organic

The Agriculture Department set a 60-day comment period on its proposal for an annual survey of organizations that certify that farms and ranches meet federal standards to be designated as organic producers. "The survey will collect the number of operations that are certified organic for each State, along with the number of acres certified for the various crops, and the number of head of livestock and poultry certified as organic. The data will be used by NASS as administrative data so that future needs to collect organic data from farm and ranch operations can be kept to a minimum," said the Federal Register notice.

Plant breeder Frank Kutka is working on corn varieties that organic farmers can plant without fear of cross-pollination from GMO corn in neighboring fields, writes Ken Roseboro at Civil Eats. It is a multimillion-dollar challenge because organic crops cannot include genetically modified organisms. Corn is the most widely grown U.S. crop. Farmers can take precautions such as planting their fields earlier or later than their neighbors so the fields mature at different times but that is an imperfect tactic.

USDA, in a resubmission to the Federal Register, proposed to expand the scope of its Organic Production Survey and to make responses to its questions mandatory.

Several hospitals in San Francisco are working together "to add more fresh, organic and sustainable foods to their patient and cafeteria trays," writes Ingfei Chen at The Guardian.

Passage of a referendum that bans GMO crops in Jackson County, Ore, "deepened a cultural chasm in the greater Rogue Valley" over the direction of agriculture, says the Portland Oregonian. Opponents say the ban threatens their livelihoods and blame newcomer organic farmers.

A nationwide roll-out it vital for success of a new whole-farm revenue insurance policy, says a small-farm group, the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack unveiled the new policy at the Organic Trade Association meeting last week.

At the Organic Trade Association conference, AgSec Vilsack encouraged the industry to pursue a so-called checkoff program to pay for research and promotion of organic products. "This is an enormous opportunity the farm bill has created. The industry should take advantage of it," Vilsack said.

The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition is posting a series of "drilldowns" on the Census of Agriculture. In its latest, on organic and local ag, NSAC says the West Coast has the largest concentration of organic farms; more than 4,000 of the 16,525 such farms nationwide. California is No 1 with 3,000 farms.

Americans spent $35.1 billion on organic products, the bulk of it for food, last year, the fastest growth rate in five years, says the Organic Trade Association, based on a survey of more than 200 companies. Sales were up 11.5 percent, or $4 billion, from the previous year.

Americans believe USDA's organic label on food means no antibiotics and no synthetic pesticides were used in producing the food, says Consumer Reports in objecting to exemptions to those general rules.

The Agriculture Department said it will release the full results of the Census of Agriculture on May 2, after more than a year of work.

1. Environmental Working Group produces a GMO-free food guide. In a nutshell, it says, buy organic or verified GMO-free foods and steer away from food made with corn, soybeans, sugar and vegetable oils because most of the US supply comes from biotech crops.