Home News & Events Alternative Agriculture News -- April '99

USDA Outlines Improvements in Proposed Organic Standards
Groups Ask FDA To Ban Antibiotics for Farm Animals
Wallace Board Re-Elects Officers, Announces Reorganization
Organic Practices Can Reduce Groundwater Contamination
New Strategy Will Clean Up Factory Farms
Peach Oil Could Replace Methyl Bromide
Special Issue of Audubon Chronicles Organic's Progress
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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. 4) features articles on:

• A comparison of alternative pest and soil management strategies for Maine potato production systems.
• A comparison of conventional and organic apple production systems during three years of conversion to organic management in coastal California.
• The response of corn, soybean, and wheat crops to fertilizer and herbicides in Ohio compared with low-input production practices.

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

At the most recent meeting of the National Organic Standards Board, the USDA announced several significant improvements on policy issues for the National Organic Standards that were among the most controversial of the first proposed standards.

Keith Jones, Director of the USDA's National Organic Program, outlined improvements in standards for livestock, synthetic materials, inert ingredients in pesticide formulations, and ecolabeling. Important provisions include a 100% organic feed requirement; a ban on antibiotic use in livestock; a requirement for access to the outdoors for all animals and pasture for all ruminants, with some limited exceptions; NOSB authorization for all approved synthetic materials; a prohibition on all List 2 EPA inerts and all List 3 inerts unless specifically approved by the NOSB; and no restrictions on label claims other than the organic claim.

The USDA will seek a one-time authorization to cover the cost of the first round of certifier accreditation, which will enable small, private certifiers to work in the national program. It is also negotiating a contract with the Organic Materials Review Institute to conduct the necessary technical reviews of materials being considered for the National List of allowable synthetics in organic production.

The NOSB has also brokered a tentative compromise between the USDA and the private certifier community on provisions for termination of certification. The arrangement would allow private certifiers, after finding a serious violation of standards and conducting an internal appeal process, to revoke the letter of certification through which it authorized the offending operation to use its seal. The operation can elect to appeal the certifier's decision to the USDA Secretary, who retains final authority to terminate certification.

Kathleen Merrigan, the Wallace Institute's Senior Analyst, is a member of the NOSB.

Five health, consumer, and other public interest groups last month asked the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to ban the use of certain antibiotics to fatten farm animals. Scientists have said that the use of antibiotics to promote animal growth increases the prevalence of bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics' effects, and jeopardizes human health.

Adding antibiotics to livestock feed can lead to antibiotics resistance in foodborne pathogens, which can make cases of food poisoning difficult to treat or even deadly, according to the Center for Science in the Public Interest, one of the groups which signed the petition to the FDA. The other groups are the Environmental Defense Fund, Food Animal Concerns Trust, Public Citizen's Health Research Group, and Union of Concerned Scientists.

For more than 40 years, ranchers and growers have fed low levels of penicillin, tetracycline, and other antibiotics to poultry, cattle, and pigs to speed their growth and to cut costs, according to the Center. In the past two years, the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have called for ending the use of several antibiotics for growth promotion in livestock.

The groups' concerns are shared in Europe, where the Soil Association of England has released a report revealing "statistics on the enormous increases in use of the most common antibiotics such as penicillin, despite the supposed efforts of successful governments to curtail it. And it reveals some of the failures in the regulatory system which are leaving the human population exposed to the increasing risk of drug-resistant disease." In its magazine Living Earth (January-March, 1999), the Association calls for a ban on all non-medical uses of antibiotics in agriculture.

The Wallace Institute Board of Directors last month re-elected officers and announced reorganization plans for the Institute.

Three board members were re-elected to serve another term: Christine (Cass) Peterson, owner/operator, Flickerville Mountain Farm and Groundhog Ranch; Jose Montenegro, Director, Rural Development Center, Salinas, CA; and Neil Anderson, Anderson Associates Sheep Consultants, Manhattan, KS.

These members of the Executive Committee were re-elected: President, Cornelia Butler Flora, Professor, Iowa State University; Vice President, Dr. Frederick Magdoff, Professor, Department of Plant and Soil Science, University of Vermont; Secretary, Cass Peterson; and Treasurer, Jose Montenegro.

The board also announced that after 16 years, the Wallace Institute will broaden its scope and reorganize to deliver its message closer to home. "Sustainable agriculture has finally achieved scientific legitimacy," said Garth Youngberg, Institute, executive director, citing a multitude of sustainable agriculture initiatives at the USDA and land grant universities across the country. "When we began this Institute, our goal was to provide a safe haven for alternative farming practices that were shunned by the establishment. Now those practices are considered credible mainstream science. It is time for the Institute to focus on a new analytical agenda that includes rural development, marketing, and the environment, issues of enormous importance to all Americans, and all Americans should know about them."

At its annual meeting, the Board reviewed the challenges that remain. "Achieving scientific legitimacy is only the first step," said Board chair Cornelia Flora. "It does not mean that we have fulfilled our vision of an agricultural system that is environmentally sound, socially just, and economically viable. In many ways, our work has just begun."

To fulfill its new mission, the Wallace Institute is considering several reorganization plans, including mergers and new virtual facilities to take advantage of technological advances in communication and research. "We will have a new look," said Flora. "We will avail ourselves of cutting-edge communications technologies and build new partnership networks not available throughout much of the Institute's history."

Flora said that credible policy analysis will continue to be the heart of the Institute's work, but the agenda will expand to include environmental management, rural development, and marketing. Final decisions about the Institute's new design are not expected until later this year.

"The Institute and its founding executive director, Garth Youngberg, have contributed enormously to the success of sustainable agriculture," said Jean Wallace Douglas, the Institute's Honorary President and longtime benefactor. "Whatever turn the Institute takes, it will honor and build upon that legacy."

The adoption of organic soil practices can effectively reduce nitrate contamination of groundwater while maintaining yields and improving overall soil quality, according to a 15-year study by the Rodale Institute. The research highlights an organic solution that could reduce the harmful effects of agricultural groundwater pollution and its contamination of surrounding waters. The study also found that organic management increased soil fertility, improved water filtration and holding capacity, reduced erosion, and increased crop productivity, especially during dry years.

A Unified National Strategy for Animal Feeding Operations, announced last month by the EPA and USDA, will reduce polluted runoff from 450,000 cattle, dairy, poultry, and hog farms where animals are raised in confined operations across the country.

The strategy sets a goal of developing and implementing Comprehensive Nutrient Management Plans for all animal feeding operations by 2009. Those plans will include actions to prevent or reduce runoff, improve storage and handling of manure, and identify new technologies to implement the plans.

Voluntary programs will be the main approach for smaller operations, but larger operations with more than 1,000 animal units, which comprise 5 percent of all animal feeding operations, will be required to obtain Clean Water Act discharge permits. The strategy requires large livestock companies that contract with smaller operators to share responsibility for meeting regulatory requirements.

The strategy is available on the Internet at http://www.epa.gov/owm; from the EPA at (202) 260-7786; or the USDA at (202) 720-5974.

The natural oil that gives peaches their perfume also kills fungus and other pests in the soil, and could replace the pesticide methyl bromide, according to The New York Times (March 14, 1999).

The peach compound, called benzaldehyde, is manufactured synthetically and has been screened by researchers at the Agricultural Research Service. "When it proved effective, they developed a new approach for applying benzaldehyde onto soil using granules of activated charcoal saturated with the fragrant chemical," according to the article.

"Not only does the peach essence kill off pathogens like Fusarium oxysporum, Rhizoctonia solani, Pythium aphanidermaturm, and Sclerotinia minor, the researchers found, but it seems to favor other, beneficial organisms in the soil that then continue to muscle out the unwanted pests." The use of methyl bromide, which damages the Earth's ozone layer, is required to end in 2005.

A special issue of Audubon (March-April, 1999) examines the progress of organic farming with articles on "The Organic Revolution," the increase in integrated pest management practices, and Wes Jackson and the Land Institute.

Conventional farmers this year "will apply 24 million tons of fertilizer and nearly 1 billion pounds of pesticides on their land," according to the lead article. "Some of these chemicals will invariably wind up in our groundwater, rivers, and estuaries." But "some experts are starting to come around," realizing the potential for organic farming which "increases biodiversity and benefits soil microorganisms that break down organic matter, earthworms that build soil structure, and soil arthropods that prey on insect pests."

A second article explores the "quiet revolution in American agriculture called integrated pest management, or simply IPM," and a third describes Wes Jackson's "grand experiment: a form of agriculture that, like a prairie, runs entirely on sunlight and rain."

• "Cultivating Diversity: Agrobiodiversity and Food Security" is available from World Resources Institute, 10 G St., NE, Washington, D.C. 20002; on the Internet, http://www.wri.org/wri/.
  
  
• "Pests of the Garden and Small Farm: A Grower's Guide to Using Less Pesticide," 286 pages, is $35; "1999-2000 Catalog" of publications, videos, and slide is free; both are available from the University of California, DANR Communication Services/Publications, 6701 San Pablo Ave., Oakland, CA 94608; (800) 994-8849, or (510) 642-2431.
  
  
• "Getting Food on the Table: An Action Guide to Local Food Policy" is $12 from Community Food Security Coalition, P.O. Box 209, Venice, CA 90294; (310) 822-5410.

• California Sustainable Agriculture Working Group seeks a full-time Coordinator to lead policy advocacy, movement-building, and educational activities; contact CSAWG, P.O. Box 1599, Santa Cruz, CA 95061; (831) 457-2815; e-mail casawg@igc.org
  
  
• Farmers' Market Trust seeks an assistant to the Executive Director, Food Security Meeting Planner, Technology/Web Site Assistant, and GIS Specialist; contact Meredith Stone, FMT, 1201 Chestnut St., 4th Floor, Philadelphia, PA 19107; (215) 568-0882; e-mail fmtrust@libertynet.org
  
  
• Mothers & Others seeks an Executive Director; send resume to ED Search, Mothers & Others, 40 West 20th St., New York, N.Y. 10011; e-mail wgordon@mothers.org
  
  
• Washington Tilth Producers seek apprentices on their farms; contact Lisa Taylor, Seattle Tilth, 4649 Sunnyside Ave. N., Seattle, WA 98103; (206) 633-0451; e-mail tilth@speakeasy.org

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

• May 14-16, "Beyond Pesticides: Pollution Prevention Is the Cure," the 17th National Pesticide Forum and 8th Annual California Pesticide Organizing Conference, will be held in Santa Barbara, CA; contact Beyond Pesticides/National Coalition Against the Misuse of Pesticides, (202) 543-5450; e-mail ncamp@ncamp.org
  
  
• May 14-16, Organic Landscaping Workshop will be held in East Troy, WI; contact Michael Fields Agricultural Institute, W2493 County Rd. ES, East Troy, WI 53120; (414) 642-3303; e-mail: mfai@igc.apc.org
  
  
• May 17-19, 29th Annual Composting and Recycling National Conference will be held in Albuquerque, N.M.; contact BioCycle Magazine, 419 State Ave., Emmaus, PA 18049; 1-800-661-4905.
  
  
• May 19-20, Summit on Organic Food Technology will be held in Gilroy, CA; contact Gay Franklin, SOFT, (408) 842-4893; e-mail gvnc@safemail.com
  
  
• May 21-23, American Livestock Breeds Conservancy's Annual Conference will be held in LaFox, IL; contact Cynthia Ehrman, ALBC, P.O. Box 477, Pittsboro, N.C. 27312; (919) 542-5704.
  
  
• May 23-28, 10th International Soil Conservation Organization Conference will be held in West Lafayette, IN; contact Nona Schaler, Purdue University, 1-800-359-2968 ext. 92N; e-mail njschaler@cea.purdue.edu; on the Internet, http://topsoil.nserl.purdue.edu/isco99/isco99.htm
  
  
• May 26-29, "Permanent Agriculture: Designing Our Farms for a Future That Matters" will be held in Buena Vista, VA; contact Good Earth Farm School, (540) 261-8775.
  
  
• June 6-8, "NABC 11: World Food Security and Sustainability: The Impacts of Biotechnology and Industrial Consolidation," the 11th annual meeting of the National Agricultural Biotechnology Council, co-hosted by the Wallace Institute, will be held in Lincoln, NE; contact the Center for Biotechnology, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, (402) 472-2635; or NABC, (607) 254-4856; e-mail nabc@cornell.edu

Home News & Events Alternative Agriculture News -- April '99