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The National Organic Program.
This conference, originally envisioned by Malcolm Beck, is designed to showcase the research efforts of the scientists at the USDA Kika de la Garza ARS, who are using Whole Systems Approaches in their research efforts to study scientifically sound methods for successful organic farming. We, as farmers and as advocates of sustainable and organic methods, know of the truths inherent in this style of agriculture. But we need the scientific data to back up our beliefs and to make this approach to farming and ranching acceptable to those that doubt. The USDA Kika de la Garza research, both current and proposed, is offering to provide the tools and techniques needed to validate organic farming for our sustainable future.
By participating in this conference you are showing your support for their efforts and learning new ways to improve your agricultural business. Texas COOPS 2005 is designed to give both the large producers and the smaller market farmers tools to enhance current production or to learn new ways to add value to your future businesses. The two-tract venue gives more choices in topics to meet the varied interests and educational needs of sustainable farmers and ranchers throughout Texas and beyond.
Click Here for More Information….
Nov. 11, 2004
- "Getting your lawn and
pastures off drugs" is the message being sent from an East Texas
man who is a firm believer in composting.
Jerry Guinn of Pittsburg realized four years ago that the application of chemicals was "destroying the land that everybody is trying to survive off of.
"I don't want my kids and grandkids to have to deal with this," he added.
This sentiment is likely the reasoning behind the increasing popularity of using compost, which provides added valuable nutrients to the soil.
Even the Texas Legislature is working with citizens' sentiments. They directed the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission (now the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality) to create a program capable of diverting 15 percent of the waste disposed of in Texas through composting, according to a TCEQ website. The website stated, "Yard trimmings alone make up over 15 percent of this waste, and another 20 percent of this waste is food scraps, clean wood material, unrecyclable paper, and other easily composted materials."
Since that time, four years ago, Guinn has begun two composting companies. Organic Compost Solutions, which composts waste streams and then feeds the compost to worms to produce high quality vermi-compost and castings. The company also "offers composting/vermi-composting systems designed to process large amounts of livestock, food and other organic waste with a minimal amount of investment and daily personnel time." Jet Compost Products manufacturers composting equipment, screening equipment and tea machines.
Recently, Guinn's StillMeadow Farm near Pittsburg was the site for a compost tea extractor demonstration performed by the extractor's inventor Dennis Hronek of Nebraska. The extractor is one of only three in the United States. The goal of the demonstration was to the show citizens the benefits of the machine.
Hronek informed
the audience he had experimented with the tea extractor for years but
something just wasn't working correctly.
Four or five years ago, Hronek attended a meeting where Dr. Elaine Ingram,
"the Queen of Compost" was speaking and she made a statement
that hit home with Hronek ... "You must give them oxygen and feed
them."
It was like a light bulb, Hronek knew where all the previous extractors had gone wrong.
The new Compost Tea Extractor, distributed by Natural Earth Solutions of Holdrege, Neb., will be "great for us," according to Guinn and others who attended the October meeting.
As a device to create a marketable product, the extractor is worth a review.
Comparisons between a compost tea brewing machine and the compost tea extractor shows big differences. In a 24-hour period, the brewing machine outputs 500 gallons, which when applying 60 gallons/acre, nets to eight maximum acres/day. The revenue for that day at $1.75/gallon would be $875, meaning $36/hour of operation. On the other hand, the tea extractor in a 10-hour operation period will output 20,000 gallons, and using the 60 gallons/acre numbers, nets 333 acres. The revenue for the time period is $3,500.
"You would need 40 500-gallon brewing machines to equal the revenue from one tea extractor," a Natural Earth Solutions representative stated.
In the long run, you are trying to get the same results.
Many already use compost tea to provide additional benefits to the plant and soil. Literature, given at the meeting, stated "when the tea solution is poured on the soil base of plants or on the leaves of plants, good microbes protect the plant from the bad microbes, reducing the risk of disease."
Guinn stated his concept for using compost tea "is safe for children and pets. The chemical companies (after applying fertilizers) have to put up a sign stating to keep children and pets off lawns for 24 hours. With this, you don't. It is safe."
For more information about composting or the Compost Tea Extractor, call Guinn at or .
Farm Bureau Testifies for Beef Check-Off
The Supreme Court this week heard final arguments regarding the constitutionality of the beef checkoff. On the stand to testify on behalf of the checkoff was Bob Stallman, President of the American Farm Bureau Federation. Stallman said the checkoff is "a critical program that helps sustain the largest part of American agriculture" and that, "the beef checkoff is overwhelmingly supported by 70 percent of the nation's beef producers." The press statement released today by the AFBF did not mention whether Stallman addressed allegations by family farmers that the millions of check-off dollars are being used to promote factory farms and industrialized agriculture to the detriment of family and independent producers. The Farm Bureau, an organization that advertises itself as a "voluntary organization governed by and representing farm and ranch families," derives substantial income and membership from the sale of insurance in predominantly urban areas.
Read
the AFBF press statement
Learn more about the Farm
Bureau
U.S. organic cotton production drops despite increasing sales of organic cotton products
GREENFIELD, Mass. (Dec. 28, 2004)- U.S. organic cotton production in 2003
dropped to less than half that recorded for 2001, the Organic Trade Association
(OTA) announced today.
According to an OTA survey funded by a grant from Cotton Incorporated
and additional information supplied by the Texas Organic Cotton Marketing
Cooperative, U.S. growers harvested at least 4,628 bales of organic cotton
in 2003. Excluded from the 2003 figure, however, were data for 80 acres
for which the number of bales harvested went unrecorded. A 2002 OTA study
of organic production showed a total of 9,897 bales harvested in 2001.
Despite the drop in production, overall U.S. sales of organic fiber finished
products, predominantly made from organic cotton, grew 23 percent in 2003,
to reach $85 million, according to OTA's 2004 Manufacturer Survey
released earlier in the year.
Meanwhile, U.S. acreage planted to organic cotton in 2003 was less than
half that planted the previous year, according to survey findings.
In preliminary results released today, the survey reported on 12 farmers
who grew and harvested organic cotton in the United States during 2003.
Of the 12, nine are members of the Texas Organic Cotton Marketing Cooperative,
and three farm independently. Upland cotton was the predominant crop,
with some pima cotton grown as well.
The amount of cotton acreage planted to organic cotton decreased by 55
percent in 2003, from 9,044 acres planted in 2002 to 4,060 acres planted
in 2003. Survey results showed plantings of 3,690 acres of upland cotton
and 370 acres of pima cotton. The majority of organic cotton in 2003 was
grown in Texas. Organic cotton was also grown in Missouri and New Mexico.
Findings were based on a survey mailed to 41 farmers in seven states.
Twenty-two farmers returned completed surveys, with another six answering
the survey in phone interviews. Of them, only 12 grew and harvested organic
cotton in 2003. However, data on acreage and number of growers may be
lower than actual figures because only nine of the 18 members of the Texas
Organic Cotton Marketing Cooperative answered the survey. Since the cooperative
provided bale information for all of its growers, production figures are
considered as giving a more complete picture than acreage data.
The survey also showed area planted for 2004 totaled 4,186 acres of upland
organic cotton and 488 acres of pima organic cotton, for a total of 4,674
acres. Harvesting figures for 2004 are not yet available.
One intent of the latest cotton production survey was to examine what
impact the National Organic Program (NOP) has had on growers of organic
cotton. Challenges reported by growers included sourcing agricultural
inputs that comply with the rules, finding consistency in interpretation
of the rule by certifiers, tackling increased paperwork, and keeping informed
of NOP rule changes. A reason cited for the decrease in U.S. organic cotton
acreage was not national organic standards, however, but competition from
foreign growers. As one grower pointed out, some manufacturing companies,
to increase their margins, have chosen to purchase internationally produced
cotton at a lower price than they would pay U.S. growers. Inconsistent
and low prices, as well as a weak market, have discouraged U.S. growers
from raising organic cotton.
Since national organic standards were implemented, none of the farmers
have increased their acreage devoted to organic production, although several
reported plans to do so in the next five years, and five said they intend
to keep their acreage at the same level.
Growers reported "selling excess product at reasonable prices"
as their biggest challenge in getting their organic cotton to market,
followed by finding a market that would pay for the value-added costs
of organic products. Benefits of the NOP rule perceived by farmers include
standardizing organic regulations and increasing consumer awareness and
demand for organic products.
Representing the organic industry in North America, the Organic Trade
Association (OTA) encourages global sustainability through promoting and
protecting the growth of diverse organic trade. More information is available
on OTA's web site
and its consumer web site .