SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
rodale institute
Rodale Institute Announces Organic Farmers Association
New national organization for organic farmers will provide advocacy, latest research and education, and information-sharing among farmers
Sep 21, 2016
Rodale Institute, the world's leading organic agriculture research organization, has launched a new membership organization for organic farmers. The new Organic Farmers Association will exist to provide a voice for organic farmers on policy issues, help organic farmers network and share information, and serve as a resource center for organic farmers to succeed.
Advocacy efforts will be led by Elizabeth Kucinich, Board Policy Chair for Rodale Institute. Kucinich has extensive policy experience in Washington, D.C., including serving as the former director of policy at the Center for Food Safety and former director of government affairs at the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM). Elizabeth is an advisory council member of DC EFF, the world's largest environmental film festival, and is a producer of GMO OMG and Organic Rising.
"We have a tremendous opportunity to bring organic farmers' voices and their experience with agriculture to policymakers in Washington, D.C.," said Kucinich. "Policymakers have not yet grasped the significance of organic agriculture for resilient, reliable, non-toxic food production, and its ability to mitigate climate change while restoring our nation's soil health. We have an opportunity to benefit organic farmers, while positively impacting our nation's health and mitigating our climate crisis."
In addition to better representation for organic farmers on legislative issues, the Organic Farmers Association will provide resources for farmers such as webinars, online tools, discounts, and a subscription to Rodale Institute's New Farm magazine, providing the latest research and news for organic farmers.
"A lot of people say they speak for farmers," said Jeff Moyer, Executive Director, Rodale Institute. "But there are no national organizations that exist specifically for organic farmers, by organic farmers. A lot of organic farmers are still isolated in their communities. We'd like to unite the nearly 20,000 organic farms around the country to provide that voice, provide a network, and provide the resources that farmers need to be successful."
To sign up for a membership, visit OrganicFarmersAssociation.org. There are two membership options. A "Farmer Membership," which represents organic farmers and includes a vote on policy issues, and a "Supporter Membership" for individuals interested in supporting organic farmers. Both memberships are $100/year. For farm members, the voting structure is simple. Each farm receives one vote on policy issues, so that large and small operations have an equal voice at the table
Keep ReadingShow Less
The True Root of Hunger: The Economics of Organic Farming
Hunger kills more people every year than AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined, according to the U.N. World Food Programme. Yet there is a widespread misunderstanding of why this is.
Feb 26, 2015
It may surprise many readers to know that producing enough food is not responsible for world hunger -- we already produce enough food to feed 10 billion people. Hunger is caused by economic inequality. Despite this fact, the farming industry often cites the need to feed a growing population to justify the use of toxic, synthetic chemicals used in conventional farming.
Apples to oranges
Rodale Institute's Farming System Trial has compared organic to conventional farming, side by side, for over 33 years. What we've found is that, in the long term, the yields are the same with organic performing 33 percent higher in years of drought. Looking only at yields, this means that organic can feed the world just as effectively as conventional. Looking beyond the singular issue of yields, it becomes clear that regenerative organic farming is indeed the only way to feed the world in a way that encourages global health, and especially economic equality - the true root of hunger.
"Rather than using synthetic fertilizers, organic farmers build the health of the soil using compost, crop rotations, cover crops and reduced tillage. Using biology rather than chemistry, organic farmers mimic natural systems to promote healthy soil as the foundation for healthy food and, ultimately, healthy people."
While organic farmers depend upon the resources found on their own farms, conventional farming depends heavily on 'external inputs,' which are items that need to be purchased from somewhere off of the farm such as fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, and more. These products are manufactured and then transported to the farmer - creating pollution and increasing the costs of doing business for the farmer. Increasingly dependent on a system of external inputs, farmers find themselves paying more and more for their inputs, eating away at their profits.
Rather than using synthetic fertilizers, organic farmers build the health of the soil using compost, crop rotations, cover crops and reduced tillage. Using biology rather than chemistry, organic farmers mimic natural systems to promote healthy soil as the foundation for healthy food and, ultimately, healthy people.
A generous profit
The Farming Systems Trial also measured the economics and found organic farming more profitable than conventional. Of course, there are still price premiums for organic products, as the demand is currently higher than the supply - an added bonus for today's organic farmers. To see how the economics would compare even without that price premium, we removed it from the data and found that the numbers still favored the profitability of organic farms over conventional.
Beyond economics, there are clear environmental and health advantages of farming organically. However, as we focus our attention on hunger, we must remember that buying organic is about more than protecting our own bodies from harmful poisons. Working toward an organic planet helps to move those in poverty away from the very economic inequalities causing world hunger.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Why Chipotle's Pork Problem is Good for Farmers
Jan 15, 2015
News that Chipotle pulled pork from many of its menus, due to an issue with one of their supplier's animal welfare practices, has been blowing up all over the news and social media. The Washington Post and others believe that the company's high standards for animal welfare are laudable, but at this point a real problem.
In my mind, this is a good problem.
I applaud Chipotle for holding their farmers to high standards. Chipotle seeks out farmers who raise hogs according to strict animal welfare practices. And I thank them for not compromising their principles, and for pushing production to be more humane.
So this "pork problem" is not a problem at all.
It's an opportunity for farmers to get ahead of the curve and work with restaurateurs and grocers who demand healthy, humanely raised organic products for their customers.
There are not enough organic farmers in the United States. At Rodale Institute, we're working to change that. On our 333 acre organic farm in Kutztown, Pennsylvania we have a robust organic pork operation that is setting the standard for best practices in raising hogs.
In developing our hog operation, we learned a few things...
1. Organic hogs, including breeding stock, are difficult to source.
2. Demand for humanely raised organic pork exceeds current supply.
3. Farmers can profitably raise organic pork on underutilized, marginal land.
Just this week, we began construction on a new facility for our hogs that will revolutionize the way we raise pastured pork in the United States. The beauty of this facility is that it can be scaled up for farmers who wish to have a large-scale operation, but also scaled down for farmers who wish to have just a few animals.
How do we do this? Our hogs are raised on pasture in a facility that offers them shelter, but also open access to the outdoors. We focus on heritage breed animals that thrive on pasture. We plant crops for them to forage, cutting down on feed costs, while also managing our land effectively.
Our goal is to help farmers transition to organic or begin farming organically. Restaurants like Chipotle, which hold as their mission to serve "food with integrity," are experiencing explosive growth.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular