Minnesota Department of Health
Food Safety Partnership, 6/10/2009
Atina Diffley
FOOD BUYER
NOT CONSUMER
There is no such thing as
consumption because
nothing leaves our
ecosystem.
1.What is a food system
A. What is your role in the food
system?
2. What are
A. Local
B. Sustainable
C. Organic
3. Examples of organic/ecological
farming practices and benefits.
FOOD SYSTEM describes Natural Resources/ Environmental Systems
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the cycle of growing, distributing, eating and recycling our food, and all the factors that
affect it.
Economic Systems
Re
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People
Every
human is
part of the
food system
in more than
one role.
Political Systems
Pr
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Social/Cultural Systems
ng
Disconnect from Health
Global Commodity
Food System
Commodities produced as cheaply as possible in one place for export to the highest buyer in another place. Top Criteria
CHEAP
PROFIT
My Top Criteria
HEALTH FOOD SECURITY
Global
Country
Regional
HOME
SEASONAL
Local food is an effort to build more locally based, self‐reliant food economies.
"local" and "regional" are not defined
or regulated words.
Freshness
Fossil Fuel in transport
Food security
Relationship
Support for family farms
Local economies
A lot of room for green washing – BEWARE! Locally selected.
Sustainability can be defined as the ability of an ecosystem to maintain ecological processes, functions, biodiversity and productivity into the future.
Local fails to get to address:
“WHAT IMPACT DOES THIS FOOD PRODUCTION HAVE ON OUR ECOSYSTEM AND OUR HEALTH?”
Societies and economies are reliant on the natural world ECO‐SYSTEM SERVICES
There is no such thing as economic sustainability that does not include environmental sustainability.
If I were a magician instead of a farmer, I would pick up this meeting and magically set ourselves down in the middle of a GOE, but, I’m not so instead I want you all to imagine us all going for a walk
through Dakota County agricultural land that ends at the Gardens of Eagan. As soon as you see GOE you notice a profound difference from the conventional row crop fields we have passed. The
majority of the farmland we have walked through is brown. It is bare. It is exposed to the elements. Bare soil is dying soil. Bare soil is prone to erosion and leaching. When you look at Gardens of
Eagan it is covered with green. Every field is planted with either a cash crop or a soil-building crop. The waters ways and erosion prone areas are covered with grass. Covered soil is living soil.
ECO‐SYSTEM SERVICES
Lovely though it is, this greenness isn’t just pleasing to the eye. It makes a significant difference in the well being of all the species in it’s ecosystem. It is habitat for numerous insect and arthropod
species. Providing food for birds and wild animals. It shades the soil protecting the valuable soil bacteria, fungi, nematodes and protozoa from the sun and heat. It conserves moisture from
evaporation. The soil building crops work as a catch crop holding the soils nutrient’s in its leaves and roots secure from winter leaching, keeping the nutrients on the farm and out of the Gulf of
Mexico. In a typical winter bare soil loses 30-40% of it’s nutrients. Covered soil looses very little. The greenness is also a cover crop. Reducing erosion and protecting the organic matter. And it’s a
soil-building crop providing nutrients for the coming crops and biomass to nurture and feed biologically active soil.
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When we first purchased our present farm it had a history of conventional farming and the soil was badly compacted. When it rained the water could not enter the soil, most of it running off carrying
soil and crop residue with it. Our down water neighbor has told us that before we farmed this land within 1/2 hour after a rain his culvert would be gushing with brown soil and plant residue laden
runoff. He told me that now, it is rare for any water to run off our farm and into his culvert and on the rare occasion when water does move off the farm, it is clear water, without silt and without plant
residue. Because of our soil building practices, instead of running off, the water is able to move through the soil, store itself in organic matter and replenish the groundwater.
That means that our 100-acre farm is one hundred less acres adding soil and nitrates to the runoff that goes into streams which flows into rivers which enter the Mississippi which flows to the gulf of
Mexico. Your support of local sustainable and organic farms helps to create more and more farms that aren’t contributing to our serious ground water pollution problem. 10 acres here, 5 acres there.
It all adds up.
I like to provide the image of sustainable organic systems as being like a spinning jump rope. The spinning rope is the ecosystem and the relationship between all the different species. The goal of
the sustainable farmer is to keep the jump rope spinning while hopping in and out with a cash crop. Abuse the soil, the species or the ecosystem and the jump rope falls and the farmer is back to
chemical dependency to accomplish a crop.
All Farmers deal with huge risks in the process of producing a crop. There are all the standard run of the mill risks, drought, hail, floods, insect infestations, fungal diseases. There are farm accidents
and labor shortages. Sunstroke, heatstroke, frostbite. And then there is “the market”. Most farmers have no market support. They produce a crop and offer it up on the commodity market for whatever
they can get. They are dependent on government subsidies to survive.
This is where the work of Just Food Co-op is absolutely huge. The greatest support that you can give to a local producer is a solid steady market and consumer education. When the producer knows
they can depend on a market to grow for, they can invest money to improve infrastructure, they can make production decisions based on what the market needs instead of a wild guess, this
increases their profitability. They can take risks knowing they have a market they can depend on. They know they have a solid market standing behind them supporting them. Gardens of Eagan
would not have been farming for the last 35 years without the incredible support and commitment to local organic agriculture of the co-op community.
Just food provides this support every single minute of every single day. Just Food makes and keeps commitments to local producers to purchase their product. And they do it so cheerfully. Us
farmers really appreciate that brightness. Just Foods educates consumers about the benefits of local sustainable products. This increases the market and demand. A larger market = more acres
being farmed with the environment in mind. And this support has benefits that extend far beyond the producer. The supported local, sustainable producer farms with environmentally friendly methods.
Protecting our soil and water resources. Which benefits all species. By supporting the sustainable local farmer you support the well being of the environment they affect which with a local producer is
your backyard.
And that’s not all! Just Food gets involved with food politics passing on information to you. Just Food is a one stop local sustainable and organic food and information source. Cause it’s Not just but
ALL about Food and how food affects the environmental and all species!
I have always been an ardent believer in the saying “Work in your own backyard”. There are problems everywhere in the world. When you work on the issues right here in your yard the effect
spreads like a ripple in water influencing your neighbor.
The Cargils of the world, the they have seemingly endless amounts of capital at their disposal. They fight at every political level to maintain the status quo position of petro-chemical industrial
agribusiness. I run in to it every time I testify before a legislative body. Industrial Ag is right there ready to disqualify alternative ag. Neither the federal government or our state government are willing
to say that organic food is better than conventional food. Their position is that organic is just a different market system.
Only 1% of agriculture in the US is organic. That is not enough. Research has shown that organic systems drastically reduce nitrate leaching, erosion and ground water pollution. The change to a
cleaner, healthier, safer and secure food system is going to come from the bottom up. It comes from every one of you when you purchase local and organic and sustainable products. It comes when
you write your elected officials and demand changes that support local alternative agriculture. It comes when you educate your neighbor or your family about local. Sustainable food.
Speaking for all the local producers that Just Food supports, Thank you for your commitment and lets get together and rev it to the next level.
Organic is defined by the NOSB Federal Regulation:
"Organic agriculture is an ecological production management system that promotes and enhances biodiversity, biological cycles and soil biological activity. It is based on minimal use of off‐farm inputs and on management practices that restore, maintain and enhance ecological harmony.
The primary goal of organic agriculture is to optimize the health and productivity of interdependent communities of soil life, plants, animals and people."
A Sustainable Organic System for Crop Production
Organic farming is a systems approach, where interactions between components (crops, animals, insets, soil) are as important as the whole farm itself.
Whole‐istic
Observation of the eco‐system
Cause and effect vs. symptomatic
OffOffFarm
Inputs
Biocides
Beneficial insects
Purchased Minerals
__________________
Soil Cultivation
Cultural
Irrigation Practices
Cultivation
Flame
Weeding
Sanitation
Irrigation
Spacing
Flame Weeding
Resistant
Varieties
Sanitation
Spacing
Resistant Varieties
____________________________________
System Elements and Systems Designs
Soil Building
Everything on an organic farm is part of an infinitely interconnected whole system.
When one part of the system is changed it affects the entire system.
Take home message “Organic farming is the ultimate form of renewable energy. It is the only human actively that has the potential to be solely based on renewable energy – the sun.”
Late May
Crop Rotation
Observation
Record Keeping
N-fixing Crops
Soil/Water Conservation
Nutrient Cycling
Bio-Div Habitat
Compost
Carbon Mgmt
BIOBIO-DIVERSITY AND SOIL HEALTH
11/8/2006
Catch Crop
Cover Crop
Green Manure
This means that we can – it is possible ‐ to feed the humans on the planet without destroying it.
High nitrogen fixing
High biomass
= A Healthy Crop
30% nitrogen loss over winter
Microbial specialistsspecialists- Nitrogen fixing
bacteria
N-fixing bacteria invade
the tiny root hairs of
legumes and multiply in
large numbers. The
legume roots then form
nodules. Bacteria
inside the nodules
absorb air from the soil
and convert (fix)
gaseous N into
ammonia.
Organic Soil Management
A HEALTHY SOIL IS ALIVE
Like all other living things, soil organisms need food, water and a place to live
Feed the Soil,
Not the plant.
-An old saying among Organic Farme
Soil fertility 205.203 a, b, c
Manage fertility using rotations, cover crops
and application of plant and animal materials.
Benefits of Mycorrhizal Fungi:
Inoculant source: Agri Energy Resources
READ MORE: www.newfarm.org
Increased:
1.nutrient uptake.
2.disease resistance
3.soil aggregation
4.water holding capacity
LIVING MULCH
10/8/2007
1+2+3+4 = decreased
input costs + increased
yields + environmental
benefits
Functions as an extension of a plant’s root system.
Increased edge effect
MONOCULTURE ‐ BENEFICIALS HAVE NO HABITAT
PEST SMORGASBORD
Refuge Strips - Beetle Banks
organic farming contributes to mitigation and adaption to climate change drought resistance 1019 #
594#
303#
onal
ume/organic Conventi
Manure/organic Leg
Increased lbs. of soil carbon per soil acre foot
Yearly accumulation of soil carbon in the Rodale Institute’s Farming Systems Trial in 3 farming systems over 21 years 1981‐2002
ORGANIC FARMING SYSTEMS CARBON SEQUESTER 15‐28% MORE CABON
MAJOR DIFFERENCES BETWEEN ORGANIC AND CHEMICALLY DEPENDENT FARMING
Major food safety concerns largely eliminated
•Pesticides
•Animal drug residues / antibiotics resistance
•GM food risks
•Worker Safety
•Reduce impacts on birds, fish, pets, mammals, reptiles
•Fertility based on renewable energy instead of fossil fuel
•Reduce the dead zone – reduced nitrate leaching
•Increased carbon sequestration
•Increased nutrition and health benefits of organic foods
•Preservation of biological diversity which leads to ecosystem health = ecosystem services.
•Protection and repair of soil and water resources
Organic Audit Trail Requirements
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
System Plan
Field Histories (3-year)
Field maps
Input records-Receipts, labels, ingredient lists.
Purchased feed: invoices, copies of sellers
current certificate
6. Storage records
7. Lot number system 8/1/09GOEE31
8. Sales records
9. Water test results
10. Inspection Reports
11. Certification Determination Letters
12. Certificates of Certification
NOP Standards: manure must be composted UNLESS:
• It is applied to a crop not for human consumption
• Soil incorporated not less than 120 days prior to harvest
on crops whose edible portion is in contact with soil
particles.
•Soil incorporated not less than 90 days prior to the
harvest on crops whose edible portion do not have direct
contact with soil particles.
Compost
•Initial Carbon: Nitrogen ratio between 25:1 to 40:1
•Temperature maintained between 131 and 170° F for 15
days using a windrow that has been turned at least five
times
•Temperature maintained between 131 and 170° F for
three days using an in-vessel or static aerated pile.
The Rodale Institute has 28 years of scientifically controlled comparison of organic and conventional crop production
Years 1‐4: Conventional corn yield was higher then organic (soils being farmed with organic methods and going through transition /chemical withdrawal ‐ building up biological activity.)
Years 5–12 Organic yield was statistically the same as the side‐by‐side plots of conventionally farmed soil.
Years 12‐28: Continuous soil improvements after two decades resulted in dramatic environmental improvements, production resiliency during weather extremes, and—
slightly higher average corn yields in the organic system. University of Minnesota, Dr. Diez-Gonzalez
2003 Microbial Quality and Safety
Escherichia coli:
Certified Organic and Conventional <4%
Claim “Organic” not certified 9.7% (NOPconventional)
MYTH BUSTER
MYTH BUSTER
ARE AG CHEMCIALS NECESSARY TO FEED THE WORLD?
You have far more power then you realize!
•Educate your self on food and farming issues. •Support local ‐ organic producers – know your farmer
•Support direct markets
•Talk to your friends and neighbors – easiest way, feed them
•Policy changes needed •New and transitioning farmers support
•Organic research dollars
•Ask for local/organic
•Farm‐to‐School
•Farm to grocery store
•Farm to Work
•Farm to Institutions
The Organic Center: Stay current on research on the benefits of organic food.
http://www.organiccenter.org/
To buy direct from farmers:
http://www.landstewardshipproject.org/csa.html
http://www.mda.state.mn.us/food/organic/direc
tory.htm
“We have no choice about
whether to be world changers,
every choice we make
sends out ripples.
Even if we are not consciously
choosing, the choice we have
is not whether, but only how,
we change the world.”
Francis Moore Lappe