Opportunity seen in organic crops

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. ? If $7.50 to $9.25 corn and $17.50 to $18 soybeans sounds good, then it’s time to listen to what organic farmers are talking about.

There’s no doubt that earning these premium per-bushel prices for organic feed grain reported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture for Feb. 2-15 are clear incentives.

But Jeff Moyer says there are plenty other valuable benefits to organic farming practices, especially when it comes to building soil health and boosting nutritional value.

Moyer is executive director of the Rodale Institute and has worked there for the past 40 years, first as a farmhand. He’s known internationally for his success in helping conventional farmers transition to organic methods and is the author of Organic No-Till Farming, a book title popular among organic farmers.

The Rodale Institute’s farm is on 333 acres in Kutztown, Penn.

Land Connection

Moyer stopped Feb. 16 to share his insights with farmers and members of The Land Connection, a non-profit organization in Champaign dedicated to protecting farmland, training sustainable and organic farmers and promoting a local food system.

“Meet the new boss” ? While this was the title of Moyer’s talk, this phrase summarizes Moyer’s belief that consumers will continue to have a growing say in deciding what they want from food producers and shaping what producers grow.

“Consumers are not just going to take it. Millennials are changing that. They don’t think the way we thought. It’s a whole different value system. They’re not looking for the biggest bag of puffed rice they can find for the best price. That’s not what they want. They want organic.”

Comparative yields ? Moyer pointed out research from Rodale that indicates yields between conventional and organic grain crops are roughly the same, if not technically higher for organic.

“We say the yields are the same. But the big difference is the profits will almost triple. We use less energy to do it, and we emit less greenhouse gas in the process. And we improve the health of the soil while we do it.”

Rebuilding and maintaining healthy soil ? The use of no-till practices not only reduces soil erosion, Moyers said, it also returns organic matter to the soils, reduces need for chemical applications and increases water-holding capacity.

All of these benefits are similar to the benefits associated with cover crop use and a national focus to reduce chemical runoff from farm fields, parks, golf courses and other locations with heavy use of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium additives.

Impact on soil and human health ? Rodale is working on a study with Hersey Medical Center in Pennsylvania to look at the nutritional components in crops and determine how organic practices impact their presence in food crops.

Identifying and quantifying the presence cancer-preventing amino acids is one example, Moyer said.

Organic is a booming business ? In 2014, Moyer noted that organic was a $70 billion global industry, a $43 billion industry in the U.S. and has grown 200 percent since 2002. That equated to 19,474 organic farms and ranches nationwide with 5.1 million acres in production.

Organic may attract new, younger farmers ? Because organic farming tends to be much less capital intensive for equipment needs and requires less acreage, Moyer said organic and sustainable farming could be instrumental in keeping small and medium farms in operation.

There are six times more farmers age 65 and older than there are farmers age 35 and under and agriculture continues to be one of the leading fields for college graduates, Moyer said.

Policy changes to help market organic crops ? “In the short term, we have some real simple things like the checkoff programs. We’re looking at policy decisions for things like hydroponics and things that impact farmers.

“We also want to talk about where organic falls within the farm bill. We are an organic farmers association and we will be serving our members to find out what’s important for you. With the last farm bill, I went to the organic farming committee … we have to start asking for a lot more. We have to shift that $11 billion in our direction because this is the direction we’re heading.

“When you get 16,000 organic farmers saying that’s not what we want. I guarantee you, they’re going to listen because they’re in every state in the nation.”

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