" I heard it through the AgLine"

September 18, 2009

 

 

·        Organic crop fraud target of California bill

·        Organic industry deals with threats to growth

·        DuPont says its seed business will grow in 2009

·        $18 million available for value-added producers

·        Urban growers get rooftop farming off the ground

 

 

Organic crop fraud target of California bill

 

(sacbee.com) – A bill meant to deter fraud in California's nation-leading organic farming industry is headed to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's desk.

 

Assembly Bill 856, authored by Assemblywoman Anna Caballero, D-Salinas, targets problems in the organic fertilizer sector, the subject of several Bee articles beginning in December.

 

The bill increases penalties for violations of organic fertilizer standards, expands state regulators' inspection authority and raises as much as $416,000 annually for enforcement through new fees on fertilizer makers.

 

The Bee investigation revealed that state Department of Food and Agriculture regulators had caught a Salinas-area manufacturer spiking its allegedly organic fertilizer with synthetic nitrogen, which is banned from organic farms. The company, California Liquid Fertilizer, sold its product to packaged-salad giant Earthbound Farm and strawberry powerhouse Driscoll's, among other organic farming leaders.

 

While California Liquid Fertilizer was ordered to pull its product from the market, it remained in business and was not otherwise penalized.

 

The organic fertilizer sector's troubles worsened this year, drawing Washington's attention.

 

In January, federal agents raided Bakersfield-based fertilizer maker Port Organic Products, by several accounts the leader in the California organic market. Kern County inspection records show the company had stocked thousands of gallons of aqua ammonia, a common source of synthetic nitrogen.

 

In February, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced new verification standards for organic fertilizers. In July, the agency announced violations at a third fertilizer maker.

 

The state Department of Food and Agriculture sponsored AB 856. The bill was also supported by organic farming and certification groups as well as the fertilizer industry.

 

Synthetic fertilizers don't present food safety risks, but the organic movement opposes them because they take a great deal of energy to produce, decrease natural soil fertility and can pollute water. Organic produce commands a premium price largely because of guarantees it was grown without synthetic fertilizers or pesticides.

 

California farms account for nearly 60 percent of U.S. acreage of organic fruits, vegetables and nuts.

 

Return to Top

 

 

Organic industry deals with threats to growth

 

(The Christian Science Monitor) – After posting 22 percent growth on record sales last year, Organic Valley Family of Farms entered 2009 with a thud.

 

The recession played a part. It trimmed demand for premium-priced food. The organic milk market turned from dearth to glut. The LaForge, Wis., company that bills itself as America’s largest cooperative of organic farmers, had to cut its dairy farmers’ output by 7 percent to avoid dropping some farmers or reducing the payments they receive.

 

But something else is weighing down Organic Valley and the rest of the once high-flying organic-food industry. They face new competition as cheaper “natural” foods gain market share. They’re also battling a blow to their reputation from a British government report disputing the claim that organic products are more nutritious and offer more health benefits than conventionally produced food.

 

The threats are “the biggest challenges the industry has ever seen,” says Phil Howard, a food-system expert at Michigan State University in East Lansing.

 

Far from withering on the vine, however, the industry is cutting costs, rolling out new offerings, sending out coupons, and at times reducing prices by selling smaller-sized packages. Those who weather the storm could prosper if they create ever more appealing and healthy foods that can attract a wider audience.

 

YoBaby Meals, which debuted this year, is one example of the new push. The yogurt includes both fruit and a vegetable purée. It’s “a complete meal in a cup” and enables the company to “reach into the realm of baby food,” says a spokeswoman for Stonyfield Farm.

 

The Londonderry, N.H., company has also added to its line of Oikos Greek yogurt – “one of the greatest successes we’ve ever had,” says CEO and cofounder Gary Hirshberg – and completely changed its packaging. Now, containers show a photo of a farm that supplies Stonyfield with organic milk. “With all the artificial ingredients around,” the company says on some yogurt lids, “we thought we’d show you one of the real family farms.”

 

Stonyfield, which grew an average 19 percent a year between 1990 and 2008, has seen sales slow. Even so, “we are growing quite well,” Mr. Hirshberg says, with revenues reaching $335 million this year. Stonyfield has an incentive to keep growing. Groupe Danone of France, which owns 85 percent of the company, lets it operate independently as long as it meets certain (undisclosed) financial goals.

 

The industry is following a similar pattern. Organic food and beverage sales grew 17 percent in 2007, 12 percent in 2008, and will grow 7 percent this year to almost $22.8 billion, according to a forecast by Nutrition Business Journal.

 

Until last October, sales at Nature’s Path Organic Foods were soaring at an average 20 to 30 percent a year. While recession has curbed that winning streak, there are some renewed signs of growth for the Canadian company based in Richmond, British Columbia. June sales were 8 percent higher than a year ago, says Arran Stephens, the company’s founder and CEO. Nature’s Path continues to expand.

 

With 103 products, including 37 ready-to-eat cereals and seven granolas, the $200 million-plus company is rolling out nine new products in this fiscal year. Among them are Optimum Strawberry Yogurt cereal (one of Mr. Stephens’s “new favorites”) and three new gluten-free cereals.

 

This fall, the company plans a multimillion-dollar advertising and marketing campaign for a top product, Pumpkin Flax Plus Granola. The company will use the Internet, street sampling, radio spots, transit billboards, and, for the first time, TV spots to get the word out.

 

Eden Foods, based in Clinton, Mich., has already introduced 18 new food items this year. Hit with competition, Eden’s sales of soy milk plunged from a dominant market share early in the decade to roughly 9 percent today. But growth in whole grains and beans sales has more than offset that drop in market share.

 

“We’re doing fine,” says Michael Potter, owner and cofounder of the $60 million company. “We’ve been around a long time and our company has a solid foundation in every way.”

 

The recession has slowed growth from the “high teens” two years ago to 3.5 percent in this year’s first six months versus the same period in 2008, he says. Eden has pared marketing and sales outlays about 15 percent in the last two years. Even so, “we’re looking to hire in multiple departments, including sales,” says Mr. Potter.

 

The industry’s latest challenge comes from the Foods Standards Agency in Britain. It commissioned a report that found “no important differences in the nutrition content, or any additional health benefits, of organic food” over conventional food. The finding undercuts one of the industry’s main claims about the advantages of its products. Various groups have challenged the findings, including the Organic Center in Boulder, Colo. “Using state-of-the-art analytical methods, modern science is clear that organic fruits and vegetables average a 25 percent higher level of nutrients” than comparable conventional foods, says Chuck Benbrook, the center’s chief scientist.

 

The “natural” food phenomenon also worries many organic industry officials. It’s not just because natural products cost consumers less than government-certified organic food. The move also threatens to equate natural with organic in the minds of consumers, they say.

 

Early this year, for instance, WhiteWave Foods added a line of natural Silk soy milk to its line of organic products. This summer, WhiteWave (a unit of Dean Foods) broadened its Horizon line of organic products with its first natural offering: Little Blends, a yogurt for toddlers. In August, it began test-marketing Milk Breakers, a six-ounce single serving of natural milk with added protein.

 

This year, for the first time since at least 2004, sales of “natural” foods and beverages should grow at a faster rate than sales of organic foods, according to Nutrition Business Journal.

 

The organic industry is fighting back. Organic Valley has been churning out new products, including a 12-pack of single servings of organic milk and a line of Vermont cheddar cheese. This fall, it plans to start rolling out a new pourable yogurt in two flavors.

 

In September, the company will debut an online calculator that lets consumers see how many chemicals they avoid by using organic versus conventional milk.

 

“We’re holding on when some other sectors are sinking,” says Theresa Marquez, chief marketing executive for Organic Valley. “Our future is organic.”

 

Return to Top

 

 

DuPont says its seed business will grow in 2009

 

(Wire Services) NEW YORK -- DuPont Vice President and Pioneer Hi-Bred President Paul E. Schickler said he expects the DuPont seed business Pioneer Hi-Bred to grow both its top- and bottom-line by more than 15 percent in 2009. His comments were made at the JP Morgan 4(th) Annual Diversified Industrials Conference.

 

"Our commitment to help farmers maximize their productivity and profitability -- to get the right product on the right acre -- is paying off for farmers and for DuPont," Schickler said. "We not only have the richest, deepest product offering, but also the ability to match those products to the specific, individual needs of our customers."

 

DuPont has committed to grow compounded annual earnings by greater than 15 percent through 2013. Pioneer gained more than two points of the seed corn market share -- the industry's largest gain -- in North America this year. It also increased its leading position in the North America soybean market by three points and gained five points of share in the Canadian canola seed market.

 

"Strong demand for elite Pioneer products in the Southern Hemisphere, despite an expected reduction in the total amount of corn planted, suggests a record year for Pioneer on the whole," said Schickler. "We are certainly on track with our commitment to grow our global seed corn market share by one to two points."

 

He expects the momentum to continue.

 

"Agriculture economic fundamentals are still strong and we have an impressive set of new products coming out of research for 2010 and beyond," Schickler said. "Our team is out in the field, talking to customers and we like what we are hearing."

 

Schickler's comments reinforced the company's recently announced commitment to focus on meeting four emerging global trends, one of which is increasing food production.

 

DuPont is a science-based products and services company. Founded in 1802, DuPont puts science to work by creating sustainable solutions essential to a better, safer, healthier life for people everywhere. Operating in more than 70 countries, DuPont offers a wide range of innovative products and services for markets including agriculture and food; building and construction; communications; and transportation.

 

Return to Top

 

 

$18 million available for value-added producers

 

(Wire Services) – The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced the availability of $18 million for the Value-Added Producer Grant (VAPG) program. Publication of a revised VAPG Notice of Funds Available (NOFA) appears in the Federal Register.

 

VAPG competitive grants allow farmers to plan for new agricultural businesses or develop or expand existing businesses that add value to their farm product through specialized production, processing, or marketing. In addition to food and fiber processing, market differentiated products, commodity segregation, local food products, mid-tier value chains, and some on-farm energy production projects are eligible.

 

Applications for this round of VAPG grants are due Nov. 30, 2009.

 

“The long-awaited announcement of Value-Added Producer grant funds is good news for rural America,” said Ferd Hoefner, policy director for the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition. “Value-added businesses have proven to be an effective way to increase producers' income and boost economic activity in their communities - especially important during these tough economic times. We are pleased USDA has revised the request for proposals to give greater weight to projects serving small and medium-sized family farms.”

 

The Value-Added Producer Grant (VAPG) program is a federal farm bill program administered by USDA's Rural Business-Cooperative Service. The program makes grants to individual farmers or to producer-controlled coops, groups, businesses, and associations for conducting feasibility studies and developing business plans (for which applicants may apply for up to $100,000) or for working capital (for which applicants may apply for up to $300,000).

 

There is a simplified application for grants of less than $50,000. Matching funds are required and must be at least equal to the amount of grant funds requested. The maximum timeframe for a VAPG grant project is 36 months - for this round of grants, projects cannot begin earlier than March 1, 2010 and cannot end later than Feb. 28, 2013.

 

 

Important changes were made to the VAPG program during 2008 Farm Bill reauthorization that are now fully reflected in the revised funding announcement. These include priorities for beginning and socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers, small and mid-sized family farms, local food, and the development of ‘mid-tier value chains' - business relationships that are aimed at assisting mid-sized farms that want to capitalize on the demand for high quality products from farms that adhere to strong environmental and social values.

 

Ten percent of the available VAPG funds are set aside for projects serving beginning farmers, projects serving socially disadvantaged farmers, and projects developing mid-tier value chains. Priority will be given to small and medium-sized family farms (mid-sized farms are defined as farms with annual gross farm sales between $250,001 and $700,000, with small defined as anything less than that).

 

In addition, the definition of value-added agricultural product now includes a product that is aggregated and marketed as a locally-produced agricultural food product (defined as within 400 miles of the end consumer or within the same state).

 

“The growing interest in local and regional food systems has increased the demand for exactly the kinds of business activities that VAPG can fund, such as processing and aggregating facilities” said Kate Fitzgerald, senior policy analyst with the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition. “A VAPG grant can help businesses link sustainable and organic producers with nearby markets and meet a triple bottom line of increased farm and rural income, improved health and reduced carbon consumption.”

 

Past examples of VAPG recipients demonstrate that the program can support a diversity of projects and agricultural producers.

 

Kenny's Farmhouse Cheese in Austin, Ky., received $24,500 in 2007 to conduct a feasibility study on business expansion, improved technology, and transition to organic dairy production. Dairy farm owner Kenny Mattingly was concerned about the future of milk as a commercial commodity and whether he and his family could continue to live on the small dairy farm he took over from his father in the 1990s. After a trip to Europe where he learned about the art of cheese making, Kenny decided to get involved in value-added product marketing.

 

Since 1998 when he began to produce Gouda cheese on his small farm, news of Kenny's cheese making enterprise has spread like wild fire. In less than 10 years, his cheese production has increased from 3,000 to 34,000 pounds. Kenny used his VAPG grant to conduct feasibility studies of business expansion scenarios, developing a successful business plan, improving technology and equipment on the farm, and transitioning to organic products by raising cows that feed on native grasses.

 

Grassland Beef, a company made up of four independently owned family farms in Monticello, Mo., used their $215,000 VAPG grant to develop a fresh market for their grassfed meat.

 

Fresh meat is a growing market among consumers seeking healthy, environmentally responsible meat options. At the same time, selling fresh meat is more complicated than frozen meat and requires sophisticated packaging and handling strategies. Grassland Beef used their VAPG grant to develop the market for this fresh meat and to work on the technology and infrastructure for sales.

 

Amazing Grains! A Montana grain growers' cooperative markets processed, millable Indian rice grass seed. They used their working capital VAPG grant in 2003 to expand their processing capacity, including hiring key staff, providing cash for inventory and other start-up costs, and providing financial resources for market identification, development, and expansion.

 

“It's very encouraging to see public funding made available through Value-Added Producer Grants for projects that support farmer innovation and that help producers meet consumer demand for fresh, healthy food, produced in a sustainable manner,” says Fitzgerald.

 

For further information and to see an Application Guide and an application template, applicants should visit the program web site at: http://www.rurdev.usda.gov/rbs/coops/vadg.htm.

 

In addition, applicants should contact their USDA Rural Development State Office by calling 1-800-670-6553. Please note that applicants may submit a draft of their application to their State Office for a preliminary review anytime prior to Sept. 30, 2009 to assess whether the proposed project meets eligibility criteria.

 

Return to Top

 

 

Urban growers get rooftop farming off the ground

 

(KPCC Radio) – Interest in urban farming is growing even faster than late summer corn. Throughout Los Angeles County, community gardens have sprouted by the thousands, and there’s a shortage of room for newcomers. KPCC's Molly Peterson found would-be gardeners with creative solutions for landing patches of tillable soil.

 

Late summer, in a Sunday's golden hour, painter Alex Alferov sweeps his brush across paper taped to a shed, making a sunflower, inspired by the six-foot tall ones behind him. He says it's fitting tribute to this longtime Russian neighborhood. "If you think of Russia you see fields of sunflowers just waving and moving in the wind," he says. "And I think that is the sunny, the happy spirit of the Russian people." (He's not kidding.)

 

Click here to listen and view photos

 

Little Armenia this may be, but spoken Spanish drifts over the raised soil beds, as kids spray each other with hoses, running and laughing. Christian Oliva, 13, is king of the pack – he just started eighth grade. He's a proud farmer of beans, corn, and cucumbers. "One year ago, one-and-a-half years ago, there was, like, houses right here, of homeless people. It was all dirty," he says.

 

His hands dig a small hole in the soil for a potato plant. Oliva's been learning to farm from his dad and his neighbors, who dig and plant nearby. "I like to come here because it's, like, fresh."

 

Fountain Community Gardens began when summer did, in June. Painter Alferov is working with other planters to nurture their crops by amending the dirt underfoot. He points to the feet of his sunflowers, where vegetables take some shade. "We've added worms to the soil. We will be getting compost. At this point I can say this is a weak soup and eventually it will become a rich broth. And it takes a lot of adding things to the stock and be patient."

 

Neighbors drift in and out of the wrought-iron gates on Fountain Avenue, filling watering cans from spigots at the end of rows of raised beds. The sun sets on a perfectly warm summer day in this corner of Hollywood.

 

The L.A. Community Garden Council's Glen Dake gardens in Watts; he knows the patience Alferov's talking about. He says it's not just a virtue, it's a necessity. In L.A. County, plots of land fill up as fast as they’re available. "There was a huge set of gardens built in the 1970s and a set of gardens built in the wake of the civil unrest in 1992," Dake says.

 

He's been gardening for 10 years; his home garden is in Watts. "And just recently we've been building gardens at a good clip." Dake says the economy has spiked interest in saving money. "The number of calls that we all get from people [wanting to garden] easily doubled right at the time of the economic collapse."

 

In a corner of the Fountain Community Garden, three women sprout plans for another form of planting. Alissa Kueker and Danielle Marie Holland have organized a nonprofit effort called RocknRoll Community Gardens. "Our goal is to have Los Angeles covered with rooftop farms growing beautiful food. Everyone should have it and be growing it themselves."

 

Kueker is passionate. Her friend Danielle Holland is rambunctious. They set a RocknRoll motto: "Resistance is fertile." They organize events at gardens thriving on the ground to cultivate interest in claiming rooftop space for gardens – as people have on rooftops in San Francisco, Chicago and New York, where Holland lived last. "Seeing the kind of rooftop gardening going on there where it's edible, sustainable – it's exciting!" she says.

 

They've brought a band to the Fountain Community Garden today. Some older neighbors have brought out folding chairs to listen. As they weed their plot, Irwin and Greille Alonso watch the musicians play. Irwin's hands cup radishes, squash, tomatoes. "Next week I think we will plant more things," he says. He and his wife are weeding her brother's neglected spot, where grass has taken over. He's surprised to learn from his wife it took two months to get crops going here. "She cook for me," he says sheepishly.

 

The Alonsos maintain full plots on Fountain Avenue, unlike many of the garden's board members, including Edith Darling. Close neighbors got priority. Darling and others who live farther away took partial shares. That hasn't killed the waiting list. "It's about 30 people now," Darling says, grimacing. "But the thing is, I don't know how long it will take, and I never can give them any kind of answer. I feel bad."

 

Gardeners want to help other gardeners; that's one reason new plans like those of the RocknRollers find evergreen support. Holland says her group is trying to arrange for gardens to sprout atop roofs in Silverlake and Echo Park. She says gardening is one of the purest expressions of community there is. "You can take care of yourself, and you're part of a community that's taking care of one another," she says. "Because when it hits the fan, that's what matters!"

 

The rooftop plans are just getting off the ground. Kueker and Holland say they're looking for structural engineers to help them plan more space. But they're optimistic their prospects will grow.

 

Return to Top

 

End Transmission