2005-2010 MOSES Broadcaster Columns
Inside Organics Column
by Roger Blobaum · Inside Organics · Sept/Oct 2010 Food industry promoters trying to convince consumers that organic food is no more healthful than other food have been taking some hits lately. Several developments this summer, including a scary government report linking pesticides and cancer, are challenging their dubious claim. These reports are alerting consumers to new evidence of the adverse health impacts of chemicals in their food and publicizing research documenting new chemical-cancer connections. These mainstream reports are expected to increase consumer awareness of the health enhancing benefits of organic food and farming. The reports also are pressing policymakers to consider public health in responding to the urgent need to update and strengthen the outdated Toxic Substances Control Act. The Environmental Protection Agency, which has been responsible for enforcing this act since its enactment in 1976, has failed to use this authority to protect Americans from the adverse health impacts of the 80,000 toxic chemicals produced and used in this country. The usual EPA approach is to assume chemicals are safe, to approve them without testing, and to do nothing further unless something really bad happens. The precautionary principle observed in Europe, which allows official approval only…
Read More...by Roger Blobaum · Inside Organics · MOSES Broadcaster · Nov/Oct 2006 The national research agenda workshop convened last month by the Agricultural Research Service (ARS), a U.S. Department of Agriculture agency with 2,100 scientists and a $1.1 billion annual research budget, would appear to suggest a significant breakthrough in support for organic food and farming research. Representatives of national organizations advocating more organic research, organic farmers, ARS scientists, and others met for two days in Atlanta to help the agency develop an overall strategy and a five-year research plan for organic research. It was a followup to a similar ARS workshop a year ago in Austin, Texas. Much of the credit for a good working relationship between ARS and organic research advocates should go to scientists and farmers involved in the Scientific Congress on Organic Research (SCOAR), a project of the Organic Farming Research Foundation (OFRF). SCOAR helps plan and promote USDA-funded research and disseminates information needed to understand and improve organic agricultural systems. The workshops in Austin and Atlanta are widely viewed as a genuine attempt by ARS administrators and scientists to deal with institutional barriers to organic research within the agency, identify research priorities, develop an organic research…
Read More...by Roger Blobaum · Inside Organics · MOSES Broadcaster · Sept-Oct 2006The surprise announcement that Wal-Mart, the world’s largest food merchandiser, plans to use its well-known price cutting approach to move aggressively into organic retailing is sending waves of concern and uncertainty through the organic food and farming sectors. The Wal-Mart move, part of a larger “green” initiative, is expected to speed up expansion and mainstreaming of an organic sector already facing questions about growing ownership by conventional food companies and about the government’s willingness to enforce the rules and guarantee the authenticity of organic products. Several of the world’s largest food companies have made big moves recently into organic processing and manufacturing through takeovers and buyouts of pioneer organic companies. But Wal-Mart’s announcement that it plans to use its price cutting clout to begin claiming market share in organic retailing is a new level of conventional corporate involvement that is creating even more anxiety in the organic community. Unsettled Industry The announcement has stimulated widespread media coverage and much speculation about what this means in terms of prices paid to organic farmers, impact on the politics of organic standard setting, consumer acceptance, organic imports, organic integrity, and overall corporate…
Read More...by Roger Blobaum · Inside Organics · MOSES Broadcaster · July/August 2006The formal launching of a National Organic Action Plan process this summer has the potential to provide a community-wide response to the challenge of steering organic 20 years into the future and beyond and deciding how it can be expanded and mainstreamed without losing its integrity. This new initiative is patterned on the organic action plans put together in 15 countries in Europe in recent years and used successfully to support and expand organic food and farming. It may also draw on experience with the long process that led to adoption two years ago by the Commission of the European Communities of the European Action Plan for Organic Food and Farming. The 33-page Commission plan includes 19 specific governmental actions that would support the organic sector. It also officially cites the many positive environmental, social, and economic benefits of organic farming, something never acknowledged by U.S. policymakers. “The general principle is that where farmers provide services to the environment beyond the reference level of good agricultural practices,” the all-Europe plan states, “these should be adequately remunerated.” The country-specific plans in Europe typically include land conversion targets plus the combination…
Read More...by Roger Blobaum · Inside Organics · MOSES Broadcaster · May-June 2006 The appointment of two industry representatives to National Organic Standards Board slots reserved for consumer/public interest representatives has raised new questions about the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s commitment to enforce legal requirements of the Organic Foods Production Act (OFPA) and protect the integrity of the NOSB. The agency’s latest controversial move was the appointment of Katrina Heinze, manager of global regulatory affairs for General Mills, and dairy nutrition consultant Daniel Giocomini to two of the three legally-defined consumer and public interest slots on the NOSB. The organic law also reserves slots for three environmental representatives, four organic farmers, two organic processors, one retailer, one scientist, and one certifying agent representative. The two industry representatives were among six new members named in January to 5-year terms on the 15-member advisory group. This is not the first time USDA has failed to follow specific NOSB-related OFPA requirements or taken other actions to challenge or diminish its authority. The most important action came in 1997 when the agency ignored many of the NOSB’s recommendations and overturned many others in proposing the first rule to implement OFPA. Another came two years…
Read More...by Roger Blobaum · Inside Organics · MOSES Broadcaster · March-April 2006 A new nationwide search is underway for the missing political voice of America’s organic farmers. The fact that an authentic organic farmer voice is usually missing when political decisions impacting organic food and farming are made is getting increasing attention in the organic community. Organizations that support organic agriculture have been willing to try to speak for them in Washington and elsewhere. But they would much prefer that organic farmers get organized, select representatives, and speak for themselves. Recent serious discussion focuses on the possibility of establishing a national organic farmers organization. But this is a daunting challenge for the 9,000 or so organic farmers that are certified, plus possibly that many more that are not certified. These totals include many organic farmers in both categories who are not interested in politics, or in getting organized, and don’t want to have anything to do with government at any level. The search for an organic farmer voice is gaining new attention at this time primarily because several 2007 farm bill proposals that may impact organic agriculture are being discussed. New Congressional authorizations are needed for organic research and…
Read More...by Roger Blobaum · Inside Organics · MOSES Broadcaster · Jan/Feb 2006 Organizations involved in national organic food and farming policymaking are gearing up in the coming months to convince Congress to expand support for the organic sector in the rewrite of farm bill provisions that expire in 2007. This provides an opportunity for these organizations to kiss and make up after the bitter Congressional fight over Organic Foods Production Act (OFPA) amendments adopted in the Capitol Hill follow-up to the Harvey v. Johanns court decision. Unlike the Harvey amendments fiasco, farm bill proposals must be formally introduced, openly considered at hearings and markups, and debated in public. The Administration will be an important political player, especially if a push is made to get a new farm bill out before next fall’s congressional elections. An unprecedented amount of work on organic initiatives, more than can be described here, has been underway in the organic community over the last year. We may see important differences of opinion about organic sector priorities and support level requests in a new farm bill. But overall, the organic community is expected to make a special effort to get along, to rally and, to the…
Read More...by Roger Blobaum · Inside Organics · MOSES Broadcaster · November 2005 The bitter fight in Congress that has split the organic community and alarmed its leaders is about much more than the Harvey vs. Johanns court decision and its impact on the dairy conversion, synthetics, and commercial availability provisions of the Organic Foods Production Act. It goes to the crucial issue of who makes national organic policy and how it is made. The high level of concern over what is happening was reflected in a statement by Jim Riddle, chair of the National Organic Standards Board, who warned that the organic sector finds itself in a time of unprecedented division. “The food industry and the OTA have rushed to Congress with a flawed proposal to significantly alter the Organic Foods Production Act,” he said. “Predictably there has been an enormous outcry from organic consumers, farmers, and public interest groups.” The “flawed proposal” cited by Riddle has center stage in this growing internal dispute. But the hard feelings within the organic community, the charges and counter charges, and the determination to dig in and fight that have surprised and frustrated Congressional supporters of organic food and farming go well…
Read More...by Roger Blobaum · Inside Organics · MOSES Broadcaster · September 2005 Organic farmers have a story to tell and need to work harder telling it. The story is about the public benefits of organic farming and why they matter far beyond America’s organic farms. Some have gotten the message and acted on it. An Iowa County’s adoption of an organic conversion plan providing tax incentives for farmers transitioning from conventional to organic is an example. It attracted national attention this summer because it’s the first time government officials at any level have acknowledged that organic farming provides rural community development benefits. And it’s the first time a local government has acted to reward the farmers who provide these benefits. This first-in-the-nation program, adopted by the elected board of supervisors in Woodbury County in northwest Iowa, establishes an organic advisory board that will decide which farms share in the $50,000 a year in property tax relief provided over the next five years. It was proposed by county economic development director Rob Marqusee as a way to revitalize agriculture in the area surrounding Sioux City by bringing back smaller, more profitable, and more labor-intensive farms. This initiative points up the importance…
Read More...by Roger Blobaum · Inside Organics· July/August 2010 If you think it’s tough now trying to derail the global campaign by Monsanto and others to mislead the media and convince gullible policymakers that GMOs are the solution to feeding the world, you haven’t seen anything yet. The U.S. Supreme Court has just handed the instigators of this effort a big political gift in its decision in the Citizens United v. FEC case. This decision has opened the money floodgates, allowing Monsanto and other corporations to spend as much company money as they like to finance all kinds of ads supporting or opposing federal and state candidates identified by name. It’s a direct threat to candidates who promise to do something about GMO contamination of organic farms, for example, or who challenge the government’s campaign to spread GMO agriculture worldwide. It has swept aside decades of legislative restrictions on the role of corporations and the spending of company money in political campaigns. Congress since 1907 has prohibited domestic corporations from using their money “directly or indirectly” to elect candidates for public office. Congress later made it clear that the ban applied to political advertisements and other independent election spending as well…
Read More...by Roger Blobaum · Inside Organics · May/June 2010 The U.S. Department of Agriculture is engaged in a campaign to convince the organic community that its support for organic farming now extends well beyond the National Organic Program (NOP) and includes active involvement of every one of its 27 agencies. Is it possible to spread organic awareness throughout USDA, a huge bureaucracy with more than 100,000 employees, and get every agency on board and every employee to plant a garden? This was one of Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan’s more ambitious goals when she assumed the No. 2 position at USDA more than a year ago. There is increasing evidence she is getting this done. This progress was evident at an April 16 organic roundtable where stakeholders ranging from the Organic Farming Research Foundation (OFRF) to the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) and representatives of USDA agencies ranging from the Economic Research Service (ERS) to the Risk Management Agency (RMA) spent a morning comparing notes and providing updates on what they do to support organic agriculture. Having a long list of USDA agency representatives stand before a roomful of organic advocates to proudly list what their agencies are doing to support…
Read More...by Roger Blobaum · Inside Organics · March/April 2010 At this time 30 years ago the most important organic farming policy document ever produced by the federal government was being edited for the last time and typed up at the U.S. Department of Agriculture so it could be rushed to the Government Printing Office to meet a July publication deadline. No government report on organic farming since has even come close to being as comprehensive and significant as “Report and Recommendations on Organic Farming,” the official 94-page document that summarized the work and findings of a USDA study team given less than a year to complete its assignment. Every USDA policy and program with any potential to impact organic farming in any way was scrutinized. This included how the department gathered organic farming information and whether or not it had the administrative capacity to coordinate any organic initiatives taken. The study team’s work assignment and deadline came straight from Secretary of Agriculture Bob Bergland, the only secretary of agriculture before or since with the political courage to make an unconditional commitment to organic agriculture. Bergland, a Minnesota farmer before becoming involved in politics, had been impressed and convinced years earlier…
Read More...by Roger Blobaum · Inside Organics · Jan/Feb 2010 Recent trends in organic research suggest Midwest organic farmers may want to consider some new questions: Who are the scientists doing organic research in your state? What kind of research is being done? Are these researchers reaching out to involve you in their work? And are they making a special effort to share the results? You may be interested in meeting the scientists at your land grant university and in helping shape the organic research being done. But the scientists doing the research also may be interested in meeting you and finding out what kind of research you think they should be doing. It’s no longer unusual for organic researchers and organic farmers to get together and compare notes. A significant increase in organic research in the Midwest, and in the funding supporting it, is focusing new attention on farmer-friendly research approaches and on ways farmers and researchers can benefit from working together. Organic research proposals that include farmer involvement get extra points in the competition for government and foundation research grants.
Read More...by Roger Blobaum · Inside Organics · Nov/Dec 2009 Is it possible organic integrity could become Priority Number One at the U.S. Department of Agriculture after all these years of inattentive oversight, lack of political support, lax and uneven enforcement, stingy appropriations, and poor management?
Read More...by Roger Blobaum · Inside Organics · January, 2007 After seven long years of stonewalling to block independent review and oversight of its troubled organic program, it looks like the U.S. Department of Agriculture may have its hands full in the coming year with not one, but two, organic program audits.
Read More...by Roger Blobaum · Inside Organics · July/Aug, 2009 How does “Organic Farming: Good for Nature, Good for You” strike you as a new U.S. Department of Agriculture slogan? Or “Organic Farming: In Goodness We Trust”? Or even “Organic Farming: Wickedly Good”? These nifty new government organic farming slogans are real and they’re out there. But, no surprise, they aren’t being put out there by the U.S. Department of Agriculture or any other U.S. government agency. These are some of the European Commission’s new organic farming slogans. They convey the message that organic farming is popular in Europe, that the organic sector is supported by European governments and consumers alike, and that it is European Union policy to “ensure that official rules, programs, and plans regarding the organic sector are both widespread and sophisticated.” This European commitment to support and promote organic farming stands out in sharp contrast to the U.S. government’s half-hearted, and mainly market-led, approach. The official U.S. position is that organic farming is a choice, but not the preferred choice, and that it is no better or no worse than any other kind of farming. No U.S. government slogans announce organic farming is “wickedly good.” Or that…
Read More...by Roger Blobaum · Inside Organics · May/June, 2009 An important development in the rush to put new policy agendas in the hands of the Obama transition team is the inclusion of more support for organic farming in a list of green action priorities put forward by the nation’s most politically active environmental and conservation organizations. The fact that 29 national organizations reached consensus on important organic farming issues and made a commitment to support changes to help expand the organic farming sector is significant. It suggests, among other things, increased recognition by these influential organizations of the important environmental benefits that organic farmers are providing. The organizations worked together over several months developing this set of recommended administrative, legislative, and budget policy actions. The introduction to the 391-page document said it highlights priority environmental recommendations for the Obama Administration transition team that the coalition of environmental and conservation groups has endorsed. The timing couldn’t be better for including support for organic farming in a new green agenda. President Obama promised a stronger focus on renewable energy and environmental stewardship issues during the campaign and environmentalists are pleased with his appointments so far. They liked his critical take on hog…
Read More...by Roger Blobaum · Inside Organics · March/April, 2009 The 2007 Census of Agriculture, the first to include detailed national information on both the number and size of farms under organic management and the number in transition to organic, provides new evidence organic agriculture is holding its own as one of American agriculture’s fastest growing sectors. The number of certified organic farms reported by the Census of Agriculture is generally consistent with the numbers in the organic farming reports issued every year since 2001 by USDA’s Economic Research Service. The Census numbers come from information gathered from farmers. The well-regarded ERS reports are based on information gathered from USDA-accredited certifiers. Both sets of numbers show growth in the organic farming sector in the Midwest overall. And states like Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Iowa continue to rank high nationally in terms of the number of certified organic farmers and the number of acres under organic management. The new Census data shows that 18,211 organic farms had organic sales of $1.7 billion from production on 2.58 million acres in 2007. However the number of organic farms, the largest ever documented, is less significant than these numbers would indicate because it seems clear that…
Read More...by Roger Blobaum · Inside Organics · Jan/Feb 2009 When President-Elect Barak Obama takes office in January, he becomes the fourth president challenged to fully implement the 1990 Organic Foods Production Act and to develop and support a National Organic Program that supports organic farmers, meets consumer expectations, and guarantees organic integrity. He succeeds three presidents, Republican and Democratic alike, who have failed to get this done. It is important and timely, as a result, to challenge the incoming Obama Administration to finish what has been left undone after 18 years. The public-private partnership Congress promised when it took control of organic agriculture away from farmers, consumers, and others and gave it to the U.S. Department of Agriculture has not been fully realized. Consumer expectations crucial to continued expansion of the organic food and farming sector still are not being met. It is tempting to prepare a memo to the incoming administration patterned on the “Sixty-Six Points of Darkness” report the organic community developed to document flaws in the first proposed organic rule and mobilize opposition that forced USDA to rewrite it. Some deficiencies listed more than 10 years ago in that report still have not been fixed. But dwelling…
Read More...by Roger Blobaum · Inside Organics · Nov/Dec 2008 Less than six months after making farm bill funding for cost share and organic research programs mandatory, the Bush Administration is pressuring Congress to “chimp” mandatory organic research and education funding and turn almost half of this “guaranteed” 2009 funding over to USDA for computer upgrades and other data processing purposes. Under direct attack is mandatory funding for the Organic Agriculture Research and Extension Initiative (OREI), the premier organic research and education initiative in the farm bill signed into law last summer. OREI received an increase in mandatory funding from $15 million over five years in the 2002 farm bill to $78 million over five years in the 2008 farm bill. This increase in organic research funding still falls far short of an organic fair share of the $2 billion per year USDA spends on research. The Administration proposal, which came in a revised Fiscal Year 2009 budget request submitted to Congress August 1, would strip $8 million out of the $18 million in mandatory organic research and education funding for 2009. An earlier Administration proposal called for eliminating all organic research and education funding . The Senate Appropriations Committee has…
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