Growing the Next Generation of Organic Leaders

An Interview With Regents Professor John Reganold, Founder of Washington State University’s Organic Agriculture Major and World Renowned Organic Researcher


Dr. John Reganold, Regents Professor of Soil Science at Washington State University, is known as one of the world’s foremost leaders in organic agricultural research. His on-farm studies, which have been featured in the most respected science journals and literally hundreds of newspapers and magazines, have been integral in touting the benefits of organic and proving that organic farming can lead to improved soil, crop quality, antioxidant levels and sustainability.

His studies combined have created some of the largest published data sets on organic agriculture and have made a significant impact on everything from U.S. public policy and farm bills to the development of the National Organic Program itself. Dr. Reganold is also co-author of three editions of a textbook titled Natural Resource Conservation: Toward a Sustainable Future and co-editor of the book, Organic Agriculture: A Global Perspective.

These days, in addition to his research, Dr. Reganold is cultivating a different kind of crop—the next generation of organic leaders. Spearheaded by Dr. Reganold, last year WSU launched the first ever U.S. organic agriculture major. This program is good news for the organic industry, which across the board has had trouble finding young talent with direct skills, knowledge and experience in the area of organic.

Dr. Reganold stepped out of the classroom for a few moments to chat with Organic Processing Magazine about the details of this new major as well as some of his most notable research projects.

OP: Other schools have offered a few organic farming courses—but you took it to the next level by creating an organic farming major. What led to this and how was it developed?

Reganold: In 2002, the demand for organic products in general was growing very fast and with the national guidelines about to come out, I really felt that we should develop a major. WSU has been examining organic agriculture issues for over 30 years and since we had all this great organic research going on already, it just made sense to start a class. The next step was to add a major. We added the major not only because of the demand in organics but we also wanted to get more students interested in agriculture. Compared to communications, business and marketing, agriculture just doesn’t seem all that sexy, but it is a great field to be in. The interest in organics is helping to bring life back into agriculture.

As for developing the program, it took me about a year to create the curriculum and visit the different departments such as horticulture, plant pathology, entomology, animal science and others to make sure they were on board and that they would include organic material in their course. Then my department colleague, Dr. Cathy Perillo, headed a detailed market survey.

After this there were about five committees at the university level that had to review everything. It took about nine months, but we made it through with no glitches. Then it had to pass the approval of the Washington Higher Education Coordinating Board and it did that in June of 2006. Today we have 11 students enrolled—which is pretty good considering we just started—but I’d like to build that number up to at least 30 or 40. We think the demand is really there.

OP: So what does the program encompass?

Reganold: Students have to take certain core courses such as introductory organic gardening and there is also a field course where they actually work on an organic community supported agriculture (CSA) farm. Here they learn everything from planting seedlings and building soil to pest management and keeping records. We actually sell about a hundred shares each year to people in the local community and it has been so popular that right now there is a waiting list.

The students all have to do at least one internship in their area of interest. I have a student who is specializing in viticulture and she is interning in France, where she will actually get to work on an organic vineyard. If others are more interested in the certification part of it we’ll hook them up with a certification agency. Or maybe they want to focus on the business marketing side or working for private industry with a company that produces organic products. We’re open to ideas. Maybe they read about a particular company or restaurant that sells organic. I have one student double majoring in organic agriculture and hospitality business management who is interested in interning with a restaurant that serves organic and locally grown food.

OP: It’s great to hear that this covers so many areas of the industry. Across the board it has been hard for companies to find young talent with organic expertise. So this was intended from the beginning to reach beyond just farming then?

Reganold: Most certainly. I have some students who are more interested in growing crops, some who even want to have their own CSA or go back to work on their parent’s farm and help convert it to organic. But I also have students more interested in the marketing or business side of organic food production, and there’s a real demand for that. Many conventional companies like General Mills, which owns Small Planet Foods, Kraft and many others that are getting into the industry are in need of people who have experience with organics. The writing is on the wall. The organic movement is probably the healthiest sector of agriculture in growth. There are even stores like Safeway that are committed to selling organic food with their “O” line and need employees.

We try to work with any organic producer or company the student is interested in. If a student tells me what they are looking for then I can help them set up an internship. If they’re more interested in working for a bigger company or even a small company, we try to make it fit as close to what they want as possible. It’s really done on an individual case-by-case basis. Even if we get up to 40 students we’ll still be able to address each one individually. Right now a number of the students are just freshman and sophomores, so they’re not ready for this yet. The internship is usually done in the senior year.

OP: Are you looking to have companies within the organic industry actually submit internships to you or come to you offering placement opportunities? How can processors support this whole effort?

Reganold: Yes, companies can definitely contact me about opportunities. I’ve had a few companies contact me already. One is actually a recruiter in the area of food science and they needed someone who knows about food science and organics. I don’t have anyone graduating right now so I can’t give the recruiter anybody, but I’ll be able to in two years. In fact, I have to say I have the perfect person in mind.

Other companies have contacted me about setting up internships, and one company, Pacific Natural Foods, out of the blue, without me asking, donated $10,000 in scholarships to the undergraduate major. In the end, we ended up giving scholarships to seven students and they were just blown away. It’s great that we had scholarship money to give out to undergrads because the price of college, even if it’s a public school like WSU, is so expensive. It’s much more expensive now then 10, 20, 30 years ago. Many of these students have to work a lot of extra hours just to stay in school or they take out loans, so the scholarships really helped.

To initially get the major off the ground, which included finding the farm, putting in irrigation lines and such, we also had money donated to us by Small Planet Foods and that money was matched by General Mills. Then food sales from the farm and some funding from the department have helped keep this going as well. We are actually talking to our development people at WSU and we are not only going to start more actively recruiting students for the major, but also ask for donations for undergraduate education in the form of scholarships, as well as money for the organic teaching farm.

OP: What do you envision for the future of this program? What kind of courses do you plan to expand into?

Reganold: Well, it’s kind of an evolving major. The demands of the organic market will certainly play a role as certain sectors are growing faster than others. So if processing is a big issue, then we would work with the Department of Food Sciences because they have people over there that do research with processed foods and they might want to bring in a new course dealing with processing organic foods. Or, dairy is such a hot area in organics right now that maybe the Animal Sciences Department might want to have a whole course in organic dairy production. It all depends on the demand.

OP: Any other ways for those in the industry to get involved? What about guest lecturing?

Reganold: A company or government agency might be able to work something out with the university where they offer a specific organic training course for students and students could get credit for this through the university. It would be almost like an internship where not just one student goes but maybe 10 students go. For example, the Washington State Department of Agriculture might have a week-long certification course and I may have all our students take it. Maybe students have to pay for the training course just like they would pay for a class. Students can also receive credit for the course as an independent study.

As far as guest lecturing, yes, we are open to it, and welcome representatives from private companies and government agencies in the organic agriculture area. I have had a certifying agent come in because he happened to be in the area certifying farms. He contacted me and I asked if he would mind coming in to talk about the guidelines.

OP: Besides spearheading this program at WSU, you’ve also lead some very important research projects, many of which have had a significant impact on U.S. public policy in farm bills. Can you please tell me about these?

Reganold: A number of the studies I have done have been published in prestigious journals and magazines such as Science, Nature, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and Scientific American. Because these journals are very well respected, they get a lot of media attention and then the information gets out to more of the public including lobbyists and organizations that have an impact on legislature. In that sense my research, and that of my colleagues at other universities, has been able to provide a large data set that has had a positive impact in helping shape policy and even the National Organic Program. Not only has the market for organic products been growing, but in the last 15 years there have been more and more published studies that prove that organic systems are economically viable and more sustainable.

One of the studies that had the most impact was probably our apple study. We compared organic, conventional and integrated apple production systems. All conditions were the same for each system except for farm management. For example, each system was growing Golden Delicious apples on the same rootstock and had the same soil type. We looked at soil quality, apple yield, tree size, apple size, apple firmness, apple flavor and sweetness, the levels of antioxidants, energy efficiency, economics and profitability.

When we looked at soil quality, we analyzed about 20 different soil properties and then put the results into an equation to judge overall soil quality. What we found was that organic and integrated farms had much better soil mainly because of compost additions. Then we looked at yields and cumulative yields over six years and all three farms were the same. The organic apples, however, were found to be sweeter and just as firm or firmer than the integrated and conventional apples. We later found that the organic apples had the highest antioxidant activity, too. When we looked at economics and what is most profitable—the most important factor to many farmers—we found that the organic system was the most profitable because it was able to produce similar yields but it was also getting a premium. Organic also was shown to be the most energy efficient and had the least potential for damaging the environment from pesticide use.

OP: Any other studies you are working on?

Reganold: Right now I have a study in California funded by The Organic Center that is looking at organic and conventional strawberry production, once again starting with the same variety of strawberries and soil type. We are comparing soil quality, but we are concentrating on strawberry nutritional quality because people are interested in knowing if organic fruit and vegetables are more nutritious than those conventionally produced. In this two-year study we’re analyzing soil biological and chemical properties as well as vitamin C, antioxidants and polyphenols in strawberries. We also want to know if there is a correlation between soil and strawberry quality. We are done with the field work and are working on the lab tests now.

Here at WSU we are also doing some studies on grain systems, comparing annual organic and no-till wheat systems with perennial wheat systems. Perennial grain systems are futuristic because right now farmers grow annual grains. We know that perennial prairie systems produce some of our best soils and do a good job in protecting them. To have perennial grain crops growing on the landscape is a real possibility. We now only have a handful of wheat breeders in the world developing perennial wheat so that is likely still 25 years away. In another research project with annual wheat, breeders in my department are finding that some wheat varieties that work well for conventional systems are not necessarily the best varieties for organic systems and that we may need to have a separate breeding program for organic systems. We also have research examining ways to grow organic leafy greens in hoophouses in the Northwest during the wintertime.

OP: Do you think it is important for processors to have close relationships with the farmers who supply their ingredients and stay in tune with what is going on in the agricultural world? How can they keep updated on what is going on with WSU’s organic research?

Reganold: Most definitely. Not only knowing what is happening on the farm but keeping up on the latest research in organic agriculture can help processors source better products and have a better idea of important sustainability issues and their effect on our food. Processors can visit a few different websites to catch up on WSU’s organic and sustainability research, teaching, and outreach programs: For WSU’s organic research go to css.wsu.edu/research/production_sustainable_ag/organic_ag.htm. For for WSU’s Center for Sustaining Agriculture and Natural Resources go to http://csanr.wsu.edu, or visit http://afs.wsu.edu/organic.htm for infomation on WSU’s new organic agriculture major.