Sustainable Agriculture News Briefs - March 25, 2009
Weekly sustainable agriculture news and resources gleaned from the Internet by NCAT staff for the ATTRA - National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service Web site. The Weekly Harvest Newsletter is also available online (http://attra.ncat.org/newsletter/archives.html#wh).
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News & Resources
* Fishermen Create Seafood CSA
* Researchers Evaluate No-till Production for Carbon Sequestration
* Online Training for Food Safety and Marketing of Local Foods
* New Meat Marketing Resources Available
* Video Series to Help Beginning Farmers
* Researchers Study Biomass Crops
Funding Opportunities
* New Ranch Network Grant
* Pennsylvania Dairy Business Budgeting Grant
* Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program
Coming Events
* Hydroponic Growers Conference
* Eat Local Expo
* Illinois Farmers’ Market Conference
News & Resources
Fishermen Create Seafood CSA
http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/food/articles/2009/03/18/economy_of_scales/?page=full
Fishermen in Maine have created Port Clyde Fresh Catch, which is a community-supported fishery (CSF). The Boston Globe reports participants sign up, pay a lump sum for the season, then receive a weekly share of seafood caught by the members of the Midcoast Fishermen’s Cooperative. CSFs work in much the same way for fishermen as CSAs (community-supported agriculture) do for farmers, with many of the same benefits. Consumers get the freshest local food, and the money goes straight to producers, with no middleman.
Related ATTRA Publication: Community Supported Agriculture
http://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/csa.html
Researchers Evaluate No-till Production for Carbon Sequestration
http://www.extension.org/pages/No-Till_Works,_But_Not_Always_Applicable_for_Storing_Carbon
No-till is recognized globally as an ideal means of conserving soil and water while also storing soil carbon, but the agricultural practice may not be applicable under all environmental conditions. Ohio State University soil scientists measured carbon levels in no-till fields throughout seven states and found that soil texture, moisture, temperature, and terrain parameters affected the amount of carbon stored on the soil surface. ‘The message here is that no-till is not applicable everywhere as a means of practicing carbon sequestration. There are situations where other carbon sequestration methods would be more effective,’ said Rattan Lal, a soil scientist with Ohio State’s Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center.
Related ATTRA Publication: Agriculture, Climate Change and Carbon Sequestration
http://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/PDF/carbonsequestration.pdf
Online Training For Food Safety and Marketing of Local Foods
http://www.extension.org/pages/Local_Foods:_Food_Safety_and_Marketing_Strategies
A South Dakota Cooperative Extension Service Web site offers online training (http://extfcs.sdstate.edu/foodsafetysite/onLineTraining/) in food safety and marketing strategies for foods that are grown and marketed locally. The training is a self-paced study that provides content along with follow-up questions to assess what participants have learned. One module addresses critical safe food handling practices from planting to market, and the other concentrates on the organization of a farmers’ market. Anyone interested in learning more about safely growing, producing and harvesting fruits and vegetables and organizing local farmers’ markets can benefit from the information.
New Meat Marketing Resources Available
http://www.smallfarms.cornell.edu/pages/projects/workteams/LP/livestock.cfm
The New York Small Farms Livestock Processing Work Team announced two new publications. ‘Meat and Poultry at the Market: What a Farmers’ Market Manager Needs to Know’ and ‘Meat and Poultry at the Market: What a Farmer Needs to Know’ cover many specific details on what is required of farmers in order to sell at the farmers’ market.
Video Series to Help Beginning Farmers
http://www.nybeginningfarmers.org/
The New York Beginning Farmer Project, led by a team of Cornell Cooperative Extension Educators in partnership with the Cornell Small Farms Program has released a new video series. The ‘Voices of Experience’ (http://www.nybeginningfarmers.org/index.php?page=goodadvice) series features experienced farmers and their advice to beginning farmers. Topics covered include setting goals, choosing an enterprise, and profitability.
Researchers Study Biomass Crops
http://www.illinoisagconnection.com/story-state.php?Id=246&yr=2009
On the University of Illinois South Farms, 320 acres are devoted to the largest biofuels research farm in the U.S., growing crops that could be used to produce renewable energy. Last year the farm planted miscanthus, switchgrass, corn, and restored prairie as bioenergy crops. The goal is to compare insect and disease challenges, environmental benefits, economic opportunities and potential energy per acre of each. Long term, the Energy Farm will conduct research projects on many more potential biofuel crops, reports Illinois Ag Connection.
Related ATTRA Publication: Switchgrass as a Bioenergy Crop
http://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/switchgrass.html
More Breaking News (http://attra.ncat.org/news/)
Funding Opportunities
New Ranch Network Grant
http://newranch.net/NRN_Small_Grants/index.html
The New Ranch Network Small Grants Program provides assistance to landowners, associations and communities in making changes through collaboration. The project or activity must involve Forest Service permittees or Forest Service lands, or involve water related projects east of the Rio Grande in NM or TX. Grants range in size from $1,000 to $5,000.
Pennsylvania Dairy Business Budgeting Grant
http://www.centerfordairyexcellence.org/index.php/business-budgeting-grants.html
To assist dairy farms struggling to manage cash flow in a cash-negative milk sales environment, the Center for Dairy Excellence is offering forty $1,500 “Cash Projection and Business Budgeting” grants. The grants were made available as an initiative of the Pennsylvania Dairy Task Force’s Business Management Committee. Any Pennsylvania dairy farm that is not already doing comprehensive cash projection and business budgeting can apply to receive the grants.
Proposals are due May 1, 2009.
Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program
http://www.csrees.usda.gov/fo/beginningfarmerandrancher.cfm
The Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program (BFRDP) provides resources to support the development of education, outreach, curricula, workshops, educational teams, training, and technical assistance programs to assist beginning farmers and ranchers in the United States and its territories in entering, establishing, building and managing successful farm and ranch enterprises. This program will also provide a cooperative agreement to an online electronic and library clearinghouse to provide associated support to individually funded projects, educational enhancement projects and the overall BFRDP program.
Proposals are due May 13, 2009.
More Funding Opportunities (http://attra.ncat.org/funding/)
Coming Events
Hydroponic Grower’s Conference
http://www.cropking.com/conference.shtml
April 2-4, 2009
Dover, Delaware
Through a series of specifically-focused seminar tracks, this 25th anniversary conference will present the information that you need, no matter where you are on the growing learning curve. This Conference is designed to present you with new technology, as well as acquaint you with the fundamental basics of controlled environmental growing.
Eat Local Expo
http://www.kcfoodcircle.org/events/
April 4, 2009
Independence, Missouri
Kansas City Food Circle presents its 11th annual exhibition of farmers. The event, which is being held in two different locations on consecutive weeks, includes a free workshop on how to buy local, and the opportunity to enroll in CSA programs and buy local produce, meat, eggs and garden seedlings.
Illinois Farmers’ Market Conference
http://www.agr.state.il.us/marketing/reservations/
March 31, April 7, & April 9, 2009
Springfield, Mt. Vernon & Sycamore, Illinois
A series of three meetings are being offered to individuals involved with specialty crop production and farmers’ markets. Topics will include market issues and resources for market managers and vendors.
More Events (http://attra.ncat.org/calendar/)
New & Updated Publications
Agriculture, Climate Change and Carbon Sequestration
http://attra.ncat.org/calendar/new_pubs.php/2009/01/27/agriculture_climate_change_and_carbon_se
Equipo para Producción Aviar Alternativa
http://attra.ncat.org/calendar/new_pubs.php/2009/01/09/equipo_para_produccion_aviar_alternativa
Organic Poultry Production in the United States
http://attra.ncat.org/calendar/new_pubs.php/2008/12/31/organic_poultry_production_in_the_united
Question of the Week
What are some resources for spelt production?
http://attra.ncat.org/calendar/question.php/2009/03/23/what_are_some_resources_for_spelt_produc
Website of the Week
Farm Aid’s Farmer Resource Network Web
http://attra.ncat.org/wow/
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Submit questions to our professional staff online
http://attra.ncat.org/ask.php
ATTRA Spanish Newsletter
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(Monthly Harvest), ATTRA’s Spanish-language e-newsletter
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Copyright 2009 NCAT
Fedco Seeds: The David to Monsanto’s Goliath
Garden Gold lists over 100 suppliers where you can still buy open-pollinated, non-hybrid seeds. Don’t miss out on this valuable resource!
March 24, 2009
Kerry
The Green Fork
Seed money for start-ups may be evaporating faster than California’s dwindling reservoirs, but this rocky economy is proving to be fertile ground for the seed industry. Cash-strapped consumers, scared by the specter of an empty fridge, are investing in the ultimate low-tech, high-yield start-up: the kitchen garden. The National Gardening Association estimates that some 43 million Americans are gearing up to grow at least some of their own food this spring.
And no wonder. As Roger Doiron, founder of Maine-based Kitchen Gardeners International, has documented, a few dozen seed packets costing $130 can yield more than two thousand dollars worth of produce over the course of the growing season. “We have a fabulous opportunity,” C.R. Lawn, the founder of another Maine mainstay, Fedco Seeds, told an audience at the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture’s Farming for the Future conference last month. “The challenge is on us to come through.” Lawn, an endearingly shaggy character who looks a bit like a pale Papa Smurf, rocked gently from side to side as he spoke of the challenges that his company faced following the acquisition of Fedco’s largest seed supplier, Seminis, by monolithic Monsanto back in 2005.
Like many a diehard Fedco fan, I eagerly await their famous catalog each spring in anticipation of the wonderful, whimsical illustrations and witty seed descriptions sprinkled with fascinating tidbits of trivia and gratuitous political commentary. “We wish we were writing for the New Yorker,” Lawn confessed wistfully.
But when I opened my 2006 Fedco catalog, anticipating a breezy excursion through the season’s seed offerings, I was dismayed to find out about Fedco’s dilemma. I was vaguely aware, at the time, of Monsanto’s house of horrors: Agent Orange, DDT, rBST, Roundup, and so on. But I hadn’t realized that they were swallowing up smaller seed companies in their relentless drive to dominate the world’s food supply. In January of 2006, I wrote,:
Does it matter if most of our vegetables are brought to us courtesy of Monsanto and Dupont? I’ll admit I don’t think about this issue a whole lot myself. But when I kicked back with a stack of seed catalogs on Sunday to find out what’s new and novel in the edible landscape, I opened up the Fedco Co-op Seed Packers catalog and found a can of worms.
Fedco sells the finest hybrid and heirloom vegetable seed to farmers and home gardeners alike, offering a wide range of certified organic cultivars and regional heirloom varieties at terrific prices. A cooperative venture committed to fostering sustainable agriculture, Fedco conducts extensive trials of its seeds in order to select the best tasting, hardiest varieties with the highest germination rates.
So when Fedco’s largest seed supplier, a company called Seminis, got snapped up by Monsanto last year, Fedco was faced with a major ethical dilemma. Monsanto, king of the genetically engineered crop crowd, is anathema to the folks at Fedco, but Seminis has long provided Fedco with many of its most popular vegetable varieties, including my all-time favorite cherry tomato, a super sweet golden hybrid called Sunsugar.
Fedco, being the cooperative that it is, polled its customers: should they drop the Monsanto/Seminis seed altogether, phase it out gradually, or keep it? The majority voted to drop Monsanto like a genetically modified hot potato.
As Lawn told us at the PASA conference, Fedco has been scrambling ever since to find replacement seed varieties for the ones its customers have come to rely on. It’s been a struggle, Lawn admitted, but he has no doubt they made the right decision, and sales have doubled over the past two years.
Monsanto’s ongoing campaign to control our food chain has been well documented in a series of books, documentaries, and articles in recent years, but the vast majority of American consumers remain blissfully unaware of all the behind-the-scenes machinations Monsanto has employed in its quest to persecute–and, presumably, eliminate–the small, independent farmers who decline to buy Monsanto’s patented, genetically modified seeds, preferring instead to grow seed varieties that have been painstakingly bred for superior flavor and texture and, in many cases, passed down through generations.
These are the heirloom varieties that have been threatened with extinction since the advent of industrial agriculture, because though they may have the best flavor, they don’t ship well, or their appearance is too irregular for customers programmed to demand uniformly round tomatoes or perfect apples.
C. R. Lawn has been on the frontlines of the agri-culture wars since he founded Fedco Seeds in 1978, so the 2006 catalog was full of quotes from customers cheering his company’s decision not to do business with Monsanto:
“You don’t need to sell your soul for a Sunsugar…We’ll survive on the sweet tastiness of the moral high ground.”
But Fedco’s not only surviving; it’s thriving. Three years later, the 2009 catalog includes a brand new open-pollinated cherry tomato Fedco’s introduced by the name “WOW,” because “WOW! has been the first word out of everyone who has ever plopped one in his or her mouth.” Sadly, I missed the boat on this reportedly remarkable new variety because, well, I was too busy attending sustainable ag conferences and the like to crack open my seed catalogs.
I’m sorry I won’t be harvesting any “WOWs” this year, but thankful I had the opportunity to hear the iconic, ironic C. R. Lawn speak. With the impending publication of Robyn O’Brien’s The Unhealthy Truth: How Our Food is Making Us Sick — And What We Can Do About It, and the June release of the documentary Food, Inc., mainstream America is about to get a wake-up call on just how asleep at the wheel our government’s been in allowing Monsanto to monopolize our country’s crops. Here’s to C. R. Lawn and his colleagues at Fedco for weathering the Seminis/Monsanto storm and emerging triumphant. Thanks to these savers of seeds, our nation’s rich agricultural heritage lives on.
http://blog.eatwellguide.org/2009/03/fedco-seeds-the-david-to-monsantos-goliath/