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The Provender Journal July-August, 2007 Is this the end of organic coffee? Is this the end of organic coffee? Thanks to a recent hush-hush USDA ruling, your clean-conscience, fair-trade, organic latte may soon be a thing of the past. This article first appeared at www.salon.com. The original can be found in its archives. Reprinted with permission. Enjoy your organic coffee now, while it’s hot — because it may not be around for long. In March 2007, the U.S. Department of Agriculture quietly released a ruling that alarmed organic certifiers and groups who work with third-world farmers. The decision tightens organic certification requirements to such a degree that it could sharply curtail the ability of small grower co-ops to produce organic coffee — not to mention organic bananas, cocoa, sugar and even spices. Kimberly Easson, director of strategic relationships for TransFair USA, the fair trade certification group, puts it bluntly: “This ruling could wipe out the organic coffee market in the U.S.” TransFair USA is not the only organization sounding the alarm. I spoke with nonprofits, businesses and organic certifiers, all of whom are concerned that the USDA ruling will catastrophically raise costs for small-scale producers of organic goods and likely push them back into conventional commodity markets. The USDA’s controversial ruling hinges on methods of organic certification — a process in which inspectors visit farms and walk through fields, review growing methods, and see what measures the farmer is taking to avoid pests and weeds. If the methods comply with regulations, the inspector then makes a recommendation to a certification agency; and if the farm is approved, it is certified for one year and granted permission to carry the organic label on its products. The USDA National Organic Program has overseen this process since 2002, when a patchwork of state organic standards was codified under a national regime. Until now, however, there has been a special provision for “grower groups” that made certification practical for farmer cooperatives in the Third World, whose memberships can reach into the thousands. Because of the immense logistical demands of inspecting every farm in a large co-op, a compromise was reached: An organic inspector would randomly visit only a portion of the group’s farms each year, usually 20 percent. The grower groups would then self-police the remainder through a manager who made sure they followed the rules. The following year, an inspector would return and visit another 20 percent of the farms. After five years, all farms would be inspected. But in the ruling made public in March, the National Organic Program overturned that system, saying every farm in a grower group must now be visited and inspected annually — as has been the practice in the United States — rather than only a percentage. ”[The previous system] was a mechanism for the low-resource global south to afford organic certification,” said Michael Sligh of Rural Advancement Foundation International USA. He has worked with farm groups in the global south for years and in the 1990s helped craft the U.S. organic regulations. His e-mail in-box is now bulging with questions about the ruling from non-governmental organizations across the world. “We’re literally talking about hundreds of thousands of farmers who will be affected,” Sligh explained. The staggered inspection method has been crucial for, say, coffee grower unions in Ethiopia, which have upward of 80,000 members. It was used by organic tea and spice farmers in India, organic sugar co-ops in Brazil, and organic cocoa farmers in Costa Rica, who would otherwise not be able to ship certified organic products to wealthier countries in the Northern Hemisphere. The new USDA certification ruling arose out of a case involving an unnamed Mexican grower group that failed to detect a farmer using a prohibited insecticide and prevent empty fertilizer bags being used for crop storage — both of which violate USDA organic regulations. NOP blamed the problem on inadequate internal controls of the self-policing system and decided to ban the practice everywhere. “The ... use of an internal inspection system as a proxy for mandatory on-site inspections of each production unit by the certifying agent is not permitted,” the NOP stated. The agency informed organic certifiers of these revised standards in January, and in March published the ruling on its web site. In conversations over the past week, certifiers told me they knew of instances where the co-op inspection system had broken down, but thought that the NOP had taken an extreme stand, ending the possibility of group certification and ignoring the constraints of low-income producers. A more measured response would have been to punish the errant grower groups and then launch a public review of the certification system. “We need to have open comment on this and have a dialogue; we need to take a step back and look at the whole thing,” said Patty Vincent, coffee product and certification manager at Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, an organic and fair trade coffee company. The goal of certification should be to ensure the integrity of the organic product — so consumers know what they are buying. But Vincent and others believe that integrity can be achieved without sacrificing the economic livelihood of farmers and the viability of the product itself. If the ruling is unchallenged, certification costs will rise precipitously for co-ops in developing countries. Lebi Perez, training coordinator for Organic Crop Improvement Association International, a U.S. certification group active in Mexico and Central and South America, explained that it currently takes about 20 to 30 days to certify a grower group. “You have to go to the community by car, bus, mule or on foot, and access is difficult during the rainy season, because a stream might swell and you can’t get across,” he said. In the best of times, inspectors visit four or five farms a day. (Perez said OCIA certifies about 300 grower groups in the region, which average about 400 members each — or more than 100,000 farmers.) ”We think it will now take up to a year to certify an entire group — that’s our calculation,” Perez explained. And because OCIA charges $150 to $270 per day of inspection, the farmers’ financial burden will increase dramatically. For small coffee and cocoa growers who earn about $2,000 a year, that burden may become too heavy; to survive, some will be forced to drop organic certification. Indeed, the only farms likely to afford the new inspection program will be large-scale plantations. As an illustration, consider the case of one co-op of Peruvian banana farmers, for whom the USDA ruling is especially ironic: The 1,500 growers formerly worked as tenants on a single plantation, but with agrarian reforms in the 1960s each family got a plot of the landlord’s land. Had that plantation been maintained, it could have had one visit a year from an inspector. But because the property is now split among 1,500 families, inspectors will need to visit each farm on the land. ”Our cost is going to be at least double, because we’re going to rise from 40 inspection days a year to more than 100,” said Luis Monge, regional certification manager with Dole, which buys organic bananas from the Peruvian co-op. If the market does not cover the extra cost of certification, Dole has another option. Instead of reaching out to small, community-based grower groups, it could buy exclusively from larger banana plantations in Colombia, Ecuador and Honduras that can afford to pay for their own certification. “It will present an opportunity for larger farmers to get in business,” Monge agreed. “But that’s against the roots of organic agriculture, isn’t it?” In the end, though, even the rise of plantations may not be enough to keep certified organic coffee in American mugs. The U.S. market for the brew is growing 40 percent a year, but organic coffee — unlike bananas — is impractical to farm on a large scale. It’s too labor-intensive; because the plants grow under a shade canopy on steep hills and must be harvested and weeded by hand. So farmers seeking higher income may make the switch to non-organic methods, tearing out native shade trees and relying on herbicides and pesticides to boost bean yields. Growers who can’t afford to make that jump may continue to farm organically and forgo certification, selling at the lower conventional price and hoping for the best. Either way it’s a bitter cup. But if the USDA ruling remains unchallenged, it’s what we’ll all be drinking. The Provender Alliance 31st Annual Educational Conference will be held October 4 and 5, 2007 at the Red Lion at the Quay in Vancouver, Washington. The conference theme is Growing With Integrity. We are pleased to announce that Jeffrey Smith, author of Seeds of Deception, will be one of our keynote speakers. We hope to have copies of that classic as well as those of his new book, Genetic Roulette, available for him to sign and for you to purchase. We are also pleased to announce that Steve Jones, of Washington State University, has also agreed to be one of our keynote speakers. The Red Lion Hotel is situated right on the Columbia River. There is an extensive riverside park less than a block away and another city park just a few blocks to the north. The hotel has been recently remodeled and promises to serve our needs quite well. The format for the 2007 conference will mirror the same schedule as the 2006 conference, with the opening keynote on Thursday morning and the conference ending on Friday night after the dance party. We will be offering a day-long produce intensive on Wednesday, October 3 as an extra enticement to arrive early and enjoy the camaraderie of fellow conference attendees. Please let us know what topics you’d like covered in this session. It’s for you. Please note that there will be an additional registration fee for this session but it will include lunch. Workshop sessions in the works include a return of Time Management. This will be a two-part session and will cover more information and will include more in-depth discussion than the 2-hour session from last year. Carolee Colter will be presenting a session on team-building and another on personnel policy manuals. Domestic Fair Trade is a hot topic and we will again be honored to have Cecil Wright and Jason Freeman presenting latest developments in this area. There are so many options this year, you will once again be challenged in your choices but we promise there will be something for everyone. Conference information will be mailed in early August. You will be responsible for your own lodging reservations. We will have a large block of rooms available, many with views of the river. Please contact us with any questions, comments, concerns or compliments. You can reach the Provender office by phone at 800.352.7431 or 503.859.3600 or by email at info@provender.org. You may also contact any of your representatives listed on page 25 of this Journal. The Eat Well Guided Tour of America —from Sustainable Table, www.sustainabletable.org Sustainable Table, the New York-based nonprofit program that produced The Meatrix (www.themeatrix.com) series and the Eat Well Guide (www.eatwellguide.org), is crossing the country to celebrate local, sustainable food and the folks who produce, distribute, promote, and eat it! Kicking off in Hollywood on August 2, the “Eat Well Guided Tour of America” will travel via bio-fueled bus approximately 5,000 miles in 38 days, stopping in over 25 cities as the Sustainable Table team makes its way to the Farm Aid concert in New York City. The tour will travel through California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Wyoming, Missouri, Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York. From the “Plate and Pitchfork” organic farm tour and dinner outside Portland, Oregon, to the “Pie and Popcorn” barn-side film screening in Bowling Green, Ohio, the team and its hosts will delight in the summer’s harvest and create web content to make mouths water at computer screens around the world. Highlights of the tour include: • “Pie Across America” – Pies are a great metaphor for wholesome, American food, and their ingredients tell stories about the people who bake them and the areas where they’re created. Sustainable Table will honor piemaking traditions by baking, tasting, comparing, sharing, and eating staggering amounts of pies from around the country. • The launch of the Eat Well Guide “road trip” feature – Think Eat Well Guide meets Mapquest. Conscientious consumers will be able to map out routes with sustainable food outlets from start point to destination. • Other web features — Video blogging, written daily updates, an interactive map where visitors can track the team’s progress and check out site-specific photos, videos and recipes, as well as “Food for Thought” (daily questions posed in person and discussed on the Meatrix Forum). Join Sustainable Table on-line or on the road! Editor’s note: With several stops in California, Oregon, Washington and Montana, there will be many opportunities for Provender members to attend this tour. Visit the web site for specific dates and locations. Toby’s Family Foods Purchases Genesis Juice —from Toby’s Family Foods, www.tobysfamilyfoods.com Toby’s Family Foods acquired Genesis Juice, a local fresh juice manufacturer with distribution extending throughout Oregon. Toby’s, maker of a popular variety of tofu spreads as well as a line of salad dressings, plans to put the homegrown favorite back onto retail shelves this fall. Toby’s will use the same small-batch process to deliver a full line of high quality, organic Genesis Juice, hand crafted since 1977. Two of the company’s founders joined the Toby’s team to manage juice production that will include best-selling flavors such as Apple Ginger, Carrot, Herbal Fruit Tonic and Green Smoothie. “We’ve been big fans of Genesis for 30 years,” said Toby Alves, founder and owner of Toby’s Family Foods. “When it ceased production this spring, we saw an opportunity to not only help return one of our favorite organic products to retail shelves, but revitalize a hometown favorite.” With highly specialized processing equipment, Toby’s will elevate the Genesis mission by preserving the nutritional integrity of the products’ fruits and vegetables. Its cold pasteurization system never heats juice above 40 degrees Fahrenheit permitting helpful enzymes to flourish and the true flavor of the natural juices to shine, while keeping the products safe, healthy and fresh for consumers. “We’re one of only a few food producers in the nation with this amazing new technology that preserves the healthy nature of our ingredients; it’s a perfect fit for Genesis Juice,” said Jonah Alves, president of Toby’s Family Foods. “The Eugene area has such a strong tradition of fostering companies committed to healthy, tasty products. We’re proud to contribute to the growth here and beyond of one of the hometown favorites.” Toby’s Family Foods launched in 1978 when a young chef, committed to feeding her family food so irresistible they wouldn’t know it was healthy, created a creamy tofu spread that quickly became much more than a family favorite. The same famous tofu spreads and dips continue to be made in Springfield, Oregon, along with a popular line of dairy and nondairy salad dressings. Toby’s can be found throughout the Pacific Northwest and California. —from Sustainable Table, www.sustainabletable.org Because we know that you care about where your food comes from, as well as the animals and farmers that produce it, we thought you might like to check out this new web site and action campaign. Sustainable Table supports the bossy bovine sisters of Cows Unite in their mission to get dairy-loving humans to choose the best organic milk. According to their Bovine Bill of Rights, this means choosing milk that comes from cows that are given the rights to pasture, sunshine, exercise, clean air, and freedom from antibiotics and toxic chemicals. Rise up! Learn more and join their movement at www.cowsunite.org. The bovine sisters thank you! The Domestic Fair Trade Association Comes of Age —from Erbin Crowell, Equal Exchange, www.equalexchange.com The Domestic Fair Trade Association (DFTA) seeks to bring the values and principles of the international Fair Trade movement to bear on the challenges facing family farmers, farm workers and rural communities on the local, regional and domestic levels. We are not a certifier of products, but rather an association of mission-driven organizations representing key stakeholders in the food system, including farmers, farm workers, processors and marketers, retailers, and consumers. Our goal is to advance the movement for Domestic Fair Trade, collaborate with likeminded organizations and create models for a more just, sustainable and democratic agricultural economy. The international Fair Trade movement has gained momentum in recent years, reaching more farmers, traders and consumers with its message of fairness, equity and environmental stewardship in global trade. Representing a convergence of co-operative, solidarity, and social justice movements, Fair Traders focus on empowerment and capacity-building for small-scale farmers, artisans and agricultural workers in the global South. By creating businesses committed to the principles of fairness and equity, Fair Trade Organizations provide concerned consumers in the North the opportunity to link with and support farmers in the South through equitable trading relationships. Similarly, the organic and sustainable agricultural movements have grown in impact, focusing on the development and promotion of credible market-based claims for environmentally sound and humanely raised products produced by family farmers which meet consumer expectations for safe, healthy and nutritious products. Both movements have created positive change in the mainstream marketplace, influencing the conduct of conventional corporations by creating viable alternatives. Today we can see that the challenges faced by growers in marginalized regions of the world are similar to those impacting family farmers in the North. In fact, many of these challenges are the result of the same global economic forces. As in the developing world, farmers, traders, workers and consumers have joined together to take action in often intersecting ways. In 2005, Equal Exchange, Farmer Direct Co-operative, and Organic Valley/CROPP Cooperative convened a meeting of organizations to discuss the idea of Domestic Fair Trade. Building on the priorities of supporting family farming, farmer co-operatives and sustainable agriculture, the group identified the principles of international Fair Trade, as expressed by organizations such as the International Fair Trade Association (IFAT) and the Fair Trade Federation (FTF), as a starting point for looking at the regional and local food systems. Our primary goals were to support family-scale farming, to reinforce farmer-led initiatives such as farmer co-operatives, to ensure just conditions for those who work in agriculture, to strengthen the organic farming movement, and bring these efforts together with mission- based traders, retailers and concerned consumers to contribute to the movement for a more equitable, diverse and sustainable agriculture in North America. A steering committee was formed from the convening organizations and the Rural Advancement Foundation International, USA (RAFI-USA). In 2006, a set of “Principles for Domestic Fair Trade” was developed from the priorities identified at this first meeting: • Family Scale Farming In issuing these principles, we hope to contribute to the creation of a more holistic model of commerce that is consistent with the basic values of the international Fair Trade movement, and builds on the values of the organic and sustainable agricultural movements. (For an expanded description of the Principles, please contact us, or visit www.equalexchange.com/ dftfiles/dftprinciplesflyer.pdf.) From these principles, a framework for a Domestic Fair Trade Association (DFTA) has been created, modeled on that of other Fair Trade associations and being comprised of missionbased organizations committed to the Principles for Domestic Fair Trade. Our goal is to bring together key stakeholders — farmers, workers, processors and marketers, traders, advocacy groups and consumers — in common cause to create a more socially just, participatory and sustainable food system. In doing so, we hope to create a more holistic model of Fair Trade that reaches from the local to the global. The Real Dirt on Farmer John Opens in Theaters —from Angelic Organics, www.angelicorganics.com The Real Dirt on Farmer John opens in New York theaters June 22, with Farmer John and Director Taggart Siegel in attendance, followed by openings in Los Angeles, Boston, and across the country. Winner of 30 awards, this lovingly handmade, grassroots epic film has garnered fans even in the corridors of power, with former Vice President Al Gore calling it “unbelievably special,” celebrity chef Alice Waters declaring it “a charming, wonderful and important movie” and master documentarian Albert Maysles describing the film as “genuinely beautiful . . . a cause for hope.” The critics love this film! Director Taggart Siegel charts Farmer John’s astonishing journey from farm boy to counterculture rebel to the son who almost lost the family farm to a beacon of today’s booming organic farming movement. The result is a tale that ebbs and flows with the fortunes of the soil and revealingly mirrors the changing American times. At once funny and stirring, what drives the film’s powerful appeal is the way in which it digs up “real dirt” not only about the tragedy of losing our traditional American family farms but about what really makes for an original American life—one lived, on a man’s own terms, in balance with the land, through hardships and unexpected triumphs, with creativity and verve. This film makes a difference in the way that people eat, play and live! FTC Seeks to Block Whole Foods/Wild Oats Merger —from Federal Trade Commission, www.ftc.gov The Federal Trade Commission approved a complaint challenging Whole Foods Market, Inc.’s approximately $670 million acquisition of its chief rival, Wild Oats Markets, Inc., and authorized the staff to seek a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction in federal district court in early June to halt the deal pending an administrative trial on the merits. According to the complaint, the transaction would violate federal antitrust laws by eliminating the substantial competition between these two uniquely close competitors in numerous markets nationwide in the operation of premium natural and organic supermarkets. If the transaction continues unopposed, the FTC contends that Whole Foods is likely to raise prices and reduce quality and services unilaterally. On February 21, 2007, Whole Foods and Wild Oats entered into a merger plan under which the former would acquire 100 percent of the voting shares of the latter, with WFMI Merger Co., a wholly owned subsidiary of Whole Foods, merging with and into Wild Oats. Whole Foods, the largest premium natural and organic supermarket chain in the United States, would acquire its closest competitor and longtime rival, Wild Oats. In each of the markets in which they overlap, Whole Foods and Wild Oats are each other’s closest substitute and compete in quality and prices, according to the Commission. After the merger, Whole Foods likely would be able to raise prices unilaterally, to the detriment of customers of premium natural and organic supermarkets. To read the entire complaint, please visit the FTC web site at www.ftc.gov. —from Community Food Co-op, www.communityfood.coop The Community Food Co-op, Bellingham, Washington, proudly introduces Jeff Voltz as its new general manager. He comes to the Co-op with more than 25 years in the grocery industry. His experience includes nine years as CEO and president of PCC Natural Markets. Since 2005, he has served as executive director of Farming and the Environment, a nonprofit organization working to support farmland for organic agriculture. He has also served as executive director for DownHome Washington, an organization providing financial, marketing, and entrepreneurial support for microenterprise businesses, and he has been a board member for Frontier Natural Products. Voltz’ proven dedication to the support and expansion of sustainable farming and community economic development aligns him with the Co-op. His enthusiasm for preserving local farmland and enriching the connection between farmers and the community also fits well with the Co-op’s Food To Bank On program. Voltz’ background as a leader for PCC Natural Markets and its multi-store operation easily qualifies him in the further development and completion of the Co-op’s new Cordata store location project. The Co-op, its members, and the community will greatly benefit from Voltz’ wealth of decision- making skills. —from Horizon Organic, www.horizonorganic.com Horizon Organic® announced in late May that it will be incorporating into their standards of care the NOSB recommendation that requires organic dairy cows to get an average of 30 percent of their daily diet from grazing on pasture for a minimum of 120 days a year. Horizon Organic also encouraged the organic dairy industry to set goals that exceed that minimum. The “Standards of Care” govern the management practices used by its two companyowned dairy farms and were created to demonstrate what Horizon Organic is doing to protect the integrity of the USDA’s organic seal and advance organic farming practices. They also play an important role in educating the public about what organic farming means, how it’s done and why it’s good for consumers, communities and cows. To review the Horizon Organic “Standards of Care” visit www.horizonorganic.com. The Non-GMO Project Seeks Input —This article originally appeared in the May 2007 Issue of The Non-GMO Report monthly newsletter, ©Copyright 2007 The Non-GMO Report. You are invited to stay informed by subscribing. For more information contact ken@non-gmoreport.com or call 800.854.0586 or visit www.non-gmoreport.com Since being launched at Natural Products Expo West in Anaheim, California, in March, The Non-GMO Project has generated strong interest among organic and natural food companies according to project director, Megan Thompson. The Non-GMO Project board members are speaking with a number of key organic and natural food companies to get their input and encourage them to participate. Currently, the main focus of The Non-GMO Project is gathering feedback from all sectors of the industry, which will be used in refining the non-GMO verification standard. Thompson says that, in addition to collecting data and working with technical experts, a key part of this process is working with a number of proactive companies, who are taking their products through the product verification process. This will provide useful information that will be used in optimizing the non-GMO standard and designing the rollout program for the verification process. The goal is to create a non-GMO standard that is rigorous, yet practical, so that it benefits both industry and consumers. Non-GMO verification will first focus on natural and organic products and then expand to include vitamins and supplements. Thompson says there is a lively dialogue happening with industry members. The Non-GMO Project Board members include Michael Funk, CEO, United Natural Foods, Inc.; Joe Dickson, quality standards and organic program coordinator, Whole Foods Market; Arran Stephens, CEO, Nature’s Path Foods; Michael Potter, CEO, Eden Foods; Grant Lundberg, CEO, Lundberg Family Farms; George Siemon, CEO, Organic Valley; Mark Squire, owner, Good Earth Natural & Organic Foods; Bob Gerner, owner, Berkeley Natural Grocery; Julie Daniluk, member/owner, The Big Carrot Natural Foods Market (Toronto, Ontario, Canada); Megan Thompson, executive director, The Non-GMO Project; and John Fagan, chief scientific officer, FoodChain Global Advisors. Arran Stephens says Nature’s Path is proud to be part of The Non-GMO Project. Straus Family Creamery, Whole Foods Market, Eden Foods, Lundberg Family Farms, and Nature’s Path Foods are the first companies to participate in The Non-GMO Project’s verification process. The participation of other companies was to have been announced at All Things Organic tradeshow in May. For more information about The Non-GMO Project, please visit www.nongmoproject.org. Natural Burial: The Ultimate in Backto the Land and Recycling —from Natural Burial Company, www.naturalburialcompany.com Why does a SLUG queen want to bury you in a cardboard box? Cynthia Beal, freshly returned from a research trip to the United Kingdom on the state of the natural burial movement there, shared her findings. Fifteen years ago, there were no natural burial grounds in the United Kingdom. Today, there are more than 250, at least half of them owned by cities and managed for the public good and use. The UK movement has been driven by fiscal advantages, not just environmentalism, because natural burials are cheaper, maintenance is easier, greenspace is held in the public trust, brownfields can be reclaimed, soil is banked and carbon emissions are in the future. UK funeral directors do not have to be licensed, but there have been no significant safety issues arising from natural burials or unembalmed bodies. Many Eugenians appear interested in this idea. She spoke to the City Club of Eugene on Friday, June 15, about her recent tour of woodland burial grounds in England. She shared ideas about why public investment in a natural burial opportunity for citizens may make good sense someday. Cynthia Beal, a.k.a. SLUG Queen Radia of the Radiant Radical Edge in 2002, operated the Red Barn Natural Grocery in Eugene from 1989 to 2003. She now lives in Portland, and will launch the Natural Burial Company this fall, with the help of UK biodegradable casket manufacturers and Gaiam Real Goods Trading Company. You can hear the archived broadcast on the KLCC web site at www.klcc.org. —by Chris Peterson, First Alternative Co-op owner. Reprinted from First Alternative Co-op’s newspaper The Co-op Thymes, March 2007, www.firstalt.coop. Tyler Jones is young, energetic and passionate about sustainable farming–attributes that won him an apprenticeship on Joel Salatin’s Polyface Farm in Virginia. It was the toughest year of his life, but it didn’t cool his passion. It fueled it. Joel Salatin is a wiry bundle of kinetic energy who learns by observing and experimenting– poking cow “pies,” following nature’s lead instead of his neighbor’s. Farming, he believes, should be a symbiotic process. “Humans are meant to be a part of nature,” he told Tyler, not separate from it. Salatin doesn’t farm all of his 500 acres. He leaves plenty as habitat for wildlife, part of nature’s system. He’s figured out the life cycle of larvae residing in cow “pies” and rotates chickens after cattle in the pasture, just when the larvae are at their gourmet delicacy stage. Rather than leave cows to ingest them later as worms while grazing (then need nasty de-worming medicine) the chickens end the cycle and get protein to boot. Salatin also figured out the optimal number of animals to maintain a healthy herd or flock (too few can actually be detrimental). His grass-fed cows spend the winter in a barn to save wear on pastures. Naturally, “fertilizer” accumulates. Adding bedding regularly raises the floor considerably. Salatin discovered that layering wholekernel corn once a week creates treasures pigs will rout for in the spring, turning compacted fertilizer into a fluffy, friable state ready to spread evenly on the pasture. While researching for The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Michael Pollan asked Salatin to ship one of his renowned chickens to California. Salatin refused. He grows for local markets only, he insisted. So, Pollan signed up for a hands-on week on the farm. It started on his belly, scrutinizing grass. Salatin maintains he’s a grass farmer who manages his crop with animals. While Salatin’s local-only marketing seems revolutionary today, our predecessors got much of their food from local farms, usually in local stores. Rather than expand into the next agri-conglomerate with his name splashed across transcontinental semi-trucks, destroying the very community-based food system he promotes, Salatin hosts two apprentices each year who return to their communities to establish farms and food connections appropriate for their home areas. Tyler Jones fit the bill. Farming was a dream he didn’t think possible since he didn’t grow up on one and had no money to buy one. His mother was raised on a farm in Indiana and encouraged her sons to keep bees as a 4-H project on the family’s 5-acre homestead in west Corvallis. Soon, three pint-sized salesmen calling themselves Jones Brothers Honey set up a card table at the Saturday Farmers’ Market. Smitten with marketing, Tyler’s’ entrepreneurial skills emerged. During his senior year of high school, he read an article about Salatin, then his books. Tyler sent Salatin a letter, expressing interest in an internship. He was accepted - but the next opening was in two years. In the meantime, he fed his brain at OSU, but dropped ag classes when he discovered they ran contrary to Salatin’s philosophy. Upon returning from Virginia, Tyler immediately started farming his family’s small acreage, naming it Afton Field Farm. Afton is a river in Scotland near his grandfather’s birthplace. “Field” represents the heart of his operation: the pasture. His father, just retired, and his mom are his part-time assistants. Raising cows, hogs, sheep and chickens, all rotated daily, plus marketing, transporting animals to processing facilities, delivery, recordkeeping, etc. keeps them very busy. Three years into farming, Tyler squeezed being a full-time OSU student back into his schedule; he graduated in June with a degree in history. His next goal is to find a larger farm - ideally 300 to 500 acres. He wants it to be a learning facility with apprenticeships and, like Salatin, raise national awareness and spark a new “agri-cultural” revolution, as he calls it. Only a handful of universities offer sustainable agriculture degrees and none are developed to capacity, he said. None is offered in Oregon. All Afton Field Farm products are marketed directly: honey and eggs from a stand on his farm, fresh chickens and eggs to local restaurants and the rest via word-of-mouth and a list of loyal customers. Afton Field eggs are served at Sunnyside Up; its chickens at Big River Restaurant and Magenta’s. Because his beef and pork are processed at a state-certified facility, he can sell only quarter, half, or whole animals. When he switches to an USDA facility and has their permits and label, he’ll be able to sell individual cuts. His goal is to set up buying clubs, similar to what Salatin established, where regular deliveries occur at set times and places, similar to CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) boxes. He hopes to partner with producers of other types of food to make the system more efficient and economical for consumers and producers alike. “I love to dream;” he said. “Maybe someday I’ll have an on-farm store, maybe a restaurant. I’d like to concentrate on growing grass and raising livestock, and have one or two other families run other parts of the farm - vegetables, fruits, wine grapes, maybe even a brewery.” Tyler’s concept of community-based food stretches beyond his own farm. He started a community garden at the Calvin Presbyterian Church last summer that will double in size this year. “I hope people will find other unused pieces of ground and start duplicating community gardens all over town,” he said. “The key to changing our food system is through consumers taking some ownership of their food sources. That, in turn, will strengthen the community.” As the average age of farmers rises and the number of farms declines, Tyler represents not only the youthful energy required to resuscitate small, integrated farms, but the mindset of sustainability necessary for their survival. —from Environmental Working Group, www.ewg.org Are you satisfied with having just 3% of the fruit you eat free of potentially dangerous pesticides? How about 2% of vegetables? Or less than 0.02% of corn? Right now, those are the percentages of organic produce available in grocery stores. The EWG Action Fund is working with Congress to make sure organic farmers get their fair share of federal funds to improve access to healthy alternatives. You can help right now by signing our Grow Organics petition at www.democracyinaction.org. Despite terrific gains in organic farming, the numbers are just too small to lessen agriculture’s impact on public health and the environment. By signing the petition, you will be urging Congress to: • Improve your family’s access to safe food that is free of harmful pesticides and hormones. • Help more farmers make the transition to organic farming. • Level the playing field for the organic industry by devoting a fair share of resources to organic pest control and crop nourishment. We will deliver the petition and thousands of signatures to the House and Senate Agriculture Committees. As Congress rewrites the Farm Bill, members need to hear from thousands of concerned citizens across the country demanding an increase in organics funding — add your voice today. Thanks for helping us grow organics. Vegan Radio Show Now on the Air —from www.goveganradio.com The first animal rights/vegan program in commercial radio has become the first program of its kind to air on major network radio stations nationwide, including WWRL-AM-1600 in New York, KTLK-AM-1150 in Los Angeles, XM Satellite, and Air America web site streaming and podcast. Go Vegan Radio is excited to announce that an agreement has recently been reached with the Air America Network to carry Go Vegan with Bob Linden on a weekly basis for a full year. The show debuted during the weekend of June 30. Finally, the animals have a voice of compassion coming to the media to advocate for kindness on their behalf, improved human health through complete vegetarianism, and environmental sustainability. The Air America audience, already acquainted with the major problems of the day by the network’s well-known and popular hosts (war, violence, world hunger, disease, energy crises, global warming, deforestation, resource depletion) will now have exposure to the most important solution for all of these to Go Vegan! The show will also have greater exposure through five weekly 30 second commercial announcements on other Air America programs, ten 60 second commercials during web broadcasts of other Air America programs, and a banner ad and page on the Air America web site. Now, YOUR work begins. This is a grassroots group effort and you are being asked to do your share. Go Vegan Radio is now faced with a $200,000 annual expense for program production and distribution (and there is no salary in that figure). Go Vegan Radio has promised to deliver $50,000 to Air America on June 23 and $33,000 every three months after that to cover production / distribution costs. It can’t be done without your tax-deductible donation. Make checks payable to Go vegan Radio and mail to International Humanities Center, PO Box 923, Malibu, CA 90265. You may also donate on-line at www.GoVeganRadio.org. You can also support this incredible outreach opportunity by advertising your vegan and cruelty-free products and services. Rates start as low as $300. Advertising opportunities are very limited, with two of available ten already committed. Please e-mail MeatFreeAmerica@yahoo.com or call 818.623.6477 if interested in advertising. —Reprinted from Ag Matters, the quarterly newsletter of National Campaign for Sustainable Agriculture, Spring-Summer 2007, www.sustainableagriculture.net USDA recently announced an administrative shift that threatens to decertify tens of thousands of small organic farmers throughout the world in developing countries. These folks provide nearly all of the organic coffee in this country, and much of the cocoa, teas, bananas, and spices. Working with the National Organic Coalition, Equal Exchange and others, the National Campaign coordinated the distribution of a sign-on letter to send to USDA to let them know how people feel about this important issue. We are proud and impressed to report that 3,300 people signed on in just over a week, along with over 500 businesses and organizations in 20 countries! There is no doubt that grassroots activism is a powerful tool for shaping policy—so join our Alert List today!
Provender Alliance
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