Spring, 2009 Vol. 2, No. 80 Publication of the Northeast Organic Farming Association 1077-2294

Inside This IssueFeatures

Food Safety His the Fan 8Localvores by Necessity 10DFTA Annual Meeting 50DFTAs Meaning for NOFA 517th Annual NOFA-NH Winter Conference 52

Supplement onBuilding Organic SoilSoil Health 11Humic Substances 15Soil Building 19The Soil Ecosystem 23Soil and Human Intestines 27Soil without Toil! 28Building Soils for Better Crops 31The Importance of Building Humus 41Soil Building and Biodynamics 43Soil Biochar 46

DepartmentsLetters to the Editor 2Editorial 2NOFA Exchange 4News Notes 5Book Reviews 48NOFA Contact People 53NOFA Membership 54Calendar 54

We are excited to announce the keynote speak-ers for the 2009 NOFA Summer Conference, Paul Stamets and Will Allen! Our two keynot-ers have very different expertise and experience but at least one thing in common the desire to see the next generation inherit a healthier, cleaner, more sustainable world.

Paul Stamets will speak on Friday night, August 7th at 7:30 pm. For over three decades, Paul has been collecting, studying, (and of course, eat-ing!) mushrooms, and is an expert on the count-less ways in which they can benefit human and environmental health. Most of us know about some of the strange properties of mushrooms, but Paul has delved much deeper into the mys-teries of fungi. Along with providing humans vital nutrients, Paul believes that we can use mushrooms to break down toxic waste, restore soil, aid in water filtration, and even treat vi-ruses and diseases in humans and animals. In short, he believes that mushrooms have the power to save the planet.

In his keynote, Paul will discuss how we can start immediately to put mushrooms to practi-cal use for the environment and for human health. He will discuss his current research and work with the U.S. governments BioShield BioDefense program, and will present to us six inventions that will help steer ecosystems and humanity to a healthier future.

Paul has written and filed over twenty patents, and runs his own wholesale and retail business, Fungi Perfecti, LLC. Fungi Perfecti sells all kinds of mushroom related products; growing kits, cultivation tools, mushroom art, and kits and books for kids. You can visit his website at www.fungi.com.

Paul Stamets and Will Allento Keynote 2009 NOFA Summer Conference

photo courtesy Paul Stamets

Paul Stamets with one of his favorite organisms

photo courtesy Will Allen

Will Allen at Growing PowerStamets and his wife, C. Dusty Yao, share a passion for fungi and a love of the Old Growth forests of the Pacific Northwest. He has gath-ered much of his exceptional collection there, and is enthusiastic about preserving, protect-ing, and cloning as many ancestral strains of mushrooms as possible. Much of the financial resources generated from sales made at Fungi Perfecti return to support this work.

(continued on page 47)

T h e N a t u r a l F a r m e r S p r i n g , 2 0 0 92

Advertisements not only bring in TNF revenue, which means less must come from membership dues, they also make a paper interesting and helpful to those looking for specific goods or services. We carry 2 kinds of ads:

The NOFA Exchange - this is a free bulletin board service (for subscribers or NOFA members who get the TNF) for occasional needs or offerings. Send in up to 100 words and well print it free in the next issue. Include a price (if selling) and an address, E-mail or phone number so readers can contact you directly. If you dont get the paper yourself you can still send in an ad - just send $5 along too! Send NOFA Exchange ads directly to The Natural Farmer, 411 Sheldon Rd., Barre, MA 01005 or (preferably) E-mail to TNF@nofa.org.

Display Ads - this is for those offering products or services on a regular basis! You can get real attention with display ads. Send camera ready copy to Bob Minnocci, 662 Massachusetts Ave. #6, Boston, MA 02118 or BMinnocci@aol.com and enclose a check (to TNF) for the appropriate size. The sizes and rates are:

B&W ColorFull page (15 tall by 10 wide) $360 $500Half page (7 1/2 tall by 10 wide) $185 $260One-third page (7 1/2 tall by 6 1/2 wide) $125 $175One-quarter page (7 1/2 tall by 4 7/8 wide) $95 $135One-sixth page (7 1/2 tall by 3 1/8 wide), or

(3 3/4 tall by 6 1/2 wide) $65 $90Business card size (1 1/2 tall by 3 1/8 wide) $20 $25

Note: These prices are for camera ready copy on clean paper, or electronically in jpg or pdf format. If you want any changes we will be glad to make them - or to typeset a display ad for you - for $45 (which includes one revision -- additional revisions are $10 each). Just send us the text, any graphics, and a sketch of how you want it to look. Include a check for the space charge plus $45.

Advertise in or Sponsor The Natural FarmerFrequency discount: we give a 25% discount for year-round ads. If you reserve the same space for four consecutive issues your fourth ad is free! To receive the frequency discount you must pay for all the issues in advance, upon reserving the space.

Deadlines: We need your ad copy one month before the publication date of each issue. The deadlines are:

January 31 for the Spring issue (mails Mar. 1)April 30 for the Summer issue (mails Jun. 1)July 31 for the Fall issue (mails Sept. 1)October 31 for the Winter issue (mails Dec. 1)

Disclaimer: Advertisers are helping support the paper so please support them. We cannot investigate the claims of advertisers, of course, so please exercise due caution when considering any product or service. If you learn of any misrepresentation in one of our ads please inform us and we will take appropriate action. We dont want ads that mislead.

Sponsorships: Individuals or organizations wishing to sponsor The Natural Farmer may do so with a payment of $300 for one year (4 issues). In return, we will thank the sponsor in a special area of page 3 of each issue, and feature the sponsors logo or other small insignia.

Contact for Display Ads or Sponsors: Send display ads or sponsorships with payment (to TNF) to our advertising manager Bob Minnocci, 662 Massachusetts Ave. #6, Boston, MA 02118. If you have questions, or want to reserve space, contact Bob at (617) 236-4893 or BMinnocci@aol.com.

by Jack Kittredge

One of the simplest ways of characterizing organic growers is that they feed the soil, not the plant. In that simple distinction lies a world of importance. A chemical approach relies on soluble nutrients (primarily nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium) going directly to the plants roots, treating the soil pretty much as a dead matrix providing only stability to hold the plant in place. That is why hydroponic growing is an easy step for conventional growers, but not for organic ones.

The importance of the soil to organic growers is that soil life is the means by which plants flourish. Whether it is nitrogen, fixed from the air by rhizobia or other bacteria, or organic acids which break down soil rock and release available minerals, or a symbiotic relationship between the plant and mycorrhizal fungi that provides the fungi with carbohydrates for energy and the plant with the

myceliums large surface area for water and mineral absorption, or the complex organic residue humus which, among other things, chelates ions of trace elements and makes them available for uptake, the presence of life and once-living things in soil is crucial to plants and flourishing organic crops.

In this issue we explore some of these relationships and how to encourage them by building healthy, living soil. For some of you this may be remedial reading. Organic farmers, after all, do not stay in business long if they neglect the life in their soil. But even for those of our readers who are well versed in managing soil life, it does not hurt to return once in awhile to the foundational truths of our craft. The details are not all well understood yet, and there is much mystery here still. It can be both humbling and quietly uplifting to dwell for a few moments on these relationships, and the magnificent fertility they enable.

On Building Organic Soil

Letters to the Editor

A reader took it upon himself to address a letter to several of those (Im not sure how many yet) whose contact information is given in the back of this journal under NOFA Contacts. To those who received a letter and did not feel comfortable replying, I apologize. For the rest of you, I thought I should reprint the readers letter, my response to him (written at the request of a recipient who did not feel comfortable replying), and his address in case others would like to write him. He obviously is eager to communicate with the outside world. Jack Kittredge

Denzial Tittlo66072-179 A-3PO Box 7000, FCITexarkana, TX 75505

Dear ___________

You dont know me -- indeed, you may not want to know me but Ill take the risk of that and the cost of a stamp and send you this letter anyway.

I found your name and address in the contact section of a recent issue of The Natural Farmer. I am writing to you (and to others who were listed) in the hope that you might respond.

I am a 52 year old male inmate of a federal prison. I made a terrible mistake too terrible and foolish for me to want to discuss in detail. Suffice it to say that I regret my past behavior that resulted in me shaming my family the way I did. My goals are to make amends to those Ive hurt and to demonstrate that I can live a life that is acceptable to God (or whoever you might call the Big Kahuna of the Universe.)

(continued on page 3)

The Natural Farmer is a quarterly membership journal of the Northeast Organic Farming Association.We plan a year in advance so those who want to write on a topic can have a lot of lead time. The next 3 issues will be:

Summmer 2009:Microbes, Food and Public Health

Fall 2009: Localization and Organic Farming

Winter 2009-10: Nutrient Density in our Food

If you can help us on any of these topics, or have ideas for new ones, please get in touch. We need your help!Moving or missed an issue? The Natural Farmer will not be forwarded by the post office, so you need to make sure your address is up-to-date if you move. Those who regularly send us a subscription fee should send address changes to us. Most of you, however, get this paper as a NOFA member benefit for paying your chapter dues and should send address updates to their local NOFA chapter (listed at the end of each issue).Archived issues from Summer 1999 through Fall 2005 are available at http://www.library.umass.edu/spcoll/digital/tnf/. More recent issues are downloadable at www.nofa.org as pdf files.

Jack Kittredge and Julie Rawson411 Sheldon Rd., Barre, MA 01005978-355-2853, fax: (978) 355-4046

tnf@nofa.orgISSN 1077-2294copyright 2009,

Northeast Organic Farming Association, Inc

The Natural Farmer Needs You!

T h e N a t u r a l F a r m e rS p r i n g , 2 0 0 9

I would like when I leave here to purchase 30+ acres of semi-rural farm/forest land in order to start a bed and breakfast/pick your own (berries, apples)/outdoor furniture business. Some aspect of my sustainable business/farming venture would be: use of renewable energy; organically grown vegetables and fruits; grass-fed chickens and sheep to raise; bees for their honey, wax and pollination assistance; trails; ponds; gazebos; nicely furnished tents; and a log cabin to house my kitchen, dining area, store and personal living space.

If you have the time, energy, and interest I would enjoy corresponding with you about my Big Plan. I tend to see only the virtues and not the problems inherent in my ideal. So bouncing my ideas off of you would help immensely, Also, your suggestions for books I should read and people and organizations I should contact would be very beneficial to me.

Im not a one-trick pony I would enjoy discussing spirituality, books or anything else that you might want to talk with me about.

Well, I gave it my best shot. Regardless of your response, I wish you much peace, joy and love.

Sincerely, Denzial Tittlo

Dear Mr. Tittlo,

____________ asked me to respond to you as she doesnt feel comfortable responding herself.

I think your dream of living on the land is one that many people share. Unfortunately, most people find that it is not easy to achieve it. Both the initial cost of purchasing such land 30+ acres of farm/forest land with a pond, etc. is high, and the difficulty of making an adequate living -- at agrarian crafts and farming -- to support yourself, much less pay off a mortgage, is very difficult.

As Jim Hightower once said, the best way to make a small fortune farming is to start with a big fortune.

My guess is that you dont have a big fortune, at least most of us dont, so we have difficulty even getting the kind of land we want, mush less supporting ourselves on it.

Those of us who are on the way to achieving the kind of dream you have find that we needed to build up capital for several years to even get a down payment on a piece of land. In my case it involved several years of working two jobs and living very frugally. Then we have to have some sort of skill or job which can support us while we develop the buildings, fencing, crops, orchards, animals, etc. to realize our dream. Some have a spouse who has a job with good pay, some teach and use the summer vacation to farm, some work construction and farm on the side, etc. In my case my wife runs an organic farming non-profit and I edit The Natural Farmer, both from home where we can farm and homestead in our extra hours. We feel very lucky to be so close to the dream you wrote about. Many people we know have not got even this far yet.

So I guess my advice is keep the dream alive and find some way to use your skills to work toward it, both putting aside the money you will need and also getting the knowledge you will need to be successful on the land. Many organizations like NOFA exist which offer low cost conferences, publication, videos, etc. on homestead and farm skills. Im sure there are some in Texas. I would suggest getting familiar with them and attending their events once you are out of prison to meet others who share your goals and to see what you can learn.

What you have learned about yourself while in prison will certainly help you be a wiser and more responsible person when you are out. I certainly hope you get a chance to find your dream and to make amends to those you have hurt. Just the fact that you realize you have made mistakes and want to atone for them is a great start. Please accept my best wishes.

Jack Kittredge

Letters (continued from page 2)

Please help us thank theseFriends of Organic Farmingfor their generous support!

Supporting a Food Culture that is

RegionalSun-based

Grass-roots

Kim Q. Matland

CONTINUING THE TRADITION OFFAMILY FARMING IN VERMONT

Robert & Linda Dimmick Makers of Award-Winning

Organic Farmstead Cheeses

Organic Raw Milk Cheddar: Winner at The Big "E", 2008

Organic Monterey Jack: American Cheese Society Winner, 2005, 2006

Organic Jalapeno Jack: American Cheese Society Winner, 2008

Organic Colby: American Cheese Society Winner, 2007

Organic Green Onion Cheddar: American Cheese Society Winner, 2005, 2006

Organic Garlic Cheddar Organic Cow Milk Feta

Look for our cheeses in your local Natural Foods Store!

Neighborly Farms of Vermont1362 Curtis Road

Randolph Center, VT 05061 1-888-212-6898

www.neighborlyfarms.com

T h e N a t u r a l F a r m e r S p r i n g , 2 0 0 94

To learn more about the benefits of providing milkto the leading dairy company, contact:

Cindy Masterman (New England) 888-648-8377Peter Slaunwhite (Northeast) 315-272-3218Steve Rinehart (Mideast) 866-268-4665Liz Amos (Mideast) 303-551-5230

Michelle Sandy (Mid Atlantic) 866-412-1380Richard Klossner (Midwest) 303-319-6899Larry Hansen (West) 888-406-6556

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The Clarks, Milky Way Organic Farm, Ira, VT

Interested

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Gardeners needed for private retreat in Johnson, VT. We host events and workshops and have a large organic vegetable garden along with extensive landscaped flower gardens. Work would include gardening, landscape work, trail work and event preparation. Opportunity for own garden space, use of the beautiful grounds which include art/clay studio, pristine swimming ponds, hiking trails. Private cabin with shared vegetarian kitchen available. Hours and stipend negotiable depending on experience. Call 802-655-7889 or Email acheefarm@earthlink.net

The Natick Community Organic Farm located in Natick, Massachusetts is looking for a year round intern. Housing (one room studio with shared kitchen and bath facilities) is offered in exchange for 15 hours of farm related work, teaching, and some weekend work. Studio available May 15th. Email ncorganic@verizon.net your letter of interest or resume.

Apprenticeships available on organic vegetable farm in western CT for 09 season, April-Nov. Help plant, cultivate, harvest, and market produce through a 400 share CSA and farmers market. Opportunity to learn many of the agricultural and business skills you will need to run an organic farm. Compensation includes a private room in separate apprentice house, farm produce and eggs, $1000 monthly stipend plus scheduled raises and a year end bonus. To apply, email a letter of intent and resume to Paul Bucciaglia, pbucciaglia@yahoo.com, or send to Fort Hill Farm, 18 Fort Hill Rd., New Milford, CT 06776. Also see www.forthillfarm.com.

Farm for rent or partnership in central New York. Currently Farmers Pledge but organic certifiable. 130 acres cropland, pasture, berries, market garden. Apartment and barn included. Negotiable terms including work trade. Contact Judy Wolter 259 Main St., Jordonville, NY 13361, (315) 858-3520, judywolter@yahoo.com.

Assistant Director, Farmer/Educator - Immediate Opening. The Natick Community Organic Farm is a 27 acre diversified operation with organic vegetable production, livestock, solar greenhouses, a syruping operation, and many educational programs for children and adults. We are looking for a dynamic person committed to organic farming, with a 2 to 4 year degree in the field and /or equivalent experience in agriculture, with carpentry and mechanic skills, who loves teaching and working with people. Computer skills, interest in developing programs a plus. Please send resume and letter of inquiry to ncorganic@verizon.net. Detailed description at www.natickfarm.org.

Mountain Dell Farm seeks two apprentices for 2009 season, May 18 through Thanksgiving. We have been making our living as organic vegetable farmers since 1990, and have taught many people how to farm. We farm five acres intensively. Must know how to work hard, although farm experience is not necessary. Labors include planting, weeding, picking and packing. Apprenticeship includes private cabin, board, plus excellent stipend for 50-hour weeks. We live in a beautiful land in the foothills of the Catskills. Mark Dunau or Lisa Wujnovich, Mountain Dell Farm, 2386 Roods Creek Rd., Hancock, NY 13783. 607-467-4034. e-mail at mldunau@hughes.net

Farmer Wanted: To transition into eventual ownership of a 138 ac. SE VT conserved farm with 20 ac. of Christmas trees, an ac. of organic rhubarb, and 100 ac. of managed woodland with a working sugarbush. Other crops possible including vegetables, small fruits, and specialty crops. For info and application contact 802/257-0233 or elysian@sover.net.

Looking for organic gardener to grow fruits and vegetables at Folly Cove in Gloucester, MA. Property has good soil, Concord Grape vines, a few apple trees. Small, 40 foot garden with automatic drip irrigation that could extend to 1/2 acre or more. Place to start plants indoors (small area in barn with 20 x 6 skylight). Seaweed for the garden nearby. Vines and trees need pruning. Maybe we take care of supplies and give the gardener most of the crop to sell at the local farmers market or I buy the produce. Will consider other arrangements. Contact Anne at counseloramj@aol.com

April 2 - May 31 Food As Medicine Workshop, Sharon A. Kane, Instructor. Get the most out of your food! Ongoing classes teach gentle detoxification protocols and hands-on instruction in the making of kombucha, kefir, Gluten-free sourdough baking, and lacto-fermented pickles. Classes held in Ashland, MA. For more info: 508-881-5678, Gpath2003@yahoo.com or www.sanctuary-healing.com

NOFAExchange

Blow Your Own Horn!

T h e N a t u r a l F a r m e rS p r i n g , 2 0 0 9

Call for the location of yournearest wholesale distributor

Depot StreetBradford, VT 05033

Ph. 802.222.4277Fax 802.222.9661

info@norganics.comwww.norganics.com

Fertilizers:Azomite

Bone Char 0-16-0Cheep Cheep 4-3-3

Chilean Nitrate 16-0-0Greensand

Greensand Plus 0-0-17Kelp Meal

Natural Sulfate of Potash 0-0-51Organic Gem 3-3-.3

Phosphate Rock 0-3-0Phosphate Rock and Greensand Mix

Pro-Gro 5-3-4Pro-Start 2-3-3

Stress-X PowderLivestock Nutritionals:

Redmond Trace Mineral Conditioner, Salt Blocks & Granular Salt

*

Pest Controls:PowderGard

PyganicSeacide

Surround

*

*Many of our products that are not OMRI listed may be allowed for use on a certified organic farm. Check with your certification representative to be sure.

Bone Char 0-16-0 contains more than 16% available phosphate (P2O5) and 32% total phosphate. It is OMRI listed and can be applied without restriction on certified organic farmland.

compiled by Jack Kittredge

MICI Looks to Expand Massachusetts Independent Certification, Incs first and only program is Baystate Organic Certifiers which has an excellent regional and national reputation as a program of outstanding integrity that is not prone to soft interpretation of the NOP. Now the MICI board is seeking additional Board members and interested parties to help create and implement new program activity. Current ideas include but are not limited to certification or verification of the following:1) Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) and Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) plan compliance, 2) Energy audits, and 3) Humane Livestock Standards compliance. Interested parties should contact MICI President Judy Gillan at jgillan@smallfarm.org. MICI also plans to host an informational meeting at the 2009 NOFA Summer Conference. The MICI board of directors looks forward to hearing your ideas!

Co-op Bans Eight PesticidesIn January the Co-op, Britains first supermarket chain, prohibited suppliers of its own-brand fresh produce from using eight pesticides that have been connected to honeybee colony collapse disorder and are already restricted in some parts of Europe. The Co-op said it will eliminate the usage of the neonicotinoid family of chemicals where possible and until they are shown to be safe. The Co-op has over 70,000 acres of land under cultivation in England and Scotland, making it the largest farmer in the UK. Since 2001 it has prohibited the use of 98 pesticides under its pesticide policy.source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jan/28/bees-coop-pesticide

USDA Gives Final Rule on Naturally Raised Despite significant protest from organizations and many thousands of concerned individuals, the USDAs Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) has defined naturally raised to mean something far from it. Producers are now allowed to label products naturally raised as long as the animals have been produced entirely without growth promotants, antibiotics (except for ionophores used as coccidiostats for parasite control), and have never been fed animal by-products. Nowhere does this definition mention pasture (or even outdoor access!), genetic engineering, or physical mutilation (like tail-docking and beak-trimming).source: http://animalwelfareapproved.list-manage.com/track/click?u=0e57e5f6a928e2323c99fa9b9&id=0e99bc4cc7&e=28f9dfeeac

UK Study Finds Biodiverse Systems Produce Healthier, Better Tasting MeatIt turns out the old adage You are what you eat is true for livestock too. Researchers at the University of Exeter recently published a study which found that meat from animals grazed in quality, biodiverse systems is nutritionally superior to meat from intensive systems. Professor Henry Buller and his colleagues attributed this difference to the impact of the different plants on the digestive process and the growth and development of the animals. Laboratory analyses showed that lamb meat from biodiverse pastures was seen to have more vitamin E than control meat and higher levels of omega 3 fatty acids - the kind that provide health benefits like protection against heart disease. Levels of conjugated linoleic acid, or CLA, were also higher in biodiverse-fed lambs, compared to conventional controls - another encouraging sign as studies suggest these compounds may have anti-carcinogenic effects. Additionally, levels of a compound called skatole were seen to be lower. Skatole can be produced as a result of the digestive process of grazing animals and has a negative effect on the taste of meat, especially when grilled. Taste panels rated biodiverse beef from traditional breeds to be more tender and more flavorful than meat from conventional breeds.source: http://animalwelfareapproved.list-manage.com/track/click?u=0e57e5f6a928e2323c99fa9b9&id=223b46fb0a&e=28f9dfeeac

Livestock Manure Stinks for Infant HealthNew research examining two decades worth of livestock production data finds a positive relationship between increased production at industrial farms and infant death rates in the counties where the farms reside. The study reported in the February American Journal of Agricultural Economics implicates air pollution and suggests that Clean Air Act regulations need to be revamped to address livestock production of noxious gases. The study, by economist Stacy Sneeringer of Wellesley College in Massachusetts, examined birth and death records from the National Center for Health Statistics and the increase in animal units per county across the United States from 1982 to 1997. An increase of 100,000 animal units in a county corresponded to 123 more infant deaths per year per 100,000 births. Doubling livestock numbers was linked to a 7.4 percent increase in infant mortality. Ammonia, hydrogen sulfide and airborne particulate matter are all associated with livestock production, Sneeringer says. Exposure to the gases has been linked to respiratory distress in infants, while exposure in the womb has been linked to disorders that occur late in pregnancy or shortly after birth, and has also been linked to spontaneous abortions. Sneeringer found that about 80 percent of the infant deaths associated with increased livestock production occurred in the first 28 days of life.source: Science News http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/39990/title/Livestock_manure_stinks_for_infant_health

Wood Prairie Farm Receives AwardWood Prairie Farms new Organic Prairie Blush Potato has received the Green Thumb Award from the Mailorder Gardening Assocation as one of the top six plant introductions of 2009. Jim Gerritsen, who with his family owns and operates the organic Wood Prairie Farm in Bridgewater, Maine, was presented the award at the MGAs Winter Convention. Every year the competition for a Green Thumb Award is pretty intense especially from the ornamentals sector, says Gerritsen. As an organic seed potato farmer its great to see the resurgence of interest in home vegetable gardening and in healthy vegetables like Prairie Blush. source: Wood Praqirie Farm press release, January 14, 2009

News Notes

T h e N a t u r a l F a r m e r S p r i n g , 2 0 0 9Synthetic Fertilizer Taints California Organic FarmsFor up to seven years, California Liquid Fertilizer sold what seemed to be an organic farmers dream, brewed from fish and chicken feathers. The companys fertilizer was effective, inexpensive and approved by organic regulators. By 2006, it held as much as a third of the market inCalifornia. But a state investigation caught the Salinas-area company spiking its product with ammonium sulfate, a synthetic fertilizer banned from organic farms. As a result, some of Californias 2006 harvest of organic fruits, nuts and vegetables including crops from giants like Earthbound Farm wasnt really organic. According to documents obtained by The Sacramento Bee through a Public Records Act request, California Department of Food and Agriculture officials were notified of the problem in June 2004 but didnt complete their investigation and order the company to remove its product from the organic market until January 2007. State officials knew some of Californias largest organic farms had been using the fertilizer, the documents show, but they kept their findings confidential until nearly a year and a half after it was removed from the market. No farms lost their organic certification. The nonprofit California Certified Organic Farmers, which certifies about 80 percent of the states organic acreage, decided not to penalize farms that had used the product on the grounds that farmers did not know they were using an unapproved chemical. The state could have pursued harsher penalties against California Liquid Fertilizer, including violation of the Californias organic product law, which carries fines of up to $5,000, according to agriculture department spokesman Steve Lyle. It also could have referred the case to the attorney generals office for civil action as an unfair business practice. We did not pursue those courses of action because our priority was to remove the product from the market, Lyle said. More process would have delayed that.source: http://www.insidebayarea.com/business/ci_11356768

Even Vegetarians May Not Be Safe from Mad Cow PrionsFancy a dose of prions with your vegetables? A new study suggests that infectious prions - thought to be the causative agents in mad cow disease and human vCJD can survive wastewater decontamination and wind up in fertilizer, potentially contaminating fruit and vegetables. The prions would be present in such low quantities that they are unlikely to pose a health threat, but as a precaution, we should prevent the entry of prions into wastewater treatment plants, says microbiologist Joel Pedersen of the University of Wisconsin in Madison, US, who led the research. Prions could end up in wastewater treatment plants via slaughterhouse drains, hunted game cleaned in a sink, or humans with vCJD shedding prions in their urine or feces, Pedersen says. Previous studies have suggested that prions can survive heat treatment and caustic chemicals, but to see how prions fare during sewage treatment, Pedersens team spiked sludge from a local treatment plant with infectious prions, and then subjected the toxic brew to a typical wastewater treatment regimen. This typically involves three weeks of filtration, separation and incubation with microbes that break down contaminants in the sludge, resulting in clean water and biosolids free of most human pathogens, which can be used as a fertilizer. When Pedersens team tested the sewage soup at various stages, they found the water was clean, but the biosolids were contaminated with prions. The sludge digestion seems to have no effect on the prion protein, he says.source: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn14210-even-vegetarians-may-not-be-safe-from-mad- cow-prions.html?DCMP=ILC-hmts&nsref=news2_head_dn14210

Industrial Farmed Birds Much More Likely to Get Avian Flu than Backyard BirdsAccording to the May/June, 2008, issue of Public Health Reports, an international team of scientists conclude that birds raised in industrial confinement operations are 32 times more at risk of being infect-ed with Avian Flu H5N1 than backyard flocks.source: Organic Research Center Bulletin, December, 2008

Canada to Implement Organic RuleJune 30, 2009 is the launch date of the Canadian Organic Regime. Not as broad as our NOP, the Canadian system will cover just human food and beverages, and livestock feed. Aquaculture, cosmetics, textiles, etc. will continue to be able to make organic claims based on their third-party organic certification. The new rule references the standards of the International Standards Organization (ISO 17011 for accreditation and ISO 65 for certification) as guidelines. It also clarifies how imported products can be marketed as organic: either 1) certified to the Canadian standard by an accredited certifying body; or 2) certified to a standard deemed equivalent under a country-to-country agreement. source: Organic Processing, November/December 2008

Mutant, Virulent New Strain of E. coli DiscoveredBritish ministers have been briefed about the emergence on a British dairy farm of a mutant strain of antibiotic-resistant E. coli that causes life-threatening cases of food poisoning, especially in children. The strain, known as E. coli O26 is a vera-toxin producing E. coli similar to the strain E, coli O157 which caused deaths in the spinach outbreak of 2006. The strain has an enhanced type of antibiotic resistance, called ESBL, which makes it resistant to almost all known antibiotics. Public health officials are calling for an end to routine antibiotic use on dairy farms.source: Organic Research Center Bulletin, December, 2008

Peak Phosphorus?Some 85% of the worlds known deposits of phosphorus are in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Eygpt. The 4 to 8 billion metric tons of this element in the worlds deposits are being used at the rate of 125 million per year. The price of rock phosphate has increased fivefold in the last two years. Scientists predict that agriculture, the primary user of phosphates, will see higher prices for the input, as well as declining yields when less is applied because of its cost. source: Organic Research Center Bulletin, December, 2008

GE Corn and Infertility LinkedAustrian scientists conducting long-term feeding trials with lab mice have found that by the third and fourth litters, offspring of mice fed a diet of 33% genetically engineered corn were fewer and smaller than those from mice fed a quite similar diet except with corn that was not engineered. Research leader Jurgen Zentek of the University of Vienna said there was a direct link between the changes observed and the diets. source: Acres, USA January, 2009

Fuel from Fungi?Non-food parts of plants such as cellulose, lignin, and hemicellulose can be treated with enzymes called cellulases that turn them into sugar. That sugar can then be fermented into ethanol. But a unique fungus has been discovered living in a tree in the Patagonian rain forest that can make myco-diesel directly from cellulose, eliminating one step in the process. When we examined the gas composition of [the fungus], said Gary Strobel of Montana State University, we were totally surprised to learn that it was making a plethora of hydrocarbons and hydrocarbon derivatives. This is the only organism that has ever been shown to produce such an important combination of fuel substances.source: Acres, USA January, 2009

Are Organic Fish Organic?In November the National Organic Standards Board decided to allow fish to carry the USDA organic label despite being raised in cages which dump fish waste, parasites and disease organisms directly into the ocean and despite being fed feed which is not 100% organic (a requirement for other organic livestock) and which can be from wild fish potentially carrying traces of mercury, PCBs and other pollutants. Critics cite statements from NOSB members that they were under pressure from the aquaculture industry to push through a weak standard.source: Acres, USA January, 2009

Inoculate Crops with Fungi for Soil CarbonNatural soils store carbon in many forms. Agriculture has a tendency to disturb that carbon and use it for crop production, depleting the reservoir in the soil. A substance called glomalin was discovered in 1996 which is produced by arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF). Glomalin permeates organic matter, binding it to silt, clay and sand particles. Not only does glomalin contain 30% to 40% carbon, it also forms aggregates that add structure to soil and keep other stored soil carbon from escaping. A test of soil and crop root development from planting seeds inoculated with mycorrhizal fungi showed almost twice as much carbon in the inoculated crop soils.source: Acres, USA January, 2009

Bumble Bees DeclineA review of bumble bee studies and surveys across the US shows that three formerly common species are experiencing steep declines. This is particularly distressing since bumble bees can act as alternative pollinators when honey bees are in short supply because of Colony Collapse Disorder. You can learn more at www.xerces.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/xerces_2008_bombus_status_review.pdfsource: Organic Broadcaster, Jan/Feb 2009

Oceans AcidifyingThe oceans have been absorbing some of the extra carbon dioxide humans have been creating for the past 2 centuries, and in the process becoming more acidic. Today, it is estimated, they absorb some 30 million tons of carbon dioxide daily and are about 30% more acidic than they once were. The impact of this is still being studied, but it has already had a major impact in reducing the number of coral, phytoplankton, and shell-forming species like mussels and lobsters. source: Acres, USA February, 2009

Grazing Produces Healthier Milk (Surprised, Anyone?)A new study at Britains Newcastle University shows grazing organic cows produce milk with more antioxidants, vitamins, and beneficial fatty acids than conventional high input cows. During the summer months, conjugated linoleic acid was 60% higher among the grazing cows. The study involved 25 farms of three types across the United Kingdom: organically certifried, non-organic sustainable (low input) and conventional high input.source: Acres, USA February, 2009

Non-GMO Project Up and RunningOn December 15, 2008 the Non-GMO Product Verification Program was rolled out with some 350 products listed. The project was organized by some of the largest organic industry companies: Eden Foods, Lundberg, Natures Path, Organic Valley, Whole Foods and R. W. Garcia. Products that meet the standard can bear the Non-GMO Project Verified seal beginning in October, 2009. For more info visit www.nongmoproject.org.source: Acres, USA February, 2009

T h e N a t u r a l F a r m e rS p r i n g , 2 0 0 9 7

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T h e N a t u r a l F a r m e r S p r i n g , 2 0 0 98

Steve GilmanNOFA-IC Policy Coordinator

Food contamination happens! Just look at the headlines, periodically full of government alerts and industry recalls concerning everything from toxic tomatoes to pathogenic peanut butter and sullied spinach. For home gardeners and farmers alike theres no doubt that paying close attention to food safety from soil to stomach are just plain good agricultural practices. And even though organic standards have many extra food safety standards for certified growers to comply with including audit trails, no fresh manure use on crops, strict composting parameters and requirements for regularly testing the farms water supplies organic growing per se is clearly not immune to food contamination problems.

Outbreak du jourTodays largest infectious outbreaks have mostly to do with toxic strains of E. coli and salmonella bacteria. Both contaminate food through contact with feces and can be transferred to produce by such diverse vectors as animals, birds, humans, wind and water. But theres no obvious way to discern if the groceries are safe many contaminated foods look, smell and taste normal. Current agency estimates are that food-borne illnesses sicken as many as 76 million people each year, resulting in more than 325,000 hospitalizations and 5,000 deaths.

Here in Winter, 2009 the outbreak du jour is salmonella in processed peanut butter -- again implicating the centralized industrial food production model as a major cause of far ranging contamination. Traced back to a single processing plant in Georgia, investigators efforts have led to the recall of over 180 products in everything from baked goods to snack crackers and protein bars. This outbreak, in what experts consider a normally safe food, sickened more than 500 people in 43 states and led to eight deaths. This time the investigation stopped short of the farmers, however, because the raw peanuts were roasted before processing killing any bacteria that might be present to that point.

And while the Georgia plant did not sell directly to stores, they supplied a wide range of big food makers like Kellogg and General Mills; numerous smaller manufacturers including Jenny Craig diet foods; and a considerable number of institutions including schools and nursing homes that serve the most vulnerable populations. FDA has been severely hampered by repeated cuts in funding and staff since the deregulation glory days of the Reagan Administration. Domestically, in 2008 they managed to inspect 5,930 food production plants out of a total 65,520 facilities around the country.

Scary Spinach Food contamination is not just the province of manufacturing plants. The nationwide E.coli O157:H7 spinach outbreak in the late summer and fall of 2006 put the risk of infected farm produce squarely in the public eye. Baby spinach is part of the pre-cut leafy greens trade that includes ready-to-eat salad mixes and lettuces packed in special moisture-conserving breather bags and plastic clamshells that extend the shelf life up to 17 days. Just shake it out of the bag, add some dressing and Voila! its salad time. According to the FDA, however, contaminated produce causes 15% of all toxic food outbreaks with the highest risk commodity groups being leafy greens, tomatoes, melons, herbs and green onions in that order.

Once the sickness reports started to mount up across the country it took weeks to link the outbreak to spinach consumption and weeks more to trace the contamination back to a single 16,000 pound shipment from Natural Selection Foods, a state-of-

the-art California packer holding 6% of the national market. Processing 26 million salad servings a week, they also pack for their own Earthbound Farm label the largest organic grower and shipper in the country. This co-mingled batch happened to be conventionally grown, however, and was cleaned and packed into 6 ounce bags and distributed nationally under Dole and several other brands. By the time this comparatively swift outbreak was over the toxic greens had left 205 confirmed illnesses in 26 states with 103 hospitalizations and 3 deaths in its wake.

Again, fingers were pointed at the market concentration of large-scale industrialized growers and handlers where a single contamination event can affect thousands of eaters all over the country. Designed for a burgeoning consumer convenience market, leafy greens have grabbed fully two-thirds of the nations fresh-cut vegetable sales over the past decade. Bagged spinach sales alone constitute a $200 million annual market. But this new product category is fraught with intrinsic drawbacks that can exacerbate food safety troubles.

For starters, the myriad cut surfaces in a bag of leafy greens are potential infection points. Bacteria can hide in craggy leaf textures and consolidating thousands of pounds of greens from several farms en masse into one wash can spread the pathogens throughout the whole batch. While the greens are treated with a series of chlorine and citrus rinses at the packing facility a procedure which usually destroys common bacteria the E coli super-strain 0157 H:7 seemed to survive unscathed. Since the greens are intended for raw consumption they lack a further cooking stage that more definitively destroys pathogens as in ground beef, for example, or broccoli. And while designed to significantly extend the life of the product in the truck, the supermarket and the home refrigerator the plastic bags and clamshells can act as mini greenhouses to incubate and greatly multiply any disease organisms present.

In a pattern similar to a 2008 salmonella scare in tomatoes, the media coverage and public alarm about the spinach contamination event had a devastating economic impact on leafy greens growers all across the country. Even though the outbreak was traced to a single field in California, in the public eye all greens were tainted and even small scale growers at Farmers Markets far from the outbreaks epicenter suffered big slumps in sales. Meanwhile, product liability lawsuits were gathering at Natural Selections door.

Although to this day there still are no definitive answers as to how the spinach field became contaminated by the virulent E coli, government investigators determined the likeliest source was a cattle ranch a short distance away. The pathogenic manure could have been carried by dust in the wind, storm runoff into irrigation systems or even feral pigs who ate the cow feces and deposited it in the spinach fields via their own manure. However, theres very little science to definitively back up any of these transmission theories. And theres even less science to justify the industry reaction that followed.

Voluntary standardsDealing in perishable merchandise, the fresh produce business is particularly vulnerable to market disturbances. Experience has proved that public health warnings and national recalls are disastrous for the industrys bottom line. So are class action lawsuits. As the din of negative publicity and recalls took its toll, supermarket shoppers hurried by the bagged greens display for something they deemed more healthful. It wasnt long before the west coast spinach industry was losing a million dollars a day and growers were plowing down their fields of greens.

Responding with unprecedented action, 60 packers representing 99% of Californias bagged greens industry convened to deal with the crisis. Smaller stakeholders were not invited, however, and had no say in the initial proceedings. Within a few months the handlers hammered out a 50 page set of rigid regulations that were aimed squarely at farm practices, not their own. Called the California Leafy Green Marketing Agreement (LGMA), the rules spelled out the Good Agricultural Practices or GAPs farmers have to comply with in order to do business.

For handlers, (the category includes packers, processors, manufacturers, shippers and supermarkets) marketing agreements also serve several key defensive functions not the least of which is protection from lawsuits. By requiring farmers to undergo third party verified farm audits and inspections to meet their strict market standards, the handlers liability is substantially reduced via a reasonable care defense in the courtroom. There are also significant reductions in insurance costs. And, at the heart of the action, after $100 million in industry losses, a P.R. campaign was designed to reinstate the healthy image of leafy greens for consumers and get the industry back on track.

Although most marketing agreements are voluntary they are in fact compulsory when the farmers have no choice but to deal with the handlers to stay in business. Third party audits are also becoming a de facto requirement for farmers all around the country who want to supply everything from local school lunch programs to area supermarkets. For smaller-scale farmers looking on, it isnt far-fetched to worry about industry insiders using a safe food pretext to ramp things up into a self serving, one-size-fits-all, national marketing order which requires mandatory compliance from everybody in the trade. Meanwhile, theres a danger that specialty crop groups in other sections of the country are looking to forge marketing agreements in conjunction with their state departments of agriculture in order to gain market share.

Nuke and destroy From an ecological perspective, let alone an organic farming one, the GAPS matrix outlined in the handlers 2007 Marketing Agreement was an environmental disaster. Under the name of assuring food safety, the regs literally took a scorched earth, sterilization approach to farming: burning and bulldozing grassy buffer areas down to bare ground; removing hedgerows and windbreaks; channeling and re-routing streams; poisoning wildlife; fumigating soil organisms and constructing huge fences as well as draining ponds, filling in wetlands and removing vegetation to destroy animal, bird and amphibian habitat. Often this meant ripping out conservation enhancements and wild habitat put in place over many decades by state and USDA programs to protect water quality and wildlife. To start, the initial LGMA directive directly impacted 140,000 acres.

For smaller scale farmers the handlers food safety regs were plainly ruinous. The GAPs matrix was far from being scale neutral. Instead of just targeting fresh-cut leafy greens it included small-farm specialty crops like kale, collards, beet greens and Swiss chard. Requirements for 30 foot non-vegetative buffers between crops and streams or wildlife habitat took relatively larger bites out of small field holdings. Fencing to keep out proven low-risk 0157 animal vectors such as deer and rodents were exorbitantly expensive. Water testing schedules did not accommodate multi-crop operations. And, for smaller operations without support staff, the heavy burden of paperwork, documentation and audit costs were overwhelming.

Food Safety Hits the Fan: Regulatory Action, Inaction and Over-reaction

and the Effects on Small Scale Growers

T h e N a t u r a l F a r m e rS p r i n g , 2 0 0 9 9Essentially, long-proven biodiversity practices are the gold standard for protection from pathogens, pests and pollutants for organic farmers especially. The USDAs National Organic Program requires certified farmers to maintain and enhance the farm-scape -- from soil and water to woodland, wetlands and wildlife. As opposed to the conventional pesti-cide-reliant monoculture system, for example, build-ups of pests, weeds and diseases in the field are con-trolled to a large degree by annual rotations to other plant families and intermittent sod crops. Grassy strips, hedgerows and windbreaks serve as filters for pollutants and barriers to pathogen encroachment via dust and downpours. And the LGMAs good agricultural practices did not begin to address the use of toxic pesticides, chemical fertilizers and soil fumigants that are standard inputs for the large pro-ducers, but not allowed under the organic regs.

California groups such as the Wild Farm Alliance and the Community Alliance with Family Farmers (CAFF) led an outraged public response with pub-licity, research briefings, teach ins and political pres-sure on public officials. As wildlife buffers and con-servation infrastructure were being dismantled in the Salinas Valley and other agribusiness strongholds, sustainable and local agriculture advocates mounted a public campaign to explain the issues. As a result, the LGMA was somewhat modified reducing buf-fers and lessening impacts on wildlife habitat.

But the industry did not sit still. Fearing losses to the west coast competition, Arizona handlers de-veloped their own marketing agreement. Soon, the biggest industry players in California responded, upping the ante. With the aim of gaining a greater market share and recouping their losses from the spinach scare they escalated their initial LGMA regulatory requirements into super strict super-metrics. And once big liability-adverse buyers like McDonalds and Walmart signed on, the stringent provisions became a new part of business as usual for growers.

Despite the lack of sound scientific rationale, farm fields now had to have 450-foot bare earth buffer zones to streams, for example, and 200 foot zones next to grazing lands. The ubiquitous toads and ro-dents that inhabit farm fields became newly targeted enemies, as much as for their capacity to foul the giant harvester machines as for any (scientifically unverified) food safety parameters. And to assure compliance on the ground, the auditors were solely trained to strictly interpret the farm sanitization regs without any certification in agricultural natural re-source protections.

The gaps in GAPsWith the hamstringing of effective governmental protections there has emerged a tremendous demand and market for privatized food safety products and services. The proliferation of stakeholders with a piece of the action in this lucrative field range from research groups, academia and state Depart-ments of Agriculture to auditing firms, certification bodies and food safety training companies. Some critics say law firms acting on behalf of consumers are driving the food industry, as they have the most power to influence food safety practices and bring about meaningful changes. Of course with all the pricey class action settlements, lawyers are clearly serving their own proprietary interests. But lately the top law firm in the field, Seattle-based Marler-Clark, is casting an eye on the legal exposure in lo-cal food systems, including Farmers Markets, road-side stands and CSAs.

The concept of using a Good Agricultural Practices approach to assure food safety has been around for years. Here in the east, GAPs work was done in the early 1990s at Cornell University as part of a regional extension initiative. The project took a commonsense non-regulatory, non-verification approach to farm food safety practices based on good sanitation practices and worker training. An updated manual, Food Safety Begins on the Farm A Growers Guide is currently available, with many other useful growers materials, on their website at www.GAPs.cornell.edu, featuring valuable user-friendly information on reducing risk in everything from worker hygiene and storage facility sanitation to manure management.

Farmers, however, are now faced with a baffling array of GAPs programs. As is their wont, USDA took the basic Cornell material but ramped it up into a regulatory checklist and certification program -- while still calling it GAPs. In 1998 FDA also developed a program, officially titled the Food and Drug Administrations Guide to Minimize Microbial Food Safety Hazards for Fresh Fruits and Vegetables but known as the GAPs Guide, for short. And theyre currently in the process of conducting hearings and taking comments to renew and revise those guidelines. State agriculture departments have gotten into the act by creating their own GAPs programs, conducting audits under USDA accreditation. Finally, third party verification programs are allowed in most states, all certifying to some form of GAPs parameters.

All of the GAPs programs are voluntary at this point from a legal point of view anyway. But to protect themselves from liability exposure, more and more wholesalers and buyers are requiring some form of GAP certification from their growers. Come traceback time they can point to the due diligence of having a farmers certificate on file in the office.

GAPs certification comes at a price and widespread adoption would present significant barriers for di-versified small-scale and organic growers looking to supply school lunch programs, their local Univer-sity, supermarkets or larger wholesale produce mar-kets, for example. The cheapest GAPs audit avail-able to farmers in New York State is through the De-partment of Agriculture and Markets at $93 an hour but the fee also includes travel time to and from the farm, plus the expenses of an additional surprise in-spection. NYS was able to secure a Specialty Crops Grant from a new program written into the 2008 Farm Bill that compensates farmers for up to $750 in audit expenses, however, with enough funding to cover 200 certifications in 2009. These monies are currently available to other states that apply.

While the NYS GAPs program lets the grower develop their own customized farm plan that is then inspected under a USDA-accredited audit, the Maine Department of Agriculture takes a more stark

FDA-style approach. A farm assessment section uses a yes/no scoring system that automatically de-ducts points for produce farms that keep livestock or if there are other livestock farms within two miles of the farmstead. Further points are deducted for bringing manure or manure-based compost onto the farm and for the field presence of wild animals, something almost impossible to comply with.

Due to extensive biodiversity practices, however, organic farms could easily not qualify under the Maine GAPs matrix and would be prohibited from dealing with school lunch programs and wholesale entities. The Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association (MOFGA) has responded to this predic-ament by creating their own third-party food safety training and verification program based on another FDA food safety matrix called Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points or HACCP (pronounced Hass-Up).

GAPs has become a policy priority for the NOFAs as well. The leafy greens issue rose to the top of the list at the 2007 NOFA Interstate Council retreat and was accentuated for 2008-2009. An east coast Leafy Greens Working Group has been created with a membership that includes the NOFAs, MOFGA and FOG (Florida Organic Growers) along with par-ticipation from the National Organic Coalition, the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, Food and Water Watch and the Center for Food Safety, among others.

The Working Group is in the process of developing approaches that can utilize GAPs compliance to cre-ate a crosswalk to provisions already present in the certified farmers Organic Farm Plan. Members are responding to the FDA GAP Guide rulemaking in an attempt to keep the program voluntary and respon-sive to small-scale growers. Theres also an effort to identify researchers to look at the science and de-velop protocols to better serve organic farmers. And theres an opportunity for the NOFAs to provide basic food safety training for their farmers under a HACCP-style protocol if as in Maine, so goes the nation and a GAPs alternative becomes necessary. But for small farmers at this point everything is in flux.

T h e N a t u r a l F a r m e r S p r i n g , 2 0 0 910

by Robin McDermott

While many people claim that local food is elitist, some of the worlds great cuisines - Chinese, Italian, country French, Indian - come from the people who had the least to work with - peasants. However, few of us are farmers or homesteaders, so unlike peasants, our livehood is not directly focused on feeding ourselves. Still, there are many things that we can learn from peasants and peasant cuisine that can help us lower our food bills and eat food produced closer to home.

Peasants are small-scale farmers, ranchers, herders, hunters or fishermen and this means that they are close to their food source they are Localvores by necessity. By US standards, peasants appear to be poor and many of us feel sorry for the meager lives peasants lead. In fact, peasant culture is rich in traditions passed down through the generations along with recipes for Cassoulet, Osso Bucco and Roghan Josh.

These classic recipes are typical of peasant cuisine which often translates into hearty one-dish meals that combine lesser cuts of meat cooked in a savory broth with seasonal vegetables and some form of bread. Think Beef Bourguignon and a French baguette, Ribolita which is a Tuscan bread soup, or Huevos Rancheros and you are thinking peasant food YUM!.

So, what can we learn from peasants throughout the world to make Northeast meals more local and more affordable at the same time?

First, carnivores like me need to learn how to work with the less expensive cuts of meat leave the expensive steaks and roasts to the nobility just like the peasants do. Serious cooks will tell you that a chuck roast is much more flavorful than a filet mignon and it is usually a third to a quarter the price. But, you cant just throw a chuck roast on the

Localvores by Necessitygrill. It needs to be slowly cooked in broth to make it tender which can easily be done with a crock pot, on a wood stove or in the oven.

Second, we need to use a little kitchen creativity to cook with what is both seasonally available and on hand. Missing an ingredient or two from a recipe? Ask yourself, what would a peasant do. Since the answer is not run to the grocery store, do as chefs in even the finest restaurants do everyday and improvise substitute yogurt for buttermilk or saut vegetables for a stew in saved bacon fat if you dont have any bacon available to infuse a baconey smokey flavor into your dish.

Third, we need to make the most of everything we

have. Maybe the thought of making turkey soup after eating the Thanksgiving or Christmas turkey for three days isnt all that appealing, but to me it is a crime to throw out the bones. Make turkey broth and put it in the freezer. In January a piping hot bowl of turkey soup will mean a free and delicious meal for you and your family. Most peasants dont have freezers lucky us!

In the cold and dark New England winter months who doesnt crave a big bowl of soul satisfying soup, the cornerstone of peasant cuisine? So, when your next retirement savings statement shows up in your mailbox, dont cry about feeling like a peasant. Instead, get into your kitchen and start cooking like one.

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T h e N a t u r a l F a r m e rS p r i n g , 2 0 0 9 11

Special Supplement onBuilding Organic Soil

Soil Health

taken from Cornell Soil Health Assessment Training Manual Edition 1.2.2, 2007

(full manual available at http://soilhealth.cals.cornell.edu)

What is Soil?

Briefly, soil is composed of four basic components: mineral solids, water, air and organic matter (including living biota).

The mineral solids are stone fragments, sand, silt, and clay. It is the proportion of the latter three that determines the soils texture. For example, a soil that is composed of 70% silt, 20% sand and 10% clay can be classified as a silt loam using the soil texture triangle. Soil texture contributes to the inherent soil quality, the characteristics of the soil that result from soil forming processes. These characteristics are difficult to change through soil management.

Water is essential for soil life. Water is the medium that facilitates nutrient transport through the soil and enables plant nutrient uptake. Water also enables/facilitates the movement of microbes such as nematodes and bacteria through the soil.

Air is constantly moving in and out of the soil. Air provides the oxygen required for cell functioning in aerobic organisms including plant roots. Both air and water occupy the pore spaces (Figure 2) created within and between soil aggregates (clusters of sand, silt and clay particles bound together by particle surface chemistry and microbial and plant exudates).

Organic matter is any material that is part of or originated from living organisms. Organic matter may be divided into three fractions, the living, the dead (active fraction) and the very dead (stable fraction). The living soil organic matter fraction includes microorganisms, soil-dwelling insects, microarthropods, animals and plants. The dead fraction consists primarily of fresh residues from crops, recently dead microorganisms and insects, sloughed-off root cells, leaf litter, and manure, etc. This fraction is considered active. The sugars, proteins, cellulose and other simple compounds are quickly broken down (degraded) by soil microbes and used as a food source which fuels the soil microbial population. The exudates (sticky substances) produced by the microbes (and roots) as well as the microbes themselves (e.g. fungi) help bind the mineral particles together to form soil aggregates. Good soil aggregation is important for maintaining good (crumbly) soil structure and enabling adequate air exchange and water drainage. The very dead organic matter fraction is also called humus. Humus is very stable and resists further

degradation. Although it is not an important food source for microbes, it is important for storing nutrients and water, binding toxic chemicals and contributing to improved aggregate stability.

Soil Biology

The soil is teeming with life. Soil microbes range from microscopic bacteria to macroscopic earthworms and microarthropods. Some soil scientists say that there are more species of organisms in a shovel full of garden soil than can be found above ground in the entire Amazon rain forest.

Bacteria are the most abundant cells in the soil. They can occur singly or join together in groups. The bacteria (as well as other organisms) in the soil are responsible for the decomposition of residues. They secrete enzymes that break down molecules such as sugars and starches into basic chemical components like carbon and nitrogen, which the bacteria can use for energy. If the nutrients are not needed by the bacteria (or other degrading organisms) then they are released into the soil and become available for plant uptake. Other types of bacteria such as rhizobia form specific associations with plants (e.g. legumes). The symbiotic relationship results in the formation of nodules by the plant. These bacteria fix nitrogen from the air and convert it to ammonium nitrogen, a form that can be used by the plant.

Actinomycetes, are another type of bacteria from which numerous antibiotics have been derived. They function to degrade the larger lignin molecules

in organic residues. They are also responsible for the earthy smell of the soil from the production of geosmin.

Fungi are also important in the decomposition of crop residues, especially the recalcitrant compounds such as hemicellulose and lignins. They are also less sensitive than bacteria to acidic conditions. Ninety percent of plants (with the exception of those in the Brassica family and a few others) form a symbiotic relationship with certain fungi called mycorrhizal fungi. Mycorrhiza means fungus root. The fungus penetrates the root cells and forms specialized structures called arbuscules that are the site of nutrient exchange between the plant and fungus. The fungus also produces hyphae that grow out into the soil and absorb water and nutrients, especially phosphorus, and translocate them to the plant. In return, the fungus receives sugars from the plant that are used as a source of energy. Some soil-borne fungi are also pathogenic and cause diseases.

Nematodes are generally the most abundant multicellular organisms in soils. They are involved in organic matter decomposition and nutrient cycling, biological control of insects and other organisms, as well as serve as food for other soil organisms. A number are also parasites of plants and animals.

Algae are abundant in habitats with accessible light and adequate moisture. They can exist as single cells or can form long chains. Similar to plants, algae contains chlorophyll and therefore are able to convert sunlight into energy or form more complex compounds.

Soil Texture Triangle helps you determing what kind of soil you have.

T h e N a t u r a l F a r m e r S p r i n g , 2 0 0 912

Protozoa are single celled animals that are classified based on their means of locomotion (cilia, flagella, etc.). They can feed directly upon microbial cells such as bacteria and fungi or they can adsorb solubilized organic and inorganic compounds. It is thought that through feeding on other soil microbes, protozoa are instrumental in mineralizing nitrogen in agricultural systems.

Large macroscopic organisms such as earthworms, insects and millipeds are important for improving aggregation, soil drainage, and aeration due to their burrowing/-channeling nature.

All the life in the soil interacts together into what is termed the soil food web. With organic matter as the initial primary food source the bacteria, fungi, actinomycetes and nematodes feed and release nutrients for plant uptake. Then they themselves are fed upon by larger soil organisms such as arthopods, earthworms and so on (see diagram).

Some Key Functions of Soil Microbes Include: Decomposition of organic matter (crop residue) Mineralization and recycling of nutrients Fixation of nitrogen Detoxification of pollutants Maintenance of soil structure Biological suppression of plant pests Parasitism and damage to plants

Soil Management

Although there are only four main strategies for improving soil biological and physical health (tillage, cover crops, organic amendments and crop rotation), the options within each strategy are numerous and the combinations are endless. Not all soil management practices are practical or adaptable to all farm situations therefore trying out practices on a smaller scale and modifying them to suit the particular farm operation is recommended.

Cover Crops

Cover crops provide a canopy for seasonal soil protection and improvement between the production of the main crops. Cover crops usually are grown for less than one year. When plowed under and incorporated into the soil for improved fertility, cover crops are also referred to as green manure. Cover crops have the potential for recycling nutrients which otherwise would be lost through leaching during off -season periods. Cover crops with shallow fibrous root systems, such as many grasses, rapidly build soil aggregation in the surface layer. Cover crops with deep roots can help break-up compacted layers, and bring nutrients from deeper soil layers to make them available for the following cash crop. Leguminous cover crops can also fix atmospheric nitrogen for the benefit of the crop that follows. Other benefits from cover crops include protection of the soil from water and wind erosion, improved soil tilth and suppressing soil-borne pathogens. Dead cover crop material may be left on the soil surface, and are then referred to as mulch, which can reduce evaporation of soil moisture, increase infiltration of rainfall, increase soil organic matter and aid in the control of annual weeds. Leguminous cover crops suitable for the Northeastern US include clovers, hairy vetch, field peas, alfalfa, and soybean while popular nonleguminous cover crops include rye, oats, wheat, oilseed radish, sudangrass, and buckwheat.

When selecting cover crops it is important to consider: What are your goals for using a cover crop(s)? Is it to increase organic matter, break-up surface or subsurface compaction, weed and disease suppression, nutrient management, or prevent erosion? Where can cover crops fit into the rotation? Summer, winter, or season-long? When and how should the cover crop be killed or incorporated? Winter-kill vs. chemical applications vs. rolled and chopped? What cover crops are suitable for the climate? What cover crops fit with the current production practices including any equipment constraints?

Winter cover crops

Winter cover crops are planted in late summer into fall, typically following harvest of a cash crop. Both hardy grasses and leguminous crops can be planted. Some crops like buckwheat and oats will be damaged by frost or winter-killed while others will require tillage, rolling or chemical management in spring prior to planting. Although in Northern climates the choices are limited by the short growing season, planting a winter cover crop can provide protection from soil erosion, suppression of weeds and root pathogens and can increase soil organic matter and aggregation. For late harvested crops, winter cover crops might be better interseeded. Winter cover crops commonly planted in the Northeast include winter rye, hairy vetch, oats, wheat, red clover and various mixtures of the above.

Summer fallow cover crops:

Summer fallow cover crops are more common in vegetable than field crop rotations. A fast growing cover crop could be planted between summer vegetable crops. However, this option is severely limited in the north by the short growing season and severe cold. For example, buckwheat can be grown after early spring lettuce and prior to planting a crop of fall broccoli. In shorter season climates, a more successful option may be to interseed a cover crop into the main crop once the latter becomes established, but it is important to avoid competition by the cover crop for water and nutrients.

Season-long cover crops

Full season-long cover crops serve as rotational crops and are an excellent way of accumulating a lot of plant biomass. However, often this means taking the field out of cash crop production for a season. This will especially benefit fields with low fertility and farms with limited access to manures and other sources of organic amendments. Relay cover cropping is also another option. This is when a crop such as red clover is spring seeded into wheat, which then continues to grow after the wheat crop is harvested. It is important to keep in mind that some cover crops such as buckwheat, ryegrass, crown vetch and hairy vetch have the potential to become a weed problem if they set seed.

Organic Amendments

Organic matter is critical for maintaining soil structure, and increasing water infiltration as well as water holding capacity. It can also increase cation exchange capacity (CEC), nutrient retention, and microbial diversity and activities. Organic matter can be added through incorporation of cover crops as green manures as well as additions of composts, animal manures, and crop residues. The addition of organic amendments is particularly important in vegetable production where minimal crop residue is returned to the soil and more intensive tillage is required that promotes the rapid depletion of soil organic matter. The impact of various organic amendments on soil physical, chemical and biological properties can be different and thus is important to consider when making soil management decisions.

Animal manure

The application of manure can have many soil and crop health benefits such as increasing nutrient levels (nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium in particular) that benefit not only the crop but also the soil microbial community. However not all manures are created equal and will vary depending on the animal, feed, bedding, and manure-storage practices employed. Manure containing a lot of bedding is typically applied as a solid while manure with minimal bedding is applied as a liquid. Manure solids and liquids may be separated, or can also be composted prior to application to help stabilize the nutrients. Due to the variability in nutrient content, manure analysis may be beneficial and take the guesswork out of estimating the nutrient content and characteristics of the manure.

Manuring of the soil can also influence soil organic matter and fresh uncomposted manure is very effective at increasing soil aggregation. However,

the impact is dependent on the amount of solids delivered. It also can increase the CEC, soil pH, and total pore space. Careful attention should be paid to the timing of application and optimizing application to meet the needs of the crop or cropping sequence. Excessive or untimely application can cause plant damage and pose an environmental danger to water resources.

Compost

Unlike manure, compost is very stable and not a readily available source of nutrients. The composting process uses heat and microbial activity to quickly decompose simple compounds like sugars and proteins, leaving behind more stable complex compounds such as lignins and humic acids.

The stable products of composting are an important source of organic matter. The addition of compost increases available water capacity by improving water retention and pore space on which water and nutrients can bind. Compost is less effective at building soil aggregation than fresh manure, because the readily-degradable organic compounds have already been decomposed. Composts differ in their efficiency to suppress various crop pests, although they can sometimes be quite effective.

Green manure crops

Green manure crops are those grown for the purpose of improving the soil fertility with microbial diversity and organic matter content in general as opposed to cover crops which are grown more for the purpose of erosion protection and cycling of nutrients. When incorporated, green manures add a lot of fresh, readily degradable material to the soil, which fuels the soils microbial community. The increased production of microbial exudates helps hold the individual soil particles together as aggregates. A soil with better aggregation (aggregate stability) is more resilient in heavy rain storms and is capable of greater water infiltration.

In reduced tillage systems, one way to get the added benefits of green manure crops is to only incorporate them in the planting row and use the killed crop between the rows as a mulch.

Crop residue

Crop residue is another important source of organic matter. As it decomposes, the organic matter is going back into the soil and improving soil tilth. Crop residue left on the surface will protect against erosion and improve surface aggregation, thereby reducing crusting and surface compaction. However, diseased crop debris can harbor inoculum that can become a problem during the next season if a susceptible crop is planted. Crop rotation with non-host crops belonging to different plant families will reduce pathogen inoculum. Removal and composting of crop debris may be an option in some situations. Incorporation or plowing down of crop debris to encourage the decomposition process may be an option depending on the tillage system and crop rotation sequence being employed.

Tillage

As new technologies have been developed, the reliance on tillage to kill weeds, incorporate crop debris, and prepare seedbeds has been diminished. Extensive tillage reduces soil aggregation, resulting in crusting and soil compaction as well as oft en stimulating the microbial community that burns off organic matter quickly. There is consensus that reducing tillage intensity will improve soil health and over time reduce production costs

There are many different strategies for reducing tillage intensity aside from going to no-till. Strip tillage uses a shank set at the depth of the compacted layer (if present) to rip the compacted layer and then a series of coulters to form a narrow, shallow ridge into which the seeds are planted. Zone tillage is similar to strip tillage without the rip shank. Instead of preparing the entire field as a seedbed, only a narrow band is loosened, enabling crop or cover crop residue to remain on the soil surface as a mulch. Implementing the use of permanent drive rows often better facilitates reduced tillage systems.

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Reduced tillage can also be thought of in the long-term and modified based on the cropping sequence. Different tillage practices can be rotated depending on the soil management goals and concerns. For some crops such as potato, more intensive tillage and soil disturbance may be required in order to establish and harvest the crop, but the subsequent sweet corn (or other) crop(s) could be strip- or no-tilled into a killed winter rye cover crop.Frost tillage can be a means of alleviating soil compaction in the winter. It is done when the soil is frozen between 1 and 3 inches deep; conditions that typically occur on average 4 to 6 days per winter in New York State and other similar production regions. The soil below the frost layer is non-plastic or dry, ideal conditions for tillage. Frost-tilled soil leaves a rough surface but subsequent freeze-thaw action loosens the soil and allows the clods to fall apart in the spring.

However, the type and timing of tillage is often site specific and dependent on the cropping system and equipment availability. Reducing both tillage frequency and intensity will reduce the burning of organic matter and lead to improved soil tilth and microbial activity, resulting in soils that are less susceptible to compaction and more resilient.

Crop Rotation

Initially, crop rotation was practiced as a way to avoid depleting the soil of various nutrients. Today, crop rotation is also an important component of soil and pest management in many agricultural production systems. Crop rotations can be as simple as rotating between two crops and planting sequences in alternate years or they can be more complex and involve numerous crops over several years. Proper crop rotation can reduce insects and disease-causing pathogens as well as weed pressure by breaking their lifecycles through removal of a

suitable host. Crop rotation can also aid in nutrient management through incorporation of crop residues and improve soil resiliency after a root crop such a carrot or potato. Many growers find yield increases when crops in different families are grown in rotation versus in monoculture and this is often referred to as the rotation effect.

One basic rule of crop rotation is that a crop should not follow itself. Continuous cropping will result in the build-up of disease causing pathogens, nematodes, insects and weeds that can lead to yield reductions. The development of a cropping sequence should take into consideration the use of cover crops and season-long soil building crops for improving soil tilth and increasing soil organic matter. Rotating with a diversity of root structures from taproots to fibrous-rooted crops will also improve the soils physical, chemical and biological qualities. Developing successful crop rotation sequences is farm specific and dependent on the unique combination of location and climatic factors, as well as economic and resource limitations.

All the life in the soil interacts together into what is termed the soil food web

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by Elham A. Ghabbour and Geoffrey DaviesDepartment of Chemistry and Chemical Biology,

Northeastern University, Boston, MA 02115

This article is about soil. Look at your soil. Feel it in your hands. Ask yourself what compounds in your soil are pH buffers, retain water, sequester soil organics, bind metal ions, neutralize toxic pollutants and enhance plant growth, all at the same time? The brown to black soil biomaterials were discussing are called humic substances (HSs), the essential components of healthy, productive soils. Humic substances got their name from their earthly source, humus.

Water retention and plant growth enhancement depend on soil organic matter (SOM) and especially on a soils HSs fraction. Arable soils have up to 10% SOM, of which HSs typically account for 80%. The major sources of SOM are shown in Figure 1. Dead leaves mixed in and on top of soil consist of 50-60% cellulose and other polysaccharides, 15-20% lignins and 15-20% of fatty molecules called lipids. Depending on the water and oxygen supply, temperature and other environmental factors, up to 80% of the carbon in these inputs may be converted to carbon dioxide (CO2) and released to the air within a year.

Figure 1. Typical soil inputs.

Humic Substances:Essential Components of a Healthy Soil

photo by Craig Bailey Northeastern University, Boston

Principal Scientist Dr. Elham Ghabbour and Prof. Geoffrey Davies direct the National Soil Project. However, with the aid of microbes, the remaining carbon is converted (humified) to give HSs that are much more stable over time than the inputs. In fact, carbon dating indicates that some HSs in soil are thousands of years old! But even these very

stable HSs react over many years with oxygen in the air to make CO2. This CO2 production from HSs respiration prevents the earth from being covered with HSs soup and completes the carbon cycle. So the basic difference between organic inputs to soil

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