Some are Worrying about the Push for Smaller Farm Sizes

DesMoines Register

Angela Jackson is not a typical Iowa farmer and certainly isn't the typical recipient of farm subsidies.

She grows vegetables for local supermarkets, not grain for biofuels or livestock feed.

But she's the kind of farmer the Obama administration wants more of, and that raises alarms among some colleagues in conventional agriculture. They worry they'll be harmed by the Agriculture Department's new focus on small farms and encouragement local production of fruits and vegetables.

"USDA shifted on me," said Tim Burrack, a farmer near Arlington in northeast Iowa who is chairman of the Iowa Corn Promotion Board. He said the Obama administration's local-foods initiative, dubbed "Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food," to promote small-scale agriculture, will drive up food costs because large farms are more efficient.

Jim McFerson, who manages the Washington Tree Fruit Research Commission, said there isn't enough consumer demand for fresh produce to accommodate all the new farms the USDA wants.

"How does this magic wand happen ... so there's room for these small- and medium-size farmers to produce apples in Kansas and artichokes in Maine?" McFerson asked at a recent USDA conference.

Jackson, a former college professor who farms near Sioux City, welcomed the change at the USDA. She recently applied for a $4,000 grant to buy a second portable-type greenhouse, an open-ended, plastic-covered structure made by FarmTek in Dyersville and known as a "high tunnel." The structures allows her to plant tomatoes in April and harvest spinach into December.

She expects to triple her production to fill demand from six area Hy-Vee stores, including two each in Sioux City and Sioux Falls, S.D. She'll use her profits to expand even more.

"The consumer is driving this," she said.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, a former Iowa governor, said that helping farmers like Jackson will keep people on the land, generate income for rural economies and improve Americans' health by eating more fresh produce. But he said conventional growers, known collectively in agribusiness circles as "production agriculture," stand to benefit, too, because the administration's campaign will improve the image that urban dwellers have of farmers and farm programs.

"The shrinking number of farmers and shrinking number of rural legislators mean we need to create alliances and create partnerships to make sure people understand what production agriculture does and make sure it has continuing support," Vilsack said.

Conventional grain and cotton farms such as Burrack's still dominate the USDA's farm programs.

Rules for who gets what and how much are set by Congress in the farm bills. Burrack and his family operation received more than $1.5 million in crop subsidies from 1995 through 2006, according to the Environmental Working Group. In 2007, Iowa farmers and landowners collectively received $775 million in USDA payments.

The Obama administration's campaign for locally grown foods tries to lead by example, which meant digging up part of the White House grounds for a garden; using the bully pulpit; and directing some conservation spending, loan guarantees and other assistance toward bolstering small-scale farming.

Last month, the USDA's annual agricultural outlook conference, a widely attended affair that draws agribusiness representatives and academics from around the country, was headlined, "Sustainable Agriculture: The key to health and prosperity." It featured speakers who uncharacteristically criticized conventional agriculture. One food service executive said his company is reducing its use of beef and buying meat produced without antibiotics.

The USDA deputy secretary, Kathleen Merrigan, is a long-time advocate of organic food and small-scale farming. Under her direction, the department is using programs and legal authority provided by Congress in the 2008 farm bill to steer some grants and loans to farmers as well as new processors and distribution networks needed by small-scale farms. The department awarded $650,000 to Prairieland Foods, to process milk in the Lincoln, Neb., area.

Jackson is among 18 Iowa farmers who have applied for money earmarked in a conservation program to subsidize the high-tunnel houses. Jackson qualifies for an especially large grant because she's a woman and a beginning farmer.

The department is working on a manual on food-safety regulations for small meat processors and mobile slaughter units.

Burrack and McFerson spoke at the outlook conference. Burrack said Midwest farmers weren't ready for what the administration was doing. Afterward, at least one agribusiness lobbyist complimented Burrack's remarks, and the farmer got into an impromptu debate with attendees who were questioning conventional farming practices.

Vilsack also gets heat from critics on the other side, especially for his support of genetically engineered crops and associations with the biotech industry.

Groups such as the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition accused the administration of reneging on a campaign pledge to tighten subsidy eligibility rules for large farms. Some appointees set off alarms, including the USDA's new research chief, Roger Beachy, a leading biotech crop scientist. The White House's nominee as agricultural trade negotiator, Islam Siddiqui, is a former pesticide industry lobbyist.

"I must be doing something right," Vilsack said. "What folks on both sides of this debate want the USDA to do is pick sides, and I think that's the last thing USDA should do."

Some advocates of small-scale farming say his critics need to be more patient.

Small Farmers Experi-Mint With Crop Diversification

Story from the Detroit News

As Crosby Mint Farm prepares for its 98th harvest of the fragrant herb, siblings Jim and Linette Crosby, fourth-generation growers, are busy forming business partnerships they hope will keep the family farm operating for many years.

With the cost of farming going up and the price of mint oil increasing only $8 per pound since 1925, Jim Crosby said it was crucial to look for new ways to make the farm -- the oldest mint producing operation in the United States -- profitable. But, when the farm in St. Johns, near Lansing, recently came under the threat of foreclosure, diversification became a matter of survival.

"I had to do it," he said, "because I wanted to keep the farm going."

Above: Double The Fun -- Jim Crosby, right, has partnered with Dr. Eugene Watkins, who owns Pure Herbs Ltd. in Sterling Heights. The firm recently bought 200 gallons of spearmint oil. (Pure Herbs Ltd.)


New products boost business
Crosby, who goes by the nickname "Peppermint," started looking for a mint oil distributor 25 years ago, but couldn't find one who shared his commitment to improving the quality of customers' lives.

So, he diversified the 130-acre farm in other ways, including opening the farm to tourists in 1998 and developing a mint-based cleaner and a mint-based compost, which he began selling in 1997. In the past year, Crosby formed partnerships with a candle company, a candy company and a honey producer that use the mint oil in their products.

Before him, his parents and grandparents sold the mint and oil wholesale to a broker. During the 1940s and 1950s, mint farming was profitable, Crosby said, but markets changed and the price of mint held steady while expenses went up; smaller growers lost contracts because larger farms could do it cheaper. Crosby could see he was going to have to do things differently if he wanted to keep the farm viable.

Jim Crosby said it was crucial to look for new ways to make the farm -- the oldest mint producing operation in the United States -- profitable

His dad died in 2005, and his uncle, who helped maintain the farm, had a stroke a year later, leaving Crosby on his own. He was so busy taking care of the everyday operations that he let the business aspect slip away. Four years ago, he had taken out four loans, but wasn't able to repay them all.

That's when the lender Greenstone Farm Credit Services started the foreclosure process. Shortly after that, all the partnerships Crosby had begun forming crumbled because no one wanted to do business with a farm that wouldn't be around for long.

"We had done a lot, but it goes back to wearing all the hats," he said.

Pete Lemmer, an attorney for Greenstone, said the agency is working with Crosby and they have agreed on a repayment plan.
Interest in mint oil increases

Crosby has since formed new partnerships with candymaker R Candies in Bellevue, Soy-Beam Candle Buffet in Owosso and Frantz Honey in Davison to use the mint oil in their products. Henry Ford Hospital also is buying the oil for medicinal uses, he said.

The partnerships have generated more income for the farm and give the mint oil international exposure, Crosby said. Business is up 125 percent since the partnerships were formed, he said, and customers all over the country and as far away as Europe are interested in buying the oil and mint.

"We're able to offer more products people are asking for or wanting to buy," Crosby said.

R Candies began using Crosby's mint oil in its candies a year ago and it's getting rave reviews from customers.

"My strongest impression is that they love the freshness of the mint," said Ed Baker, whose family operates the company. "It makes a humongous difference."

Pure Herbs Ltd., an herbal manufacturing company in Sterling Heights, just bought its first shipment of 200 gallons of spearmint oil from Crosby Mint Farm last week, fulfilling Crosby's wish 25 years ago to partner with a business that shared his philosophy. Pure Herbs plans to sell the oil to its 6,500 active U.S. distributors.

The company bought the oil after owner Eugene Watkins tried it and loved it, said Al Pfund, production manager. The staff also liked the fact that it was 100 percent natural.

"We were very, very impressed," Pfund said. "We don't want the kind of oil that's made for food or has anything synthetic in it."

Even with all the financial trouble Crosby and his sister have faced during the past couple of years and their ongoing struggle to save the farm, he still believes in what they are doing and vows to continue growing mint and educating the public.

"Every day is a challenge and every day is a test of faith," he said. "It's always easy to walk away, but when you're doing what your heart believes, there are no obstacles."

Will Small Farms Suffer From New Food Safety Rules?

Story Originally Posted at the New York Times

As salmonella-tainted pistachios and peanuts fuel the latest in a series of food-borne-illness outbreaks, lawmakers are proposing a flurry of bills aimed at strengthening the country's neglected food safety system.

But while food industry giants that have long opposed new regulations are beginning to change their tune, small-scale producers are growing increasingly vocal about their own concerns.

The problem, they say, is that small farmers, who are most accountable for their food's freshness and health, may suffer the heaviest burden under proposed new food rules.

"A lot of people worry that what's on the books right now is very much geared toward the biggest agricultural players," said Patty Lavera, assistant director of the nonprofit consumer group Food and Water Watch. "It's sort of a one-size-fits-all approach, and when its one size fits all, it's usually written by the big guy."

Bills sponsored by Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.) and Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) contain measures that would ramp up federal oversight of farms and food processors, granting new inspection powers to the Food and Drug Administration, imposing agricultural standards for food crops, and beefing up record-keeping requirements that would help regulators trace a tainted food product to its source.

Large food processors that lost tens of millions of dollars from peanut product recalls and the resulting consumer wariness have begun to voice cautious support for the measures, with Kellogg CEO David Mackay last month telling Congress: "I think anything we can do to strengthen confidence in the food safety system in the U.S. is worth doing"(E&E Daily, March 20).

But small-scale farmers say the big companies have the funds and staff to comply with the rules, and that factory farms that specialize in mass-producing one item are better positioned to comply with mandates to establish food safety plans for every product they sell.

"A small farm is much more likely to grow multiple things and have a diversified approach," Lavera said. "So if they have to take 19 steps for each of those crops, it's much harder for them than a large farm that only grows one or two things."

Small farmers argue that they are already much more accountable to their customers for the quality of their product than are mass-production facilities, and that they will be crushed under the weight of well-meaning laws aimed at large industrial offenders.

Particularly burdensome are proposed standards for record-keeping, they say. While the DeLauro bill would allow for paper record-keeping, the Dingell bill mandates electronic record-keeping. Small farm operations fear that such a rule would involve establishing an expensive and time-consuming system that could put them out of business.

"The law requires that a food safety plan be written up and that the farms keep a record of the way it is administering the plans," said Alexis Baden-Mayer, political director of the Organic Consumers Association, a nonprofit advocacy group. "If it was scale appropriate and was mashed in with organic standards, it would be fine. But it's not."

Examining California program

A new California program that regulates leafy greens illustrates how small farmers who practice sustainable methods can be the unintentional targets of laws aimed at industrial offenders, Baden-Mayer said.

After investigators discovered that a 2006 E. coli outbreak in spinach may have been linked to animal feces on California farmland, the state developed new industry standards that advocate ripping out wild areas on farms to discourage wild animals from entering.

"Organic standards specifically say you are supposed to cultivate the wild land on your farm, and having the area filter water has a lot of benefits," Baden-Mayer said. "One of the principles is just that -- we're going to farm in a way that's not disruptive to nature."

While participating in the regulatory program is voluntary, E. coli-wary retailers are increasingly demanding compliance.

Farmers are seeing the same trend in voluntary FDA and Agriculture Department standards called "good agricultural practices," which include several common-sense measures such as hand-washing but can dock farms points if they sit within 2 miles of livestock.

Critics say the rules unfairly penalize small farmers who grow crops and raise cattle on the same farm, while failing to address what they believe is the root of the E. coli problem -- large, mismanaged feedlots that cram cattle together and spew waste runoff.

But even livestock on small or organic farms can carry pathogenic E. coli, and small producers should not be exempt from such guidelines, said James Gorny, executive director of the Postharvest Technology Research and Information Center at the University of California, Davis.

"Certainly, the risk increases with the number of animals per square mile. But there's no free ride just because you're a small producer," Gorny said. "Organic producers feel like there's a halo around their products with all aspects of food safety, and that's just not the case with microbial hazards."

Do regulators understand small farms?

Still, critics say regulators suffer from a lack of understanding of small farm operations, and that it shows when rules are drafted.

"The process of establishing these guidelines and turning them into standards that must be met to enter certain markets has been a purely technical one, and has not included organic or diversified farms as part of the discussion," said Russell Libby, executive director of the Maine Organic Farmers & Gardeners Association, in a newsletter.

Maine requires growers to meet the FDA's suggested guidelines if they want to sell their produce to the school lunch program.

Gorny said the proposed congressional food safety bills are intentionally broad to allow flexibility in the way they are implemented. Small farmers will have plenty of opportunity to weigh in during FDA public comment sessions before any specific regulations are set, he said.

Congressional aides say the bills are aimed at big industrial producers and will not apply to small farmers who sell only locally or to certified organic farmers who are regulated by the USDA.

But while many small-farm advocates support some of the increased safety measures in the bills, they say the language gives too little weight to a farming operation's scale -- a critical flaw that could unintentionally put them out of business.

"We don't think that if the bill were passed as it is, it would be implemented in a way that would harm small farms," Baden-Mayer said. "But why leave these things to chance?"