- Small-Scale Oilseed Processing
- Intercropping Principles and Production Practices
- Organic Allium Production
- Nutrient Cycling in Pastures
ATTRAnews DIGEST
The Electronic ATTRA Newsletter
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Fall/Winter 1998-1999
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Appropriate Technology Transfer for Rural Areas (ATTRA) CONTENTS: Rominger: USDA advances sustainable ag as major policy issue
U.S. Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Richard Rominger issued some kind
remarks about ATTRA during a workshop Feb. 4 in Washington with USDA officials
and a diverse audience which included staff members of farm commodity groups,
the American Farm Bureau, the Henry A. Wallace Institute for Alternative
Agriculture and other groups.
The National Center for Appropriate Technology (NCAT), which operates
the ATTRA project, organized the meeting as a showcase of sustainable agriculture
information and services available for U.S. farmers through the USDA and
ATTRA. Rominger also spoke about USDA efforts to advance sustainable agriculture
as a major policy issue.
Rominger's presentation was followed by brief remarks from Under Secretary
for Rural Development Jill Long Thompson, who described how ATTRA's work
fits into the mission of USDA Rural Development. Also in attendance from
USDA were Dayton Watkins and Randall Torgerson from Rural Business -Cooperative
Service which funds ATTRA. Three ATTRA staff members presenting an overview
of ATTRA operations were Project Manager Teresa Maurer, Associate Project
Manager Rex Dufour and Technical Specialist Ron Morrow.
As the session began, Rominger commended ATTRA for its decade of service
to U.S. sustainable agriculture.
"You've (ATTRA staffers) taken sustainable agriculture from a point,
about two decades ago, when the concept was being debated and researched,
to where we are today," Rominger said. "The strength of NCAT and
ATTRA is that they are among the few organizations that integrate agriculture's
profitability with the environment and rural community development. This
is the heart of sustainability. This is what farmers on the ground have
to deal with on a day by day basis, and you're there for them."
ATTRA staffers praised
Rominger credited ATTRA's impact on sustainable agriculture to "everyone
who's been involved with ATTRA in its 10-year history, especially those
on the other end of that 1-800 number who are standing by - ready, willing
and knowledgeable - to answer more than 18,000 requests a year on everything
from novel waste-management wetlands to pastured poultry...to everyone who's
provided first-rate information materials. I want to compliment ATTRA on
your clear and comprehensive website - one of the best in agriculture."
The Under Secretary said he particularly liked two quotations from the
early 1980s which were featured in the recent 10-year anniversary issue
of ATTRAnews. The quotes were from farmer/poet Wendell Berry who said, "What
is needed is an agriculture that erodes neither soil nor people," and
from Myron Johnsrud, who was then USDA Extension Service administrator,
who commented, "The farmers of today and tomorrow...will ask increasingly
more complex questions, far beyond the simple decision of either using high-input
versus low-input, or what I prefer to call SUSTAINABLE agriculture."
"Almost two decades later, those quotes are proving prophetic,"
Rominger said. USDA focuses on small farms
Rominger said USDA's efforts are a "work-in-progress." "We're
working to establish your model - ATTRA's combination of profitability,
environmental concern and rural development."
Recent USDA efforts towards that goal include creation last fall of the
Office of Small Farms and Sustainable Development, directed by Adela Backiel,
to identify an array of opportunities for USDA in small farms issues. "It
will develop an organizational structure that reflects our determination
to do right and do better by small and beginning farmers," Rominger
said.
The USDA has named a Small Farm Action Team to ensure that recommendations
by the Small Farm Commission, which was appointed about a year ago by Agriculture
Secretary Dan Glickman, "move off the drawing board and into action...
recommendations like the need to institutionalize small farm issues throughout
the department," Rominger said. "We're working right now to make
sure sensitivity to small farm issues exists at every level and in every
USDA program area."
Rominger said two new budget initiatives by the Clinton Administration,
which relate to many of USDA's natural resource conservation programs, are
the "Livability Agenda for the 21st Century" and the "Lands
Legacy Initiative." The initiatives will help communities preserve
green space, curb urban sprawl, conserve and restore wetlands, and protect
America's prime farmland.
Southern PDP visits ATTRA offices, tours PDP forage project on an Ozark
ranch About 40 members of USDA's Southern Region Professional Development Program
(PDP) dropped by ATTRA offices recently and enjoyed a tour led by ATTRA
staffers of an Ozark ranch where they viewed a PDP forage and sustainable
beef management project in operation.
State sustainable agriculture coordinators and members of the PDP Leadership
Committee were attending their annual meeting from Oct. 7-8 in Fayetteville,
AR.
NCAT coordinates trainings
Under PDP, Extension agents from across the U.S. are studying sustainable
agriculture systems. The National Center for Appropriate Technology (NCAT),
which manages ATTRA, is helping to coordinate PDP programs in the Southern
and Western regions.
At ATTRA offices, staff members showed the PDP entourage how questions
posed by farmers and other ag professionals via the 800-line are researched,
compiled and sent to callers. That afternoon, the group ventured off on
a field trip to observe the results of a PDP-funded project on the farm
of John and Becky Spain in the War Eagle community, about 20 miles northeast
of Fayetteville.
The Spains raise about 50,000 turkeys a year in commercial poultry houses
for the Cargill company and run 130 Salers brood cows on their 220-acre
farm. Turkey litter is applied to pastures that produce a variety of cool-
and warm-season grasses in a network of small paddocks.
The Spains worked closely in the development of the beef sustainability
checksheet, a project funded by the PDP and coordinated by ATTRA staffers.
The checksheet helps educators and producers assess and monitor sustainability
of a cow-calf program.
Ron Morrow, an ATTRA technical specialist who is one of the principal
collaborators on the project said, "Folks on the tour were able to
see for themselves some of the management practices used on the farm and
incorporated into the checksheet."
The Spains are also founding membersof the Grassroots Grazing Group (GGG),
an organization of 50 northwest Arkansas ranch families who sponsor monthly
pasture walks and study groups to promote research, production and harvesting
of quality forages. The GGG is coordinated by ATTRA staff members and Extension
and NRCS staffs in Washington County, AR.
At tour's end, PDP members enjoyed a meal of barbecued beef and beans
atop a high hill overlooking the beautiful rolling ranchland of the War
Eagle Valley. The green carpet of volunteer ryegrass was testament to sustainable
forage management at the Spain farm.
USDA & Engelhard Corp. develop promising organic apple spray
ATTRA is compiling information about a revolutionary spray material that
may allow organic apple production to be a much more viable economic reality
in the eastern U.S. where crops have been decimated by such pests as the
plum curculio.
To be marketed this year on a limited basis under the tradename "Surround,"
kaolin clay, used as a "particle film" spray, was developed by
Drs. Michael Glenn and Gary Puterka of the USDA/ARS at Kearneysville, WV,
in cooperation with the Engelhard Corporation of Iselin, NJ.
"There are many impediments to organic apple growing, but none as
serious as the plum curculio (PC) in the eastern U.S.," says Guy Ames,
an ATTRA technical specialist who with his wife, Carolyn, operates Ames
Orchard and Nursery in the Arkansas Ozarks.
Ames has been in contact with researchers of the new spray which has received
EPA registration as GRAS (generally recognized as safe). Test trials have
been conducted in the eastern and western U.S. Surround will also have to
be approved as "organic" by various certification entities.
"Dr. Puterka is careful to say that his trials indicate 'suppression'
of PC damage rather than complete control," Ames notes. "But what
he terms 'suppression' in these USDA trials is better than any other organic
control of which I'm aware."
Plum curculio tests
Ames says test trials of the spray showed that where PC damage was 20-30%
in unsprayed checks, the treatments receiving the particle film sprays had
only .5-1% damage.
"Dr. Puterka opined that where PC pressure is heavier, such as in
unsprayed trees in northwest Arkansas which can suffer up to ninety percent
damage, shortening the spray interval from seven to ten days to every five
days might very well provide the necessary economic level of control,"
Ames says.
Researchers explain that the clay itself is the same as that used in such
products as Kaopectate and toothpaste. There appears to be essentially no
mammalian toxicity or any danger posed to the environment by the spray.
"The particle film technology appears to provide adequate control
of most, if not all, apple mite and insect pests, including pear psylla,
with the possible exception of wooly apple aphid. It even controlled Japanese
beetles," Ames says.
Ames said Dr. Puterka resists making sweeping claims about this new technology
and expresses some concern over adoption of by some producers. Puterka says
that the frequency of sprays (7-10 days in high rainfall areas) and the
volume of material necessary (many lbs. per 100 gal. water) will deter adoption
by some.
Applying Surround
Surround is sprayed on as a liquid, which evaporates, leaving a film on
the plant or crop surface. It does not appear to interfere with photosynthesis.
Conventional spray equipment can be used. However, many growers will want
to add a scrubber/washer to their post harvest equipment to remove any clay
dust residue (although this residue is not considered harmful, it might
be considered unsightly by many consumers). In some areas, rainfall will
be enough to "weather-off" the material.
Disease control limited
John Mosko, technical representative for Engelhard Corporation, told Ames
the company will not pursue label registration for disease control.
"Mr. Mosko said that what appeared to be good suppression of diseases
in early studies wasn't always borne out in subsequent trials," Ames
relates. "While there was perhaps significant suppression of a given
disease, it might not have been comparable to known conventional controls."
Sales this season of Surround are expected to be limited to Washington
and Oregon. The company does not yet have printed informational literature
on Surround. People who wish to receive such information when it is available
can join a listserv by emailing Mosko at john.mosko@engelhard.com.
ATTRA does not endorse any commercial product. For more information
about Surround, call ATTRA toll-free at 1-800-346-9140.
22 sustainable ag leaflets available on ATTRA website
ATTRA on its website is offering a series of information leaflets that
staff members created as part of a showcase display on sustainable agriculture
that traveled through the midwestern and northwestern U.S.
Written by ATTRA specialists, the 22 leaflets were part of the "Planting
Your Farm's Future" show which was sponsored by the Northwest Area
Foundation. The roadshow was featured at agricultural trade shows where
attendees were largely farmers raising crops and livestock by conventional
production methods. Within the leaflets, farmers were invited to call ATTRA
for sustainable ag info.
The concise, easy-to-read leaflets cover an array of sustainable ag topics,
list additional information resources and offer profiles of farmers who
have adapted sustainable farming methods.
To view or download the leaflets, click the "Publications" buttons
on ATTRA's homepage. and choose the "Planting
Your Farm's Future Leaflets" section.
USDA creates Small Farms Council & Office
U.S. Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman has announced plans to create a
Council on Small Farms, along with a new office at USDA that will deal specifically
with small farm issues.
Glickman said Deputy Secretary Richard Rominger will chair the Council
to assure a coordinated framework for the development of policy as it applies
to small farms. Adela Backiel, current director of Sustainable Development,
will serve as executive director of the Council and oversee the office.
To be located in the Office of the Chief Economist, the office would coordinate
USDA agencies' responses to the recommendations of the Small Farms Commission
and help to institutionalize the progress and interest in these issues,
Glickman said. Backiel will be supported by two deputy directors-one for
small farms and the other for sustainable development.
"This office, reporting directly to me, will maintain the focus of
all USDA's agencies on small and family farmers," Glickman said.
USDA launches farmer direct-marketing homepage
The USDA has launched a new farmer direct marketing Internet web page.
According to Michael V. Dunn, USDA's under secretary for marketing and
regulatory programs, the web page is aimed at small and medium-sized producers
and others interested in learning more about farmer direct marketing. The
page contains links to federal, state, university, and other web sites relating
to direct marketing. It also features a monthly newsletter, publications,
a bibliography, and schedule of national and regional conferences and workshops.
The Farmer Direct Marketing web site can be found at www.ams.usda.gov/directmarketing.
Campaign's top FY2000 priorities: ATTRA, SARE, PDP
Margaret Krome, appropriations coordinator for the National Campaign for
Sustainable Agriculture, has announced that increased funding in FY2000
for ATTRA, the USDA Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE)
program, and the SARE Professional Development Program will be the Campaign's
three top priorities during the upcoming USDA appropriations process.
Krome said the Campaign supports $2 million for ATTRA (up from $1.3M),
$12M for SARE (up from $8M), and $5M for PDP (up from $3.3M). "Need
for these programs' services far outstrips these small increases,"
she said.
For further details, please contact Krome at (608)238-1440.
OTA Fiber Council publishes Organic Cotton Directory
The Organic Trade Association's Fiber Council, in collaboration with the
Pesticide Action Network, is offering the first-ever Organic Cotton Directory-a
comprehensive guide for organic cotton companies and their products.
The Directory contains listings and complete contact information for more
than 125 companies, organic cotton growers, brokers, mills, manufacturers,
wholesalers and retailers providing a complete networking tool for the growing
organic cotton industry.
Please order by phone (413-774-7511) or fax (413-774-6432). Cost is:
Non-OTA members: $15, plus $3 shipping and handling (Massachusetts residents
add $0.75 sales tax; OTA members: $10, plus $3 shipping and handling (Massachusetts
residents add $0.50 sales tax).
Western SARE and SAN websites have new URLs
The website for the Western Region's Sustainable Agriculture Research and
Education (SARE) homepage has been changed to http://wsare.usu.edu/.
The Sustainable Agriculture Network's website has also changed its URL
to: http://www.sare.org/.
Both websites offer a wealth of information on sustainable agriculture.
The Western SARE site includes grant information, project-by-project specifics
of work funded by Western SARE and the program's electronic Annual Reports
and searchable databases.
SAN's homepage has such features as full-text books like the Source
Book of Sustainable Agriculture, links to other sites, SARE highlights
and grant summaries, and SANET archives.
New or revised ATTRA materials:
Quote of the day:
"The United States is both the world's largest food exporter and importer.
In the global industrial food system, U.S. corporations have no need to
protect specific pieces of farmland from development - production is simply
moved elsewhere. When food travels an average of 1,300 miles from field
to table, consumers see little reason to protect local farmland...Relocalizing
the food system both requires, and is necessary for, the preservation of
farmland. In a local food system, land that might otherwise be taken out
of farming because it cannot profitably produce for the global marketplace
can be kept in production because it serves the needs and tastes of local
consumers."
-- Under the Blade: The Conversion
P.O. BOX 3657
FAYETTEVILLE, AR 72702
PHONE: 1-800-346-9140 --- FAX: (501) 442-9842
Rominger: USDA advances sustainable ag as major policy
issue
Southern PDP visits ATTRA offices, tours PDP forage project
on Ozark ranch
USDA & Engelhard Corp. develop promising organic
apple spray
22 sustainable ag leaflets available on ATTRA website
USDA creates Small Farms Council & Office
USDA launches farmer direct-marketing homepage
Campaign's top FY2000 priorities: ATTRA, SARE, PDP
OTA Fiber Council publishes Organic Cotton Directory
Western SARE and SAN websites have new URLs
New or revised ATTRA materials
Quote of the day
"Farmers are asking tough questions. USDA is responding in two ways
- in terms of organization and policies."
of Agricultural Landscapes, a new book
co-edited by Richard Olson, University
of Nebraska and Tom Lyson, Cornell
University.
webmaster@attra.org