Weekly Harvest Newsletter

Sustainable Agriculture News Briefs - March 9, 2005

Weekly sustainable agriculture news and resources gleaned from the Internet by NCAT staff for the ATTRA - National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service Web site.

News & Resources
* Start of Community Supported Agriculture Season Draws Attention
* Rotational Grazing Bibliography Released Online
* Advisory Panel Recommends Pasture for Organic Dairy Animals
* New Organic Compliance Handbook Available Online
* New Organic Fertilizer Marketed in Oregon
* Washington Farmers Use Diverse Marketing Techniques

Funding Opportunities
* Southern SARE Releases Five Calls for Proposals
* Value-Added Producer Grant
* Funds Available for Technical Assistance for Specialty Crops

Coming Events
* Salad Greens and Seedling Production in Year Round Solar Greenhouses Workshop
* Marketing Your Food Product Workshop
* Second National Farm to Cafeteria Conference

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News & Resources

Start of Community Supported Agriculture Season Draws Attention
Spring marks the start of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) seasons across the country, with members paying subscription fees that will entitle them to regular deliveries of produce from local farms. The Kerr Center for Sustainable Agriculture reported recently about the growing popularity of CSA in Oklahoma. In Massachusetts, an article in the Arlington Advocate described how one farmer has set up a CSA program that allows members to pick some of their own vegetables. Meanwhile, in the Twin Cities area of Minnesota, the Land Stewardship Project has released a free guide describing CSA farms that serve the region, and encourages people to reserve their CSA shares now. People looking for CSAs in their own area, or CSA farmers with shares to market, can access a national CSA database available through SARE. SARE offers CSA resources for farmers, in addition to a searchable database that consumers can use to find CSA operations in their own states.

Rotational Grazing Bibliography Released Online
The Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems of the University of Wisconsin-Madison has announced a new resource on management-intensive rotational grazing. The Social Implications of Management Intensive Rotational Grazing: An Annotated Bibliography presents a comprehensive literature review of social issues of managed grazing, including a summary and analysis of future research needs, more than 100 abstracts covering economic, social, and general reports on grazing, and more than 30 abstracts covering the agronomic, environmental, human nutrition, and grazing "how-to" literature. This publication is part of a comprehensive study of grazing being carried out by the Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems. The complete publication is available online.
URL: http://www.cias.wisc.edu/archives/2005/02/19/...
Related ATTRA Publication: Rotational Grazing

Advisory Panel Recommends Pasture for Organic Dairy Animals
A federal advisory panel on the organic industry [National Organic Standards Board] recommended this week that USDA tighten existing rules that require organic livestock to be raised and fed on open pasture, reported the Chicago Tribune in an article posted by the Times Argus. The issue was first raised by complaints about large organic dairies keeping their animals in pens, claiming lactation was a "production stage." The panel recommended that this loophole be closed, by specifying that dairy cows would be required to graze on pasture at least 120 days per year. In addition, the advisory committee will post guidelines on the number of acres of pasture required for each cow in different areas of the country. USDA will now act on the recommendations, but it would likely be several years before rule changes would take effect. According to the article, a number of organic dairy farmers traveled to Washington to testify before the committee.
URL: http://www.timesargus.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/
20050304/NEWS/503040340/1002/NEWS01

New Organic Compliance Handbook Available Online
The University of California Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program (SAREP) has developed an Organic Farming Compliance Handbook to help farmers and advisors find accurate information about requirements for organic production and marketing. Geared towards agricultural professionals in the West, the online guide is organized into seven sections covering introductory material, the principles of organic agriculture, national organic standards, organic production plans, materials compliance, marketing and economics, and resources and organizations.
URL: http://news.ucanr.org/newsstorymain.cfm?story=647

New Organic Fertilizer Marketed in Oregon
An Oregon man is marketing a new fertilizer that has organic certification, according to KVAL 13. "Agrogreen" is an organic liquid fertilizer with a pine oil base, that Agrogreen U-S-A's founder says helps it function as a pesticide as well as a fertilizer. The company is working to get federal certification from the Environmental Protection Agency for the product.
URL: http://www2.kval.com/x30530.xml?ParentPageID=x2649&ContentID=
x49401&Layout=kval.xsl&AdGroupID=x30530
Related ATTRA Publication: Sources of Organic Fertilizers and Amendments

Washington Farmers Use Diverse Marketing Techniques
The Skagit County Business Pulse in Washington recently reported on local farmers who are using a variety of methods to direct market their products. Area producers are connecting with markets by raising distinguishable specialty products and selling them via the Internet, on-farm sales, and farmers' markets. The small producers say these methods allow them to succeed in selling products even though they can't compete with large operations on price. Some of the farmers featured in the article offer heirloom apple varieties, Brown Swiss milk, organic meat, and vegetables.
URL: http://www.skagitbusinesspulse.com/articles/2005/03/06/
news/news06.txt

For more news and resources, visit the National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service Web site's Breaking News section: http://attra.ncat.org/management/geninfo.html.

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Funding Opportunities

Southern SARE Releases Five Calls for Proposals
The Southern Region Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program has released five calls for proposals. Included in this release are calls for: Research and Education Grants; Graduate Student Grants; Planning Grants in the Research and Education Program; the Professional Development Program; and, new this year—the Farm Mentor Program. This region includes: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands.
URL: http://www.griffin.uga.edu/sare/callpage.htm

Value-Added Producer Grant
USDA Rural Business-Cooperative Service (RBS) announces the availability of approximately $14.3 million in competitive grant funds for fiscal year (FY) 2005 to help independent agricultural producers enter into value-added activities. The primary objective of this grant program is to help eligible independent producers of agricultural commodities, agricultural producer groups, farmer and rancher cooperatives, and majority-controlled producer-based business ventures develop strategies to create marketing opportunities and to help develop business plans for viable marketing opportunities. The maximum award per grant is $100,000 for planning grants and $150,000 for working capital grants and matching funds are required. Applications must be submitted by May 6, 2005.
URL: http://www.rurdev.usda.gov/rbs/coops/vadg.htm

Funds Available for Technical Assistance for Specialty Crops
The Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) announces the availability of funding for the 2005 Technical Assistance for Specialty Crops (TASC) Program. The program is designed to assist U.S. organizations by providing funding for projects that address sanitary, phytosanitary, and technical barriers that prohibit or threaten the export of U.S. specialty crops. U.S. specialty crops, for the purpose of the TASC Program, are defined to include all cultivated plants, or the products thereof, produced in the U.S., except wheat, feed grains, oilseeds cotton, rice, peanuts, sugar, and tobacco. Proposals for the current round of funding must be received by July 1, 2005.
URL: http://www.fas.usda.gov/mos/tasc/tasc.html

For additional funding opportunities, visit: http://attra.ncat.org/management/financl.html.

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Coming Events

Salad Greens and Seedling Production in Year Round Solar Greenhouses Workshop
April 9, 2005
Natick, Massachusetts
Part of the Practical Farm Skills Workshop Series presented by NOFA Massachusetts, this event showcases operation of two solar greenhouses at Natick Community Organic Farm which produce year round salad mix and seedling production. Lynda Simkins, farm manager, will cover bed design, soil mixes, varieties, timing, picking and all the other tricks of the trade of growing year round salad greens. Pre-registration required.
URL: http://www.nofamass.org/programs/skills.php

Marketing Your Food Product Workshop
April 21, 2005
Aurora, Colorado
Colorado Department of Agriculture Markets Division presents a one-day workshop that will boost your marketing efforts from developing a plan to getting your product on the shelves to promotion and advertising. A brochure is online at
http://www.ag.state.co.us/mkt/seminars/Mktworkshop.pdf (PDF / 461kb)

Second National Farm to Cafeteria Conference
June 16-18, 2005
Gambier, Ohio
The Community Food Security Coalition, Center for Food & Justice, Farm Aid, and Kenyon College present this conference, focusing on Farms and Food Services in Partnership. Speakers and workshops are planned.
URL: http://www.foodsecurity.org/events.html

More events at: http://attra.ncat.org/calendar/index.php.

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Digital versions of recent Weekly Harvest and ATTRAnews newsletters are now available online. ATTRAnews is the bi-monthly newsletter of ATTRA, the National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service.
URL: http://attra.ncat.org/newsletter/archives.html

The National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service is the Web site of the ATTRA project created and managed by the National Center for Appropriate Technology (NCAT), and funded under a grant from the United States Department of Agriculture's Rural Business-Cooperative Service. Visit the NCAT Web site for more information on our sustainable agriculture projects.

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