Hi Tom,
I know that locally Thor Oechsner, a local organic grain farmer, has
developed strong relationships with some of his neighbors in Newfield who
also grow grains. According to his interview in the Ithaca Times, at least
one of his neighbors has started farming organically after checking out his
system and seeing how well it works for him.
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=19312987&BRD=1395&PAG=461&dept_id=546876&rfi=6
I think the number one issue in starting a dialogue is having a common
ground (i.e. farming for a living). As a non-farmer if you go up to a
farmer and tell them to stop using "Round up and the like on everything in
sight" that's pretty much the end of the conversation right there. Why
should they listen to you? You've demonized them already for being
'conventional', you're making assumptions about their political views, and
you're criticizing them from way outside of the agriculture world with
little to no knowledge of the challenges their business faces on a day to
day basis. As a consumer, if you want to support particular agricultural
practices, I recommend voting with your fork.
If you want to get involved locally as a citizen, zoning is a huge issue
right now for any farmer. Thor is facing the loss of many acres of his
leased land to new housing developments which could greatly impact the long
term sustainability of his business.
[http://flakes1.wordpress.com/category/newfield/]
I spend quite a bit of time thinking about this topic and am minoring in
Adult and Extension Education at Cornell for my PhD. From what I've seen
and read about, the most successful initiatives to implement sustainable
agriculture practices happen when a diverse group of growers get together
and say "how are we going to solve problem X"? Sometimes there are
researchers involved in this process, but not always. The Practical Farmers
of Iowa is a great example. [http://www.practicalfarmers.org/] They don't
criticize their neighbors, instead they hold field days and say "Hey look
at the amazing progress we've made figuring out how to do no-till
agriculture organically (etc.)" These efforts are solution based, and bring
folks together around a common problem (weeds, fertility, soil health
etc.). My friend Jennifer Gardner who's studying nitrogen "leakiness" in
the midwest told me her team has found that Iowa on a state level has
significantly lowered the amount of excess nitrogen they contribute to the
Mississippi River through transitions to organic farming and practices such
as rotations and cover cropping. So this movement is having a huge impact.
I also recommend this book on the movement:
Bell, M.M., Farming for Us All: Practical Agriculture and the Cultivation
of Sustainability. 2004, University Park, PA: Penn State Press. 296.
Even when a farmer does decide to transition, its an arduous process. The
USDA Integrated Organic Program (funded in part due to the lobbying efforts
of a grassroots grower NGO the Organic Farming Research Foundation) funds
research on transitioning from conventional to organic and programs to help
farmers make the leap to new practices. Strange things happen during the
three year transition process. Seed banks that have been built up for
decades but controlled by herbicides have a field day (literally). I've
read a lot about disease problems related to soil being depleted of organic
matter and lacking disease suppressive microorganisms. For example, Benitez
et al. 2007 found that growing vegetables during the three years of organic
transition led to high levels of root diseases in the fourth (officially
certified organic) year. Whereas growing hay for three years, then
switching back to vegetables led to low levels of root disease in the
fourth year because it built up some organic matter in the soil. Taking a
field out of vegetables for three years while it "recovers" when your
income relies on selling vegetables is a big deal. So bottom line is we're
(growers and researchers) still all trying to figure out how to have a
minimally painful transition for those that have decided to do it.
One of the big issues in transitioning to organic is building a readily
accessible knowledge base of techniques that growers have figured out. Of
course as Karl mentioned, much of this in industrialized nations is a
"re-learning" process because things that have already been figured out
over thousands of years of agriculture, have been rapidly forgotten over
the last 50 years. Organic management can be daunting and requires
incredibly complex crop rotations. Anu Rangarajan at Cornell told me about
part of the NEON project (NorthEast Organic Network) where they locked a
bunch of organic farmers in a house for a few days and synthesized their
combined knowledge on crop rotations into a format that any farmer could
use and learn from. OK, they didn't lock them in, but it was a challenging
process! Now someone who's considering transitioning can learn from their
combined many years of experience and expertise. Seriously, check this
document out. The complexity and beauty of these rotations will blow your
mind!
[http://www.neon.cornell.edu/croprotation/DACUMcroprotation.pdf]
I think that facilitating a dialogue between "conventional" and "organic"
and/or "sustainable" growers is one of the most challenging issues facing
this field. So much of the organic advocacy and activism is "preaching to
the choir" or incredibly divisive. So Tom you've pointed out a serious
issue on the regional and global scale, but in my opinion telling someone
that you don't like how they're farming is not a viable way to start a
dialogue.
-Allison
Other regional groups doing farmer to farmer education:
New York Certified Organic (no website) Run by Klaas & Mary Howell Martens
in Penn Yan [http://attra.ncat.org/interviews/martens.html]
Benitez, M.-S., F.B. Tustas, D. Rotenberg, M.D. Kleinhenz, J. Cardina, D.
Stinner, S.A. Miller, and B.B. McSpadden Gardener, Multiple statistical
approaches of community fingerprint data reveal bacterial populations
associated with general disease suppression arising from the application of
different organic field management strategies. Soil Biology & Biochemistry,
2007. 39(9): p. 2289-2301.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++=
Dear Friends--By conventional farming I mean the use of lots of
chemicals--herbicides, pesticides, synthetic fertilizers, etc. Hows
does one go about talking to a conventional farmer to get them to
begin to think about a becoming an organic farmer? Or at least to
not use Round Up and the like on everything in sight? Can anyone
point me to Web sites, articles or other resources that would be
useful to start such a dialogue? I realize this could be difficult
because died-in-the-wool conventional farmers tend to be generically
conservative and securely locked into the mind set of chemical use,
thinking that this is actually a good thing. Any pointers would be
greatly appreciated. Thanks. Tom
**************************************************************************************
Allison L H Jack
Graduate Student
Department of Plant Pathology and Plant-Microbe Biology
http://pppmb.cals.cornell.edu
Cornell University
335 Plant Science
Ithaca, NY 14850
607.273.5762
*************************************************************************************
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from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences mission statement
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