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The Provender Journal November-December 2009 Provender Elects New Board of Directors Provender Elects New Board of Directors The Provender Alliance Board of Directors election was held at the General Membership Meeting that took place on Friday, October 9th in Bellingham, Washington. The election takes place at the Annual Educational Conference. Ballots were mailed prior to the conference and members also had the opportunity to vote on site at the conference. This year’s election had five well-qualified candidates vying for four available positions. Three board members were reelected and one is new to the board. The elected board members include Brad Averill, Evelyn Hall, Mel Minton, and Vicki Reich. They will each serve two-year terms. Brad Averill is the owner of Wildtime Foods, makers of Grizzlies brand products and is based in Eugene, Oregon. Brad has been very generous with product donations to the Provender conference and served as Board Treasurer and has been re-elected for a second term. Evelyn Hall is the store manager for First Alternative’s North Store in Corvallis, Oregon. She has presented several workshops on customer service at the last two conferences and brings tremendous enthusiasm with her as she begins her first term on the board. Mel Minton is the General Manager of the Santa Rosa Community Market in Santa Rosa, California. She brings a long-time passion for Provender’s success with her and has served as the Board Secretary. She enters her second term of service. Vicki Reich is an individual member of Provender based in Sagle, Idaho and has served as Board President. Her devotion to Provender is evidenced by her willingness to serve a third term on the board. Please welcome these new board members as they prepare for another Provender year with Brad Lerch of Royal Blue Organics/Café Mam in Eugene, Oregon, Stephen Markham, sales rep for UNFI in Bothell, Washington, and Michelle O’Connor, Deli Manager for Ashland Food Co-op in Ashland, Oregon. They will all be working with the Policy Governance model and will continue working on the Ends of the organization. During the first meeting of the newly elected board, Vicki was reelected to serve as Board President, Brad Averill was reelected to serve as Treasurer and Mel was reelected to serve as Secretary/Vice President. Contact information for all board members can be found on page 27 of this Journal. Provender Alliance held its 18th Annual Award Ceremony in Bellingham, Washington on Friday, October 9th during the 2009 Annual Educational Conference. The ceremony took place during a sumptuous and delectable buffet dinner at the Lakeway Inn. Provender Alliance takes this opportunity each year to celebrate and honor outstanding or unique contributions to Provender and our extended community. There were four awards presented this year. The Ethical Voyager Award was presented to Nature’s Path Foods. It read “Leading the organic foods community with sustainability in heart and action, protecting the future by taking care today. Dag Falck, Organic Program Manager was on hand to receive the award on behalf of the company. They are based in Richmond, British Columbia. The People’s Marketplace Award was given to Sundance Natural Foods in recognition of fostering community by serving the people first with efficiency, ingenuity and creative innovation. Several staff were present to accept the award including owner, Gavin McComas, Renee Kempka, General Manager, Janell Davis, HaBA Manager, Dash Moody, Warehouse Manager, Ron Leppert, Grocery Manager, Kristi Yoder, Front End Manager and Andrea Pierce, Produce Manager. Sundance is in Eugene, Oregon. The Phoenix Award was presented to Toby’s Family Foods in honor of the extraordinary accomplishment of reviving Genesis Juice to profitability and sustainability by maintaining the highest standards in each and every bottle. Proprietor Sheldon Rubin and founder Toby Alves were both in attendance to accept the award. Toby’s and Genesis are in Springfield, Oregon. The Brilliant Diamond Award was bestowed upon Kenna Eaton for multi-faceted service to Provender Alliance, with reflective insight, clarity of perspective and highly-valued participation. Kenna is the General Manager of Moscow Food Co-op in Moscow, Idaho. The Provender Alliance Board of Directors chooses the award recipients, with recommendations from the membership. The award recipients are kept in strictest confidence until the actual presentation so it is a great surprise for everyone. We welcome your suggestions for future award recipients. Please feel free to contact the office at 888.352.7431 or 503.859.3600, or contact one of your board representatives. You can find their contact information listed on page 27 of this Journal. We would like to extend a warm welcome to these new members:
We welcome your recommendations for new members and encourage you to contact the office with names, addresses, and/or phone numbers. You can reach us by phone at 888.352.7431 or 503.859.3600, by fax at 503.859.3608, or by e-mail at info@provender.org. New Deputy Administrator for NOP —from USDA Agricultural Marketing Service, www.ams.usda.gov In mid-September, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced that Miles McEvoy had been hired to serve as Deputy Administrator of the National Organic Program (NOP). McEvoy assumedhis position on October 1. Vilsack also announced that the NOP will become an independent program area within AMS because of the increased visibility and emphasis on organic agriculture throughout the farming community, evolving consumer preferences, and the enhanced need for governmental oversight of this widely expanded program. Organically grown and marketed agricultural products are of key interest to the Obama Administration, and the NOP will be receiving increased funding and staffing in the new fiscal year. For more than 20 years, McEvoy led the Washington State Department of Agriculture’s (WSDA) Organic Food Program, one of the nation’s first state organic certification programs. In 2001, he helped establish the WSDA Small Farm and Direct Marketing Program. From 1993 until 1995, McEvoy was the founding Director of The Food Alliance, a program that blends sustainable farming practices and social welfare components into an eco-label program. McEvoy helped establish the National Association of State Organic Programs in 1998 and currently serves as its President. He also assisted the Montana Department of Agriculture to develop the state’s organic certification program and has been helping the Oregon Department of Agriculture in developing its own organic certification program. The NOP is responsible for regulating the fastest growing segment of US agriculture, the organic industry. US sales of organic foods have grown from $1 billion in 1990, when the Organic Foods Production Act established the NOP, to a projected $23.6 billion in 2009. Congress increased NOP funding to $2.6 million in FY08 and to $3.2 million in FY09. Oregon Organic Coalition Presents Awards for Excellence —from Oregon Organic Coalition, www.oregonorganiccoaltion.org The winners of the 2009 Oregon Organic Coalition (OOC) Award for Excellence were announced at a celebratory luncheon in Portland on Tuesday, September 15. Representatives from the organic community gathered at the Ecotrust Building to herald this year’s Organically Grown in Oregon Week to honor these modern-day organic pioneers. Keynote speakers included Katy Coba, Director of Oregon Department of Agriculture, and Jack Gray of Winter Green Farm, who is an organic farmer and a co- author of the original organic standards, which shaped the standards recognized today. This year the OOC Award for Excellence recognizes accomplishments in furthering the quality and growth of organic food in six areas: science, retail, wholesale distribution, livestock farming, organic policy and farm crops. The scientist awarded was Alex Stone, Oregon State University. Her work in establishing the Northwest Farmer-to-Farmer Exchange, position as National Director of the new collaborative eOrganic and studies of organic potatoes have earned her national acclaim. Ashland Food Co-op, of Ashland, Oregon, was presented with the retailer award. Ashland Food Co-op was the first grocer in Oregon to earn Oregon Tilth’s Certified Organic retailer designation for its entire operation. The co-op supports efforts across the state to bolster the organic food industry, lending its expertise, time, and a portion of its proceeds to Provender, the Organicology conference, and Rogue Valley Earth Day, among other efforts. The wholesaler award was presented to Organically Grown Company (OGC). OGC has distribution facilities in Eugene and Portland, Oregon and in Kent, Washington. OGC is the Northwest’s largest wholesaler of fresh organic fruits, vegetables and herbs, employing more than 160 staff, working with more than 500 vendors and serving more than 250 natural and fine food stores and restaurants throughout western Oregon and Washington. The livestock farmer award was presented to Jon Bansen, a third generation organic dairyman in Monmouth, Oregon and member of the Organic Valley farmer-owned cooperative. He extols the virtues of organic farming and grass-based dairying and is considered a “grazing guru” in organic dairy circles. The organic policy award was presented to Dr. Anita Azarenko, head of Oregon State University’s Department of Horticulture, who has been a strong advocate for policies that encourage organic research and extension. As a result of her guidance, the OSU Horticulture Department has become a leader in the field of organic fruit and vegetable production. The crop farm award was presented to Winter Green Farm. The farm’s proprietors, Jack Gray and Mary Jo Wade, have farmed 170 acres in the Poodle Creek Valley since the 1970s. Winter Green Farm is an exemplar of biodynamic and sustainable farming systems and has inspired a generation of Oregon’s organic farmers. Site Answers Questions about Selling Local Foods —from ATTRA–National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service, Weekly Harvest Newsletter, September 2, 2009, http://ncat.attra.org A new resource from the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture (www.leopold.iastate.edu) aims to help answer questions about selling food. With the help of food safety experts and Iowa food regulatory officials, the Leopold Center has compiled a new summary of “Frequently Asked Questions on Food Regulations for Small Market Food Producers.” “Many questions have arisen about regulations for selling food in local and regional market venues. This document addresses the most frequently asked questions on which we’ve received feedback from various Iowa partners,” said Leopold Center Associate Director Rich Pirog, who prepared the FAQ with the help of Drake Agricultural Law Center interns Ross Baxter and Kate Lyon. There are questions regarding pre-market information, products and licensing, once at market and other questions. —from Pesticide Action Network Updates, August 27, 2009, www.panna.org In the last week of August, the New York Times, Huffington Post, Washington Post and Peoria Journal Star have all run features covering an emerging scandal around atrazine contamination in the U.S. water supply. Atrazine is a widely used herbicide that was banned by the EU in 2004. Around that time, Syngenta (atrazine’s manufacturer) held over 50 private meetings with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulators who were then reconsidering atrazine’s registration. Independent scientists and health advocates enjoyed considerably less access to decision-makers, and no peer-review access to the Syngenta-sponsored science that informed EPA’s ruling. Since then, a growing body of research has linked atrazine with birth defects, low birth weights and certain forms of cancer. Epidemiological studies indicate that very low level fetal exposure at key periods (via a pregnant woman drinking water contaminated well below the legal limit) may interrupt critical developmental processes, resulting in skull and facial malformations and misshapen limbs. WhatsOnMyFood? (www.whatsonmyfood.org) finds atrazine in 70% of U.S. drinking water - and the highest levels of contamination are in the Midwest where it is widely Site Answers Questions About Selling Local Foods —from ATTRA–National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service, Weekly Harvest Newsletter, September 2, 2009, http://ncat.attra.org A new resource from the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture (www.leopold.iastate.edu) aims to help answer questions about selling food. With the help of food safety experts and Iowa food regulatory officials, the Leopold Center has compiled a new summary of “Frequently Asked Questions on Food Regulations for Small Market Food Producers.” “Many questions have arisen about regulations for selling food in local and regional market venues. This document addresses the most frequently asked questions on which we’ve received feedback from various Iowa partners,” said Leopold Center Associate Director Rich Pirog, who prepared the FAQ with the help of Drake Agricultural Law Center interns Ross Baxter and Kate Lyon. There are questions regarding pre-market information, products and licensing, once at market and other questions. used on corn fields. While local water systems are required to test for atrazine on no more than a quarterly basis, the EPA requires Syngenta to test weekly at 150 vulnerable watersheds. The former generally find levels below the legal contamination limit of 3 parts per billion (ppb), but the latter, more frequent testing finds spikes to concentrations many times over the legal limit. For instance, residents in McClure, Ohio were told that their highest level of contamination in 2008 was 3.4 ppb, while hitherto undisclosed EPA/ Syngenta results for June show atrazine contamination at 33.83 ppb — more than ten times the legal limit. For more information visit www.panna.org. —from Pesticide Action Network Updates, September 3, 2009, www.panna.org The Non-GMO Project recently launched a testing, verification and labeling scheme for foods found free of genetically modified organisms (GMOs). The effort reflects growing concern within the organic foods industry over the erosion of consumer confidence that products are free from GMOs and toxic chemicals. The New York Times reported that “The project’s seal, a butterfly perched on two blades of grass in the form of a check mark, will begin appearing on packaged foods this fall. The project will not try to guarantee that foods are entirely free of genetically modified ingredients, but that manufacturers have followed procedures, including testing, to ensure that crucial ingredients contain no more than 0.9 percent of biotech material. That is the same threshold used in Europe, where labeling is required if products contain higher levels.” Since the introduction of GM crops in the mid-1990’s by Monsanto and other pesticide corporations, the percentage of corn, soybean and canola acreage grown with GM seed has grown significantly in the U.S. Monsanto is pushing for new GM crops in the U.S. and around the world, touting the technology as necessary to feed the world. A 2009 report by the Center for Food Safety and Friends of the Earth found that GM crops have increased pesticide company profits, but have not in fact delivered on feeding the world. Countries around the world have been far more skeptical of GM seeds than the U.S.; Europe in particular has been slow to permit GM technology, pointing to environmental and human health risks. Concern is recently growing in the U.S. however — in May 2009 the American Academy of Environmental Medicine called for mandatory labeling and a moratorium on GM foods. For more information, visit www.nongmoproject.org, www.centerforfoodsafety.org, www.aaemonline.org. Local Food Connection 2010: A Conference You Can't Afford to Miss! —from Kelly Hoell, Good Company, www.goodcompany.com Local Food Connection is a gathering designed to connect local farmers, ranchers and fishers with all types of area food buyers. The purpose of the event is to facilitate access to local markets for producers and access to delicious local products for food buyers, providing business opportunities for all. This year’s conference will be held Monday, February 1, 2010 from 8:30 AM to 3:30 PM and will take place at Lane Community College’s Meeting and Learning Center in Eugene, Oregon. Registration is $20 and scholarships are available. You can register at www.cascadepacific.org. If you have questions, please contact Kelly Hoell at 541.341.4663, ext. 217 or by e-mail at kelly.hoell@goodcompany.com. Three reasons not to miss the fourth annual Local Food Connection conference: • Food Hub, an amazing new on-line tool to connect food producers with buyers is launching. At the conference, you can learn how to use the tool to connect with buyers and producers at the click of a button all year round! • USDA officials are expected to attend from Washington, DC to discuss the Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food Campaign during the keynote address! • We have an incredible array of educational workshops and networking opportunities lined up for this year. After the 2009 conference, attendees estimated that they made nearly 200 new business contacts and that these new business relationships would result in increased revenues of between $142,500-$385,000! In these economically troubling times, this is a conference you can’t afford to miss... Food Hub is launching – find out how this tool can work for you: FoodHub (www.food-hub.org) is an on-line directory and marketplace that makes it easy for food buyers and sellers to find each other, connect and do business. FoodHub will be live as a ‘business-to-business’ tool on November 1, 2009. FoodHub has been designed to serve all types of producers from ranchers to fishers to produce farmers and all types of buyers from restaurant chefs to K- 12 school districts to hospital cafeterias and more. Buyers: Finding exactly the types of local products you need can often be a daunting and time consuming process. FoodHub has changed all that. Imagine going on-line and typing in peaches, potatoes, lamb, or wild caught salmon and getting a list of farmers, ranchers and fishermen who sell just what you need. FoodHub works like a virtual wholesale market. Whether you’re a restaurant or an entire school district, FoodHub can help you find your perfect match. Sellers: Marketing yourself and your products can mean knocking on a lot of doors. Imagine going on-line and creating a targeted list of caterers, food service operators, diverse food buyers. Whether you run your own truck into town or rely on mainstream distributors, FoodHub makes it easy to get your products sold. At the conference in February, attendees will have an opportunity to learn about FoodHub and its numerous features, develop a profile and sign up for membership! FoodHub is a social venture business of the non-profit Ecotrust. Ecotrust is a trusted “benevolent broker” that has been making connections between food buyers and sellers in the Pacific Northwest for a decade. FoodHub is a logical extension of Ecotrust’s commitment and service to the Northwest’s food economy, and responds to the demand coming from time-pressed farmers, food producers and foodservice professionals. For more information about this tool, visit www.food-hub.org and plan to attend Local Food Connection 2010! —from Center for Food Safety, www.truefoodnow.org In a case brought by Center for Food Safety and Earthjustice, a Federal Court ruled in late September that the Bush USDA’s approval of genetically engineered (GE) “RoundUp Ready” sugar beets was unlawful. The Court ordered the USDA to conduct a rigorous assessment of the environmental and economic impacts of the crop on farmers and the environment. The federal district court for the Northern District of California ruled that the U. S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (“APHIS”) violated the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) when it failed to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) before deregulating sugar beets that have been genetically engineered (“GE”) to be resistant to glyphosate herbicide, marketed by Monsanto as Roundup. Sugar beet seed is grown primarily in Oregon’s Willamette Valley, which is also an important seed growing area for crops closely related to sugar beets, such as organic chard and table beets. GE sugar beets are wind pollinated and will inevitably cross-pollinate the related crops being grown in the same area. Such biological contamination would be devastating to organic farmers, who face debilitating market losses if their crops are contaminated by a GE variety. Contamination also reduces the ability of conventional farmers to decide what to grow, and limits consumer choice of the foods they can eat. Monsanto has been the subject of increasing speculation that the Department of Justice’s antitrust division is scrutinizing the biotechnology company’s control of the markets for GE crops, and for commodities such as corn, soy and cotton. Report by Action Group on Erosion, Technology and Concentration (ETC Group), www.etcgroup.org ETC Group is an international civil society organization based in Canada. We are dedicated to the conservation and sustainable advancement of cultural and ecological diversity and human rights. ETC group supports socially responsible developments of technologies useful to the poor and marginalized and we address international governance issues affecting the international community. We also monitor the ownership and control of technologies and the consolidation of corporate power. In the 100th issue of the ETC Communiqué we update Oligopoly, Inc. – our ongoing series tracking corporate concentration in the life industry. We also analyze the past three decades of agribusiness efforts to monopolize the 24% of living nature that has been commodified, and expose a new strategy to capture the remaining threequarters that has, until now, remained beyond the market economy. Three decades ago, humanity had a problem; science had a fascination; and industry had an opportunity. Our problem was injustice. The ranks of the hungry were expanding while the ranks of farmers were thinning. Meanwhile, science was fascinated by biotechnology – the idea that we could genetically engineer crops and livestock (and people) with traits that could overcome all our problems. Agribusiness saw an opportunity to extract the enormous surplus value that was laced throughout the food chain. The hugely-decentralized food system held pockets of profit just crying out to be centralized. All industry had to do was convince governments that biotech’s gene revolution could end hunger without harming the environment. Biotechnology was presented as too risky for small companies and too expensive for public researchers. In order to bring this technology to the world, public breeders would have to stop competing with private breeders, regulators would have to look the other way when pesticide companies bought seed companies which, in turn, bought other seed companies. Governments would have to protect industry’s investments by offering patents first on plants and then on genes. Consumer safety regulations, hard-won over the course of a century, would have to yield to genetically modified foods and drugs. Industry got what it wanted. From thousands of seed companies and public breeding institutions three decades ago, ten companies now control more than two-thirds of global proprietary seed sales. From dozens of pesticide companies three decades ago, ten now control almost 90% of agrochemical sales worldwide. From almost a thousand biotech startups 15 years ago, ten companies now have three-quarters of industry revenue. And, six of the leaders in seeds are also six of the leaders in pesticides and biotech. Over the past three decades, a handful of companies has gained control of that one-quarter of the world’s annual biomass (crops, livestock, fisheries, etc.) that has been integrated into the world market economy. Today, humanity has a problem; science has a fascination; and industry has an opportunity. Our problem is hunger and injustice in a world of climate chaos. Science’s fascination is with convergence at the nanoscale – including the potential to design new life forms from the bottom-up. Industry’s opportunity lies in the three-quarters of the world’s biomass that (although used and useful) remains outside the global market economy. With the aid of new technologies, industry believes that any chemical made from the carbon in fossil fuels can be made from the carbon found in plants. The oceans’ algae, the Amazon’s trees and savanna grasses can provide the (purportedly) renewable raw materials to feed people, fuel cars, manufacture widgets, and cure diseases while fending off global warming. In order for industry to realize this vision, governments must accept that this technology is too expensive. Competitors must be convinced it is too risky. Regulations need to be dismantled and monopoly patents need to be approved. And, as it was with biotechnology, the new technologies don’t need to be socially useful or technically superior (i.e., they don’t have to work) in order to be profitable. All they have to do is chase away the competition and coerce governments into surrendering control. Once the market is monopolized, how the technology performs is irrelevant. The top 10 seed companies account for $14,785 million – or two-thirds (67%) of the global proprietary seed market. The world’s largest seed company, Monsanto, accounts for almost one-quarter (23%) of the global proprietary seed market. The top 3 companies (Monsanto, DuPont, Syngenta) together account for $10,282 million, or 47% of the worldwide proprietary seed market. ETC Group conservatively estimates that the top 3 seed companies control 65% of the proprietary maize seed market worldwide, and over half of the proprietary soybean seed market. Challenges to corporate hegemony as well as strategies for social control of technology are being led by peasant farmers, social movements and civil society at all levels in every region of the world. And support in challenging the status quo is emerging in unlikely places. The first-ever independent global assessment of agricultural science and technology, approved by 58 governments in April 2008, warns that the world can’t rely on technological fixes – such as transgenic crops – to solve systemic problems of persistent poverty, hunger and environmental crises. The International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD), sponsored by the World Bank, the Food and Agriculture Organization and other U.N. agencies – with participation from civil society throughout the 3-year process – recognizes the undue influence of transnational agribusiness on trade and agricultural policies that have destroyed and disadvantaged farming communities around the world. According to Marcia Ishii-Eiteman, senior scientist at Pesticide Action Network North America, and one of the lead authors of the IAASTD global report, “[the assessment] acknowledges that small-scale, low-impact farming contributes crucial ecological and social functions that must be protected, and that nations and peoples have the right to democratically determine their own food and agricultural policies.” The IAASTD Report should be an important reference for continued debate and action in the intergovernmental arena on issues related to agricultural development and technology. The participation of peasants, small farmers, fisherfolk, pastoralists and indigenous peoples is crucial. At the national level, ETC Group recommends that every country undertake a “Peoples’ Food Commission” involving peasants and marginalized peoples that will investigate the food crisis, hold hearings and report on how to implement a national plan for food sovereignty. To view the entire report, visit the ETC web site, www.etcgroup.org. —from Center for Food Safety, www.truefoodnow.org and The Cornucopia Institute, www.cornucopia.org Breaches in food safety in the US continue to make international headlines as contamination incidents arise and tragic, personal stories about food borne illnesses unfold. I n response, the US Department of Agriculture held hearings across the country on a proposed National Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement (NLGMA). If adopted, the LGMA would serve to further consolidate and industrialize our nation’s food system, to the detriment of small, medium-sized and family farmers. It would also undermine organic agriculture through draconian measures that would destroy habitats and cripple biodiversity on farms, with no scientific proof that these measures would actually improve food safety. Consider: • An estimate from growers in California indicates an average expenditure of $18K/ year/farm for food safety efforts. • Metrics require the expense of regular laboratory testing of irrigation water, soil amendments, fertilizers and sometimes seeds and transplants. • Growers must have fields regularly monitored for wildlife and domestic animal incursions and documentation of testing. • Farms with more acreage spend more to comply with the metrics but can experience some economies of scale—these burdens could force the safest farms out of business. There were numerous issues addressed at the hearings. You can read testimonies and view documents by visiting www.ams.usda.gov.
Provender Alliance
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