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Transition approaches
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Cattle producers can make
a fairly easy transition to organic production. This Benton,
Ark., rancher rotates his herd through paddocks every three
weeks in an intensive grazing system. – Photo by USDA--NRCS |
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There is no one correct strategy for transitioning to organic.
Growers have used one or more of the following approaches successfully.
Transitioning one parcel at a time. Start with limited acres
as dictated by finances and labor availability. Certify your farm
one area at a time to minimize risk and experiment with a portion
of the farm rather than the entire acreage. Wende Elliott and Joe
Rude attribute their success to their careful approach of introducing
one field at a time.
"I've seen farmers hit a wall the third year of transition,"
said county extension agent Brad Brummond. "The chemicals have
worn off, and the biological systems haven't quite come into place,
so if you transition piecemeal, you can minimize the amount of land
that is subject to problems, and you can learn on a smaller amount
of land." Transitioning one parcel at a time also helps minimize
the economic losses you may face during transition.
Gradual transition. Withdraw one class of inputs at a time,
or start by banding fertilizers and herbicides and monitoring pests
for threshold levels. Preliminary results from a North Carolina
study investigating the impact of withdrawing classes of inputs
show that there were no yield differences between conventional,
transitional and organic soybeans for the first year of the transition.
This approach will delay how quickly land can be certified - three
years of complete chemical withdrawal are required - and may impact
your profitability. However, direct marketers may be able to take
advantage of transitional status to fetch a higher premium. (See
"What's in a Name?" below).
John Vollmer grows 25 acres of conventional fruit and vegetables,
including strawberries, which he markets for the same price as the
organic strawberries. Consumers want the quality, he said, and when
you are direct marketing, and the product is good, they'll pay for
it.
"Cold turkey." Originally not considered a wise
strategy because transitioning was thought to take three to five
years, switching to organic within a shorter timeframe actually
holds potential. Research shows that if you use crops that do not
have high nitrogen requirements, or select varieties that can fix
their own nitrogen, you can avoid yield declines. Moreover, legume
crops such as soybeans are easy to cultivate and perform well even
with all chemical inputs withdrawn. A Minnesota study showed that
even corn could perform well by the third year of the transition.
Certifying Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) land. If you
can document that it has not received prohibited inputs, CRP land
or pasture may qualify for immediate certification. A SARE-funded
study on Iowa CRP land showed that there was virtually no economic
loss when transitioning using soybeans. By the third year, the economic
returns in the certified organic soybeans were 180 percent above
conventional.
What's In a Name?
Any operation or portions of operations that
produce or handle agricultural products sold, labeled or represented
as "100-percent organic," "organic," or
"made with organic ingredients" must be certified.
Farmers who sell less than $5,000 a year in organic agricultural
products are exempt from certification, although they must
abide by the national standards to label their products as
organic. While the new standards allow for easier marketing,
some smaller, highly diversified organic farmers, particularly
those who direct market to consumers, don't find it worthwhile
to certify because of the cost of certification or the time
required for record keeping.
If you wish to grow your food in a manner that
follows the principles of organic production but don't want
to get certified, consider other labels to distinguish your
products in the marketplace. Eliot Coleman, a 35-year organic
farmer, advocates using the label "authentic." For
Coleman, this label would identify livestock raised outdoors
and on pasture; systems focused on "plant positive"
rather than "pest negative" processes; systems using
cover crops, farm-derived organic matter and crop rotations;
and food sold within a 50-mile radius of where it was grown.
Other terms farmers use to carve out a market
niche and distinguish themselves as environmentally friendly
are:
Integrated
Pest Management (IPM)
Hormone
or antibiotic free
Free
range
Natural
or authentic
Transitional
Since none of those labels have third
party verification, they are best used when you are direct
marketing to your customers and can explain your production
practices.If you are looking for a label that has independent
third party verification, Consumers Union, the publisher of
Consumer Reports magazine, hosts a web site, www.eco-labels.org,
which contains summaries and ratings of other environmentally
friendly labels.
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