Henry A. Wallace Institute for
Alternative Agriculture
9200 Edmonston Road, #117
Greenbelt, MD 20770
(301) 441-8777
E-mail: hawiaa@access.digex.net
* * *
If You Are Interested in Sustainable Agriculture...
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.
Articles in the current issue cover use of an intensive
rotational grazing for dairy cattle feeding, a method for
mechanically killng cover crops to optimize weed suppression, and
how an overwintering cover crop increases inoculumn of VAM fungi
in agricultural soil.
Annual subscriptions to AJAA are $44, institutions; $24,
individuals; and $12, students. For more information or a single
copy, contact the Wallace Institute, 9200 Edmonston Road, #117,
Greenbelt, MD 20770; (301) 441-8777; e-mail
hawiaa@access.digex.net
* * *
Table of Contents
Senate Passes Farm Bill with "Solid" Conservation Package
1
"Clean Food Diet Gains Popularity," Says Newspaper
3
Rotational Grazing, Weed Suppression Featured in Journal
3
Positions
3
Thompsons Named Farm Leaders of the Year
4
Fatty Diet A Greater Cancer Threat Than Chemicals, Says Report
4
New Report Looks at Whole Farm Planning
4
Five Members Named to Organic Standards Board
5
Resources
5
Upcoming Events
6
SENATE PASSES FARM BILL WITH "SOLID" CONSERVATION PACKAGE
The U.S. Senate last month passed a farm bill (S. 1541) that
includes a "solid conservation package that would ensure that
farmers and the American taxpayers reap fair benefits from public
investment in agriculture," according to the Wallace Institute
and other sustainable agriculture and environmental organizations
which support the package.
The conservation package in the "Agricultural Reform and
Improvement Act of 1996" contains voluntary, incentive-based
programs that encourage farmers to implement sound conservation
goals. Included in the package are the following:
* Reauthorization of the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP),
and authorization of new acres on land that should not be in
intensive crop production because of poor soil conditions,
proximity to water bodies, or importance as priority wildlife
habitat.
* Reauthorization of the Wetland Reserve Program which
restores wetlands on prior converted and farmed wetlands.
* Creation of an Environmental Quality Incentive Program,
into which current conservation programs would be consolidated
and which would provide cost-share payments to small and medium-
sized livestock operations for animal waste management
structures, grass waterways, and other practices. This program
would prevent manure and other contaminants from entering water
bodies.
* Establishment of a Fund for Rural America, which makes
additional resources available for rural development and
agricultural research initiatives, including beginning and
minority farmer and sustainable agriculture research programs;
protects farmland from urban encroachment; and creates several
programs to reduce the risk of flooding.
The bill would replace traditional crop subsidies with a
system of fixed payments, known as the "Freedom to Farm Act,"
which removes many planting restrictions and pays farmers a fixed
but declining amount of money over seven years.
"I'm glad we succeeded in getting the Conservation Title and
the Fund for Rural America because Freedom to Farm is a bitter
pill for small farmers to swallow," said Kathleen Merrigan, the
Wallace Institute's Senior Policy Analyst. "The projected costs
of Freedom to Farm are more than double the costs of current
programs. Freedom to Farm also removes the safety net for
farmers by decoupling payments from production, leaving them
vulnerable to downturns in the market."
Farm bill action now moves to the House of Representatives,
which will be considering a bill approved by the House
Agriculture Committee (H.R. 2854), the "Agricultural Marketing
Transition Act of 1996."
A coalition of sustainable agriculture and environmental
organizations, including the Wallace Institute, last month wrote
to members of the House, urging them to support the basic
elements of the bipartisan conservation package in the Senate
bill.
"The House farm bill not only failed to include substantial
or positive conservation programs, it weakened them," the letter
said. "H.R. 2854 would constitute an environmental setback and a
lost opportunity for this congress to improve water quality
across the nation and target limited federal funds on important
conservation priorities."
Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman called the Senate bill "a
step in the right direction," but said it did not address all the
concerns of the Clinton Administration, including providing an
adequate safety net for producers and meeting investment needs in
rural America.
"CLEAN FOOD DIET" GAINS POPULARITY, SAYS NEWSPAPER
A "clean food diet" is gaining popularity among people who
want to "enhance the quality and length of their lives,"
according to The New York Times (February 7, 1996). The article
describes increasing demands for "foods free of artificial
preservatives, coloring, irradiation, synthetic pesticides,
fungicides, ripening agents, fumigants, drug residues and growth
hormones" and those that are "processed, packaged, transported,
and stored to retain maximum nutritional value." As evidence of
this "clean food movement," the article cites increased sales of
organic produce from $3.9 billion in 1989 to $7.6 billion in
1994; increased sales of milk from organically fed cows; and an
increase in the number of health-food supermarkets from 195 in
1991 to 650 in 1994. "Organic, once symbolized by a shriveled-up
piece of fruit in a funky health-food store where customers
bagged their own groceries, now stands for the highest-quality,
freshest and best-tasting food," according to the article. "But
clean food goes beyond organic, to include...fruits and
vegetables not only grown without insecticides and pesticides but
also picked and eaten at the peak of freshness and flavor."
ARTICLES ON ROTATIONAL GRAZING, WEED SUPPRESSION FEATURED IN
JOURNAL
The use of intensive rotational grazing for dairy cattle
feeding, and a method for mechanically killing cover crops to
optimize weed suppression are among the eight articles in the
newest issue of American Journal of Alternative Agriculture
(Volume 10, No. 4), the Wallace Institute's quarterly, peer-
reviewed journal of research on alternative agriculture. Other
articles include a description of how an overwintering cover crop
increases inoculum of VAM fungi in agricultural soil, and an
examination of environmental policy and swine manure management.
Subscriptions to AJAA are $24 a year for individuals; $12,
students; and $44, libraries. Contact the Wallace Institute,
9200 Edmonston Road, #117, Greenbelt, MD 20770; (301) 441-8777.
POSITIONS
The Pew Charitable Trusts seeks a Ph.D.-level agricultural
economist or scientist to direct a new Center for Agricultural
Partnerships; applications should include a cover letter, vita,
and names of three references; mail to Dr. Jeff W. Dlott, 212 Mar
Monte Ave., La Selva, CA 95076; fax (408) 684-2827. Deadline is
March 31; for information, e-mail Dr. Dlott at DlottJW@aol.com
Harmony Valley Farms seeks interns for the 1996 season; call
or write Richard de Wilde and Linda Halley, Rt. 2 Box 116,
Viroqua, WI 54665; (608) 483-2143; fax (608) 483-2125.
Nu Venture Gardens, a certified organic farm, seeks farm
intern; contact Nu Venture Gardens, P.O. Box 601, Owings, MD
20736; (410) 257-0134.
Natick Community Organic Farm seeks year-round organic
farmer to start July 1; send letters of inquiry/resume to Lynda
Simkins, 117 Eliot St., Natick, MA 01760; (508) 655-2204.
Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association seeks
applicants for its Farm Apprentice Placement Program; for
information and application, contact MOFGA, Dept. H, Box 2176,
Augusta, ME 04338; (207) 622-3118.
United Methodist Committee on Relief seeks candidates for
Project Director of an agricultural development project in
Armenia; direct inquiries to Loren Hostetter, UMCOR/Armenia Field
Office, 10 Aigedzor Bi-Line, Yerevan, Armenia; phone (3742) 15-
18-94; e-mail umcorarm@arminco.com
DICK AND SHARON THOMPSON NAMED FARM LEADERS OF THE YEAR
Dick and Sharon Thompson, who operate a sustainable farm in
Boone, Iowa, have been named The Des Moines Register's Iowa Farm
Leaders of the Year because they have "opened doors, built
bridges and led the way toward healthier, more productive and
profitable agriculture." In an article honoring the Thompsons,
The Des Moines Register wrote, "Over the years the unassuming
example set by the Thompsons has influenced thousands of
agriculturists to follow them toward rediscovering or inventing
farming systems that can be more profitable for farmers, more
friendly to the environment, and more economically viable for
Iowa's small towns and rural communities....The Thompsons have
become the trail-blazing gurus of a movement that has been called
many things: sustainable agriculture, low-input agriculture,
integrated farming systems, alternative agriculture, or organic
farming." As co-founders of the Practical Farmers of Iowa, the
Thompsons have built an organization with 500 members that
conducts agricultural research and alternative farming
demonstration plots on 30 farms in Iowa. The sustainable farming
research done on the Thompsons' farm is funded by the Wallace
Institute through the financial support of Mrs. Jean Wallace
Douglas, the Institute's Honorary President.
FATTY DIET A GREATER CANCER THREAT THAN CHEMICALS, SAYS ACADEMY
REPORT
A diet high in calories and fat is more of a cancer threat
to humans than pesticide residues and food additives, a new
report of the National Research Council, an arm of the National
Academy of Sciences, has concluded. Most cancer-causing
chemicals, whether synthetic or naturally occurring, "are present
at levels 'so low that they are unlikely to pose an appreciable
cancer risk,'" The Washington Post reported. The report said
that "if any chemicals were important to human cancers, the
naturally occurring carcinogens, which far outnumber the
synthetic ones, probably made a greater contribution to the
cancer risk," according to The New York Times. Robert Scowcroft,
executive director of the Organic Farming Research Foundation,
said, "what motivates people to buy organic are not just food
safety issues but a desire for fresh foods and taste and to
protect the environment and farm workers" from pesticides.
NEW REPORT LOOKS AT WHOLE FARM PLANNING POLICY
"What It Takes to 'Get to Yes' for Whole Farm Planning
Policy," a new report from the Wallace Institute, describes whole
farm planning policy issues, identifies their key features, and
defines potential opportunities and challenges confronting
policymakers if they pursue whole farm planning policy. Authors
David Ervin and Katherine Smith ask what goals should guide whole
farm planning policy, who will lead its implementation, what
incentives will stimulate it, and how policy performance will be
monitored, reviewing the full range of options that emerge for
each of those key policy decisions. The report also contains the
results of a round table exercise in which whole farm planning
stakeholders discussed what features they believe are necessary
to assure that whole farm planning is an effective policy tool.
"What It Takes to 'Get to Yes' for Whole Farm Planning Policy" is
available for $5 from the Henry A. Wallace Institute for
Alternative Agriculture, 9200 Edmonston Road, #117, Greenbelt, MD
20770; (301) 441-8777.
FIVE MEMBERS NAMED TO ORGANIC STANDARDS BOARD
Four appointments and one reappointment to the National
Organic Standards Board (NOSB) have been announced by Agriculture
Secretary Dan Glickman. Newly appointed to five-year terms are
Joan D. Gussow, Piermont, N.Y., a member of the Editorial Board
of the Wallace Institute's American Journal of Alternative
Agriculture (consumer/public interest); Stephen P. Pavich,
Delano, CA (farmer/grower); Elizabeth S. Lydon, New York, N.Y.
(consumer/public interest); and Jean Afterman, Oxnard, CA
(environmentalist). Robert B. Anderson, Middleburg, PA
(farmer/grower) was reappointed for a five-year term. The 15-
member NOSB advises the Secretary on implementation of a
certification program for producers and handlers of agricultural
products that have been produced using organic methods.
RESOURCES
"Farming More Sustainably in the South, Vol. II: More
Farmers' Stories" is $12 from the Southern Sustainable
Agriculture Working Group, P.O. Box 324, Elkins, AR 72727; or
call Keith Richards at (501) 292-3714; e-mail HN3551@handsnet.org
"The Health of Our Soils: Toward Sustainable Agriculture in
Canada" is available from Centre for Land and Biological
Resources Research, Research Branch, Agriculture and Agri-Food
Canada, K.W. Neatby Building, Central Experimental Farm, Ottawa,
ON K1A 0C6.
Guide to San Joaquin Valley vineyard spiders (leaflet
#21530) is available free from University of California
Cooperative Extension offices, or for $2.50 from UC Cooperative
Extension, 1720 S. Maple Ave., Fresno, CA 93702; or UC
Communications Service, DANR-Publications, 6701 San Pablo Ave.,
Oakland, CA 94608.
Community Supported Agriculture Database helps consumers
find a CSA in their area; to access the database, call 1-800-516-
7797, or contact the BioDynamic Association, P.O. Box 550,
Kimberton, PA 19442; (610) 935-7797.
"Working Trees for Communities" is free from the National
Agroforestry Center, USDA/Forest Service, University of Nebraska,
P.O.Box 830822, Lincoln, NE 68583-0822.
"Vetiver Grass for Soil and Water Conservation, Land
Rehabilitation, and Embankment Stabilization," a collection of
papers and newsletters compiled by the World Bank, is available
from the Vetiver Network, 15 Wirt St., Leesburg, VA 22075; (703)
771-1942; e-mail Grimshaw_R@vetiver.com; Internet home page is
www.vetiver.com
"Integrated Pest Management Helps the Environment," a
brochure about the Massachusetts Partners with Nature program, is
available from Craig Hollingsworth, Department of Entomology,
University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003; (413) 545-1055;
e-mail chollingsworth@umext.umass.edu
UPCOMING EVENTS
April 8-9, "Making a Living as a Grower," a workshop, will
be held at New Farms, HC 69 Box 62, Rociada, N.M. 87742; (505)
425-5457.
April 13-26, Permaculture Design Course will be held at
Fossil Rim Wildlife Center, Glen Rose, TX; contact Cross Timbers
Permaculture Institute, (817) 897-9402.
May 18-23, "Social Behavior, Natural Resources, and the
Environment" will be held at Pennsylvania State University,
University Park, PA; contact Short Courses and Conferences, Penn
State University, 306 Agricultural Administration Building,
University Park, PA 16802; (814) 865-8301.
* * *