USDA encouraging organic farmers

[Guest guest]

Below is a clipping of an article on USDA favoring organic farmers from

FreshPlaza Newsletter.

 

 

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Organic, local farms get a boost from USDA

Obama administration officials Wednesday outlined a broad array of efforts to

elevate organic and local farming to a prominence never seen before at the

sprawling U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The shift is raising eyebrows among conventional growers and promising federal

support to a food movement that began in Northern California and was considered

heretical only a few years ago.

" Guys, this is your window - use it, " USDA Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan

told organic farmers, processors and retailers at a conference Wednesday in

Washington that was sponsored by Santa Cruz's Organic Farming Research

Foundation and the Organic Trade Association.

When her microphone went dead as she discussed genetically modified foods, a

member of the audience joked, " They're already sabotaging you. "

Talking more like a Berkeley foodie than a USDA bureaucrat, Merrigan described

efforts to penetrate " food deserts " in poor neighborhoods where people rely on

corner markets and liquor stores for groceries, tougher enforcement of the USDA

organic label and initiatives such as the Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food

program to connect local farmers with consumers.

Anti-obesity campaign

The efforts parallel first lady Obama's anti-obesity campaign, which

she took Wednesday to a community farm in San Diego supported by the California

Endowment, whose mission to improve the health of Californians is mirrored by

the first lady's campaign.

" Food is finally either close to or at the center of the USDA plate, " said Bob

Scowcroft, executive director of the Santa Cruz foundation, which struggled for

years to get federal support for organic farming.

Scowcroft cited Merrigan's interest in such innovations as mobile

slaughterhouses, which allow tiny livestock producers to get USDA certification

of their meat.

" California is desperate for these, " Scowcroft said. " The entire U.S. system is

now based on massive factory farms. You have lamb producers that want to sell

into a local restaurant, but if they even can find a unit to slaughter their

lambs, it's 300 to 500 miles away. Driving 10 lambs there is cost prohibitive. "

Even a small shift in the giant machinery of the USDA - be it more research

money for organics or stiffer antitrust enforcement against industrial operators

Merrigan said is coming - could have big repercussions given the agency's

central role in U.S. farming. Merrigan said the administration is also linking

USDA efforts with other departments such as Health and Human Services.

Not the old USDA

Big growers are not thrilled.

After Merrigan addressed a USDA conference in Washington last month, Tim

Burrack, a corn and soybean grower who chairs the Iowa Corn Promotion Board,

stood up and told her, " This is not the USDA that I've known, " according to Iowa

press accounts.

" I've farmed for 37 years and worked with the government and everything - and

what I'm hearing out here is radically different than what has taken place in

the first 36 years of my career, " he said.

Burrack cited concern among conventional producers that focusing on organics and

small local farms conflicts with traditional agriculture production that " has

provided for this nation a very safe and very low-cost food supply. "

The department took its first survey of organic farmers two years ago, counting

14,540 of them, located in all 50 states. Sales have reached $24.6 billion a

year, growing 14 percent to 21 percent annually over the last decade, but still

remain less than 1 percent of all U.S. agriculture.

More small farms

In addition, the census showed for the first time that the number of small farms

in California, many of them minority-owned, has increased.

Growers and retailers at Wednesday's conference expressed exasperation over

losing their organic certification after their fields were contaminated by

neighboring farms growing genetically modified crops.

Alan , a manager at the Natural Grocers chain in Lakewood, Colo., cited a

1970s-era USDA rule that designates beef as " natural " if it is unadulterated

after slaughter, even if the cow was pumped with hormones, de-wormers and corn

for the months it was alive.

" Magically, it becomes 'natural' on the day of harvest, " he said. The agency is

looking at a new rule for " naturally raised " beef as a midpoint between natural

and fully organic.

But that, said, is likely to sow confusion with consumers.

" As an industry, we really need to be clear about who's toeing the line and who

isn't, " said.

Source: sfgate.com

[Guest guest]

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Sandy

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Below is a clipping of an article on USDA favoring organic farmers from

FreshPlaza Newsletter.

Organic, local farms get a boost from USDA

Obama administration officials Wednesday outlined a broad array of efforts to

elevate organic and local farming to a prominence never seen before at the

sprawling U.S. Department of Agriculture.

.............<snip>

Source: sfgate.com