March-April 2000 CSAS Newsletter
The Center for Sustainable Agricultural Systems (CSAS) in the Institute of
Agriculture and Natural Resources (IANR) at the University of
Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) is an interdisciplinary center formed in 1991 for the
purpose of bringing together people and resources to promote an agriculture
that is efficient, competitive, profitable, environmentally and socially
sustainable for the indefinite future. The newsletters are also available
along with other sustainable ag information on our World Wide Web page:
http://ianrwww.unl.edu/ianr/csas
Newsletter editor: Pam Murray, Coordinator, Center for Sustainable
Agricultural Systems, PO Box 830949, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE
68583-0949, 402-472-2056, fax -4104, e-mail: pmurray1@.unl.edu.
* * *
CONTENTS:
MARKETING FEATURED AT NSAS ANNUAL MEETING
NEBRASKA'S FUTURE AGRICULTURE: INNOVATIVE
PRODUCERS GET MORE OF THE CONSUMER'S FOOD DOLLAR
NEW PROPOSAL FOR NATIONAL ORGANIC STANDARDS
130 COUNTRIES FINALIZE TRADE TREATY ON BIOTECH FOOD
NSAS DIRECTOR CARUSI TO WISCONSIN
OFRF PROPOSAL DEADLINE JULY 15
USDA AG BIOTECH ADVISORY COMMITTEE FORMED
ALTERNATIVE AG EXPO
RESOURCES
COMING EVENTS
DID YOU KNOW...
* * *
MARKETING FEATURED AT NSAS ANNUAL MEETING
You can add value to your labor, your farm, and your natural resources when
a move is made away from low-value bulk commodities. This was the message of
Joel Salatin, Virginia farmer and entrepreneur, at the annual meeting of the
Nebraska Sustainable Agriculture Society in Aurora in late February.
One principle used by Salatin is to look carefully at all the resources on
the farm and think creatively about how each one could be used. Another is
to move "outside the box" and do unconventional crop and animal enterprises
that others have not exploited. He looks for niches, both on the farm and in
the marketplace. Above all, Salatin says to produce what people want. "You
can create a market to some extent, but it's important to know your
customers and be responsive to their needs and desires," he says.
Salatin also does careful economics on each enterprise, as well as the
combinations of crops and animals that make sense for his soil and climate.
He calculates the time and resources needed to produce each unit of chicken
or firewood, just as a conventional corn farmer would figure cost per bushel
or per acre. For example, he can cut, split, and deliver firewood for $45
per pickup-load and that takes three hours to accomplish. In contrast, Joel
can cut the same amount of wood in one hour into lengths that a customer can
handle and pick up at his farm and sell this for $25 per load. Although he
adds more value with the first approach, his return per hour of labor for
the same amount of natural resources is higher in the second approach. Given
his several hundred acres of forest, there is no current practical limit to
this resource.
In the pastured poultry enterprise, movable cages are advanced every morning
onto a new patch of pasture. Chickens receive supplemental mixed feed ration
and water at their cages. Salatin has calculated that time invested in each
bird is five minutes for raising to maturity and 3 minutes for processing on
the farm. People pick up their orders of dressed broilers at the farm and
pay about $1.50 per pound for organic, pasture-raised chicken. Salatin nets
$3.00 per bird sold, and calculates that a couple can raise 10,000 birds in
a six-month season for a net profit of $25-30,000 on three acres. Many of
these tasks can be accomplished by Joel's children, who thus become
enthusiastic and profit-sharing members of the farm management and labor team.
Three families currently earn their incomes from about 90 acres of
cultivated land in an area of Virginia that receives only 31 inches annual
precipitation. When asked how many families could live there and earn a
viable income to support their needs, Salatin quickly answered, "We've
calculated that. We think it is 23 families doing intensive crop, vegetable,
and animal production." This projection comes as a shock to those who think
the only future in agriculture is to get bigger! Salatin is the author of
three books, Pastured Poultry Profit$, Salad Bar Beef, and You Can Farm.
Other sessions at the annual meeting included innovations in organic
gardening (Tom Tomas), details on producing your own seed as well as organic
seed production (Lori Daniels and Dave Vetter), organic dairying and direct
sale through supermarkets in Iowa (Francis Thicke), current farming and food
situation in Cuba (Dave Zirovski), and why we should be concerned about the
global food situation (Dave Mortensen). There were other key topics
presented by farmers, business people, and university specialists. One
Extension educator who had not been to the meetings in several years
commented that "These are some of the most positive, innovative, and
energetic people that I've met here in Nebraska. They are really enthused
about the future of agriculture!"
The annual meeting of the Nebraska Sustainable Agriculture Society is held
the last weekend in February. The workshops feature outside speakers and
Nebraskans who are making changes in their farms and communities, as well as
exhibits from public and private groups involved in sustainable agriculture.
NSAS can be reached through its office in northeast Nebraska, PO Box 736,
Hartington, NE 68739, 402-254-2289, www.netins.net/showcase/nsas.
Submitted by Charles Francis
NEBRASKA'S FUTURE AGRICULTURE:
INNOVATIVE PRODUCERS GET MORE OF THE CONSUMER'S FOOD DOLLAR
This is the second in a series of articles on projections about the future
of our most important industry. They present alternative views of the
future, as we respond to growing concerns about how food is produced and
agriculture's impact on rural Nebraska. These ideas from faculty will help
guide the design of relevant research and education programs in the university.
What is the farmer's share?
Today the Nebraska farmer receives less than 9% of the consumer's food
dollar, down from about 50% a century ago. According to Dr. Stuart Smith,
agricultural economist at the University of Maine, the change has been in
the percent going to the commercial input sector (now 24%) and that going
into processing, advertising, and marketing (now 67%). The current food
system has clearly brought us advantages such as year-round supplies,
convenience with pre-prepared foods, and remarkable variety. It has not
brought consistent profits to the majority of farmers. The increasing costs
of inputs and low prices received by growers combine to make commodity
production a highly risky business, one that often depends on government
support for continued profitability. Low profit margins also push the
expansion to larger farms—a long-term trend that now greatly exceeds what is
generally needed to achieve efficiency of scale in production.
The farmer's share is somewhat higher in products with less processing:
meat, eggs, milk, and some fresh fruits and vegetables. It is much lower for
the raw commodities such as basic grains—corn, wheat, soybeans—that are
currently at the lowest price in decades. These are the products that move
through local elevators to export sites or get processed into grain-based
food products. Most of the value in a loaf of bread or box of cereal is
added by bakers or factories that process and package, and by advertisers
and merchandisers—and they collect those profits. The solution for most
farmers in Nebraska will unlikely be baking bread or packaging cereals,
although there are niches for those activities. What are some solutions?
Reducing input costs
Much of our current research centers on making production more efficient.
New generation herbicides that can be applied in lower doses and that
degrade in the environment cause fewer problems than those a generation ago,
although they may not be less expensive. Careful soil testing and budgeting
for crop needs can lead to more efficient fertilizer application rates and
less nutrient loss to the groundwater, as well as reduced costs to the
grower. Irrigation is our largest single expense in corn production under
intensive cultivation in Nebraska. Scheduling, low-pressure application
equipment, and more efficient hybrids and varieties of major crops can all
help reduce water needed to produce an optimum crop, and at the same time
reduce production costs. These are among the best management practices we
recommend for shaving the costs per acre for crop production.
Further reduction in costs can be achieved with more intensive observation
and management. Use of crop rotations can reduce weed pressure and allow
management with cultivation or lower levels of chemical application.
Rotations also reduce the incidence of some insect problems such as corn
rootworm to levels that do not economically justify chemical application.
Cover crops can add soil fertility and help prevent erosion that currently
takes nutrients off the field with heavy rains. Soil sampling, crop
scouting, and frequent observation of each field can lead to other steps to
fine-tune management, but this is costly and often less accurate when farm
size becomes too large for the owner/operator to handle. Some growers have
moved successfully into organic crop production, where management and
non-chemical approaches substitute for fossil-fuel based inputs. These
methods can potentially reduce the 24% of the food dollar that currently
goes for inputs, and bring more of the net return back to the farmer.
Increasing the market value
The other part of the equation is selling the crop. To capture a larger part
of the consumer dollar for farm products, Nebraska growers are using several
direct marketing channels to move their produce to the consumer. Direct sale
of livestock products can be accomplished straight from the farm or through
local lockers. Farmers in this state can sell up to 20,000 chickens each
year that are killed and dressed on the farm. Eggs can be marketed directly
to consumers. Beef and pork can move through a local inspected slaughter
facility at an agreed-upon price and sold to consumers through farmers
markets or through relationship marketing. An article on the NSAS meeting in
this issue cites the example of Joel Salatin who makes good use of this
marketing approach. It's essential to check on the legal procedures that
apply in your area, and a good source is The Legal Guide for Direct Farm
Marketing by Neil Hamilton from Drake University (see Resources section).
Vegetables and fruits that require no processing can be sold through farmers
markets, community supported (subscription) agriculture, or direct from
roadside stands. These sales methods allow the grower to become more
directly acquainted with consumer preferences and reestablish the bond
between people in the city and those who produce food. There are both
confidence and responsibility in this type of local arrangement that are not
present in a global food system.
Global versus local marketplace
With the emergence of a global marketplace and negotiations for reduced
tariffs in agriculture, there is greater potential for import and export of
products. Nebraska farmers facing large surpluses and low prices may welcome
the opening of new opportunities for commodity sales. Consumers may welcome
such development if this increases availability of cheaper food and greater
variety throughout the year. These are the advantages promoted by
multinational food companies and others who benefit most from increased
global trade.
Careful analysis is needed to determine whether the small and medium-sized
family farm benefits in the longer term from this increasingly global
system. The concentration of ownership and control of commodity crops by a
small number of international grain companies appears to promote
consolidation of farms. It is much more efficient to deal with a few
producers than with many small farmers. Similar concentration in livestock
ownership and processing facilities is cited as a primary cause of the major
slump in cattle and hog prices over the past several years. Recent
acceleration in the loss of family farms is often blamed on these global
pressures toward larger farms and vertical integration in the food system
that may destroy competition and a truly free market in which everyone is on
a level playing field. When farmers go out of business while input suppliers
and international food corporations continue to sustain profits, there is
some inequity in the global system. Most people who produce food, the most
basic of human needs, are not realizing a reasonable profit from their
investment and labor.
Consumers in the global marketplace become ever more distant from both the
producers of their food and any understanding of how that food is produced
or who gains from the food system. The emergence of local food systems is a
response to concern about the disconnect of farmers from consumers. It also
reflects a need by some consumers to know about more than the nutrition and
safety of the food, but also the health and economic well-being of those who
produce it. Education of consumers and an emerging concern about the culture
of food may cause a reversal of the current trends toward mass preparation
of homogenized menus and sale to people who drive past a window to find
nourishment. This has happened in Europe, where a backlash against
multinational corporations brings focus on local food production and
uniqueness of local cuisine.
Connection with communities
A recent article by John Allen and Rebecca Filkins with the UNL Center for
Rural Community Revitalization and Development describes results of the
Nebraska Rural Poll where farmers' and ranchers' preferences for the future
were far different from their expectations of what is likely to happen.
Nearly 90% preferred that farms in the future would be family owned, while
only 26% expected this to happen. Most preferred smaller farm size rather
than larger, and also hoped that rural communities would thrive in Nebraska.
They expected the opposite to occur in each case. Allen and Filkins point
out the disconnect between preferences and expectations, and the potential
for future policy debates to focus on decisions that will help people in
rural areas achieve their goals. It is essential that we look carefully both
at trends in agriculture and at the positive expectations of people who
produce food. These need to be brought closer together. In the words of
Nobel Prize Laureate Rene du Bos, "Trend is not destiny."
Submitted by Charles Francis
NEW PROPOSAL FOR NATIONAL ORGANIC STANDARDS
On March 7, 2000 Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman announced a new
proposal for uniform and consistent national standards for organic food. The
proposal details the methods, practices, and substances that can be used in
producing and handling organic crops and livestock, as well as processed
products. It establishes clear labeling criteria and rules so that consumers
know exactly what they are buying when they purchase organic food. It
specifically prohibits the use of genetic engineering, sewage sludge, and
irradiation in the production of food products labeled "organic." The
proposal also prohibits antibiotics in organic livestock production and
requires 100% organic feed for organic livestock.
Glickman also announced several other steps the Administration is taking to
promote organic agriculture. President Clinton's fiscal 2001 budget proposes
$5 million for research to develop improved organic production and
processing methods, evaluate economic benefits to farmers, and develop new
organic markets. Glickman said USDA will establish a pilot organic crop
insurance program to help organic farmers better manage risk. He also
announced that USDA and the University of California at Davis will conduct
research on organic production and ways to enhance farmers' ability to
market organic fruits and vegetables.
USDA estimates that the value of retail sales of organic foods in 1999 was
approximately $6 billion. The number of organic farmers is increasing about
12% per year and now stands at about 12,200 nationwide, most of them
small-scale producers.
The official public comment period on the revised proposed rule began March
13, 2000 and will run through June 14. Fact sheets and other background
materials on the proposed organic rule can be accessed on the Web at
www.ams.usda.gov/nop.
130 COUNTRIES FINALIZE TRADE TREATY ON BIOTECH FOOD
Representatives of 130 countries have adopted a treaty regulating trade in
genetically modified food and other products. Under the Cartagena Protocol
on Biosafety, which was finalized in Montreal in late January, countries can
bar imports of genetically altered seeds, microbes, animals, and crops that
they think may be a threat to their environment. The treaty requires
"stating only that the shipment 'may contain' genetically modified
organisms," according to The New York Times. "Industry officials said
genetically modified crops would not have to be segregated." The treaty,
which will go into effect after 50 countries have ratified it, is the
outgrowth of the Convention on Biological Diversity approved in Rio de
Janeiro in 1992. Because the United States never ratified the convention,
it cannot become a party to the protocol. But American industry will have
to comply with the rules when exporting to countries that have ratified it.
The protocol is posted on the Internet at www.biodiv.org.
Source: Alternative Agriculture News, March 2000.
NSAS DIRECTOR CARUSI TO WISCONSIN
Cris Carusi, former Executive Director of the Nebraska Sustainable
Agriculture Society, began her new position as communications program
manager for the Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems at the University
of Wisconsin-Madison on February 29. We are sorry to lose Cris from
Nebraska, but we know she will do an excellent job as she continues the
mission of promoting sustainable food systems. She can be reached at CIAS,
1450 Linden Dr., Madison, WI 53706, 608-265-8018, carusi@aae.wisc.edu. Paul
Rohrbaugh, General Manager of the Nemaha NRD, has been named the new
Executive Director.
OFRF PROPOSAL DEADLINE JULY 15
The Organic Farming Research Foundation funds research into organic farming
methods,
dissemination of research results to organic farmers and to growers
interested in making the transition to organic production systems, and
education of the general public about organic farming issues. Projects
should involve farmers in both design and execution and take place on
working organic farms whenever possible and appropriate. OFRF invites
farmers, ranchers, and researchers to submit proposals for up to $10,000 by
the next deadline of July 15, 2000. More information is available at
www.ofrf.org, or contact OFRF, PO Box 440, Santa Cruz, CA 95061, 831-426-6606.
USDA AG BIOTECH ADVISORY COMMITTEE FORMED
On January 21 Secretary Glickman named 38 members to a newly-formed USDA
Advisory Committee on Agricultural Biotechnology. The Committee will advise
the Secretary on policy related to the creation, application, marketability,
trade and use of agricultural biotechnology. The Committee, authorized for
two years, is chaired by Dennis Eckart, an attorney and former Congressman
from Ohio. For the list of all members, see the press release at
www.usda.gov/news/releases/2000/01/0023.
ALTERNATIVE AG EXPO
The second annual Alternative Ag Expo will be held August 29, 2000 in Sioux
City, Iowa. It is designed to be of interest to producers and consumers.
Topics will include our nation's health, nutrition, developing a transition
mindset, organics, legalities of direct marketing, rabbits, identifying your
market, aquaculture, pheasants, meat and poultry inspection, soils,
economics, managing an alternative agriculture enterprise, and much more.
Three roundtables will address transitioning from traditional agriculture,
pork production, and rotational grazing. The primary speaker, Sally Fallon,
will talk about the nutritional benefits of natural foods as well as the
currently debated topic of dietary guidelines with relation to carbohydrates
and protein intake. Fallon will also give a 90-minute presentation on the
evening of August 28. Watch for more details in the May-June CSAS
Newsletter, or contact Darrell Geib, Sioux Rivers RC&D, for more
information, 712-943-7882, darrell.geib@ia.usda.gov.
RESOURCES
Legal Guide for Direct Farm Marketing. $20. Written by law professor Neil
Hamilton, the 235-page guide answers common questions about laws on
marketing products directly to consumers and to retail and wholesale buyers.
Covers legal issues regarding: farmers markets; on-farm businesses;
contracts, food stamps and getting paid; advertising, organic certification
and eco-labels; land use and property law; labor and employment; insurance
and liability; and inspection, processing and food safety. Uses specific
examples of court cases, state laws and local regulations involving direct
farm marketing. Resource lists, tips, Q & A's and sidebars contribute to its
user-friendly format. To order, contact Drake University Agricultural Law
Center, Des Moines, IA 50311, 515-271-2947.
Second annual Time to Act Campaign report card, released January 12. The
report card, which measures the progress made by USDA over the past year in
implementing the recommendations of the National Commission on Small Farms,
can be accessed at the Center for Rural Affairs Web site, www.cfra.org, or
contact the CRA office, 402-846-5428, info@cfra.org. Grades were: Market
Access, D; Market Development, B+; Research and Extension, C-; Conservation,
C ; Credit, C; Beginning Farmers, B-; Farm Workers, D-; Civil Rights, D;
Risk Management, C+; Outreach and Organization, C.
ATTRA (Appropriate Technology Transfer for Rural Areas), a leading
information source for sustainable farming practices, announces two new Web
pages: 1) Find Info on ATTRA's Web Pages (www.attra.org/search.html) is a
search engine that provides a quick search on the ATTRA web page; 2) Find Ag
Information on the Web (www.attra.org/search2.html) features some prominent
agriculture databases, directories, library catalogs, and search engines on
the Internet.
Two new Web items from ATTRA: 1) Holistic Management: A Whole-Farm Decision
Making Framework, www.attra.org/attra-pub/holistic.html, and 2)
Intercropping Principles and Production Practices,
www.attra.org/attra-pub/intercrop.html.
Growing a Community Food System. $2.50 + s&h. Presents the practical steps
and processes communities interested in localizing their food system need to
take in order to be successful. Authors outline key components of the
process including visioning, assessment, development of project concepts,
evaluation, and planning. Two community food system project models are
described. Bulletins Office, Washington State U., P.O. Box 645912, Pullman,
WA 99164-5912, 1-800-723-1763, bulletin@coopext.cahe.wsu.edu,
caheinfo.wsu.edu/order/order.html.
Farmers and their Diversified Horticultural Marketing Strategies. $15
(payable to UVM). Video covers innovative marketing strategies and features
eight New England farms that use roadside stands, consumer supported
agriculture, wholesale cooperatives, pick-your-own, and/or farmers' markets.
Center for Sustainable Agriculture, U. of Vermont, 590 Main St., Burlington,
VT 05405, 802-656-5459, susagctr@zoo.uvm.edu,
www.uvm.edu/~susagctr/publications.html.
The Metalab (U. of North Carolina) server contains a wealth of information,
links, and electronic discussion groups of interest to readers of this
newsletter. Among the discussion groups in which you can participate are:
Permaculture, Market Farming, CSAs, Community Food Systems, Seed Saving,
Soil Quality, and Natural Agriculture. See metalab.unc.edu/intergarden.
Alternatives to Insecticides for Managing Vegetable Insects. $8.00 + $3.75
s&h within U.S. Proceedings containing discussions and presentations from a
farmer/scientist conference held in December 1998 in Connecticut. Details
about the contents can be found at www.nraes.org/publications/nraes138.html.
NRAES, Cooperative Extension, 152 Riley-Robb Hall, Ithaca, NY 14853-5701.
GREENBOOK '99: A Decade of Tools from the Energy and Sustainable Agriculture
Program of the Minnesota Department of Agriculture is now on the Web,
complete with hot links to additional sustainable ag resources,
www.mda.state.mn.us/DOCS/AGDEV/Greenbook/gb99cont.htm.
Visit the "Animal Waste Initiative: Promoting Environmental Stewardship–A
National Research and Extension Initiative of USDA, Land-Grant Universities,
and Partner Agencies" Web site, www.cals.ncsu.edu/waste_mgt/wmi.
Proceedings from May 11, 1999 Pest Management Alternatives (PMAP) Food
Quality Protection Act Workshop now online at www.reeusda.gov/ipm/pmap.htm.
Many speeches presented at the USDA Outlook Forum 2000 in late February are
available at www.usda.gov/oce/waob/oc2000/speeches.htm.
Two new poultry videos: 1) Herman Beck-Chenoweth narrates a 17-min. video
covering the production, slaughter and marketing of chickens and turkeys
raised in portable houses. Video instructs on building the houses, tours a
slaughter facility that uses less than $15,000 in equipment, and discusses
selling birds to restaurants and farmers markets; $27.50 for video alone, or
$55 with companion manual; contact Back Forty Books, Dept. BF, 26328 Locust
Grove Rd, Creola, OH 45622. 2) Nebraska Pastured Poultry IMPACT group
released a 15-min. video describing its traveling on-farm portable
processing facility; $22.50; call Dave Bosle at 402-462-9424.
COMING EVENTS
Contact CSAS office for more information.
2000
Apr. 4 – NSAS workshop on CSA organizations, York, NE
Apr. 18 – NSAS Workshop on farmers markets, Mead, NE
June 8-9 – Grazing Retreat, Ravenna, NE
June 17 – Applegait Ranch Tour, Sutherland, NE
June 24 – Bison and Grass Ranch Tour (featuring Allan Nation), Rose, NE
July 18-20 – Grazing Retreat, Center, NE
July 25-26 – Grazing Retreat, Franklin, NE
Aug. 29-30: Alternative Ag Expo, Sioux City, IA
July 8 – The Grain Place Tour, Marquette, NE
Aug. 28-29 – Alternative Ag Expo, Sioux City, IA
Sep. 13/14/15 – Grazing Tour with Burt Smith, Crofton/Atkinson/Imperial, NE
For additional events, see:
www.sare.org/wreg/view_notice_adm.pl
www.agnic.org/mtg/
DID YOU KNOW...
The following appeared in a 1986 book by David Pimentel: "Currently, an
estimated 37% of all crops is lost annually to pests. Fifty years ago,
however, before introduction of most agricultural chemicals, only 31% of all
crops was lost. More interestingly, losses to insects nearly doubled (from
7% to 13%) from the 1940s to the present, in spite of a more than ten-fold
increase in insecticide."
A graph in "Earth Day 2000: A 30-Year Report Card" (March-April 2000 issue
of World Watch) shows that from 1970 to 2000, the number of
pesticide-resistant weeds has increased from a handful to more than 200, and
the number of pesticide-resistant pathogens from less than 50 to nearly 250.
* * *
***********************
Pam Murray, Coordinator
Center for Grassland Studies and
Center for Sustainable Agricultural Systems
PO Box 830949
University of Nebraska
Lincoln, NE 68583-0949
phone: 402-472-9383
fax: 402-472-4104
e-mail: pmurray1@unl.edu
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