Weekly Harvest Newsletter

Sustainable Agriculture News Briefs - September 8, 2004

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
* USDA Grant Boosts Organic Research in Central California
* Nominations Sought for the Southern SARE Administrative Council
* Policy Brief Urges Measures for Pesticide Drift Prevention
* Cornell Researchers to Study Transition to Organic Dairying
* Web Guide Rethinks Farm-to-School Lunch Programs
* Iowa Farm Encourages Planting of Heirloom Seeds

Funding Opportunities
* North Central Regional Integrated Pest Management Competitive Grants
* Leopold Center Grants for Innovative Pork Projects
* National Pesticide Information Center and Medical Monitoring Program

Coming Events
* Whole Farm Planning
* American Community Gardening Association Annual Conference
* 26th Annual Prairie Festival

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News & Resources

USDA Grant Boosts Organic Research in Central California
With organic agriculture poised to represent 10 to 20 percent of California cropland by 2024, the federal government has tapped the University of California, Santa Cruz, to lead a research program that will give organic farmers the same kind of boost the university has given conventional farmers for decades. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has awarded UCSC's Environmental Studies Department a $571,000 grant over four years to bolster scientific knowledge about organic systems and to strengthen the Central Coast network of organic farmers and agricultural researchers. In collaboration with farmers, agroecology researchers at UCSC have pioneered organic production methods for strawberries and other important regional crops. This project will build on those successes and prepare the organic industry for continued rapid growth by developing baseline nutrient management tools and addressing stubborn challenges, such as soil pathogens and pest management.
URL: http://www.ucsc.edu/news_events/press_releases/text.asp?pid=542

Nominations Sought for the Southern SARE Administrative Council
The Administrative Council of the Southern Region SARE Program is seeking nominations for a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) representative familiar with sustainable agriculture and its impact on the environment and rural communities to replace retiring Administrative Council members beginning in February 2005. The new Council members will be chosen to serve a three-year term. Duties of the Administrative Council include attendance at two council meetings each year, February and August. Each meeting is expected to last two days. More information on the duties of an Administrative Council member can be read at the Southern SARE Web site. Nominations are due November 1, 2004. For more information, contact Gwen Roland at groland@griffin.uga.edu

Policy Brief Urges Measures for Pesticide Drift Prevention
Concerned community members and advocacy groups from across the state join together recently to release a policy brief titled Better Safe than Sorry: Preventing Pesticide Drift in California, authored by Latino Issues Forum and Redefining Progress, in collaboration with Californians for Pesticide Reform. Pesticide drift, the airborne movement of pesticides away from an intended target, is a dangerous and frequent occurrence in California’s agricultural fields and adjacent communities. Like secondhand smoke, pesticide drift presents a health hazard as pesticide concentrations in air near agricultural sites frequently exceed levels of concern. Pesticide drift has also been responsible for several mass community poisonings, including poisoning 173 residents of the Tulare County town of Earlimart in 1999, over 250 residents of the Kern County town of Arvin in 2002 and at least 140 residents of Lamont, also in Kern County, last October. The brief calls on California’s Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) to take immediate actions to prevent pesticide drift incidents, including phasing-out highly toxic and drift-prone pesticides currently being used in California.
URL: http://www.pesticidereform.org/article.php?id=202

Cornell Researchers to Study Transition to Organic Dairying
Veterinarians and food scientists at Cornell University will conduct a three-year study to research the challenges faced by dairy farmers converting from conventional to organic farming, according to an Associated Press carried by Environmental News Network. Researchers will monitor five dairy herds in upstate New York and look for changes in animal health, milk production, and milk safety. Researchers plan to use findings from the study to develop strategies to help farmers transition smoothly to organic dairy farming.
URL: http://www.enn.com/news/2004-09-03/s_26869.asp

Web Guide Rethinks Farm-to-School Lunch Programs
"Rethinking School Lunch" is a Web guide that supports the business planning process for innovative school lunch programs. Using a systems approach, the Center for Ecoliteracy spent five years researching the elements vital to creating integrated farm-to-school programs for mid-sized school districts. The site provides a comprehensive overview of the 10 key components the Center has identified that are vital to the success of any school lunch program, including nutrition and health, finances, curriculum integration, and new models of procurement.
URL: http://www.ecoliteracy.org/pages/rethinking/rethinking-home.html

Iowa Farm Encourages Planting of Heirloom Seeds
A related article in The Washington Post profiles Heritage Farm, the production facility for 24,000 heirloom varieties of vegetables, flowers and herbs that are maintained by Seed Savers Exchange. Unlike most seed banks, the mission of Seed Savers is to get its heirloom varieties into the hands of tens of thousands of ordinary gardeners, both to preserve diversity and expose people to tastes that have been lost to the average palette. The Seed Savers catalog offered 124 certified organic varieties this year, with plans for more, and catalog sales have jumped125 percent in the past five years. "When you begin to grasp the sheer numbers of varieties that are there compared to what we eat on a daily basis, it's shocking and awesome," says Deborah Madison, a cookbook author and board member of Seed Savers.
URL: http://www.washingtonpost.com/ wp-dyn/articles/A48120-
2004Aug30.html

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

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Funding Opportunities

North Central Regional Integrated Pest Management Competitive Grants
North Central Regional Integrated Pest Management Competitive Grants CSREES requests applications for the Regional Integrated Pest Management Competitive Grants Program for fiscal year (FY) 2005 to support the continuum of research and extension efforts needed to increase the implementation of integrated pest management (IPM) methods. The Regional IPM Competitive Grants Program supports projects that develop individual pest control tactics, integrate individual tactics into an IPM system, and develop and implement extension education programs.In FY 2005, CSREES anticipates that approximately $855,000 will be available for support of the Regional IPM Competitive Grants Program - North Central Region (NC-IPM). Of this amount, approximately $585,000 is expected to be available for research projects, $85,000 for extension projects and $185,000 for joint research-extension projects. Letters of intent are due October 4, and applications are due October 22, 2004.
URL: http://www.csrees.usda.gov/funding/rfas/ncipm_rfa.html

Leopold Center Grants for Innovative Pork Projects
Farmers, businesses, educators and researchers are invited to submit their ideas for projects that address challenges in emerging markets for niche pork products. Grants of up to $6,000 will be available in October from the Pork Niche Market Working Group (PNMWG), an effort that involves more than 30 organizations interested in niche pork opportunities. Two previous requests for proposals led to various innovative projects, including one that documented construction and use of a greenhouse for farrowing pigs during winter months. Unique to this funding round is that people outside the PNMWG may apply for the grants. Application deadline is Sept. 15, 2004.
URL: http://www.leopold.iastate.edu/news/newsreleases
/2004/PNMWG_082704.htm

National Pesticide Information Center and Medical Monitoring Program
The EPA Office of Pesticide Programs (OPP) is soliciting proposals from universities and colleges to develop or continue the National Pesticide Information Center (NPIC) and the National Pesticide Medical Monitoring Program (NPMMP). NPIC is a toll-free telephone service that provides science-based information about a wide variety of pesticide-related subjects to anyone within in the Unites States, Puerto Rico, or the Virgin Islands. Medical emergency cases involving humans and domestic animals are provided diagnostic and crisis management assistance. NPMMP is a service that provides a rapid response in the form of skilled technical assistance to persons suspected of being adversely affected by pesticide exposures to all inquiries from within the United States. Proposals are due Oct. 07, 2004.
URL: http://fedgrants.gov/Applicants/EPA/OGD/GAD/EPA-GRANTS-
082504-001/Grant.html

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

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Coming Events

Whole Farm Planning
September 16, 2004
Macon, Georgia
North Carolina vegetable and flower farmer Alex Hitt will provide comprehensive training in organic and sustainable production and marketing. Topics to be covered include: how to gather and use information effectvely; where, what, why and when to market; building and maintaining soil fertility; rotations; farm design and planting decisions; labor; weed control; irrigation; harvest and post-harvest isues; and pest managment.
URL: http://www.georgiaorganics.org/events.html

American Community Gardening Association Annual Conference
October 1-3, 2004
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
The 25th annual conference has the theme "Gardens of Diversity: Growing Across Cultures." The schedule includes workshops on topics from hands-on horticulture to community garden success stories and growing a community garden program.
URL: http://www.communitygarden.org/conferences.php

26th Annual Prairie Festival
October 1-3, 2004
Salina, Kansas
The Land Institute hosts this annual celebration, featuring speakers, music and food.
URL: http://www.landinstitute.org
/vnews/display.v/ART/2003/10/16/3f8ef27f8a38d 2

More events at http://attra.ncat.org/cgi-bin/event/calendar.cgi.

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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.