The Farm Perspective from The Rodale Institute:
Organic Supply Challenges, New and Old

By Greg Bowman


Understanding where our food comes from has always been an important part of the organic philosophy. For processors, building relationships with producers and knowing the current issues in farming can make a big impact on everything from sourcing to the product quality.

Organic farmers not only have to face the same challenges as their conventional peers, but additional obstacles as well. They yearn for predictability and consistency in their operations, but face significant challenges in basic production and in their organic approach. These include issues of water (too much, too little or both just at the wrong time), weeds, livestock wellness and care, affordable labor, certification, profitable markets and suitable processing capacity.

In the summer of 2007, unprecedented high prices for corn due to demand for ethanol production are skewing conventional and organic commodity markets. Organic dairy-supply groups have been managing surplus demand for several years. They are now trying to find balance in the fluid milk supply even as the newer dairy producers scramble to find affordable organic grain for the coming winter. These acute stressors overlay continuing challenges caused by the evolving and still-developing nature of organic commodities.

$4 Corn Challenge
With ethanol subsidies continuing to increase demand for corn-as-fuel, conventional corn prices have doubled in the last few years. “Prices for Iowa corn are $4 a bushel, and it appears they will stay at that level for some months or years,” said Maury Johnson of Blue River Hybrids, a leading organic-seed-corn producer based in Iowa.

How will this affect processors? Well, even with organic feed-grade corn at $8 a bushel, the closer margin is having an impact in slowing down the number of farmers making the transition to organic according to Harriet Behar, organic outreach coordinator for the Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Service (MOSES). This means there will be less organic land available next year than would otherwise have been the case.

“There’s lots of cropland coming out of the Conservation Reserve Program this year and next year,” she explained. This CRP land has not been cultivated while farmers received USDA payments to keep their marginally profitable acres in a conservation mode to reduce soil erosion. This land is easily organic certifiable in most cases due to the non-use of prohibited materials during the CRP period. Yet without strong market incentives, these fields will likely go into non-organic cultivation, deferring entry into organic production for at least another three years (the waiting period for transitioning to organic after prohibited substances have been used).

While corn demand is predicted to stay strong for the next few years to fuel expanding ethanol facilities, other crops will be explored as more efficient sources of renewable fuel. Cellulistic fermentation uses biomass from stalks of corn and more sustainable crops such as switchgrass. These options, however, need further research to be commercially viable.

In the meantime, processors should contract with farmers six months to a year or more in advance in order to ensure that the supply they need is available.

The Matter of Scale
Although organic is growing fast, it is still a small market compared to the conventional folks, which can cause issues. Behar said many organic producers are frustrated by the economic instability inherent in the dearth of appropriate processing facilities for the volume of crops or livestock they produce. This is particularly a problem with poultry, where even a low minimum run at a slaughterhouse will be 6,000 broilers. Also, it takes a USDA-licensed facility for farmers to be able to market their meat out of state.

Behar notes that one regional USDA plant goes out of its way to help a number of organic farmers coordinate their production so they can combine their flocks at the same time. “Trouble is, not many plants will do that,” she said.

“Family-scale cereal grain growers who want to move beyond direct sale of their products find similar issues when they want to get grain cleaned, graded, polished and bagged,” Behar said. Affordable packaging and labeling are also a challenge for farmers new to this scale of marketing.

Tradition and Change
Experienced non-organic farmers often resist going organic because of the level of change in farming style. Jeff Moyer, farm manager at The Rodale Institute, has been involved in promoting organics to farmers for more than 30 years.

He says the following historic points of pushback to organic conversion remain within the non-organic farming:

Farmers, by nature, are resistant to big changes in how they think about farming. It’s one thing to accept corn seed that has been genetically modified to increase “control” of what happens in the field, as the majority of conventional grain corn farmers have done in the Midwest. This innovation continues an input/output focused approach. It’s a much bigger leap to adopt an organic model where farmers work on shaping a customized farming system based on years of improvement, accepting decreased ability to make acute corrections day to day during the growing season.

Regulatory requirements can appear daunting in the initial phases. Without an introduction that lays out the rationale beyond the needed records for organic certification and the added value of a solid audit trail in terms of food safety protocol, farmers new to organic may see the “hassle factor” as too much to deal with. “If they talk to an experienced organic farmer who can personally explain the rewards of the organic marketplace and the supportive organic community, these new farmers realize things aren’t nearly as bad as they might appear at first glance,” said Moyer.

It needs to be about more than just the money. People who leap into organics with dollar signs in their eyes without doing their homework and business planning usually don’t make it unless they come around rather quickly to really invest in understanding what organics is about.

Most of the early adapters from the agricultural sector are already in organics, but now some are coming from other careers. They face steep learning curves in both farming and the specialized demands of organic production and marketing.

“Good conventional farmers usually make good organic farmers, but they have to retool their skills and make a commitment. If they fail to do both of these things, initial setbacks can keep them from staying in the organic community,” Moyer said.

The issue of commitment is primary, he believes. “Farmers are incredibly tenacious at making things work once they determine the goal. When they decide there is no turning back from a commitment to organics, they can make it work.”

Organic farmers want to be part of a business world that reflects a commitment to assuring quality and as much consistency as possible in a system based on natural processes. Innovative “value-chain” partnerships with buyers and processors may be a way that the organic community can offset some of these challenges to bringing more organic product to market.

Greg Bowman is managing editor of www.newfarm.org at The Rodale Institute. In 1942, J.I. Rodale coined the term “organic” when he started Organic Farming and Gardening magazine. J.I. and his son, Robert, focused on developing and documenting organic methods for farm-scale production of healthy crops. The Rodale Institute has been continuing this work for 60 years, with an emphasis on connecting farming, families and food.

Through NewFarm.org, a monthly webzine, The Institute provides information and inspiration to organic and sustainable farmers through stories, online tools and access to research. The Institute conducts research, develops training material and collaborates with public and private partners to advance its motto of “Healthy Soil, Healthy Food, Healthy People.”