organic agriculture

ORGANIC UPDATE E-NEWSLETTER
Providing news and information about organic agriculture
to agricultural education professionals.

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Winter 2006

Welcome to the MOSES Organic Update. This periodic newsletter offers timely news, announcements and information about the dynamic world of organic agriculture to education and agricultural service personnel in the Upper Midwest. Subscribers will receive a short e-mail announcement, providing a direct hot-link to each issue of the web-based newsletter. Contact us with any comments or questions at jody@mosesorganic.org.

Midwest Organic Food Supply Growing, Still Not Keeping Up With National Consumer Demand. More Midwest Producers Needed
Leaders in the organic farming community re-issued their call for more organic producers in the Midwest. Speaking at a news conference at the 17th annual Upper Midwest Organic Farming Conference held in La Crosse, Wisconsin, officials say that although the number of organic producers is on the increase, the supply of organic food is still not keeping up with national consumer demand. According to Faye Jones, executive director of the Wisconsin-based Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Service, or MOSES, there is continually growing consumer demand for organic food in the US and around the world. Jones says, “It is abundantly clear that we need more Midwestern organic producers, whether it be for dairy, meat, poultry, produce, or livestock feed and grain. The demand for organic food is still way ahead of our current supply, and there is a significant on-farm price premium for organically grown products."
More Info
Organic Food & Farming 2006 Background Statistics

Wisconsin Schools Receive $1 Million for Fresh Fruit & Vegetables USDA Seeking Producers Interested in Selling to Schools!
The USDA has expanded its highly successful Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Snack Program to include Wisconsin beginning in February 2006. This means 25 K-12 schools from around the state will receive funding to purchase fresh fruit and vegetables and provide them as snacks to students for free. Schools will have until June 2007 to utilize the funds. This is a wonderful opportunity to bring Wisconsin fruits and vegetables into our schools. More Info

Cooperative Effort Launches New Nation-wide Effort to Market Food from Sustainable Family Farms
There’s a new force championing the viability of family farms with sustainable attributes. The American Association of Family Farms (www.associationoffamilyfarms.org) is the product of collaboration between the Leopold Center’s “Agriculture of the Middle” task force organized by Fred Kirschenmann and a U.S. Department of Agriculture initiative launched in 2003 by California extension leader Larry Yee.

The group has launched a web site and developed a brochure that outlines their solution to what members see as a huge problem under the current agricultural production system: loss of midsize family farms. Kirschenmann said the new association’s goal is to create opportunities and markets for midsize operations with special emphasis on farms with gross annual sales between $50,000 and $500,000. A nonprofit branch is being formed to develop standards and to adapt an electronic certification system currently used in Europe. The AFF plans to develop standards for its own label to identify eligible farms cooperating nationwide to serve the growing market for source-identified, values-added food.

Two New Resources Available from MOSES
"Organic Dairy Farming," a 192 page full-size paperback book. Designed to help the transitioning or new organic farmer understand the basic concepts behind organic dairy production and certification. Chapters on dairy nutrition, cow and calf management, organic health care, stress and animal handling, farm milk quality, farm biosecurity, animal breeding for organic production, soil health, organic cropping systems, pasture management, organic certification and organic marketing options. Fully indexed. Available from MOSES for $14.95 plus shipping and handling. To order print the MOSES Booklist.

"Guidebook to Organic Certification" is an easy-to-use handbook designed to answer common questions about organic certification. Also fully indexed. Available as a downloadable pdf at Website

Stanford University Confirms Environmental Benefits of Organic Farming
A new study by Stanford University concludes that organic farming is less harmful to the environment, compared to farming practices that rely on chemical fertilizers. In the year-long study, apples trees fertilized with nitrogen-based chemicals created nitrogen levels in the soil that were as much as 5.6 times greater than trees fertilized with organic manure or alfalfa. “This study is an important contribution to the debate surrounding the sustainability of organic agriculture, one of the most contentious topics in agricultural science worldwide,” said John B. Reganold, co-author of the study. The study results are published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
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Center for Integrated Agriculture Systems Releases Organic Agriculture in Wisconsin: 2005 Status Report
Wisconsin farm landscape Wisconsin continues to be a national leader in organic food production, despite the fact that certified organic farms, acreage and production represent only a small fraction of agriculture in the state. This report provides a snapshot of the current status of organic agriculture in Wisconsin, and summarizes some of the opportunities and challenges in the organic marketplace. In it, we discuss recent state government involvement in organic agriculture in Wisconsin. It also summarizes statistics on organic agricultural production in Wisconsin and presents research on organic processing and marketing.
Website

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About MOSES
The Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Service (MOSES) is a nonprofit organization developed to provide educational opportunities and resources to farmers and farm-support organizations, businesses and educators. MOSES has been a trusted provider of information and education about organic and sustainable farming systems in the Upper Midwest since 1999, primarily through the Upper Midwest Organic Farming Conference, now in its 17th year and attended by over 1800 individuals in 2005. Executive Director Faye Jones has lead the organization since its inception, and now directs several employees working out of the MOSES office in Spring Valley, WI. A majority of the nine member MOSES Board of Directors are organic farmers from throughout the Upper Midwest.