Dear Friends,

It has been another remarkable year here at MOSES. Unprecedented public attention is being paid to organic farming and the continually growing consumer demand for organic food.   Increasingly, there’s an understanding that organic farming can be a significant part of Midwestern agriculture. Looking back to the early 1980’s and my first experiences working on Midwestern organic farms, I’m truly awed by how far we’ve come.  One of the things that makes MOSES unique is that, through our education and outreach efforts, we help farmers.  How very fortunate we feel to be part of this upswing in appreciation for quality food and the healthy farmland required to produce it.  

During my first summer farming many years ago, one of those moments occurred which forever changed my life.  I was standing on a hill above Martin Diffley’s organic vegetable farm near Eagan, Minnesota, and was thinking about the incredible variety of vegetables we’d harvested that day.  From that hilltop with the lights of the city in the distance, I remember thinking to myself how important this work was -- getting the healthiest, best-tasting food that can be grown into the hands of people that appreciated it and were ready to pay for it.  Although very tired from a strenuous day of work, I felt an incredible surge of energy and something telling me that this would be my path.  After one summer on that farm, I had found my life’s work – to be a part of changing the way America farms. I knew that vibrant rural communities could not only protect the environment but provide healthy food as well.  I knew this should be the way of the future and I wanted to help.

A number of years later, I joined 90 other enthusiasts at the very first Upper Midwest Organic Farming Conference held in La Crosse, Wisconsin in 1989.   What a thrill it was to gather with others and share organic production and marketing ideas. I didn’t know at that time that I would then go on to coordinate this conference for many years (and I’m still doing it today!), first as a volunteer and then as the MOSES executive director.   Although many of us involved in organic farming had dreams of it becoming much better established, I don’t think that any of us in La Crosse that winter, almost 20 years ago, thought that in 2006:

1. 2250 people would attend that very same conference;
2. Consumer demand for organic food would be greater than available supply;
3. Organic dairy production would be a verifiable industry, and that organic dairy farmers would be receiving twice that of conventional dairy producers - an actual living wage!   
4. The USDA would publish a western Minnesota study (summer, 2006) showing that organic cash grain production is more profitable than conventional production (www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr/2006/060725.htm).
5. Major corporations are competing to position themselves in the organic foods marketplace.

Organic farming is still far from being the dominant form of agriculture in the U.S., but it certainly has gained tremendous credibility. 25 years ago the idea of widespread media attention paid to organic farming would have been the stuff of dreams only.  The same goes for open discussion of organic methods in university classrooms.  And to imagine that conventional farmers would attend workshops specifically geared to organic production would’ve been pure wishful thinking.

Now that has all begun to change. Here at the MOSES office our staff has provided thousands of farmers with information about organic farming.  This past year, we held ten Organic Trainings for farmers and ag professionals in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa.  We produced 2 new publications, Organic Dairy Farming and the Guidebook for Organic Certification.  We updated 9 organic farming fact sheets and distributed 7000 copies of our new Upper Midwest Organic Farming Directory.  Our organic Tree Fruit Network held several field days for organic apple producers throughout the upper Midwest. The educational efforts of our Help Wanted: Organic Farmers campaign continued full speed ahead with the establishment of our toll-free Farmer Transition Hotline. Add the Organic University and plans to welcome 2300 people to our 18th annual Upper Midwest Organic Farming Conference next February 22-24, 2007, and you’ve got a sense of what we’ve been up to. At MOSES we grow farmers!

So many people in the organic community have worked together over the years that we have now surpassed my initial dreams from long ago.  Yet along with all those accomplishments has come the demand for us to do even more.  That’s why we come to you and ask for your financial support.  We ask that you send a tax deductible contribution to MOSES.  We’ll put it right back into helping farmers. In advance, we thank you.

Best wishes to you for a healthy and prosperous 2007,  

Faye Jones, Executive Director

P.S. We truly depend on your financial support.  Once again, many thanks.

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