By Jim Riddle

Jim Riddle

If an organic check-off is implemented, I am concerned that organic agriculture could be forever relegated to a niche market status, when the larger goal is to change all of agriculture to be ecologically sustainable. Organic should be integrated into all agricultural programs, including research and promotion, rather than being pushed off to the side with its own pot of money.

Along those lines, the organic community’s focus could shift from getting our fair share of all agricultural funding to the promotion of specific organic products. (With all of the energy recently put into organic check-off discussions, I am concerned that this may already be happening, since funding for all organic programs from the 2008 Farm Bill was lost in the 9 month Farm Bill extension.)

I am also concerned with the proposal that organic be categorized as a commodity in order to establish a check-off program. Organic is a production system, and certification validates that the production and handling systems comply with Federal regulations, following a process-based verification of the system. Read Full Article »

Posted in Opinion/Editorial

Don’t believe the hype: GM is in the grip of a few firms that profit from selling the chemicals they engineer their seeds to resist

The Observer
By John Vidal

Thirty years ago, genetic engineers hoped new technology would revolutionise world farming and reduce or even eliminate the need for fertilisers and pesticides. It was a noble idea that deserved success.

But only promises came. In the 1990s the public was told genetic modification would increase yields enough to feed the world. Now in an age of climate change we hear that GM can reduce climate change emissions, improve drought tolerance, stimulate growth and eliminate poverty.

Perhaps all these benefits to society will one day accrue, but my fear, after tens of billions of dollars of public and private research and development money have been spent by some of the world’s most powerful companies, is that it has met a dead end.

Only a handful of GM food crops such as maize, soy and oilseed rape are grown widely and mostly in only a few countries.

Instead, the business is in the grip of a few global chemical companies who make their profits mostly from the sale of the chemicals they engineer their seeds to resist. Read Full Article »

Posted in Opinion/Editorial

By Kevin Engelbert, Organic Dairy Farmer, Nichols, NY

The basic premise of parity pricing is the belief that the selling price of a product or produce should go up or down in the same amount as the prices of the inputs used in its production. Another way to phrase the idea of parity price: the parity price of a particular commodity is the price giving a unit of the commodity a comparable purchasing power to that in the base period. The concept of parity is also widely applied in industrial wage contracts as a means of preserving the real value of wages.

Image courtesy of Bert Martinez

The concept of parity pricing first surfaced in the early 1900s, when people realized that agriculture production must exchange on par with the rest of the economy, because the US economy is based on division of labor. Once farming became proficient enough to provide more food than the individual farmer needed to feed his family, the spinoff of labor then allowed the development of an industrial economy. So even though agriculture has fewer people involved in farm production, it still has the same economic function to preform and must generate the same buying power as all other sectors of the economy. In other words, to function properly an economy in a democratic republic must be a par economy.

Introduction of “Fair Exchange Value” or Parity Pricing

At a conference on agricultural policy called by Secretary of Agriculture Henry C. Wallace in 1922, the parity concept was introduced. Parity was also then referred to as “fair exchange value”. The conference’s goal was to figure out a way to maintain a fair price to farmers for the products they produced. At the same time, many farm groups were forming in an effort to lobby the government to ensure farmers received a fair price for the agricultural commodities they produced. Read Full Article »

Posted in Opinion/Editorial

Common Dreams
By Ronnie Cummins, Director, Organic Consumers Association

A growing number of organic consumers, natural health advocates and climate hawks are taking a more comprehensive look at the fundamental causes of global warming. And it’s led them to this sobering conclusion: Our modern energy-, chemical- and GMO-intensive industrial food and farming systems are the major cause of man-made global warming.

Ronnie Cummins

How did they reach this conclusion? First, by taking a more inclusive look at the scientific data on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions – not just carbon dioxide (CO2), but also methane and nitrous oxide. Next, by doing a full accounting of the fossil fuel consumption and emissions of the entire industrial food and farming cycle, including inputs, equipment, production, processing, distribution, heating, cooling and waste. And finally, by factoring in the indirect impacts of contemporary agriculture, which include deforestation and wetlands destruction.

When you add it all up, the picture is clear: Contemporary agriculture is burning up our planet. And factory farms or, in industry lingo, Confined Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs), play a key role in this impending disaster. Read Full Article »

Posted in Opinion/Editorial

Francis Thicke

We haven’t had a working dairy farmer on the NOSB since Kevin Engelbert completed his term and joined the Cornucopia Institute’s Board of Directors.

Cornucopia has been highly-critical over the years of some of the legally-questionable appointments by the USDA to serve on the governing board, overseeing organics, that was set up by Congress. But here’s an appointment of an individual of impeccable credentials. In addition to his experience as a grass-based dairy producer, and years of involvement in the environmental movement, he holds a PhD in soil science. Read Full Article »

Posted in Opinion/Editorial