some experts "see the decline of the bees and other pollinators as evidence of more profound disturbances in the natural world. 'They are the canaries in the coal mine,' said Stephen L. Buchmann, a research entomologist with the USDA-Carl Hayden Bee Research Center in Tucson."

• "Integrated Pest Management Program," the 1998 Annual Report of the New York State IPM Program, is free from NYS IPM Program, NYSAES, Geneva, N.Y. 14456; (315) 787-2353, or on the Internet at http://www.nysaes.cornell.edu/ipmnet/ny/
  
  
• "The Economic Merit of Animal Manures as a Source of Plant Nutrients or Energy Generation" is $13 from UC Agricultural Issues Center, University of California, Davis, CA 95616; (530) 752-2320.
  
  
• "Whole Farm Planning: Combining Family, Profit and Environment" is $2.50 from Minnesota Institute for Sustainable Agriculture, 1-800-876-8636.

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

• August 27-29, "Philosophy of Design 98: Focus on the Land" will be held at Whispering Crane Institute, 1651 Calks Ferry Road, Lexington, S.C. 29072.
  
  
• August 31-September 2, "Making A Profit In Organics Recycling" will be held in Columbus, OH; contact BioCycle, (610) 967-4135.
  
  
• September 12-19, Practical Farmers of Iowa Field Days will be held; September 12, farms of Kenneth Rosmann, Harlan, (712) 627-4217, and Ron and Maria Rosmann and Sons, Harlan, (712) 627-4653; September 13, farm of Tom Wahl and Kathy Dice, Mapello, (319) 729-5905; September 15, farm of Larry and Judy Jedlicka, Solon, (319) 644-2686; September 19, Virginia Moser, Garrison, (319) 477-8261.
  
  
• September 5, Farm Tour of Buckskin Valley Farms will be held in Greenfield, OH; contact Charles and Jamie Eselgroth, (937) 981-2030.
  
  
• September 9, "Natural Products Expo East" will be held in Baltimore, MD; contact New Hope Natural Media; (303) 939-8440; e-mail expo@newhope.com
  
  
• September 9-10, "It's Just Common Sense: Practical Approaches to Better Groundwater Management," the 14th Annual Groundwater Foundation Fall Symposium, will be held in San Antonio, TX; contact Susan Seacrest, Groundwater Foundation, P.O. Box 22558, Lincoln, NE 68542; 1-800-858-4844.
  
  
• September 10, Thompson On-Farm Research Field Day will be held at the Thompson Farm, Boone, IA; contact Dick and Sharon Thompson, 2035 190th St., Boone, IA 50036; (515) 432-1560.
  
  
• September 17-20, 19th Annual Conference of the American Community Gardening Association will be held in Seattle, WA; contact Susan Casey, Friends of P-Patch, 700 3rd Ave., #400, Seattle, WA 98104; (206) 684-0264; e-mail p-patch.don@ci.seattle.wa.us
  
  
• September 25 is the deadline for presentation proposals for "The State of North America's Private Land," to be held in Chicago, IL, January 19-21, 1999; contact Soil and Water Conservation Society, 7515 NE Ankeny Road, Ankeny, IA 50021; (515) 289-2331; e-mail swcs@swcs.org
  
  
• September 25-26, "Wildlife, Pesticides, and People" will be held in Fairfax, VA; contact Rachel Carson Council, 8940 Jones Mill Road, Chevy Chase, MD 20815; (301) 652-1877; e-mail rccouncil@aol.com
  
  
• September 26, Country Living Field Day will be held in Augusta, OH; call Ohio State University Extension, (330) 627-4310.
  
  
• September 28-30, "Making Connections," the International Conference of the Society for Ecological Restoration, will be held in Austin, TX; contact SER, 1207 Seminole Highway, #B, Madison, WI 53711; (608) 262-9547; e-mail ser@vms2.macc.wisc.edu
  
  
• September 28-October 6, "Village Design Permaculture Practicum" will be held at Culture's Edge, 1025 Camp Elliott Road, Black Mountain, N.C. 28711; (828) 298-2399; e-mail culturesedge@earthaven.org

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