U.S. Agriculture Outlook 2013 Edition

The U.S. Agriculture People’s Department

OutlooK

150th Anniversary of The United States Department of Agriculture

harvest in the midst of drought The effects of 2012’s drought on both crops and livestock continue to plague farmers, necessitating action by the USDA.

2013 edition

SOIL: THIS IS WHERE IT STARTS, AND THIS IS WHERE IT ENDS

PROTECT YOUR GREATEST ASSET

With 50 million food insecure people here at home and a global population expected to hit 9 billion by 2050, U.S. farmers must continue to lead the world in agricultural production.

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The world’s demand for food keeps growing. The challenge is to continue to keep pace. To be successful, farmers will need equipment that can get the most out of every inch of land. And advice from experts to help them meet new needs. The USDA and Case IH are dedicated to helping those who work the land be ready for what the future will bring.

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table of contents

THE YEAR WITHOUT A FARM BILL .................................................................. 08 A one-year extension of the 2008 Farm Bill snaps U.S. farm programs back from the brink of their own fiscal cliff – but the abyss is still in sight.

By Craig Collins USDA PROGRAMS AND SERVICES .................................................................. 18 As the federal agency dedicated to U.S. agricultural well-being, the USDA promotes noteworthy initiatives aims at successfully boosting the programs and services under its care.

By Tara N. Wilfong AN INTERVIEW WITH DAN GLICKMAN ............................................................ 30 AGree Co-chair and Former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture

By Craig Collins HARVEST IN THE MIDST OF DROUGHT ........................................................... 34 The effects of 2012’s drought on both crops and livestock continue to plague farmers, necessitating action by the USDA.

By Tara N. Wilfong GE FOOD LABELING: THE DEBATE’S NOT OVER YET ....................................... 42

By Craig Collins BIOMASS CROPS FUELING TOMORROW’S ENERGY NEEDS ............................ 48

By David A. Brown

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table of contents

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BACK TO THE LAND ........................................................................................ 56 Military veterans are at the forefront of a new generation of American farmers.

By Craig Collins Agritech: PUSHING U.S. AGRICULTURE TO NEW HEIGHTS ........................... 64

By Michael A. Robinson AGRICULTURAL BIOSECURITY ....................................................................... 72 Protecting the nation’s food supply

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By David A. Brown PUTTING TREES TO WORK ............................................................................. 92 Agroforestry can help farmers and ranchers conserve their resources and increase their incomes.

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U.S. AGRICULTURE Outlook 2013 edition Published by Faircount Media Group 701 N. West Shore Blvd.

Tampa, FL 33609 Tel: 813.639.1900 www.faircount.com EDITORIAL Editor-in-Chief: Chuck Oldham Managing Editor: Ana E. Lopez Project Editor: Iwalani Kahikina Editor: Rhonda Carpenter Assistant Editor/Photo Editor: Steven Hoarn Contributing Writers: David A. Brown Craig Collins Michael A. Robinson Tara N. Wilfong DESIGN AND PRODUCTION Art Director: Robin K. McDowall Designers: Daniel Mrgan, Kenia Y. Perez-Ayala, Lorena Noya Ad Traffic Manager: Rebecca Laborde ADVERTISING Ad Sales Manager: Patrick Pruitt Account Executives: David Brook, Steve Chidel Janet Scruggs, Kellie Skandaliaris, Tanya Wydick OPERATIONS AND ADMINISTRATION Chief Operating Officer: Lawrence Roberts VP, Business Development: Robin Jobson Business Development, AE & Digital Product Manager: Damion Harte Financial Controller: Robert John Thorne Chief Information Officer: John Madden Lead Web Developer: Clyde Sanchez Internet Marketing/SEO: Brian Melanson Circulation: Alexis Vars Database Administrator: Joshua Roberts Events Manager: Jim Huston Executive Assistant: Lindsey Brooks

Ensuring the future success of our company and communities through: • The sustainable stewardship of our natural resources.

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©Copyright Faircount LLC. All rights reserved. Reproduction of editorial content in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited. Faircount LLC does not assume responsibility for the advertisements, nor any representation made therein, nor the quality or deliverability of the products themselves. Reproduction of articles and photos, in whole or in part contained herein, is prohibited without express written consent of the publisher, with the exception of reprinting for news media use. Printed in the United States of America. None of the advertising contained herein implies U.S. Department of Agriculture endorsement of any private entity. This is not a publication of the U.S. government.

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BUDGET

I

n a normal year, the federal budget for U.S. agricultural programs is among the most difficult to understand, with funding levels determined by several items of legislation – primarily a Farm Bill, which authorizes mandatory program expenditures for a period of several years, and an agricultural appropriation, which funds discretionary programs.

It is probably an understatement to say that 2012 has not been a normal year.

The short version: •When the White House released its FY 2013 budget proposal in February, it included a total of $155 billion in outlays for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) – about 83 percent, or $128 billion, of which would be for mandatory programs. By far, the largest component of the proposed budget was nutrition assistance, which accounted for 72 percent of the budget; the next-largest component, farm and commodity programs, made up 16 percent of the proposal; and conservation and forestry programs totaled 6 percent.

The $27 billion in discretionary spending proposed by the White House included the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) nutrition program; farm credit; international food aid; domestic meat inspection; research and extension; rural development; and the operations of the Natural Resources Conservation Service.

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack called the budget “an opportunity to manage change properly,” an allusion to the department’s diminishing resources. Between 2010 and 2012, USDA’s operating budget was reduced by more than 12 percent, and in early 2012, the department announced the closing of 259 facilities across the country.

The White House’s proposal included several significant policy changes, including the elimination of direct payments to farmers – which would save an estimated $30 8

U.S. AGRICULTURE OUTLOOK

the year without a farm bill A one-year extension of the 2008 Farm Bill snaps U.S. farm programs back from the brink of their own fiscal cliff – but the abyss is still in sight.

By craig collins

Photo by Nicholas A. Tonelli

BUDGET

billion over 10 years – and changes to various crop insurance and conservation programs that would bring additional savings, for a total reduction of $32 billion over the next decade. In order for these changes to become effective, Congress will have to amend the underlying federal farm law.

Despite the cuts, the budget proposal included a 23 percent increase in the department’s compet it i ve research g rant s program, to support research by USDA scientists and at land-grant universities.

•Like many departments, the USDA began FY 2013 without a budget. The current Farm Bill expired Sept. 30, 2012.

Because the House had still not voted on its version of the 2012 Farm Bill – though the Senate passed its version on June 21, by a vote of 64 to 35 – Congress approved a oneyear extension of the provisions in Title VII of the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012, the law that delayed, for another several weeks, the “fiscal cliff” of Congress-imposed tax increases and spending cuts.

The 2008 Farm Bill, which received a one-year extension, funds dollars to support USDA matching funding through its Market Access Program, which helps expand U.S. farm exports.

U.S. AGRICULTURE OUTLOOK

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BUDGET

By the time the 113th Congress was seated on Jan. 3, 2013, neither the House nor the Senate had voted on the separate agricultural appropriations bill, which funds the department’s discretionary programs. While both versions had been approved by their respective appropriation committees, neither had been brought to the floor for a vote in the 112th Congress.

A continuing resolution, passed by Congress and signed by President Barack Obama Sept. 28, 2012, will fund the government through March 27, 2013, at an annual level of $1.047 trillion, the amount set by last year’s Budget Control Act. Floor action on the Farm Bill and the agricultural spending bill had always seemed unlikely in the midst of a post-election lame-duck session that saw Congress preoccupied with tax cuts set to expire on Dec. 31; the impending “fiscal cliff” of across-the-board cuts set to occur on Jan. 2, 2013; a potential 30 percent increase in Medicare physician fees; and the expired Farm Bill.

The short-term extension of the Farm Bill, along with the stilllooming threat of sequestration, have caused considerable confusion and concern among everyone involved in agriculture. Barry Flinchbaugh, Ph.D., professor of agricultural economics at Kansas State University and a longtime agricultural policy adviser, said the Farm Bill is more complicated than other government expenditures. “The Conservation Reserve Program, for example, is actually a contract between the government and the farmer,” he said. “It could run 10, and, in some situations, 15 years. It’s a legal contract, and has to be honored regardless of what happens in Congress – just as a Defense Department supplier has a contract that has to be honored.”

Further complicating the budget of farm programs, said Flinchbaugh, is the fact that so many of them are funded and operated jointly with other executive departments, including Health and Human

The White House’s FY 2013 budget proposal includes a total of $155 billion in outlays for the USDA – about 83 percent, or $128 billion, of which would be for mandatory programs. The largest component of the proposed budget was nutrition assistance, which accounted for 72 percent of the budget; the next-largest component, farm and commodity programs, made up 16 percent of the proposal; and conservation and forestry programs totaled 6 percent.

Services, Education, Energy, and even Defense. “If you get one department’s budget passed, and not the other, it makes it rather difficult,” he said. “And you may have one budget passed, but on another you’re being funded by a continuing resolution. It’s a nightmare to figure it all out.”

What’s the Holdup?

The federal government is, by law, in a period of budgetary constriction – the Budget Control Act of 2011 imposed caps on discretionary spending for 2012-2021 that would save an estimated $917 billion, and those caps apply to parts of the USDA’s FY 2013 budget.

The Budget Control Act also established the cong ressional

“Super Committee” of 12 members charged with identifying an additional $1.2 trillion in measures to reduce the deficit over the next 10 years – but in failing to identify these cuts, the Super Committee triggered massive across-the-board cuts, or sequestration, that would apply to mandatory and discretionary spending in the years 2013 to 2021, with some exceptions.

For many Americans, discussions of the federal budget have never felt so urgent, with so much at stake – and the drama of ongoing negotiations between the White House and Republican House leaders aimed at avoiding this “fiscal cliff” has understandably obscured the discussions at the heart of the legislative debate about U.S. farm policy and the future of federal farm programs.

Continued on page 15

U.S. AGRICULTURE OUTLOOK

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BUDGET

USDA photo by Lance Cheung

Continued from page 11

This debate now remains to be taken up by the 113th Congress.

Perhaps more than any other executive branch department, the USDA’s annual budget proposal is a wish list whose numbers are often ignored by Congress as the legislature sets funding levels through the Farm Bill and the agricultural appropriation. For example, the proposed FY 2013 budget, while conforming to the caps imposed by the Budget Control Act, assumes that Congress will somehow avoid the draconian cuts imposed by sequestration.

The existing House and Senate versions of the 2012 Farm Bill – versions that still remain to be discussed in conference – reveal competing visions for the future of U.S. farm programs.

The Farm Bill approved by the House Agriculture Committee proposed, over the next decade, cuts of: • $16.5 billion from nutrition assistance programs • $14 billion from commodity programs • $6 billion from conservation programs The Senate Farm Bill proposed cuts of: • $15 billion from commodity programs • $6 billion from conservation programs • $4.5 billion from nutrition assistance programs D irec tor of Cong ressional Relations for the American Farm Bureau Federation R.J. Karney said the delay in approving the Farm Bill can be revealed in the debate around the one glaring difference between these two: “The Farm Bill expired on Sept. 30, but with that being so close to the [Nov. 6 presidential] election, the House leadership was refusing to bring forward the House Ag Committee bill, because of the floor fight that would have had to occur on the spending cuts to nutrition. That’s really what tied it up.”

House Republicans are not alone in their desire to see a reduction in

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack hosts a live Virtual Office Hours session on Twitter Dec. 17, 2012, to answer questions about the important role of rural America to the national and global economy, increasing agricultural opportunities in U.S. communities, and the importance of passing a new Farm Bill.

federal nutrition assistance – or at least in their general opposition to nutrition assistance’s majority share of the USDA budget. While supporters tout nutrition assistance as providing a first line of defense against hunger for low-income, elderly, and disabled Americans, as well as a stable marketplace for farm surpluses, detractors – on both the left and the right – view it otherwise.

Some see it as a bloated entitlement program that encourages fraud and dependence on government, while others have described USDA nutrition assistance as essentially a conflict of interest, with government commodity purchases poorly matched to the nutritional needs of American families – and especially of American schoolchildren.

An August 2012 report from the USDA revealed that a record high of nearly 15 percent of Americans (47.1 million) were using the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, or “food stamps”) – a surge due to a combination of factors, including the sluggish economy, slow job growth, and higher crop prices due to bad weather and an increase in

the demand for biofuels. While the rate of increase in SNAP enrollments actually has been declining since around January 2010, as employment and household income inch upward, nutrition assistance is still – and will be, for the foreseeable future – the dominant item in USDA’s budget.

On the heels of the White House’s budget proposal, the Congressional Budget Office released a statistical report projecting that over the next decade, an average of 82 percent of USDA’s budget will be spent on nutrition programs, with the remaining 18 percent spent on farm programs.

It may well be that in a more distant future, the link between federal farm programs and federal nutrition assistance will be severed – but nobody seriously expects this to begin happening anytime soon.

“The move to take food stamps out of the Farm Bill occurs periodically,” said Flinchbaugh. “And this time it’s coming partially from farmers. It’s coming partially from [rural] congressmen.” If nutrition programs are removed from the Farm Bill, Flinchbaugh said, congressional legislators from urban U.S. AGRICULTURE OUTLOOK

15

BUDGET

districts will have no reason to vote on it. “They don’t have farmers in their districts,” he said. “And then of course it’s more than 80 percent of the budget. If you simply remove that, the USDA is not going to exist as a Cabinet-level department.”

The Farm Bureau – the largest general farm organization in the United States – is hesitant to weaken USDA to such a degree. “We do not support the separation of the two [nutrition and farm programs],” said Karney. “You do hear some talk from the countryside, saying: ‘Why is it even called a “Farm Bill”? Eighty percent of the Farm Bill is nutrition programs.’ But that’s not a position we support. In order to get a Farm Bill passed, you need both. They’re really tied together in trying to get agricultural programs legislation.”

USDA photo

Where We Go From Here

Congress’ passage of a one-year extension may not have happened had it not been for the looming “dairy cliff”: Since the Farm Bill was being kept alive only by a continuing resolution in force until March 2013, the law would then have reverted to the last permanent federal agricultural statute, the 1938 Agricultural Adjustment Act, as amended by the 1949 Agriculture Act. That law would have set benefits for commodity and farm programs, said Flinchbaugh, based on a pricing formula established during World War I – a formula that would have compelled the government to pay $8 for a gallon of milk.

Congress’ last-second effort resulted in a legislative title that, for the most part, literally substituted “2013” for “2012” in most of the explicit expiration dates for Farm Bill provisions.

What happens next is anyone’s guess. As the 113th Congress was gaveled into session, the threat of sequestration still loomed. Under the Budget Control Act, sequestration must excise equal amounts

Gary and Karen Ricley stand in front of their barn on their Flying 7 Ranch, in Platte County, Wyo. The Ricleys set aside a portion of their land for conservation purposes, restoring it to prairie grasses, trees, and natural habitat for wildlife. The USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service and Farm Service Agency provided guidance and funding through the department’s Conservation Reserve Program.

from both defense and non-defense programs – though some programs, Karney explained, are exempt.

“The SNAP program will not be affected by sequestration,” said Karney. “If sequestration goes through, the cuts are going primarily to commodity programs, conservation programs, and crop insurance, which only got a one-year exemption. The Conservation Reserve Program is already signed.” Still, the lack of a long-term farm policy imposes unnecessary uncertainty on farmers. If no long-term Farm Bill is passed by Sept. 30, 2013, the hand wringing will begin all over again.

Farmers, perhaps more than any other Americans, suffer an enormous degree of uncertainty – but the federal government, typically, serves them as a known factor.

Farmers make decisions – what seeds to buy, which acres to plant and with what, how many and what

kind of personnel to hire – based on their knowledge of the federal government’s commitments. Farm lenders, likewise, make their decisions based on existing federal farm policies about insurance, commodity supports, and other programs. The failure to act on a farm bill will create enormous financial risks for tens of thousands of American farmers.

“Our biggest concern right now is passage of the five-year reauthorization of the Farm Bill,” said Karney.

“That’s priority No. 1. We’re still pressuring and still advocating so farmers and ranchers can have some certainty – it’s that uncertainty that really affects their planning processes.” The Farm Bureau, and all the nation’s agricultural interests, can only hope that the 113th Congress proves more able than its predecessor to resolve the difficult discussions about the future of American farm programs.

U.S. AGRICULTURE OUTLOOK

17

PROGRAMS AND SERVICES

USDA Programs and SErvices As the federal agency dedicated to U.S. agricultural well-being, the USDA promotes noteworthy initiatives aimed at successfully boosting the programs and services under its care.

By tara n. wilfong

F

or the past 150 years, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has provided guidance and support for the nation’s agricultural enterprises.

Specifically, the USDA provides needed support to farming and ranching communities, strengthening their economy, as well as initiating protocols that help protect and conserve natural resources so

18

U.S. AGRICULTURE OUTLOOK

the American people have a safe, plentiful, and nutritious food supply.

Through all of its endeavors, the USDA is an integral part of every American’s life, and the programs and services it provides complement the nation’s agricultural well-being.

Periodically, as the USDA reviews its myriad programs and services, it institutes new initiatives that enhance those that have proven successful.

The areas in which the department lends assistance are categorized as: conservation; assisting rural communities; food and nutrition; marketing and trade; and education and research.

Conservation

After last year’s unpredictable weather patterns – from extreme

Photo by Nicholas A. Tonelli

PROGRAMS AND SERVICES

drought plaguing America’s heartland to cataclysmic storms that dumped record rains in the Northeast – the USDA is more determined than ever to build upon its conservation practices and continue its efforts to protect the nation’s agricultural lands. Since conservation is a fundamental policy of the USDA, there are a number of ongoing programs and services aimed at protecting and preserving land, soil, and other natural resources.

Federal response to last year’s drought spurred funding for conservation efforts in those areas hardest hit by the natural disaster. In October 2012, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced that more than $27 million in conservation funding was made available through the USDA’s Natural Resources

Conservation Service (NRCS) to farmers and ranchers who wanted to make improvements to their lands.

These conservation improvements are aimed at spurring recovery and ensuring that agricultural lands are more drought resistant in the future.

By providing both financial and technical assistance, the USDA helped farmers and ranchers in 22 states initiate new practices and procedures on their land, including conservation tillage, cover crops, nutrient management, prescribed grazing, livestock watering facilities, and water conservation. Through these efforts, agricultural producers can build healthier soil, which not only leads to better harvests, but also is a key factor in cleaner water and air.

“The conservation investments made by these producers today will

Through all of its programs and services, the USDA provides support to farming and ranching communities, strengthening their economies and initiating protocols that safeguard and conserve natural resources.

continue to improve the resilience of their lands in the face of drought as well as other natural events that are out of their control,” Vilsack stated in a national news release. “The farmers and ranchers that have voluntarily implemented conservation improvements have taken an important step toward building drought resistance into their operations.”

In addition to improving conditions on their own lands for healthier, more bountiful crop and livestock yields, farmers and ranchers in the Gulf of Mexico region continue U.S. AGRICULTURE OUTLOOK

19

to play an active role in improving ecosystems, wildlife habitats, and water quality in their local communities as well. Following the devastating 2010 Gulf oil spill, the USDA and NRCS initiated a number of projects aimed at restoring and revitalizing the natural habitats that were affected by the spill. These projects relied heavily upon partnerships with local farmers and ranchers to improve these ecosystems. After monitoring these initiatives from their conception forward, a report released in December 2012 highlighted more than 20 conservation 20

U.S. AGRICULTURE OUTLOOK

projects whose success was directly linked to the involvement of farmers, ranchers, and landowners, and stressed the importance of these continued partnerships.

Among the most successful programs are the Migratory Bird Habitat, Everglades, Gulf of Mexico, Mississippi River Basin Healthy Watersheds, and Working Lands for Wildlife Gopher Tortoise initiatives.

Producers and landowners participating in the Migratory Bird Habitat Initiative worked with the NRCS to create instant wetlands on their agricultural lands for migrating water birds. Now one of the most popular initiatives in NRCS history, habitats for migratory birds – including waterfowl,

shorebirds, and neotropical songbirds – exist on more than 470,000 acres in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, and Texas.

Participants modified a portion of their land to create safe, healthy habitats for migrating birds. Funding for the project, which had to be increased to $40 million to meet the demand, provides food and critical habitat for the bird populations, as well as much-needed water during times of drought. For the participating landowners, their interest in the project not only supports their local economy by attracting hunters and birdwatchers, but also spearheads new opportunities for improving wildlife management.

Similar to the Migratory Bird Habitat Initiative, the Working Lands for Wildlife Gopher Tortoise Initiative is a partnership to provide a safe and healthy habitat for this threatened species. Likewise, the three remaining projects are aimed at protecting and restoring important watersheds in the southern region. All of these initiatives rely heavily upon agricultural support

USDA photo by Lance Cheung

Above: Aerial view of droughtaffected Colorado farmlands, 83 miles east of Denver, July 21, 2012. Green areas are irrigated, the yellow areas are dryland wheat crops. The USDA’s conservation improvements are aimed at spurring recovery and ensuring that agricultural lands are more drought resistant in the future. Below: The Working Lands for Wildlife Gopher Tortoise Inititative provides a safe, heathy habitat for this threatened species.

Photo by Judy Baxter

PROGRAMS AND SERVICES

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from their local community of ranchers, farmers, and landowners.

Assisting Rural Communities

Photo by Rod Ramsey

Improving the economy and ensuring a better quality of life for rural America has always been a priority for the USDA. Through targeted programs and services, the department provides technical, financial, and social assistance aimed at enhancing the economies of rural communities across the nation. The department’s financial programs provide monetary support for essential public facilities and services such as water and sewer systems, housing, health clinics, emergency service facilities, and utility and telephone services.

This financial support also extends to economic development by providing loans to community-based businesses.

In the technical sector, the USDA assists new landowners with launching their agricultural businesses, and provides existing farmers, ranchers, and landowners with information on improving the effectiveness of their operations. Likewise, the department’s technical assistance

helps rural America empower their local communities, highlighting their strengths and opportunities.

The Rural Development Department within the USDA has defined seven distinct categories that help these communities spur development: Strategic Partners: By aligning with like-minded businesses and residents who are committed to boosting the economy of their local community, strong, strategic, and long-lasting partnerships are built.

Capital Markets: To stimulate the local economy, you must accept new investment opportunities.

Regional Food Systems: Look locally for ways to boost the economy, including markets for locally and regionally grown agricultural products.

Regional Collaboration: If your community is small, consider partnering with neighboring communities to reap mutual economic benefits.

Community Building: Making your small community attractive in terms of it being a great place to live, work, and raise a family is paramount for economic development.

The Advanced Biofuel Payment Program provides payments to producers to support and expand production of advanced biofuels refined from sources other than corn kernel starch. Through this program, more than $15.7 million has been earmarked for rural communities.

Alternative Energy: Renewable energy is not only the wave of the future, but it’s also most readily available in the natural resources found in rural America.

Broadband and Continuous Business Creation: Just as alternative energy sources are the next phase for future development, access to high-speed broadband networks in rural America is a top priority – and a herculean challenge.

Initiatives for the development of the last two categories have gained significant exposure lately. Of particular interest is the USDA Rural Development’s Advanced Biofuel Payment Program, which recently announced its support for 189 companies engaging in the production and expansion of advanced biofuels. Through this program, more than $15.7 million has been earmarked for these rural companies.

“These payments support the nation’s expanding alternative fuels industry by encouraging the use of renewable feedstocks and helping to create a stronger energy future,” Dallas Tonsager, agriculture under secretary for rural development, stated in a recent national news release. “Advanced biofuels production is a key component of the president’s ‘all-of-the-above’ energy strategy, which is designed to reduce America’s reliance on foreign oil.”

Rural companies tap renewable feedstocks – crop residue; animal, food, and yard waste material; and vegetable oil – to produce biofuels.

With the payment program’s financial assistance, the USDA helps to support the research, investment, and infrastructure necessary to advance this growing industry and spur economic growth in America’s rural communities.

Another priority initiative is the development of broadband networks in rural communities. With this technology readily available, local residents have access to the same goods and services as those living in metropolitan areas, and business owners can U.S. AGRICULTURE OUTLOOK

23

A major initiative, the USDA gives priority funding to develop broadband networks in rural communities, providing residents with access to the same goods and services as those living in metropolitan areas.

maintain a competitive presence in national and global markets. This new plan announced by Tonsager allows the USDA to give priority funding to those areas that are in greatest need of the technology and applies to projects already funded through the Community Connect grant program.

In addition to targeting underser ved communities, the plan would also streamline the application process, allowing applicants to use matching funds to finance broadband networks’ operating costs. Another new caveat would allow grant funds to be used for an entire geographic area, instead of a single community.

Food and Nutrition

With its longstanding history, the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) agency has served children and needy families since the Depression era. Today, the FNS provides the under-privileged with better access to those foods that allow for a more healthful diet through pointed assistance programs and educational efforts. Nutrition and nutrition 24

U.S. AGRICULTURE OUTLOOK

education have been elevated to a top priority initiative by the agency, with its goal to empower program participants with the knowledge that diet and health go hand in hand.

Within the FNS there are 17 programs and services to support.

Among them are well-known mainstays such as the National School Lunch Program, the School Breakfast Program, and the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program. While all are making strides to benefit their particular mission, there are some newsworthy events on the horizon that are particularly exciting.

Among those that stand out is the first-ever USDA Farm to School Grant Program that was recently announced by Agriculture Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan. More than $4.5 million in grants for 68 projects were approved to allow local agricultural producers to provide food to school cafeterias in their communities. These initiatives will benefit schools in 37 states, as well as the District of Columbia, and, in specific, serve 3,200 schools and 1.75 million students, half of whom live in rural communities.

“When schools buy food from nearby producers, their purchasing power helps create local jobs and economic benefits, particularly in rural agricultural communities,” Merrigan explained in a news release. “Evidence also suggests that when kids understand more about where food comes from and how it is produced, they are more likely to make healthy eating choices.”

The USDA Farm to School grants are funded to help schools meet the demand for more locally produced foods, and in the process, increase market opportunities for producers and food businesses. They also support agriculture and nutrition education by allowing schools to develop and maintain their own gardens; implement cooking classes in their curriculum; and offer field trips to local farms to provide students with firsthand knowledge of how food is grown, harvested, and subsequently sold to the consumer.

Other highlights of the Farm to School Grant Program include: • 25 programs to create jobs by hiring new farm-to-school coordinators, with 43 projects supporting and maintaining existing staff; • 31 programs that use food hubs or partner with mainline distributors; • 44 projects to develop new products and menu items that are made from locally grown food; • A pproximately 47 projects to develop new partnerships between local farmers and ranchers who are new to the school food market with those educational facilities in their immediate community. For these partnerships, both food service directors and local agricultural producers take “mobile tours” of the state to learn about agricultural specialties and the specific opportunities for partnerships; • T hree project s to suppor t American Indian communities by improving their access to local and traditional foods. These projects are expected to generate economic growth while improving

USDA photo

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The term “farm to school” is generally understood to include efforts that connect schools with local or regional producers in order to serve locally or regionally produced foods in school cafeterias.

the nutritional and health benefits of the American Indian youth; and • More than 50 projects to support hands-on learning activities for school students.

USDA photo by Lance Cheung

Marketing and Trade

With 95 percent of the world’s consumers living outside the United States, definitive foreign market and trade initiatives are imperative for the nation’s agricultural success. After a lucrative trade mission to China last year, the USDA embarked on a mission to Russia – a new World Trade Organization inductee – to promote U.S. agricultural exports to its borders. In FY 2012, two-way agricultural trade with Russia reached $1.5 billion, with American farm exports accounting for nearly 97 percent of that total. The aim of the

December 2012 mission to Russia was to maintain these trade agreements and increase U.S. total exports of food and agricultural products to $143.5 billion in FY 2013.

“People around the world continue to demand U.S. food and agricultural products, boosting American businesses and supporting our rural communities,” stated Under Secretary for Farm and Foreign Agricultural Service’s Michael Scuse in a recent news release. “To ensure these successes continue, USDA has aggressively worked to expand export opportunities and reduce barriers to trade.”

The projected increase in revenue for food and agricultural products to Russia falls in line with the USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service’s (FAS) strategic plan for 2012-2016. The goal of the plan is to generate an additional $89 billion in U.S.

economic activity by the end of FY 2016. To accomplish this feat, which is projected to result in agricultural exports reaching $175 billion, the FAS plans to initiate a number of protocols, including the creation of market development programs and trade shows; addressing the prevention/resolution of market access issues; focusing on trade capacity building; and engaging in marketexpanding trade agreements.

Education and Research

Education and research are the fundamental cornerstones of the USDA, creating a platform on which all of its policies, practices, and agendas are based. With agricultural enterprises constantly evolving and adapting to current conditions, education and research are paramount to the U.S. AGRICULTURE OUTLOOK

27

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Agriculture Under Secretary for Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services Michael Scuse (left) and U.S. Ambassador to the Russian Federation Michael McFaul stand together at the opening events of the Russia trade mission.

The goal of the mission is to explore the many possibilities for expanding trade and agricultural partnerships with Russia.

success of these fast-paced endeavors.

To keep this field of knowledge fresh, several agencies within the USDA are dedicated to the process, updating databases and news tabs as findings become available.

USDA photo

Economic Research and Grants

In an effort to spur economic research, the USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) recently awarded more than $33 million to study pest-management strategies to protect the food supply. Through partnerships with scientists in U.S. colleges and universities, other federal agencies, and the private sector, this research targets management strategies that have human health, environmental, and economic consequences.

“The projects supported through these prog rams will suppor t research, education, and extension activities that help to find innovative pest management solutions

for our farmers, consumers, and families, aiming to ensure safe and affordable food supply,” NIFA Director Sonny Ramaswamy stated in a recent news release.

Applications for another NIFA grant are currently being accepted through May 22, 2013. An estimated $136 million is available to support research grants for the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) Foundational Program’s six priority areas. Grants will be awarded to solve current and future societal challenges pertaining to: plant health and production and plant products; animal health and production and animal products; food safety, nutrition and health; renewable energy, natural resources, and environment; agriculture systems and technology; and agriculture economics and rural communities. For a list of application requirements, visit NIFA’s Web page and click the grants tab. Total awarded amount is subject to applicant qualifications and shall not exceed $500,000 per applicant.

Agricultural Research and Grants

In a new report titled “Agricultural Preparedness and the Agriculture Research Enterprise,” the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) addressed the challenges facing agricultural research and suggested that more research grants are needed to help American farmers meet all of the challenges facing agricultural enterprise. The report calls for increased public investment in agricultural research, as well as changes to the way grants are currently administered. The goal of this increased investment is to create an innovation ecosystem for agriculture that marries public and private research and development initiatives so that short- and long-term challenges are met in the most efficient manner.

Several grant opportunities are accepting applications to research

a number of agriculturally focused projects. AFRI’s Agriculture and Natural Resources Science for Climate Variability and Change grant has an estimated $5 million in funding for applicants who research ways to mitigate and adapt to climate variability and change. Supported activities include reducing greenhouse gas emissions, increasing carbon sequestration in agricultural and forest production systems, and preparing the country’s agriculture and forests to adapt to variable climates. The long-term goal of this initiative is to reduce the use of energy, nitrogen fertilizer, and water by 10 percent and increase carbon sequestration by 15 percent through resilient agriculture and forest production systems. Applications will be accepted through April 15, 2013.

The Hispanic-Serving Institutions Education Grants Program will earmark $9 million for these institutions to provide higher education programs in the food and agricultural sciences. Applications will be accepted through Feb. 11, 2013, from institutions whose full-time undergraduate student body comprises at least 25 percent Hispanic students.

The Higher Education Challenge Grants Program offers nearly $5 million in funding to institutions addressing educational needs at the state, regional, national, or international levels. In addition, the program seeks a creative or nontraditional approach to not only address needs, but also serve as a model for future programs. The grant program will encourage and facilitate better working relationships between these institutions and the science community, as well as relationships between the universities and the private sector to enhance program quality and the availability of supplemental resources. Finally, the grants are intended to result in benefits that will transcend the project’s duration and the USDA’s support. Applications will be accepted through Feb. 8, 2013.

U.S. AGRICULTURE OUTLOOK

29

interview

an interview with dan glickman AGree Co-chair, Bipartisan Policy Center Senior Fellow, Aspen Institute’s Congressional Program Executive Director, World Food Program USA Vice-chair, and Chicago Council on Global Affairs’ Global Agricultural Development Initiative Co-chair By craig collins

P

rior to his service as U.S. secretary of agriculture from 1995 to 2001, Dan Glickman represented Kansas’ 4th Congressional District in the House of Representatives for 18 years. He also served on the House Agriculture Committee – including six years as chairman of the subcommittee with jurisdiction over federal farm policy issues.

After more than two decades of public service, Glickman was chairman and CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America from 2004 to 2010. In 2010, he served as president of Refugees International, where he worked to compel world leaders to provide clean water, food, health care, and other basic assistance to people displaced by conflict.

Currently, Glickman is a senior fellow at the Bipartisan Policy Center, executive director of the Aspen Institute’s Congressional Program, vice-chair of the World Food Program USA, and co-chair of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs' Global Agricultural Development Initiative. He serves on the boards of directors for several other organizations, including the Food Research and Action Center; the National 4-H Council; the Farm Foundation; and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.

In 2011, Glickman became co-chair of AGree, a global initiative launched by nine of the world’s largest philanthropic foundations: the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; the Rockefeller Foundation; the Ford Foundation; the David and Lucile Packard Foundation; the McKnight Foundation; the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation; the Walton Family Foundation; the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation; and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. AGree’s mission is to drive positive change in the food and agriculture system by challenging leaders from diverse communities to make food and agriculture a national priority.

decided to target food and agriculture as a long-term priority. They’ve been involved in all sorts of things – education, transportation, poverty – but now they’ve chosen to focus the discussion on food and agriculture.

Some of these foundations are new players in this game. Traditionally, the people who talk about these issues are people I would see when I was on the Agriculture Committee in the House, or when I was at USDA. They were people with farm interests, largely.

This is a different model, with newer people, and it’s exciting because – generally speaking – food and agriculture policy tends to be written with a very shortterm, narrow perspective. It has not involved the people in other sectors – in the health sector, the environment sector, the energy sector, the national security sector – so one of our goals is to try to elevate food and agriculture issues to a much larger platform.

Craig Collins: When AGree was created in 2011, it was described as an “agricultural think tank.” Is that an accurate description?

Dan Glickman: I think it’s part think tank, part advocacy organization, and part what I’d call a convener – a venue where we bring a variety of interests together to explore the future of food and agriculture policy and to make recommendations for the future. Sometimes think tanks hold conferences and then don’t do much with their discussion. AGree

How does AGree intend to broaden the discussion to include these other groups?

I’ve obviously been involved in agriculture policy for a long time, and I still am. And in agriculture policy, it’s very easy to get into a pigeon-holed, turf-based discussion depending upon what you’re interested in. In food and agriculture policy, it almost invariably gets into the issue of what farm subsidies should look like. I think the debate needs to go far beyond that, and that’s why I like what AGree

30

U.S. AGRICULTURE OUTLOOK

aims to be the reverse. We have an advisory group of diverse food and agriculture interests and we meet with outside stakeholders, and our goal is to actually come up with recommendations for government policy and private-sector practices as they affect food and agriculture.

AGree is unique, I think. While some of the foundations had focused on parts of the food and agriculture area in the past, this is the first time that a large and important group of the major U.S. foundations has

interview

USDA photo by Bob Nichols

People tend to look at these challenges in pieces, and we’re trying to look at them holistically, as part of the bigger picture. Food and agriculture are very interconnected globally, but there are a lot of barriers between these issues. So we try to foster a unique kind of discourse, where we work across these lines and turf barriers.

is doing. I still engage in discussions about farm subsidy programs, but they’re not going to answer the bigpicture questions about food and agriculture policy.

At AGree, we focus on four interrelated challenges that face the food and agriculture system: First, meeting the future demand for food, particularly with the demographics of the world changing in terms of population growth and income growth.

Another challenge is the effort to conserve water, soil, and habitat. How do we produce that food sustainably and protect our environment, particularly at a time of volatile weather and climate changes?

No. 3 is improving nutrition and public health. Although food stamps and federal nutrition programs are a big part of farm policy to date, these

Former U.S. Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman, cochair of the Chicago Council’s Global Affairs’ Agricultural Development Initiative, and senior fellow, Bipartisan Policy Center, attended a hearing of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry in Washington, D.C., May 26, 2011. Glickman was a member of the witness panel to speak after U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.

issues don’t get as much attention from the agricultural production side as they should.

And then the fourth challenge is our rural development portfolio. How do we strengthen rural communities, improve farm life and rural livelihoods to keep a strong rural sector going?

What are some things about the food and agriculture system that you think are ripe for change?

We’re probably going to have more specific policy recommendations later on next year, but we do know that we’re going to have to produce more food for a growing world, and do it sustainably. We’ve got to figure out a way to get essentially more bang for the buck – produce more food, but do it without impacting water supply or quality. Water resources is a threshold issue for agriculture, because agriculture uses about 70 percent of the world’s fresh water. How are we going to feed 10 billion people with that limited water supply – and without ripping up fragile soils and forests?

That’s obviously a big issue.

Another big issue, both at home and abroad, is nutrition and public health. What can we do to educate people – both those who need federal assistance programs like food stamps, and those who don’t – about the obesity epidemic? How do we get them to improve their diet?

Chronic disease is as much affected by what people eat as any other factor, possibly more so.

We also need to take a close, rational look at the whole issue of immigration and creating a stable, legal food and agriculture workforce, because agricultural producers, particularly fruit and vegetable growers, are extremely dependent upon labor for their production.

And we have a very shaky system now, with respect to securing an adequate number of people in that business. Many of the workers are undocumented, and many of them U.S. AGRICULTURE OUTLOOK

31

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interview

Dan Glickman (at podium) speaks at the launch of AGree, May 3, 2011.

Photo courtesy of AGree

aren’t treated very well. So that’s an area that we want to look at closely.

Our recommendations will probably become part of the broader immigration debate over the next two years.

We'd like also to attract younger people to food and agriculture. I happen to believe agriculture is a good business – and it’s also a growth business, and will be for a long time to come, largely because it’s becoming more profitable. We want to find ways to encourage more young people to get into this business.

We’re also looking at the agricultural research agenda of our country, to see if there are ways to make it more relevant to the future of agriculture and the problems we’re facing.

The food and agriculture policymaking process seems to have stalled in Congress during the 2012 election year. Was 2012 an unusually bad year, or do you think agricultural policy and budgeting are becoming more contentious and complicated?

T he process isn’t all that complicated, to be honest with you. It’s only complicated by the political decisions that have to be made about how much we want to spend on farm programs and how much we want to spend on

food stamps. One of the big issues being debated this year is the level of funding for food stamps, which is a worrisome issue for those of us who support both farm programs and nutrition programs.

Traditionally, there has been a link or a partnership between farmers, farm groups, and producers of farm commodities and folks who have been involved in SNAP [Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program] and other federal nutrition programs.

That partnership has been, in a sense, a marriage of convenience, because the number of members of Congress from rural and farm areas is very small.

The number of members of Congress from urban and suburban areas is much larger. So this political coalition between consumers and producers has really been the mainstay of the agriculture budget for maybe 40 or 50 years, but what’s happened in the last few years is that there’s been a big growth in the nutrition budget largely because the economy is not good, and more people are on federal assistance programs, including food stamps. And some people, particularly on the conservative side, would like to see those numbers cut. A lot of those same people are those that don’t want to see cuts in the farm support programs. That’s created a

tension that we haven’t seen, certainly in my history in this debate.

So how to resolve it? I don’t know. The Senate wants to cut the SNAP and other federal assistance programs less than the House does.

There’s also a debate about the level of federal support for commodities in the North and South. There are some particularly who represent southern commodities who feel that the bills that have been passed by the Senate, and reported out of the House, favor northern commodities.

It’s a complicated matter, and very nuanced. But I think right now it’s been one of the underlying reasons why this bill has not been solved yet.

Both the Senate and the House versions of the Farm Bill put an end to direct payments to farmers. Do you think that provision is just a sign of the times, or is this the end of an era?

I think farm programs are important, but in the future, as we move to a more sophisticated, risk-based approach, federal support programs are simply going to become less and less important. You’re going to see programs in conservation, and some programs in risk management, but the tradition of great amounts of federal money pouring into agriculture for farmers to grow crops – or to not grow crops – I think those days are coming to an end.

At AGree, one of the things we want to look at is: What is the future of food and agriculture going to look like? What issues are out there, beyond just what’s going to happen to farm and commodity programs?

It’s really important for agriculture that more than just rural America is interested in what happens in the production of food. This is a national issue – a national security issue, a health issue, an environmental issue, and an economic issue. And with our engagement at AGree, we can highlight these issues and demonstrate their importance to our national agenda.

U.S. AGRICULTURE OUTLOOK

33

DROUGHT

A

lthough drought persists in var ying degrees of severity from year to year and region to region, the 2012 drought that affected most of the United States was nothing less than an agricultural abomination. Considered to be the most severe and extensive drought to impact the country in the last 25 years, these less-than-stellar conditions affected most of the nation, significantly stunting crop yields and hindering livestock growth as well.

As farmers still contend with the unsavory conditions and attempt to rebound from below-average yields, U.S. consumers must brace for significant changes in the retail sector for some time to come.

What began as a year filled with positive predictions supporting promising crop conditions and record or near-record yields quickly morphed into a dry, unforgiving growing season that rivaled some of the worst in recent decades. At the onset of the growing season, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) reported very favorable conditions for both the corn and soybean crops – two staples that are critical for supply, demand, and price conditions affecting the 2012-2013 marketing year.

The report initially indicated that more than 75 percent of the nation’s corn crop and 65 percent of the soybean crop were rated good to excellent. Just a few months later, only a quarter of the corn crop received the highest rating, while half of the nation’s corn crop was rated poor or very poor. In the same vein, soybeans took a significant hit, with only 35 percent of the crop registering in the good-to-excellent range. As the conditions for these field crops continued to decline throughout the growing season, the below-average yields would not only affect their output, but the success of the livestock sectors as well.

34

U.S. AGRICULTURE OUTLOOK

harvest in the midst of drought The effects of 2012’s drought on both crops and livestock continue to plague farmers, necessitating action by the USDA. By tara n. wilfong

Purdue Agricultural Communication photo by Tom Campbell

DROUGHT

When significant feeder crops such as corn and soybeans fail to thrive, cattle, hog, poultry, and dairy farmers take a direct hit. Like any consumer product, when the feed supply cannot meet the demand, prices rise, leaving ranchers vulnerable to restrained growth. Add in the drought’s adverse effect on pasturelands, and the livestock sector must also contend with reduced availability of pastures and hay due to heat stress.

“The drought caused everything to ‘burn up,’ resulting in significant decreases in crop yields,” explained retired cattle rancher Jim Rowlett of Pinson, Tenn. “The grass became stressed and subsequently died, which results in a long recovery period. The drought also created a food shortage for cattle, resulting in weight loss and a weaker immune system, which makes the herd more susceptible to disease. In addition,

This surreallooking soybean field near Dayton, Ind., is a victim of the 2012 drought that started in the spring and worsened into the summer.

U.S. AGRICULTURE OUTLOOK 35

DROUGHT

LEFT: President Barack Obama and U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack (far right) tour the McIntosh family farm with the owners to view drought-ridden fields of corn in Missouri Valley, Iowa, Aug. 13, 2012. RIGHT: Drought has become a concern and livestock producers are worried about water quantity and quality. The NRCS has been assisting livestock producers with these water issues through the Environmental Quality Incentives Program.

stressed cattle may not breed back as soon as they are supposed to.

Finally, the food shortage caused an increase in cost for cattle production, and we all know that lower yields result in higher costs.”

According to the USDA’s Economic Research Service (ERS), greater production declines for cattle, hogs, and poultry are anticipated for 2013 while milk production is expected to remain stable.

These production declines will be directly felt by consumers in terms of higher prices at the supermarket.

Photo by Larry Downing

NRCS photo

Drought-induced Herbicide Carry-over

As if the drought didn’t wreak enough havoc on farmers, the threat of drought-induced herbicide carryover and its potential impact on the 2013 harvest has many on edge. The application of herbicides during the planting and growing seasons is a commonality: Herbicides effectively inhibit weed seedling germination and protect crop yields from yieldrobbing weeds. “Generally, when herbicides are applied, we rely on

chemical or microbial processes in the soil to break down the herbicides so they are not harmful to a rotational crop,” said Bill Johnson, professor of weed science, Department of Botany and Plant Pathology at Purdue University.

However, after the drought, in which summer rains were practically nonexistent, the herbicides used to promote growth and inhibit weeds for the previous crop were still present in the soil. “When there isn’t much rainfall, as was the case during the 2012 planting and growing seasons, normal breakdown reactions are slowed dramatically, which can result in herbicide retention in the soil,” Johnson said. This retention can create a potentially hazardous condition for new plantings.

Generally, winter wheat and forage grass are at most risk for contamination. Oftentimes, when the corn and soybean crops fail to produce to expectations, many farmers contemplate planting these cover crops to offset their earlier yield deficits. However, early results suggest that both the winter wheat and forage grass crops planted at the

end of 2012 fared much better than initially expected.

As for spring 2013 plantings of both corn and soybeans, a particular concern is the retention of chlorimuron, fomesafen, and triazine herbicides and their potential carryover to sensitive crops. To safeguard new plantings, experts advise either waiting a full year before planting triazine-sensitive soybeans in these fields, or replanting the field with corn. Although herbicide carryover in fields where soybeans were the previous crop is not as likely, chances still exist that a chlorimuron or fomesafen herbicide is still present in the soil if they were used during 2012.

With so many questions still surrounding the herbicide carry-over problem, the only definitive way to ensure a healthy field, and thus a healthy crop, is to test the soil. While testing at an independent lab provides accurate results, the cost can certainly be prohibitive. On-site testing can be just as accurate, but much less costly.

A soil bioassay is a simple but effective test that can help farmers determine if their fields are prone U.S. AGRICULTURE OUTLOOK 37

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to herbicide carry-over injury.

To conduct the test, several soil samples from across the field in question – as well as soil samples from an unaffected field – should be gathered several weeks before the intended planting.

Mix the soil samples from the affected field together and place them in flats or pots in a greenhouse. The healthy soil samples should be clearly marked and separated from the other batch, following the same planting guidelines. Both sets of samples should be watered for three to five days, ensuring the soil remains moist during this time. Plant seeds from the next, intended crop in sample pots from the two fields. Allow the seeds to germinate and observe the new plants from the suspected field for signs of herbicide carry-over injury and compare them to the plants from the unaffected field.

Plants with herbicide injury will show signs of chlorosis, in which leaves turn a pale color and eventually become brittle and brown around the edges. As the condition persists, brown spots color the leaves and can ultimately damage the entire crop. If herbicide injury is suspected, it may be necessary to leave the field fallow or plant the same crops in 2013 as were planted in 2012 until the herbicide has adequate time and rainfall to degrade.

By the Numbers As the growing season persists, the USDA constantly updates data regarding the nation’s drought status and its effects. Detailed reports, including the World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates and the Economic Research Service’s farm income forecast, provide a valuable snapshot of the nation’s drought crisis.

• Nearly 80 percent of agricultural land is experiencing drought.

• As of Sept. 12, 2012, more than 2,000 counties across the United States had been designated as disaster areas by the USDA. • As of Aug. 14, 2012, at least 70 percent of crop and livestock production was in areas experiencing at least moderate drought.

• 67 percent of cattle production is affected by severe or greater drought conditions.

• About 70 to 75 percent of corn and soybean production is affected by severe or greater drought conditions.

• More than 80 percent of the acres of major field crops planted in the United States are covered by federal crop insurance.

The Nation’s Hardest-Hit Areas

While you’re almost hard-pressed to find an area of the country not affected by the 2012 drought, there are a number of states that have fared far worse than others. Categorized as “exceptional drought” areas, 14 states stretching from the Deep South to the Midwest have experienced widespread losses of crops and pastures, as well as water shortages in reservoirs, streams, and wells. States situated in exceptional drought areas include: Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, Nebraska, New

Mexico, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, and Wyoming.

Faring slightly better than these drought-ravaged areas but still reeling from the serious lack of rainfall, eight states, including Alabama, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Nevada, South Carolina, and Utah, experienced extreme drought conditions. Farmers and ranchers in these hard-hit areas are contending with major losses of crops and pastures, as well as widespread water shortages

and accompanying water usage restrictions.

The USDA’s Assistance Programs

With such widespread drought affecting millions of acres of farmland across the country, the USDA has earmarked funds and implemented numerous programs to help farmers spur agricultural rebound. In a national news release on Oct. 23, 2012, the USDA announced that more than 1 million acres of farmland and nearly 2,000 agricultural producers took advantage of conservation funding provided by the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) specifically set aside for drought-stricken areas.

The more than $27 million in federal assistance was designated to help farmers and ranchers make conservation improvements, spur recovery, and ensure that their lands would be more drought-resistant in future years. “This tremendous response reflects the severity of this year’s drought conditions,” stated Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. “The level of producer participations is also a testament to the hard work of USDA and other federal agencies to help farmers and ranchers weather one of the worst droughts in decades.”

This federal aid for droughtstricken states experiencing hardships ranging from the extreme to the exceptional is provided in most part by the NRCS’s Wildlife Habitat Incentive Program (WHIP) and Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP). These programs fund conservation practices that reduce the impacts of drought and improve soil health and productivity.

Environmental Quality Incentives Program

Funding from EQIP is available to agricultural landowners who need assistance in planning and U.S. AGRICULTURE OUTLOOK 39

DROUGHT

conservation initiatives in their area.

These priorities are ranked, and compensation from WHIP is based on these rankings. While payments from the program are not to exceed $50,000 annually, socially disadvantaged, new, and limited resource farmers and ranchers can be eligible for increased payments. This financial assistance generally expires after 10 years, however, some long-term share agreements are available for 15-year or longer terms, based on their necessity and ability to protect and restore essential plant and animal habitats.

To apply for WHIP funding, you may submit an application online at www.nrcs.usda.gov. Under the programs tab, follow the link for financial assistance and scroll down to Wildlife Habitat Incentive Program.

From here, you will find detailed information on WHIP, as well as a link for the WHIP sign-up form.

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U.S. AGRICULTURE OUTLOOK

To apply for EQIP funding, visit or contact your local NRCS field office or submit an application online at www.nrcs.usda.gov.

Under the programs tab, follow the link for financial assistance and scroll down to Environmental Quality Incentives Program. From here, you will find detailed information on the EQIP, as well as details on how to apply for assistance.

Wildlife Habitat Incentive Program

Similar to EQIP and its premise to fund conservation-focused agricultural programs, WHIP targets ranchers and farmers who want to develop and improve fish and wildlife habitats on their land. Eligible lands include cropland, grassland, rangeland, pasture, and other areas determined by NRCS to be suitable for sustaining fish and wildlife habitats.

All WHIP applicants must identify priorities for enrollment that complement the goals and objectives of the

In addition to federally funded programs that allow farmers and ranchers to initiate new conservation protocols that will prepare their lands for future drought, the USDA also provides assistance through emergency loans and insurance. Farm loans are low-interest loans that allow farmers to make necessary repairs to their structures as well as purchase everything from additional farmland to feed, fuel, and livestock. Crop insurance protects farmers against production loss due to natural disasters.

Providing myriad programs and services to farmers and ranchers to help protect their interests from drought-induced disasters, the USDA is ensuring the continued health and stability of national farming communities. All of the USDA’s emergency programs can be found at www.usda.gov under the topics tab. Scroll down to Emergency Preparedness and Response for a full listing of drought-related emergency resources.

USDA image

implementing conservation practices to improve soil, water, plant, animal, air, and related resources on their land. To qualify, ranchers and farmers must identify a natural resource concern that plagues their property, in this case, drought. With a qualified concern, EQIP helps landowners pinpoint and implement the best conservation measures for their particular needs.

Financial assistance from the program has a maximum term of 10 years and provides payments based on the average cost to implement these conservation practices. In total, compensation cannot exceed $300,000 in a six-year period unless the NRCS has determined that the land and the implementation of conservation practices are of environmental significance. In this case, compensation may be increased to a maximum of $450,000 in the sixyear period. Farmers and ranchers enrolled in EQIP’s Organic Initiative may be entitled to additional funding upon review.

Other Programs and Assistance

genetically modified organisms

ge food labeling: the debate’s not over yet By craig collins

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U.S. AGRICULTURE OUTLOOK

Francisco Chronicle described the measure as “fraught with vague and problematic provisions that could make it costly for consumers and a legal nightmare for those who grow, process or sell food … Perhaps the main problem with Prop 37 is that it invites citizen lawsuits as a primary means of enforcing the labeling law.”

While the issue has been settled – for now – by California voters, it’s still energetically argued at the national level. The Center for Food Safety (CFS), a nonprofit advocacy organization for sustainable agriculture, filed a petition last year with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to demand that the agency require labeling of all food containing GE ingredients.

In its petition, the center pointed out that most of the world’s industrialized countries – including the entire

European Union (EU), the United Kingdom, South Korea, Japan, Brazil, China, Australia, and New Zealand – have mandatory labeling policies. To date, about 1.2 million people have filed comments with the FDA in support of the petition.

At the same time, the United States is the world’s largest commercial grower of GE crops, and its market share continues to grow. More than 90 percent of the soybeans, cotton, and canola sold in the United States is genetically modified, and more than 80 percent of corn. In June 2012, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) approved the planting of sugar beets engineered to resist the application of the herbicide glyphosate – a deregulation that assures a significant increase in the amount of GE sugar in U.S. food. Today, about

While lots of labels tout their products’ lack of genetically modified ingredients, the goal of California’s Prop 37 was for all foods containing GMOs to be labeled as such.

Photo courtesy of Paul Sakuma

A

t first glance, the Nov. 6, 2012, defeat of California’s Proposition 37 – officially known as The California Right to Know Genetically Engineered Food Act – seems counterintuitive.

Prop 37 would have required labeling on raw or processed foods offered for sale to consumers if the food contained more than trace amounts of genetically engineered (GE) plants or animals – an idea overwhelmingly supported in national polls. In 2010, separate surveys conducted by The Washington Post and Thompson Reuters/National Public Radio found that 95 percent and 93 percent of respondents, respectively, believed GE food should be labeled as such. Likewise, 96 percent of 45,000 respondents to a February 2011 poll by MSNBC believed GE foods should be labeled.

Prior to the election, however – if measured by the opinions of the state’s newspaper editorial staffs – the initiative was among the least popular on the California ballot.

While few, if any, critics had a problem with the principle of labeling GE foods, or with the measure’s prohibition against labeling or advertising such food as “natural,” many found the enforcement provisions flawed: The measure opened the door for consumers to file lawsuits against retailers who sold incorrectly labeled foods, without requiring the plaintiffs to show injury or damages.

Critics also found the initiative’s list of foods covered and exempted to be ambiguous and poorly worded. The Fresno Bee observed that the measure “contains wording that could prohibit 'natural' labels on any food that has been pressed or milled.” The San

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70 to 80 percent of the processed foods sold in U.S. stores contain some GE ingredients.

Given these two facts – more than 90 percent of Americans think GE foods should be labeled as such; and up to 80 percent of the foods they buy contain some GE ingredients, but are not labeled – it doesn’t seem the debate on GE food labeling is over.

Photo by John O’Neill

Claims and Counterclaims

Among Prop 37’s opponents was Robert Goldberg, a UCLA distinguished professor of molecular, cell, and developmental biology; a member of the National Academy of Sciences; and co-founder of Ceres, an agricultural biotechnology company in Thousand Oaks, Calif.

“I’ve seen discoveries in my laboratory actually make very important breakthroughs in agriculture,” Goldberg said. “And because I’m a scientist and I believe in the science, I opposed Proposition 37.”

Goldberg had many of the same problems with the measure that California newspaper editors had – its focus on litigation as an enforcement tool, and ambiguous wording that made it unclear which foods would be covered – but he also opposed 37 because of what he saw as the unfair and unsupported stigma it affixed to GE foods. “It was putting up a warning sign,” he said. “GMO [genetically modified organisms] sounds like this scary and mysterious and strange and crazy term, when in fact it’s just manipulating genes in a very, very specific way.” The principles of genetic engineering used today, Goldberg said, are not new; they’re 40 years old.

Goldberg pointed to a National Academies Press study performed in 2004 – in which he was not involved – that concluded GE food is not substantially different from non-GE food. More specifically, the report stated that, while GE food can, like regular foods, carry risks, the substances that compose GE

More than 90 percent of soybeans, cotton, and canola (pictured), and more than 80 percent of corn, that is sold in the United States are genetically modified.

food can’t be meaningfully distinguished from the substances in non-GE food. “The conclusion was that genetic engineering is a technique,” said Goldberg, “not an end result. Modern genetic engineering is no different than conventional genetic engineering: Every single solitary food that you buy in the grocery store was genetically engineered.

Genes were manipulated, whether it was naturally, by breeding, or by using DNA – which is also natural, from my point of view and from the academy’s point of view.”

Goldberg described Proposition 37 as “very antiscientific, completely antiscience … opponents [of GE food] U.S. AGRICULTURE OUTLOOK

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genetically modified organisms

come directly for the most part from the organic food industry because they don’t use genetic engineering, for reasons I will never understand.

It’s more of a religion or an ideology than something that’s science-based.

There’s no scientific evidence that organic foods are any better or safer than conventionally grown crops.”

The CFS’ West Coast director, Rebecca Spector, rejects the notion that Prop 37 is a stigmatizing measure. “At a minimum, we feel that this information should be provided to consumers,” she said, “and that consumers do have a right to know their food is being produced using genetic engineering. It’s not a warning label. It’s an informational label – just as irradiated foods have to be labeled under FDA requirements, we believe genetically engineered foods should also be labeled.”

The CFS’ support of Prop 37, Spector said, is in line with the organization’s overall goal “to monitor the government and make sure the agencies are adequately regulating what we call new food technologies – these are things like genetically engineered food, or food irradiation, that are new, and our government is regulating them using old and outdated laws. In terms of genetic engineering, we’ve been in court against USDA for many years and we’ve won a number of cases basically showing that they’re not following the law.

They’re not doing proper review of the impacts of genetically engineered crops … So that’s why we supported Prop 37 – again, even though our preference would be federal labeling, FDA has not acted on that, so we support states’ efforts to do that.”

Spector, who co-founded and owned an organic farm for 10 years, also rejects the idea that the science on GE foods is settled – while the technology is, as Goldberg pointed out, 40 years old, the first generation of GE crops was planted less than than 20 years ago, in 1996. “FDA has not done independent health testing of these foods,” she said. “And there

really have been virtually no long-term studies of the health impacts of these foods.”

It’s true that there have been no long-term studies of the health impacts of GE foods – but the most important reason for that is that there has been only one generation of GE crops. The World Health Organization – which issued a 2005 report cautiously praising the benefits of GE organisms while urging further safety assessments – outlined three main health concerns associated with GE food: allergenicity (genes from GE plant to another may also transfer allergens); gene transfer (the introduction of genetic material to body cells that could result in adverse health effects such as antibiotic resistance); and outcrossing or “gene flow” (the transfer of pollen, by wind or insect, from a GE plant to an adjacent crop to create a new organism whose effects are unknown).

The EU has taken the lead in researching these concerns. In 2010, it published one of the most comprehensive reports yet compiled on their impacts and risks. “A decade of EU-funded GMO research,” which concluded that “biotechnology, and in particular GMOs, are not per se more risky than e.g., conventional plant breeding technologies.” The report’s conclusions were based on $425 million worth of research: 130 studies, involving

Herbicide-tolerant (HT) crops were developed as a form of effective weed control, able to survive application of specific herbicides that previously would have destroyed the crop along with the targeted weeds. Insect-resistant crops containing the gene from the soil bacterium Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) have been available for corn and cotton since 1996. These bacteria produce a protein that is toxic to specific insects, protecting the plant over its entire life.

more than 500 independent groups.

In implementing its own GMO labeling requirements, then, the EU is responding to the concerns of consumers – who overwhelmingly favor labeling – more than the findings of its scientists. There are currently two crops approved for farmers in EU nations, compared to 90 crops permitted for use in the United States, and there is currently no regulation anywhere in the United States requiring the disclosure of GE ingredients to consumers.

The CFS, like any credible supporter of Prop 37, does not make the claim that GE foods are harmful to humans, and rejects the idea that the initiative is about “warning” consumers – which could lead an U.S. AGRICULTURE OUTLOOK

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genetically modified organisms

observer to fairly ask: If it’s about a consumer’s right to know, and GE organisms haven’t yet proven harmful to humans, why do more than 90 percent of consumers care whether they know?

Photo by Patrick Alexander

Beyond Stigma

One clue to the answer may be that when Spector refers to the “impacts” of GE crops, she does not think merely of potential health impacts, but other impacts as well, including environmental and also economic impacts posed by gene flow to producers of non-GE crops. Conventional growers who sell to Europe or Japan, where GE crops are restricted, might lose their contracts if their product is tested and shown to be contaminated with GE material. “Especially with corn,” said Spector, “we’re seeing high levels of contamination caused by pollen drift and commingling after harvest – so farmers can lose their markets … and with organic growers, it’s the same thing.” If an organic farmer is supposed to supply organic corn to a company that makes organic tortilla chips, for example, and his or her product proves to be contaminated with GE corn, the contract may likewise be terminated.

Spector was not involved in writing Prop 37, and believes it was aimed at helping consumers, rather than producers. But her example raises the possibility that if consumers’ own health isn’t a factor in deciding whether to buy GE foods, might there be other factors – and might government be persuaded to help them make these decisions?

It’s worth noting that an environmental impact of the first generation of crops engineered to be resistant to the herbicide glyphosate – the emergence of the “superweed” Palmer amaranth in the South that is virtually immune to glyphosate – has also become a significant economic impact for farmers, whose weedcontrol costs have, in some severe cases, quadrupled. “It really threatens

The introduction of genetically engineered crops beneficially resistant to the herbicide glyphosate resulted in the emergence of the herbicideresistant Amaranthus palmeri superweed.

the future viability of these crops,” said David Ervin, a former farmer and now professor of environmental management and economics at Portland State University. “They’ve given up growing cotton down in Georgia in some places. They can’t even plant it.”

In the summer of 2012, Ervin – who two years earlier had chaired a committee that produced a report for the National Research Council (NRC) detailing the potential benefits and impacts of GE crops on U.S. farm sustainability – helped assemble an NRC summit on the worsening problem of herbicide-resistant weeds.

For some consumers, the desire for GMO labeling may simply be a desire to vote with their pocketbooks – to opt out of supporting industrial agriculture and its impacts on other producers and the environment. While he does not advocate either for or against GE food labeling, Ervin does see a precedent for food label information that is ideologically based. “The whole idea behind

kosher foods is that we’ve developed a set of processes on labels to [assure] consumers that foods meet certain standards, based upon ideological positions that consumers may hold … This is really an argument about providing consumers information so they can make choices to satisfy whatever objectives they have in terms of their values toward foods.”

The labeling issue could also be viewed as an issue of fundamental fairness between big industrial GE producers and smaller, non-GE farmers, Ervin said. “In the present case, the people who are growing and marketing products that are either organic or non-GE are absorbing all the costs of differentiating the markets. They’re footing the bill, basically. So I understand the motivation to seek fairness. If the people with GE ingredients had to label their products, then there would be some distribution of costs to both parties.”

Such observations, from an outsider with no stake in the outcome of the Proposition 37 vote, make it seem as if the debate over the ballot measure was perhaps too narrowly drawn – that the defeat of Prop 37 may mark the beginning, rather than the conclusion, of a national conversation.

U.S. AGRICULTURE OUTLOOK

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biomass crops fueling tomorrow’s energy needs By david a. brown

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U.S. AGRICULTURE OUTLOOK

Resources, as saying: “It really goes back to yield mapping. Farmers began installing yield monitors on combines in the 1990s and with that was a much greater awareness and appreciation of productivity differences within fields.”

Today, many farmers not only welcome biomass crops, they’re taking a proactive approach toward integrating them into their farms.

Leading the list of common biofuel “feedstocks” is switchgrass, a hardy perennial plant that grows in a variety of climates and soils throughout most of the nation. Others include the drought-tolerant sorghum and sweet sorghum. The latter’s natural sugar production allows direct conversion into advanced biofuels like ethanol. Fast-growing trees such as cottonwoods and willows are also popular biomass options, as they produce large volumes of cellulosic matter in short periods of time.

WHY IT WORKS

The benefits of biomass crops are many, and they start with the very environment in which such crops grow. Improving air quality, filtering and cleaning water, anchoring soil to prevent erosion, and providing habitat for native wildlife, these plants bring a plethora of benefits to the table. There’s also a long-term benefit, as biocrops such as switchgrass and miscanthus can actually improve marginal soils. As perennials, these plants develop roots during the fall and store carbon below ground.

“Carbon being stored below ground has an amazing effect on soil,” Kitchen stated in a University

of Missouri press release. “Some of the carbon will slough off, providing food for soil microbes. When you have a very active microbial pool in the soil, you get a lot of turnover of nutrients. It’s a healthier soil.”

Moreover, Kitchen noted that the carbon stored in the roots of biomass crops also provides structure in the soil. This fosters better root development and allows water to infiltrate the soil profile, where its retention actually promotes soil rejuvenation.

As Kitchen pointed out, biomass crops present much more than environmental and ecological benefits – they can also prove profitable. In solid or liquid form, their end use creates energy to power many other industries, so the value cannot be understated.

“If the markets come into play as we anticipate they will, these soils could be consistent in what they can produce in terms of biomass,” Kitchen said. “That could provide a flow of income for farmers that would diversify their enterprise and make these marginal soils more productive. That’s what I think these crops will demonstrate over time.”

BRINGING IT TOGETHER

As with every business decision, devoting a portion of the farm’s growing space, labor, and resources to biomass crops must deliver a cost-effective reality. Constantly challenging this premise are the logistics of feedstock processing. Since largescale processing requires unique equipment, facilities, and biofuel delivery systems, the question of what to do with that grass and wood

Texas A&M AgriLife Communications photo by Steve Byrns

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emons to lemonade, trash to treasure, something from nothing: The premise of intentional biomass crop farming transcends the clichés and speaks very clearly to the sensibilities of bottom-line economics, environmental benefits, and America’s energy future. Much more than an intriguing notion and certainly well past supposition, biomass production is an idea whose time has come.

Spurred onward by developments within the agriculture industry and governmental incentives, many farmers are learning to leverage the once lowly native grasses and other such castoffs to maximize their productivity and profitability.

So, what are these biomass crops?

Essentially, they are the grasses, the woody plants, the nonfood-bearing vegetation often found on less desirable sections of a farm. Marginal soil, as it’s often called, may be prone to flooding or erosion, or simply lack sufficient nutrients to support the corn, wheat, soybeans, and other food crops envisioned on the classic American farm. Unproductive for grains and other traditional food crops, marginal soil often ends up populated by what may be dismissed as weeds. Unsightly as they may be, some of these plants yield a clean and renewable energy source when mass processed into advanced liquid fuels or solid fuel pellets.

Agriculture.com quotes Newell Kitchen, a soil scientist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Research Service and adjunct associate professor at the University of Missouri College of Agriculture, Food, and Natural

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Farmers may be more willing to grow the drought-tolerant sorghum as a biofuel “feedstock.”

As an annual, it fits easily into a normal crop rotation without tying up valuable cropland.

U.S. AGRICULTURE OUTLOOK

49

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Metrolina photo by Holly Hess

Photo courtesy of Mineral Community Hospital

LEFT: Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack (at podium) announces the selection of 31 individuals and rural business owners in North Carolina for the USDA’s Rural Energy for America Program (REAP) at Metrolina Greenhouses in Huntersville, June 25, 2012. The Metrolina Greenhouses operation drastically cut its energy bills by replacing a natural gas heating system with a wood boiler, funded in part with USDA REAP. Metrolina produced 187 billion BTUs from the biomass boilers between Oct. 1, 2011, and May 30, 2012. RIGHT: The Mineral Hospital Biomass Generator in Superior, Mont., under construction on March 29, 2012. The U.S. Forest Service provided funding for this project with a Woody Biomass Utilization Grant. The Mineral Hospital Biomass Generator will use woody material, such as beetle-killed trees, to help prevent wildfires. The material will then be processed in bioenergy facilities to produce green energy for heating and electricity.

looms ever present. For some farmers, transporting large volumes of raw plant products can consume more energy than the effort can produce.

That’s where biomass conversion facilities (BCFs) come in. Similar in purpose to a petroleum refinery, a BCF processes feedstocks and converts them into biofuels. One such example is Show Me Energy Cooperative (SMEC) – a biomass aggregation and processing facility in Centerview, Mo. What’s interesting here is that SMEC is a producer-owned entity, meaning its member farmers own the facility, which provides a centralized collection point that simplifies the logistics issues for farmers.

Through its internal processes, SMEC can process biomass products down to whatever mill length and blend a biofuel customer requests.

The processed material is shipped in

finely ground form or dense pellets of 1-inch-thick by 1-inch-long. The pellets offer an economical transportation option for customers who will use the pellets for cattle feed, liquid fuels research, heating, and electrical generation.

Founded in 2008, SMEC started out by creating these compacted biomass fuel pellets from straw, corn stover, and various agricultural wastes. Today, the co-op encourages its members to plant various biomass crops and stresses that doing so not only contributes to a national cleanenergy objective, but maximizes their farms’ productivity with additional revenue. Ultimately, SMEC founder Steve Flick knows that such decisions are driven by economic prudence.

“It boils down to net income per acre,” Flick told Midwest Energy News.

“If he’s making money, he’s going to keep doing it. That’s real life.”

INCENTIVES TO GROW

In an effort to promote biomass farming, the federal government offers incentives to farmers who commit to producing various feedstocks. For example, the Rural Energy for America Program (REAP) provides assistance to agricultural producers and rural small businesses to complete various renewable energy projects, including those relating to biomass. The REAP program offers loan guarantees and grants that help eligible applicants install renewable energy systems (solar panels or anaerobic digesters), make energyefficiency improvements (installing irrigation pumps or replacing ventilation systems), and conduct energy audits and feasibility studies.

The REAP program was a product of the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008, which converted the U.S. AGRICULTURE OUTLOOK

51

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federal Renewable Energy Systems and Energy Efficiency Improvements Program into the program used to assist today’s farmers. Approximately 88 percent of total REAP funding goes to competitive grants and loan guarantees for energy-efficiency improvements and renewable energy systems. These incentives may be used to purchase renewable energy systems (including systems that may be used to produce and sell electricity) and to make energyefficiency improvements. About 2 percent of total funding is available for feasibility studies.

Also essential to the establishment and growth of biomass operations is the federal Biomass Crop Assistance Program (BCAP), which provides incentives to farmers, ranchers, and forest landowners to establish, cultivate, and harvest biomass for heat, power, bio-based products, and biofuels. Created in the 2008 Farm Bill and administered by the Farm Service Agency, BCAP addresses the challenge of starting commercial scale bioenergy activities – something of a chicken-or-egg conundrum for the agriculture industry.

Essentially, for commercial-scale biomass facilities to have sufficient feedstocks, a large-scale energy crop must exist. On the other hand, a farmer’s confidence in profitable crop production depends on viable consumers to purchase the crop.

Crop producers selected for BCAP funding will be eligible for reimbursements of up to 75 percent of the cost of establishing a bioenergy perennial crop. Producers can receive up to five years of annual payments for grassy (nonwoody) crops (annual or perennial), and up to 15 years of annual payments for woody crops (annual or perennial).

Biomass producers can also receive assistance for the collection, harvest, storage, and transportation of crops to BCFs for two years in the form of a matching payment for up to $45 per ton of the delivery cost. For optimal efficiency, crop producers and

For nearly four years, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Navy Secretary Ray Mabus have made a coordinated and concerted effort to support the development and stand-up of a domestic biofuels sector. The USDA has lent support to furthering research and business start-ups for biomass production and waste stream diversion, and the Navy has sought to test, demonstrate, and accelerate investments in advanced biofuels for use in its many platforms. Pictured, U.S. Navy ships and planes off the coast of Hawaii (largely powered by biofuels produced from American-grown algae and waste animal fats) participate in the Navy’s Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) Exercises/Great Green Fleet (GGF) demonstration July 18, 2012.

bioenergy facilities can team together to submit proposals to USDA for selection as a BCAP project area.

BCAP is a primary component of the domestic agriculture, energy, and environmental strategy to reduce U.S. reliance on foreign oil, improve domestic energy security, reduce carbon pollution, and spur

rural economic development and job creation. The federal Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS), which requires 21 billion gallons of non-cornstarch biofuels in the national fuel supply by 2022, requires new types of biomass feedstocks. That’s why BCAP is a vital link between where we are and where we need to be. Many bioenergy U.S. AGRICULTURE OUTLOOK

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crops need several years to become established, while many bioenergy facilities need several years to reach commercial scale. BCAP bridges the gap by reducing the financial risk for landowners who decide to grow the unconventional biomass crops for what is still a relatively new market.

MOVING FORWARD

Demonstrating the nation’s commitment to promoting biomass farming as a clean energy source, June 2012 saw Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announce $9.6 million for the creation of two new BCAP project areas in New York and North Carolina, and the expansion of an already-established BCAP project area in Arkansas.

One of the new project areas (sponsored by Chemtex International Inc.) comprises 11 counties in eastern North Carolina, where it will grow more than 4,000 acres of Freedom® Giant Miscanthus and switchgrass.

The crop production will support Chemtex’s Project Alpha, a cellulosic biorefinery with an expected annual production of 20 million gallons of bioethanol and downstream sustainable chemicals, as well as on-site biogas for power generation.

The second new BCAP project area involves nine counties in upstate New York, where generating more than 100 megawatts of electricity from 3,500 acres of fastgrowing shrub willow advances the state’s goal of sourcing 24 percent of electric and power generation from renewables by 2013. Project area sponsor ReEnergy Holdings LLC has three committed facilities that will purchase these biomass crops from area growers. This project complements USDA’s Wood-to-Energy Initiative, which seeks to build a forest restoration economy by integrating energy feedstock within the larger forest products sector to sustain rural jobs and prosperity.

Expansion of BCAP Project Area 2 within three counties of northeast

WASTE NOT WANT NOT Complementing the direct effort of growing biomass crops, the agriculture industry also finds significant biofuel materials through what Northern California farmer Gary Souza calls byproduct. The rice and walnuts he grows on his farms in Yuba, Caloosa, and Butte counties are obviously classified as food crops, but the processes that prepare them for consumption yield a lot of valuable leftovers.

For example, Souza ships his harvested rice to a mill, which knocks off the hulls and sends this waste to a biomass processor, along with the baled rice straw. Souza sends his walnuts to commercial hulling and cracking facilities, which extract the edible flesh and send the shells into the biomass stream.

“Even though I never see that, a portion of what I grow goes [to biomass],” Souza said. “Unless you’re a large-scale grower and have a lot of your own processing equipment, you go to a commercial dryer, huller, cracker, or rice mill.

It’s the same with peaches, prunes, [and other crops]. And when orchards are removed, the woody material is ground up and used for fuel. All of us contribute indirectly to the biomass.”

As Souza pointed out, what was once considered worthless refuse now directly impacts his bottom line. Although the biomass is actually collected after the crops leave his hands, the value originates on his farms.

“As the byproducts become more valuable, the cost of processing hasn’t gone up, but it hasn’t gone down,” Souza said. “So as value is rendered from the byproducts, it has become more profitable for the [commercial hullers, crackers, etc.] to market these byproducts. They’re passing some of the profits along to us by not increasing the cost of processing. The byproducts have become so valuable now that they contribute to the very bottom line of what I receive for my crop.”

In addition to the economic benefit, Souza said he’s a staunch proponent of what his crop’s biomass elements mean to the nation’s energy future: “Without the biomass, we’re not going to meet the [energy] needs for the next century.

The demand has increased and we can only burn so much coal, we can only burn so much petroleum. The only way we’re going to make up that difference is through the biomass.

“We want a cleaner, healthier environment and this is the avenue we’re taking. I think it’s the right avenue. It’s not only helping the consumer of power – the average household – it’s helping the industry, the farmers, and the processors. It’s a win-win for everybody.”

Arkansas will bring enrollment up to nearly 8,000 acres of Giant Miscanthus. These crops support the expected production of fuel pellets for export and in-farm heating and bio-based packaging.

“Increasing the production of renewable, home-grown fuels is vital to reducing our country’s reliance on foreign oil, while creating good-paying jobs and diversifying the agriculture economy,” Vilsack said in a USDA

press release. “These projects are the foundation for an even stronger energy future in rural America. Because most energy crops are perennial and take time to mature before harvest, BCAP is designed so that sufficient quantities of feedstock will be available to meet future demand. Most important: These crops can grow where other crops cannot, providing farmers with new opportunities to diversify into more markets.”

U.S. AGRICULTURE OUTLOOK

55

veterans turned farmers

back to the land Military veterans are at the forefront of a new generation of American farmers.

By craig collins

56

U.S. AGRICULTURE OUTLOOK

balance returned. He lost the cane.

He began teaching kickboxing to teenagers in the evenings.

Today, in addition to the kickboxing and his day job at a security company, Burke is CEO of the allvolunteer Veterans Farm, a 13-acre plot in Jacksonville where veterans serve a six-month fellowship, learning the skills and knowledge needed to establish their own farming careers.

Open to anyone who has served two years, the fellowship, begun in August 2011, has most often been

awarded to veterans with some type of disability rating.

“The majority of our guys, I would say 95 percent, have been in a combat zone,” said Burke.

“Two or three tours. Five of them out there in the program right now have a disability rating of 60 percent or higher. Our farm is set up to be handicap accessible. We have wheelchair ramps. We grow things in elevated gardens and beds. We try to create an atmosphere where they can overcome their disabilities.”

Adam Burke was injured twice in Iraq. Now, with his wife, Michelle, he is starting a five-acre blueberry farm arranged so that veterans in wheelchairs can help take care of the plants.

Farmer Veteran Coalition photo

I

n May 2004, his nine-year military career ended by a mortar blast in Iraq’s Sunni Triangle, Army infantry squad leader Adam Burke returned home with shrapnel in his legs and head, a Purple Heart, and a diagnosis of traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder. He managed to earn a business degree in spite of the cognitive impairments his injuries had left him, but was still, a few years later, working at an office job, struggling with anxiety and hypervigilance. His coordination and balance remained poor, and he still walked with a cane.

His worried wife and family urged Burke to return to a small plot of land on his family’s farm in Webster, Fla., near Jacksonville. He had joined the Army to get away from the farm, but now the things that had driven him away – the quiet, the isolation, the hard physical work – seemed much more attractive than being crammed with a bunch of co-workers inside four walls.

As Burke tells the story, the planting and harvesting of his first crop, blueberries, was a transformative, almost religious experience.

He discovered he loved everything about the farm – the space, the calm, the work, even the smells. One by one, he was joined by other veterans looking for a quiet place to regroup.

Working together, they shed their discomfort at being around other people. Burke’s coordination and

veterans turned farmers

Today, Veterans Farm is one of the largest producers of datil peppers – a very hot pepper, akin to the habanero, but with a sweeter flavor – in the Southeast. Their bottled hot sauces are available at Wal-Mart.

“We’ve got blueberries, poultry, fish – you name it,” said Burke.

Farmer Veteran Coalition photo

Curing the Epidemic

In the first year of the program, 15 veterans received fellowships – funded entirely through private donations and Burke’s fundraising efforts. But Burke said these people aren’t the only veterans who come to Jacksonville to learn farming. “A lot of people want to get into it,” he said.

“They don’t qualify for the fellowship program but they come out and work alongside our guys and learn how to grow the blueberries. They learn how to grow the peppers. We set them up so they can do sharecropping on parts of the land here.”

Matt Soldano, a Marine Corps veteran and grantee of the FVC Fellowship Fund, runs a free-range egg and meat bird poultry farm in New Jersey. Soldano explained that he enjoys “getting out to the farmer’s market every week and giving people a real lesson about how their food is produced and the people who produce it.”

Burke isn’t the only Iraq or Afghanistan veteran to return to the land – and according to U.S. Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Kathleen Merrigan, he couldn’t have picked a better time to do it.

In spring 2012, Merrigan launched a tour of American college campuses and announced that the nation’s farmland was suffering an epidemic, one that had nothing to do with drought or disease: Its farmers, quite simply, were disappearing. Recent censuses had revealed that the fastest-growing group of farmers in the United States were those older than 65. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has warned that two-thirds of American growers are reaching retirement age.

It’s an alarming trend, Merrigan pointed out, precisely because a growing world population is estimated by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations to require 70 percent more food production by 2050. “We’re not graduating enough qualified aggies,” Merrigan said at an April appearance in New Mexico, “to fill the jobs that are out there in American agriculture.” In a country where Iraq and Afghanistan veterans suffer a higher unemployment rate than other Americans, such a discrepancy is regretful.

Michael O’Gorman, a veteran specialty crop producer in California, noticed another alarming trend when the University of New Hampshire’s Carsey Institute released a study in 2006, revealing that rural service members accounted for a disproportionate share of casualties in U.S. AGRICULTURE OUTLOOK

57

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veterans turned farmers

Iraq and Afghanistan. “It kind of made me think: Man, those are all the farm kids,” said O’Gorman.

“I thought maybe there was a link between the fact that our farms needed more farmers, and that these were the guys who were going off to the wars because they didn’t see a future there.”

O’Gorman hosted a meeting at his strawberry farm overlooking the ocean north of Santa Cruz, to ask several of his farming friends what they could do to return veterans to the nation’s farms. The meeting was attended by several farmers and, interestingly, three mothers who had lost their sons in the wars – including Mary Tillman, whose son Pat, an Army Ranger and former NFL safety, was killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan in April of 2004.

“Their sons were not coming home,” O’Gorman said. “They were there to support farming as an occupation for the other soldiers to come home to.”

The organization resulting from this meeting was the nonprofit Farmer Veteran Coalition (FVC), founded in 2009 and based in the California agricultural capital of Davis, but reaching out to veteran farmers all over the country – it was the FVC, in fact, that helped Burke to purchase his first blueberry bushes in Florida, and it recently donated a four-wheel ATV to help disabled veterans navigate Burke’s 13 acres.

FVC hosts career fairs and educational retreats, matches individual veterans with mentors in their areas of interest, and sponsors a fellowship program to help launch the food and farming careers of veterans.

The number of veterans who are working with the FVC is growing, and shows no sign of slowing down.

The coalition’s fundraising efforts have doubled in each of its first three years, reaching $2 million in 2012.

O’Gorman recently added several new staff members, one of them a former Marine Judge Advocate who returned home and, in his work as an attorney, dealt with several

In 2006, Marine Sgt. Colin Archipley and his wife, Karen, launched Archi’s Acres – an organic produce farm.

nonprofit veteran groups. “He told me: ‘These are all great groups,’” recalled O’Gorman. “‘The only thing is that all their solutions are temporary.’ Ours is a lifelong solution. This is something that, if you get into it, it will change your life. It could actually become your new life.”

In recent years, other organizations, public and private, have joined the effort to bring service members

back to rural America and a career on the land. At the University of Nebraska’s College of Technical Agriculture (NCTA) in Curtis, Neb., a new program, Combat Boots to Cowboy Boots, was launched in 2010 to counsel and recruit members of the military in owning their own farm. The program was inspired by Marine infantryman Garrett Dwyer, who returned from his tour of duty in Iraq with the desire to take over his family’s cattle business. Dwyer enrolled in the NCTA’s 100 Beef Cow Ownership Advantage Program, which helps young farmers compose a business plan and launch a ranching U.S. AGRICULTURE OUTLOOK

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veterans turned farmers

enterprise with coursework and lowinterest loans. Students graduate from the program with a business partnership and an associate’s degree.

Weldon Sleight, the recently retired dean of the NCTA, explains that veterans and agriculture are a perfect fit: “Our ranchers are getting older and older, and it’s really hard to find good quality labor to work on ranches anymore. So I tell my rancher friends: ‘Don’t look for labor, look for partners.’” Veterans, Sleight explained, bring two important qualities to livestock and crop production: discipline and an ability to command and follow protocols.

The emphasis of NCTA’s programs – the 100 Beef Cow Ownership Advantage Program, the 100 Acre Farm Advantage Program, and the Business Builder Program – is ownership. “We'd love to have more veterans here,” Sleight said. “Veterans are just very, very unique people. They have a sense of ownership already, because they’ve been fighting for our freedoms and our ownership of rural communities. They really want to own something. And we’ve got it figured out as to how we can help them own that farm or ranch or Main Street business.”

One of the NCTA’s partners in the program is the USDA, which has numerous initiatives for young ranchers and farmers – but to date has implemented few veteranspecific programs. That may begin to change: The “Farm Bill” (S. 3240) passed by the Senate on June 21, 2012 – the Agriculture Reform, Food and Jobs Act – contains several provisions designed to create opportunities for veterans: microloan and grant programs, outreach and technical assistance, veteran set-asides for its conservation programs, and, significantly, the creation of a Military Veterans Agricultural Liaison within the USDA’s Office of Advocacy and Outreach. If these provisions become law, the liaison will educate veterans about farming, work to

Military veterans-turned-beginningfarmers learn how to build mobile poultry units at an Armed to Farm workshop at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville March 13, 2012. The USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program (BFRDP) is assisting veterans with training on farming. The University of Arkansas used BFRDP funding to develop internships, workshops, and online courses that focus on the needs of veterans interested in pursuing farming after their service.

connect them with agricultural training programs, and advocate for them at USDA. Because the House’s version of the Farm Bill had not, as of mid-December 2012, been brought to the floor for a vote, none of these provisions had been discussed in conference.

Food Security is National Security

The return of many Iraq and Afghanistan veterans to agriculture is easily explainable on the

microeconomic level: Once home, they're more likely to be unemployed than civilians or other veterans, and given the shortage of agricultural labor, the choice to farm makes sense.

But for Burke and other veteran farmers, the choice goes much deeper than that. When Colin Archipley, a Marine infantr y sergeant who served three tours in Iraq, returned home to the decrepit three-acre avocado farm he and his wife, Karen, had purchased in the hills north of San Diego, Calif., he decided to abandon his former real estate career. The Archipleys drilled a well, built greenhouses, and launched an organic produce farm, Archi’s Acres. To conserve water – a scarce and expensive resource in Southern California – they built an elaborate hydroponic system that grew plants from a slurry of water and nutrients that recirculated through a network of plastic pipes.

Archipley returned home with symptoms common among Iraq and Afghanistan veterans: mild brain trauma, headaches, sleep disturbances, and anxiety. He felt lucky to have a quiet place to heal and rediscover a sense of purpose, and he decided to share in his good U.S. AGRICULTURE OUTLOOK

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veterans turned farmers

fortune. In 2006, in partnership with a local college and the Transition Assistance Program (TAP) at Camp Pendleton, Calif., the Archipleys launched the Veterans Sustainable Agriculture Program (VSAT), an intensive six-week course offering trainees instruction in hydroponics, drip/micro irrigation, soil biology, environmental control, and business development. As with many veteran agriculture programs, VSAT encourages ownership: One of the outcomes of the course is a business plan, presented to a panel of industry leaders and potential investors, and several participants have launched their own businesses.

More than 100 veterans have graduated from VSAT so far, and gone on to own farms, work in soil analysis, own or work in restaurants, and establish food companies. VSAT’s success, in fact, has inspired a second wave: As graduates and partners disperse to

establish their own farms, some are paying it forward, launching their own VSAT programs.

Archipley will tell you he’s grateful for the peace and quiet his three acres offered him upon his return from the war. But he’s also a Marine – intense, articulate, and mission-focused – who sees his role as a sustainable farmer in terms of national security. “If you look at a map of instability throughout the world and then you look at a map of food shortages or food hunger, those maps are almost the same,” he said. “The No. 1 use of water in the United States is energy production.

So to be energy independent, we have to use less water for agriculture while producing more food for the 10 billion people of tomorrow.”

Karen Archipley – while she shares his idealism – is more likely, when talking about the VSAT program, to tell individual stories of the friends she’s made and grown to admire:

Mike Hanes, CEO of Forager Mike Superfoods, poses beside three bottles of his lastest success, DANG!!! hot sauce, at Archi's Acres, March 7, 2012.

Thomas and Mirka Marlowe, the husband-and-wife veteran proprietors of Green Bee Farms in North Carolina; Mike Hanes, the homeless veteran turned entrepreneur whose DANG!!! hot sauce is the flagship product for his company, Forager Mike’s SuperFoods; the staff sergeant who became the largest dragon fruit grower in the United States; the Marine who now makes Kaught Up Ketchup from organic heirloom tomatoes and sells it at Whole Foods; and many, many more.

“These are incredible people,” she said. “We think there’s room for everybody, and we want to see as many veteran-owned farms as we can.”

U.S. AGRICULTURE OUTLOOK

63

TECHNOLOGY

AGRITECH: PUSHING U.S. AGRICULTURE TO NEW HEIGHTS

By Michael A. Robinson

64

U.S. AGRICULTURE OUTLOOK

a look at several firms pushing the boundaries of agritech.

Now, “Agbots” Can Work Just Like Insects

For the sheer audacity of its approach, it’s hard to beat Dorhout R&D. This tiny, early-stage firm wants to take robotic farming in a whole new direction. Rather than build large, commercial-grade vehicles, Dorhout is going the micro route.

The idea is to have a swarm of bots go out into a farmer’s fields and plant seeds. All members of the robotic swarm remain connected through a wireless network. No doubt, many will immediately think how much this resembles the way a group of insects might work together.

Actually, that’s the whole point, said self-taught robotics expert and Dorhout R&D owner David Dorhout. Then again, Dorhout has devoted his professional career to studying insect behavior. He has a bachelor’s in insect biology and behavior and a master’s in insect ecology from Iowa State University.

He’s getting a lot of attention.

Consider that a video of the swarm agbots recently appeared on the website for the high-tech publication New Scientist. In it, the bots walk over a field, undeterred by the farm’s uneven terrain. Using onboard sensors, the bots can detect when a seed is already in the ground.

Then, once a swarmbot finds a fertile

section, it drills a hole in the earth and releases a seed. Its electronic eye then guides the seed’s delivery.

Dorhout said the swarm’s communication system is designed to mimic that of ants, which have a certain genius for self-organizing in groups. Ants release a pheromone to let other ants know they’ve found food. In place of that, Dorhout added an infrared system that sends out beams to summon the whole group to come help.

At this point, it’s hard to say how commercial Dorhout’s agbots will become. But this much is certain, if nothing else, his approach to agritech certainly is creative.

“Green” Pest Management Brings $425 Million Payday

It’s hard to deny the missionary zeal of a fast-growing agritech firm based in Davis, Calif., which is just a stone’s throw from the Central Valley, one of the world’s most productive farming regions.

Indeed, the company’s name encapsulates what the pest-management company is all about. It’s called AgraQuest Inc., and its purpose is simple: Use so-called green technology to improve ag yields while at the same time, making Earth a much cleaner planet.

Of course, lots of high-tech firms in storied Northern California claim they want to change the world.

But there’s no denying that in this case, the play on the hybrid term AgraQuest is really paying off.

Photo courtesy of David Dorhout, Dorhout R&D LLC

W

e’re not quite there yet, but in the near future, American farms will be able to virtually run themselves. It’s all because of a steady stream of high-tech breakthroughs that are making agriculture safer, more efficient, and much more profitable.

In fact, many experts consider this growing use of so-called “agritech” as the biggest driving force behind a sector increasingly known as precision agriculture. Just as the term implies, today’s farms, ranches, and orchards operate with a very high degree of precision.

Out in the field, workers and farm owners use GPSs in their tractors, combines, or other rigs to locate the exact area they want to fertilize or irrigate. Operators now have sophisticated software that can monitor any number of crops or herds as well as provide cash flow statements and even write checks to vendors.

Of course, nearly every modern agriculture business now relies on the Internet – that encompasses everything from weather reports to finding detailed notes on previous pesticide use to tracking the movement of animals that are wearing radio-frequency identification tags.

Perhaps more than any other reason, it’s the willingness of U.S. farmers to adopt high-tech that has kept the nation at the forefront of global agriculture production and exports.

No wonder so many firms keep coming up with advances in hightech that farmers can use. Here is

TECHNOLOGY

Dorhout R&D’s Prospero is the working prototype of an Autonomous Micro Planter (AMP) that uses a combination of swarm behavior and game theory and is the first of four steps. It is meant to be deployed as a group or “swarm.” The other three steps involve autonomous robots that tend the crops, harvest them, and finally one robot that can plant, tend, and harvest – autonomously transitioning from one phase to another.

U.S. AGRICULTURE OUTLOOK

65

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TECHNOLOGY

As it turns out, green products control a broad spectrum of pests and diseases. They offer farmers integ rate d p est- management programs to minimize development of resistance and maximize crop yields while at the same time, joining a movement known as “sustainable agriculture.”

With that in mind, AgraQuest focuses on two main areas. Its Agrochemical Division provides pesticides that are made from renewable, bio-based materials.

This means it doesn’t use any petroleum or synthetic products that can damage the environment.

The firm’s BioInnovations Division develops cutting-edge technologies for use in seed treatment, food safety, post-harvest disease control, and animal health, among other things.

It’s all based on natural microorganisms, and the company’s products are also known as biopesticides.

For AgraQuest, the focus on pioneering clean farming practices brought more than just psychic returns. In summer 2012, the firm sold to global giant Bayer CropScience for $425 million, plus more cash if AgraQuest hits certain undisclosed milestones.

“The growing fruits and vegetables market, which today accounts for more than 25 percent of our

sales, is of strategic importance for us,” said Sandra Peterson, Bayer CropScience CEO. “We are the first in our industry to offer farmers a truly comprehensive range of integrated crop solutions based on seeds, traits, and combined chemical crop protection and biological control.”

Bayer CropScience is a division of Bayer AG, the global giant better known for its line of health care products. But the ag division is clearly no slouch – it has a global workforce of 21,000 and sells products in more than 120 countries.

The company ranks second in the world in weed control and third in the global fungicides market.

Robotic Drones Improve Land Management

Sooner or later, farming and other industries that need a bird’s eye view of key terrain had to come around to John Oakley’s way of thinking.

After all, Oakley has logged some 45 years in the aviation business, and he knows that agriculture greatly benefits from aerial surveillance.

But it was Oakley’s fixation with remote-controlled aircraft that allowed him to carve out a niche in the rapidly expanding field of high-tech agriculture. So, don’t let the name of Oakley’s firm fool you. Leptron

LEFT: Integrated crop solutions can increase the yield and the quality of greenhouse tomatoes. In 2012, Bayer CropScience purchased AgraQuest for $425 million.

RIGHT: Leptron Industrial Robotic Helicopters’ Avenger in flight.

The ability of the platform to fly pre-saved “missions” via the fully automated ground station allows for time-lapse photos of fields, crops, and known land tracts.

Industrial Robotic Helicopters is definitely dedicated to helping farmers improve productivity with low-cost flyovers.

Operating out of both Colorado and Utah, Leptron makes several lines of robotic choppers that come with all the high-tech bells and whistles. These include military-grade autopilot, no-f ly-zone programming, 3-D flight terrain, high-definition video, a laser altimeter, and night-vision gear if needed.

Leptron’s choppers can f ly missions that are pre-saved. They can communicate with a fully automated ground station, which allows farmers or other ag managers to get time-lapse photos of fields, crops, and land tracts.

Oakley said these battery-powered aircraft also help with soil management because they can accurately re-create U.S. AGRICULTURE OUTLOOK

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the same patterns during all seasons, giving users a sense of wind and water erosion among other insights.

The entrepreneur’s dedication to high-tech finds him in the vanguard of another market. It’s called 3-D printing and it’s a process that uses special polymers to “print” fully formed, 3-D parts or prototypes.

You’ll find Oakley’s firm featured on industry leader Stratasys Inc.’s website as a success story. Oakley said he embraces the process as a way to keep the lid on costs – and pass on the savings to his techsavvy clients.

Software Firms Offer Products to Improve Yields, Profits

No doubt, modern farms have any number of hardware devices designed to help them improve efficiencies. But in many cases, that alone won’t do the job. That’s where software comes in to play.

As farming has become more sophisticated, the industry has received a wide range of packages from which to chose. Two firms in particular can help ag managers keep their crops and livestock running smoothly and are mindful that higher yields and better controls can greatly improve the bottom line.

Lion Edge Technologies focuses on livestock. The company says its software is designed for the modern livestock businesses by helping manage animal records, ID tracking, pedigree, and breeding. The software suite can record multiple actions, including treatments, sales, and animal movements.

Its programs work with laptops, desktops, or mobile devices out in the field. They not only keep an updated ranch calendar, but also allow users to enter “unlimited” notes about cattle, sheep, goats, horses, donkeys, and many other animals, including wild animals.

The software works with both Windows ® and Mac ® operating systems. Users can choose between

SOARING DEMAND FOR AERIAL APPLICATION Today’s modern, sophisticated aerial application has left the bygone era of “crop dusting,” well, in the proverbial dust. A number of advancements and improvements in avionics and GPS technology, aircraft, and product have led to explosive growth in aerial application. The advent of new corn fungicides has also taken agricultural spray operations to a new level. Applying corn fungicide during the “tasselling” (or pollinating) phase of corn growth results in a greater harvest.

Aerial applicators today are multifaceted: spraying fungicides and fertilizers, protecting forestland, safeguarding against insect infestation, and even helping to combat wildfires.

GPS has been a major advance, with use growing rapidly. In 1994, 20 percent of aerial application aircraft used GPS; in 1998, that had grown to 60 percent; in 2006, nearly 95 percent were using GPS, according to an independent EPA survey, and that number stands at 99 percent today. Such advances in flight technology allow for timelier, safer, and more efficient crop protection, making product application a valuable addition and/or alternative to ground approaches. For example, aircraft can treat wet fields and spray when crop canopies are too tall/thick for ground applications. Plus, unlike ground rigs, aerial application does not contribute to topsoil runoff. Newer modified flow-control nozzle systems integrated into computerized GPS systems allow ag pilots more variance in application speed. Likewise, widespread use of “smokers” (which release small amounts of oil into exhausts to visually indicate likely wind drift of product) as well as light bars tied into the GPS system provide accurate swath guidance in real time, and essentially eliminate off-target drift.

Along with these technologies, aircraft have become bigger and better, led by the turbine revolution. Turboprops are more efficient, reliable, and powerful than the older piston engines, which has led to bigger aircraft and bigger loads. The most common ag planes in use today carry 400 to 500 gallons of product, but 700- and 800-gallon hopper capacity aircraft are also popular, and even bigger aircraft with larger hopper capacities are in development.

In fact, the Air Tractor AT 802’s 800-gallon hopper capacity led to development of the AT 802F, an ideal initial attack firefighting aircraft, with more than 100 operating worldwide. Manufacturer Thrush Aircraft has also worked with General Electric to launch a new-generation engine that offers greater temperature margins and better fuel efficiency with excellent thrust.

With the advent of corn fungicides as well as increased need for rescue insecticide applications, the sky seems to be the limit for the low-flying aerial application business.

one overall software system or buy packages focused on specific herds by animal type.

Meantime, AgVision Grain Software notes that choosing the correct accounting and inventory software is crucial for running an agribusiness at peak performance.

AgVision likes to remind potential

customers that software should be comprehensive enough to handle complex transactions, yet flexible enough to meet the expectations of customers, directors, and regulators.

After logging more than 30 years in the industry, AgVision says it has gotten a lot of feedback from customers that allowed it to tailor U.S. AGRICULTURE OUTLOOK

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software for their wide-ranging needs. These cover grain elevators, cooperatives, feed mills, fertilizer plants, country stores, and ethanol facilities as well as tree nut processors.

With AgVision, users can chart their financial positions, create sales and purchase contracts, process inventories, and master account receivables and payables. They also can apply booking contracts and prepaid dollars, create and use purchase orders, pay patrons, run payroll, split settlements, print paper checks, and more.

DMI Computer Technologies owns AgVision, which it operates out of its facilities in Ankeny, Iowa. It started as a division of the Iowa Grain and Feed Association back in 1976 and has several hundred clients in the United States with most located in the Midwest.

Wireless Water Sensors Are Transforming Napa Valley

A group of winemakers from California’s storied Napa Valley turned the rarif ied world of

top-quality varietals on its ear when they took top honors at a key Paris wine-tasting event by beating the very best that France had to offer.

Today, roughly 36 years ago, two French wireless technology experts have decided to shake up Napa Valley. Sébastien Payen and Thibaut Scholasch are using high-tech sensors to measure the exact flow of water within grape vines.

As a result, the firm Fruition Sciences is helping vintners by drastically reducing the amount of water used in irrigation, which reduces overhead. More to the point, making sure the plants get just the right amount of water at the right time is producing wines that taste better, local industry leaders say.

Chuck McMinn, owner of Vineyard 29 in Saint Helena, Calif.,noted that he began working with Fruition Sciences in 2009, when the firm was still perfecting its technology. McMinn used Fruition Sciences data to make irrigation timing and quantity decisions throughout the growing season.

“After tasting the results,” McMinn said, “our entire winemaking team

feels that we have a valuable tool generating great data to help us make better viticultural choices and in the end, better wine.”

The real-time monitors, called sap flow sensors, send a wireless reading of the vine’s rate of transpiration, which is similar to evaporation. This is a precise measurement of how much water is moving through the vine, and gives an indication of the vine’s water needs.

A slow rate of transpiration indicates a vine is low on water (stressed) and potentially at risk of grape dehydration.

When that occurs, the grower adds water through irrigation. Conversely, if the system shows the plants need less water, the grower cuts back.

Moreover, Fruition Sciences hosts the results on its website so grape growers can monitor conditions 24/7.

If a plant is severely stressed from lack of water, the company will send an alert via email or text message.

“We are in an era of increasing demand on our precious water supplies,” said David Gates of Ridge Vineyards. “Fruition Sciences’ sap flow sensors help me irrigate conservatively with confidence.”

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biosecurity

agricultural biosecurity Protecting the nation’s food supply

By craig collins

F

or most who recall the footand-mouth disease (FMD) outbreak that swept through Britain in the spring and summer of 2001, those months can be boiled down to a single indelible image: A massive, smoking pyre of dead cattle, all culled to prevent the disease from spreading. It was an image repeated throughout the British countryside, as farmers were forced to exterminate a lifetime of work and centuries of selective breeding.

Not as many people remember the numbers: more than 2,000 confirmed cases; nearly 6.5 million sheep, cattle, and pigs killed to control the disease; and an estimated loss of $16 billion to the United Kingdom’s economy, including huge losses to the tourism industry. After the outbreak, around 3,200 farmers in the U.K. quit the livestock business for good.

FMD, a highly contagious virus with multiple strains, or serotypes, each of which requires its own specialized vaccine, remains one of the livestock industry’s biggest threats. It can be spread through the air or by contact, and though it doesn’t adversely affect humans, they are often carriers of the disease, which spreads quickly among clovenhoofed animals such as cows, pigs, sheep, and goats. Outbreaks like

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those in Britain have caused catastrophic losses. Until 1997, when Taiwan suffered an outbreak among its herds of swine, it was among the top pork producers in the world; afterward, its export market was in ruins, with an accumulated $6.9 billion in losses.

The last outbreak of FMD in the United States occurred in 1929, and today, the biggest risk of the disease – of any epizootic disease, or animal epidemic – is posed by infected animal imports. Considered less likely, but not outside the realm of possibility, is the introduction of the disease by a bioterrorist.

In the post-9/11 world, Americans’ fears of terrorism involve hijacked planes, dirty bombs, or cyber attacks – but few are aware of the damage an epizootic such as FMD could do. In a November 2011 report, the National Research Council, the working arm of the National Academies of the United States, estimated that a footand-mouth outbreak in the United States could cost between $9 billion and $50 billion.

To the nation’s agricultural producers, whether infectious animal diseases – or other threats to the nation’s food supply, such as plant pathogens, quarantined pests, or invasive alien species – are introduced by an imported animal or a

bioterrorist hardly matters; losses in either case could be devastating. To the government and research entities charged with protecting the nation’s agriculture industry and food supply, however, different scenarios demand different approaches.

The agricultural biosecurity system that has evolved in the United States – especially since Sept. 11, 2001 – is a complicated apparatus, with several lines of defense.

The First Lines

Today, virtually all of the regulations that protect U.S. agriculture from plant and animal diseases and pests are developed and enforced by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) – but how these regulations are administered has, in some ways, changed over the past decade. It used to be that travelers entering the United States would be questioned by a uniformed USDA official, who, in some instances, might also inspect their luggage.

Those interrogations and inspections are now conducted by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), a law enforcement agency of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

If CBP inspectors at a land border crossing, seaport, or airport

USDA photo by Ken Hammond

biosecurity

encounter something they consider a potential threat, they send it along to a laboratory or other facility for further examination and identification by experts from the agency they supplanted: USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), which is charged with protecting the health of the animals and plants in the nation’s food supply. If APHIS inspectors find anything – plant, animal, material, or object – that poses a risk and cannot enter the United States, they handle it under applicable regulations.

Domestically, the biosecurity of agricultural products is pursued by t wo dif ferent USDA agencies charged with protecting the health of animals, plants, and

their human consumers, who are at risk of several diseases – salmonella, listeria, trichinosis, and many others – that can be carried by tainted agricultural products.

Livestock or poultry slaughtered for meat in the United States, as well as eggs and egg products, are inspected at the site of slaughter or processing by officials from the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS). Crops prepared for market – vegetables, wheat, rice, and corn, for example – are inspected

by USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS).

APHIS is also the agency responsible for mitigating the impacts of invasive species on crops and livestock through quarantine and eradication

An incoming traveler is asked to remove her shoes at Washington Dulles International Airport in Chantilly, Va. Footand-mouth disease can be brought into the United States through contraband food and from travelers’ shoes.

American tourists and European visitors who have trod through contaminated fields risk bringing the devastating disease into this country. The USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service works with U.S. Customs and Border Protection to carefully monitor incoming visitors and returning American tourists.

U.S. AGRICULTURE OUTLOOK

73

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USDA photo

Photo by Aleksander Dragnes

Left: The sweetpotato whitefly (also known as the silverleaf whitefly) is a serious agricultural pest and invasive species that feeds on agricultural crops such as tomatoes, squash, and broccoli, as well as ornamental plants. The whitefly was first found in the United States in poinsettia crops in Florida during the mid-1980s. It was found to have moved to tomatoes and other fruit and vegetable crops less than a year later and, within five years, had caused more than $100 million in damage to the Texas and California agriculture industries. RIGHT: Foot-and-mouth disease is highly contagious and spreads quickly among cloven-hoofed animals such as pigs, sheep, cows, and goats.

efforts. In 2010, for example, after several European grapevine moths were discovered in the vineyards of California’s Napa Valley, APHIS and the California Department of Food and Agriculture established a quarantine around some of the nation’s most valuable farmland, where an acre of wine grapes can yield up to $15,000 in a season. The moth, a native of southern Europe and the Mediterranean whose larvae feed on the flowers and fruit of grapes and other plants, cycles through three generations in one growing season, making it particularly destructive.

According to APHIS spokesperson Larry Hawkins, federal and state efforts have eradicated the moth in adjoining Sonoma and Solano counties – and

greatly diminished it in Napa County, where it first appeared. “We’ll probably get rid of it in that county next year,” Hawkins said.

Invasive species pose a greater risk than ever before, said Hawkins. “We have so much international trade that our exposure to exotic plants, animals, and plant and animal diseases is dramatically different than it was several years ago, when you’d put them on a slow boat, and it took weeks for them to get here, and many of these products – fruits, vegetables, animals, and meat – had to be refrigerated.” Today, by contrast, “It’s possible for me to walk outside my home in Thailand, go pick some exotic Asian fruit, put it in a box, put my sister’s address

on it in Petaluma, Calif., have it picked up by FedEx, and overnight it all the way to the U.S. And all the maggots on the inside of that delectable fruit will get a free ride.

They didn’t have to be refrigerated, because they were going to be there the next morning.”

Global t rade has w rought profound effects that DHS, USDA, and industry are still struggling to accommodate. Every year, it seems, something nobody had anticipated is introduced – the 2009 international convention, for example, that required fumigation of solid wood packaging and pallets, after newly cut wood used in packaging was discovered to contain burrowing beetle larvae.

U.S. AGRICULTURE OUTLOOK

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biosecurity

Countermeasures

After the END outbreak, APHIS set up an outreach program, Biosecurity for Birds, aimed at educating agricultural and backyard American bird owners about how to keep birds healthy and recognize signs of disease.

Such an overwhelming response to an animal disease outbreak – the use of Incident Command System protocols that unite the resources of 76

U.S. AGRICULTURE OUTLOOK

Diseases such as the highly pathogenic avian influenza and Exotic Newcastle Disease (END) can strike poultry and pet birds quickly and cause mortality and significant economic loss.

multiple regional, state, and federal agencies to effect swift quarantine and eradication efforts, followed by a vigorous and far-reaching campaign to prevent or minimize future outbreaks – is a sign of how seriously government and industry take such a threat as a national security issue. “An outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease would be horrendous in this country,” Hawkins said. “People don’t have any idea what the potential impacts are – they would be immediate and dramatic. It would turn our commodities markets upside down.

The stock market would freak out.

And that’s just related to agriculture – in other words, it’s not a human disease.”

While prevention is a terrific goal, the increasing speed of global

commerce makes it seem more like wishful thinking – but prevention strategies are included in the portfolio of measures the federal government, through partnerships at research institutions and land-grant universities, is in a constant race to discover. At Kansas State University, for example, the Biosecurit y Research Institute (BRI), established in 2006, provides a secure location for the study of diseases rated up to biosafety level (BSL) 3 – diseases that are potentially fatal, but for which treatments exist. Across campus, the National Agricultural Biosecurity Center (NABC), applies the emergency management model to anticipating threats and securing the food supply.

“We work in some of the more niche segments of agricultural

USDA photo

The increasing mobility of plants and animals can pose a direct threat to human health in the form of foodborne or zoonotic diseases – diseases that can be passed between animals and humans, such as rabies, plague, Ebola virus, and avian flu (H1N1).

Hawkins is part of a USDA emergency response team that travels around the country and coordinates incident response with state, federal, and local entities. When USDA surveillance discovered a California dairy cow that had been stricken with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE, more commonly known as “mad cow disease”) in April 2012, the team coordinated with several federal agencies and the state’s Emergency Management Agency (Cal EMA) and Department of Food and Agriculture to isolate the animal, trace the etiology of the disease, and minimize the risk to other animals.

Hawkins’ team also participated in the response to the largest U.S. animal disease outbreak in the last 30 years – the Exotic Newcastle Disease (END) outbreak that began in Southern California and spread to other Western states in 2002 and 2003. END, an avian viral disease, is transmissible to humans, and there is no treatment; afflicted birds must be culled to prevent the spread of the disease. The USDA team joined the interagency task force that eradicated END in the West within 10 months – but not before 4 million birds had been depopulated, at a cost of $160 million.

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T he NBA F, de sig ne d and conceived as a BSL-4 facility – a facility in which potentially lethal pathogens, for which no known vaccines or treatments are available, are studied – has been controversial from the start. Unlike Plum Island, which is only reachable by a DHS-controlled ferry, the NBAF is proposed to stand just a few miles off Interstate 70, in the heart of U.S. cattle country, a tornadoprone region. After receiving unfavorable risk assessments by both the Government Accountability Office and the National Research Council, Congress has declined to fund the NBAF – whose price tag has climbed to about $1 billion – in DHS’ 2013 budget.

DHS insists that plans to construct the NBAF in Kansas should move forward, and Jaax considers a replacement for Plum Island to be a necessity. “Plum Island is nearly 70 years old,” he said. “Its infrastructure is crumbling, and it’s woefully inadequate to address these national security issues.”

A facility that can carry on the work of researching high-consequence diseases such as FMD virus, Jaax said, could open the door for the discovery of the ultimate countermeasure.

“I think we are in a much stronger position than we were a decade-and-a-half ago,” he said, “when nobody would really pay attention [to an animal disease] until you had a maximum credible event. I think now at least the federal government and the states, and even down to the local level, they have very much thought about what to do … That’s the good news. But it still would be a very, very significant event to have an outbreak here. If we had a vaccine, we could just The National Bio- and Agro-defense Facility, a biosecurity research facility, focuses on cross that one off the list as diseases that affect the nation's agriculture and livestock. a threat.”

Photo courtesy of Marysville Advocate

biosecurity,” said Dr. Marty Vanier, the NABC’s director of operations.

“We do a fair amount of work with planning and training for agricultural disease response – of which animal disease response would probably be the largest segment, but we have done some work with respect to field crops, and we’re doing some work with respect to foodborne disease. We’ve also done a lot of work with the law enforcement community and the military community. We’ve created some agricultural training programs for different state National Guards, because they’ve been tasked to do some agricultural redevelopment work in other parts of the world,” she said.

The BRI and NABC were established after the arrival on campus of Dr. Jerry Jaax, a retired Army colonel who worked in biodefense at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) at Fort Detrick, Md., where he learned that the biggest potential biowarfare threats were

primarily classic veterinary diseases such as anthrax, plague, and botulinum. “Back in 1998, the year I got here,” Jaax said, “the president of the university and several other of the senior leaders had decided that K-State should take the lead in looking at some agricultural biodefense initiatives.”

Today, Jaax holds the job titles of associate vice provost for Research Compliance and Uni ve r sit y Veterinarian at the university. As soon as the BRI had opened its doors, he said, USDA and DHS declared their intent to replace the only laboratory considered secure enough to accommodate research of FMD: the Plum Island Animal Disease Center, a BSL-3 facility established in 1954 and located off the northeastern tip of New York’s Long Island. After several years of study, a final choice was made: The new facility – the National Bio- and Agro-defense Facility, or NBAF – would be built on the campus of Kansas State University, on land adjacent to the BRI.

U.S. AGRICULTURE OUTLOOK

79

CROP INSURANCE

crop insurance provides peace of mind for growers By david A. Brown

I

t’s long hours, hard work, ongoing expenses, and the exact opposite of instant gratification. No doubt, farming demands great investment and nurturing patience for the anticipated reward. When all goes as planned, the end justifies the means, but throughout the process, factors beyond a farmer’s control can greatly impact what happens in the field and in the marketplace, hence the importance of crop insurance.

Gary Souza, a Northern California farmer of rice and walnuts, once worked as a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Farm Service director with experience administering the Catastrophic Assistance Program (CAP). Today, he said, the ability to manage his business risk by insuring against the unexpected provides much-needed peace of mind.

“Crop insurance has established a safety net and this gives growers the opportunity to have an insurance floor in case there’s a major disaster,” he said.

Souza experienced just such a disaster in April 2008 when a record freeze dropped temperatures into the low 20s and claimed nearly his entire walnut crop. Threats to his rice crops have been excessive heat and drought at bloom.

“We run the gamut here in California – the main threats are

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U.S. AGRICULTURE OUTLOOK

drought, heat, excessive moisture, and frost,” Souza said. “We either have too much water or not enough water.”

Southern Louisiana farmer Ricky Klump raises rice and soybeans on 1,000 acres of Acadia Parish farmland. Excessive rain is his biggest concern, so the region’s network of drainage ditches comprises his first line of defense against crop flooding.

Keeping these arteries clear of debris and silt is a top priority, but when tropical weather dumps voluminous amounts of water on his region, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ lock system can’t always remove the water fast enough.

“When the water comes off the fields, you do whatever you can to keep the silt out, but when you get these massive rains, there’s not much you can do,” Klump said.

Damage from a hurricane’s excessive water and choking silt caused one of the two crop insurance claims Klump has filed during his 37 years of farming. His other claim was prompted by an invasion of stinkbugs, a known crop-wrecker.

In Central Florida, Bill Roe of longtime citrus grower W.G. Roe & Sons also knows the potentially disastrous work of insects. Recently, the Asian citrus psyllid has become a serious concern for U.S. citrus growers, as this invasive bug spreads

Huanglongbing (HLB), aka “citrus greening disease.” One of the world’s most serious citrus maladies, this bacterial disease destroys the production and economic value of fruit; produces bitter, inedible, misshapen fruit; and is fatal to citrus trees.

Roe and fellow Florida farmer Jerry Mixon of SunnyRidge (now owned by Dole Food Company) complement their citrus production with blueberries – a delicate crop that takes a costly beating during hail events. The blueberries, along with the state’s citrus crops, are also susceptible to freeze damage, while hurricane season keeps the state’s growers on edge every time one of those tropical systems brings high winds and potential flooding toward the Atlantic or Gulf coasts.

“Back in 2004, when we had those three hurricanes [Charley, Frances, and Jeanne] come through Central Florida, we definitely had some issues related to crop yields and plant loss – especially in citrus,” Mixon said.

HOW TO PROTECT

When it comes to insuring their businesses from the many unexpected perils that could befall them, farmers consider potential loss of crops, loss of expected revenue, or some combination of both. William

Photo courtesy of Iowa State University

Edwards, extension economist at Iowa State University, breaks down the insurance options through the institution’s online Ag Decision Maker website this way: Yield Protection (YP) crop insurance: This broad-based crop insurance program regulated by the USDA’s Risk Management Agency (RMA) and subsidized by the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation (FCIC) covers most crops for unavoidable production losses caused by drought, excessive moisture, hail, wind, frost/ freeze, tornado, lightning, flood, insect infestation, plant disease, excessive temperature during pollination, wildlife damage, fire, and earthquakes.

YP does not cover losses resulting from poor farming practices, low commodit y prices, theft, and

specified perils that are excluded in some policies. There are specific restrictions on some crops based on acceptable farming practices.

A farmer’s insurance yield is based on the actual production history (APH) – the average yield obtained on the insured unit for four to 10 consecutive crop years.

Farmers can insure most crops at 50 to 85 percent of their APH yield, in increments of 5 percent. The yield guarantee per acre is equal to one’s YP insurance yield multiplied by the chosen level of coverage.

To help maintain parity, the downward limit of an APH is cupped, while the upward limit is capped.

Setting these low and high ends prevent anomalies and extreme years from throwing off the farmer’s

CROP INSURANCE

Federal crop insurance covers most crops for unavoidable production losses caused by frost/freeze, drought, excessive moisture, hail, wind, tornado, lightning, flood, insect infestation, plant disease, excessive temperature during pollination, wildlife damage, fire, and earthquakes.

average. This keeps the situation fair for both parties by not penalizing a farmer for having a great year, or padding him for a poor year.

“For example, I’m a 4,000-poundplus walnut farmer and in 2008, I think I ended up raising about 230 pounds,” Souza said. “I had about a 95 percent loss and when they entered that year into my average, U.S. AGRICULTURE OUTLOOK

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Photo by Mike Lewis, CISR, UC Riverside

they cupped it so they didn’t plug in a 230-pound crop when my average was over 4,000.”

(Mixon noted that tree crop farmers can insure their trees as well as the crops they produce. Doing so covers the replacement of trees completely destroyed by weather events, disease, etc.)

Revenue Protection (RP) crop insurance: Because income from crop production can be low even when yields are not, RP guarantees a certain level of revenue rather than just production. It protects farmers from declines in both crop prices and yields.

The guarantee is based on market prices and the farm’s actual yield.

Essentially, yield coverage for RP is the same as for traditional YP insurance, with the production portion of the revenue guarantee based on the farmer’s APH. RP insurance protects from the combined effects of yield and price risk and reduces

year-to-year income variability.

Revenue Protection uses Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) futures market prices and the farmer’s APH yields to compute the revenue coverage and guarantee.

PRICE FLUCTUATIONS

Of the crop yield and crop revenue insurance categories, Roe observed, “The two are inextricably tied together because without yield, you don’t get much revenue.”

That being said, world markets driven by socioeconomic factors and geopolitical events can bear significant influence on the prices U.S. farmers get for their crops. As Roe explained, citrus is a long-cycle commodity – a tree crop with almost a 20-year curve. Therefore, high production in other areas around the world like Brazil can be the dominant factor in the value of his crops.

CROP INSURANCE

Asian citrus psyllid nymphs on a lemon tree. This invasive bug spreads “citrus greening disease,” one of the world’s most serious citrus bacterial diseases for which there is no cure.

Souza described it as simple Economics 101 – supply and demand.

As he explained, California produces a medium-grain japonica rice derived from Japan, about half of which is part of a trade agreement between the United States and mostly Pacific Rim countries.

“What causes the demand for California rice to fluctuate is the demand overseas,” Souza said.

“Our domestic markets are pretty stable and pretty constant, but our domestic markets only fuel about half of the rice that we grow. The other half is exported, so the export needs of the other countries greatly determine our price here.”

U.S. AGRICULTURE OUTLOOK

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Much of Souza’s walnut crop also ends up in overseas markets. China’s growing economy, he said, has given consumers more disposable income and thereby increased the interest in this heart-healthy food item – especially the higher quality U.S. nuts. Demand for Americangrown walnuts has grown tremendously in the past five years so prices have increased accordingly.

However, Souza and other walnut growers know that one unforeseen event in this overseas market could send prices into a nosedive.

CONSIDERATIONS AND QUALIFICATIONS

Although certainly an integral element of a farmer’s risk management plan, crop insurance remains an individual decision. Yield Protection and Revenue Protection policies can vary greatly based on myriad factors such as farm size, history of production, age of plants (tree crops), and number of plants per acre.

“Crop insurance is similar to your car or health insurance [in terms of premium options],” Mixon said.

“You have the buy-up programs where you can pay a little more money, but in the event something happens, you’re covered for more.

“You have the basic catastrophic insurance. It’s a vanilla package where if you pay the minimum you get this, and if you anticipate [the risk of] losing more, you can buy the buy-up program for both tree loss and crop insurance. The same is true for blueberries – you can buy the minimum, but as an owner, you can decide ‘I think it’s worth the extra money to pay in case something happens.’”

Souza added this: “If a grower knows his bottom line cost of production, which all growers should know, you can establish your insurance level based on ‘this is what it cost me to grow it.’ You can tweak your individual insurance needs to your cost of production, because cost of

CROP INSURANCE

AVOIDING PITFALLS One of the many resources provided by the USDA’s Risk Management Agency is a list of common mistakes made with regard to crop insurance. Here’s a sampling of the key points that growers should keep in mind: Accurately Report Planted Acreage Per Unit – Production to count for an insured crop is derived from all planted acreage for that crop per unit, whether all of the acres in that unit are reported or not. Under reporting artificially inflates the yield and leads to a lower indemnity payment.

Conversely, if a grower over reports acres, the production to count will be derived from all planted acreage for that crop per unit. The acreage will be reduced to the correct number of acres. The grower’s indemnity will be slightly less due to the reduction in total guarantee (not the per acre guarantee) and any overpayment of premium will be refunded.

Report All Farm Serial Numbers (FSNs) – Failing to report all of the FSNs planted to the insured crop leaves any unreported FSNs with no coverage. Also, failing to report production information for all FSNs on or before the production reporting date excludes the production from being added at acreage reporting time. The unit without production will be assigned an average yield, which is generally lower than the grower’s actual yields. The yield guarantee will be reduced and any indemnity payment will be less.

“New Producer” Status – If new producers fail to elect New Producer status on or before the production reporting date for the insured crop, the yield on the crop will be assigned using the variable transition yield (T-yield) method (a percentage of the county T-yield) instead of the more favorable method of using 100 percent of the county T-yield. The yield guarantee will be reduced and any indemnity payment will be lower. Also, growers who fail to indicate “Added Land” on their acreage report for new farms will have their yield calculated using the variable T-yield method.

Insured Harvesting Manner – Harvesting an insured crop in a manner other than intended without informing the crop insurance carrier will create problems for insurance claims. If a claims adjuster cannot measure the crop as expected, production to count will be assessed at the full guarantee and no indemnity will be paid.

Premature Crop Destruction – Production for a crop that is destroyed before the claim adjustment is made will be assessed at the full production guarantee and no indemnity will be paid.

production varies between operations. You can select a higher level of price coverage if your costs are higher, or you could select a lower level of price coverage if your costs are lower.”

Each farming operation faces its own set of dynamics and fiscal considerations. Therefore, Roe advises weighing the benefits against the costs. Farms that are heavily leveraged might determine

that they can’t afford not to have it.

Conversely, if a farmer is not heavily leveraged, Roe said that self-insuring against natural disasters through proper drainage, frost protection, etc., might be the way to go. In any case, America’s farmers have the option of protecting their businesses with policies that ensure a fair return for those long days, hard labor, and nurturing patience.

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YOUTH EDUCATION

sowing the seeds of future workers Youth educational programs essential for growing the agriculture industry By david A. Brown

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U.S. AGRICULTURE OUTLOOK

its agencies to assist in the state programs, and coordinating with other national organizations to promote AITC's core objectives.

Roe noted that AITC spans the K-12 range, with an emphasis on the elementary grades. Reaching kids early in their educational years, she said, is essential for preparing tomorrow's industry workforce.

“We always look for new talent that's out there and by giving school-age children the chance to actually experience hands-on Ag in the Classroom, they can decide for themselves if this is a career that

they want to go into,” Roe said. “It's a really good way to initially expose the kids to what agriculture is and all the different components of it. So many schools are asking high school students to track a career path, and if we can get them interested in agriculture in high school and track that career path, then that just brings more young talent into the industry for us to choose from as employers.”

With programs such as Gardening for Grades and Nutrition for Grades – all written by professional curriculum specialists – AITC makes a wealth of free resources available to any educator. Complementing the materials with free training seminars for continuing education units equips teachers to engage students with lessons and activities intended to stimulate deepening interests in agriculture.

COAST TO COAST

Roe said state AITC boards work closely to exchange ideas and resources. Here's a sampling of state programs from across the nation: Oregon: Teachers use the Grown in Oregon Map, which illustrates lessons relating to the various agricultural commodities produced in the state's seven growing regions.

An annual Fall Harvest Festival

Image courtesy of Idaho Ag in the Classroom

I

t starts with a seed. No, not farming – well, that too, but we're actually talking about a young person's interest in agriculture. Those who have achieved success in one of the ag industry's many dynamic fields often trace the roots of that path back to some childhood experience that made them say, “I want to do that when I grow up.”

As human resources director for Central Florida's W.G. Roe & Sons Citrus, Carol Roe puts great effort into finding this type of individual to ensure that her company staffs the best and the brightest. She also invests her time in helping nurture tomorrow's crop of agriculture professionals through her role as a state board member for Agriculture in the Classroom (AITC) – a national program that draws upon the knowledge and expertise of individuals representing farm organizations, agribusiness, education, and government.

The parent organization supports state chapters of AITC by providing a network that seeks to improve agricultural literacy (awareness, knowledge, and appreciation) among teachers and their students. The USDA helps by assisting with the development of Ag in the Classroom programs, acting as a central clearinghouse for educational materials and information, encouraging

Photo courtesy of AnglinDairy-Spotted Cow Review

Dinner serves as an AITC fundraiser featuring a silent auction and a meal made of fresh local Oregon meats and produce. To better equip educators to use agriculture as a context for teaching academic standards, Oregon State University offers Summer Agriculture Institute – a three-credit, weeklong, graduatelevel class for K-12 teachers.

Idaho: In 2007, the Idaho AITC created Flat Andy Ag, a cartoonish character whose image is sent to farms and ranches throughout the state and then returned to the originating classroom by the agriculture hosts who send back photos and a journal of Andy's visit. These exercises enable students to interact with agricultural operations and learn about the industry through Andy's visits.

Utah: Students in the Beehive State can take an online journey of Utah's homegrown products and discover the dozens of fresh foods,

including milk, produce, eggs, honey, and meat products and the many greenhouse plants comprising Utah's Own. Utah's AITC website offers kids a plethora of ag-based games, activities, and virtual tours, while providing educators a comprehensive planning tool for Farm Field Days, which increase student awareness about agriculture and instill in students an appreciation for the state's food and fiber system. There's also an online list of activities and resources for school gardens with details on relevant topics from soil and planting to proper light sources.

New Mexico: Agriculture meets world travel through My American Farm – an online educational game that lets students learn about agriculture through a series of interactive lessons. Players learn where food comes from and how those products get from the farm to their dinner plate. The game includes

YOUTH EDUCATION

OPPOSITE: Flat Andy Ag joined up with Idaho Ag in the Classroom in 2007 to help students learn agricultural operations. Andy has traveled to farms and ranches throughout Idaho (as well as other states), always returning to the students of his classroom with photos and stories about everything he experienced.

ABOVE: An educational specialist from the AITC program brings the mobile experience to Arkansas schools, engaging students with presentations and interactive displays, such as allowing students to practice their milking skills on a life-size, fiberglass dairy cow.

U.S. AGRICULTURE OUTLOOK

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Photo courtesy Agriculture in the Classroom Utah

a Passport to Sustainability that students print out, cut, and fold to resemble an actual travel document.

Each online activity completed rewards them with a stamp to paste into their Passport. New Mexico's AITC also offers a Video Field Trip series and Agventure – an educational treasure hunt featuring questions about state agriculture.

South Dakota: On South Dakota's AITC site, students will find the “What's Growing in South Dakota” video game, along with a Sci4Kids page that offers a glimpse into the world of the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) – the USDA's chief scientific research agency. Also insightful is the perspective offered by A Day in the Life of Ag, which breaks down a student's hypothetical day and explains the relevance of agriculture to each step in the chronology.

Nebraska: Putting an educational spin on a classic communication theme, Nebraska AITC's Ag Pen Pal Program teaches students that agriculture is the source of their food, clothing, shelter, and other essentials of life by linking classrooms with farm and ranch families across the state. Students write to farmers and ranchers at least three times a year and some send class photos and special projects made for their pen pals. Farmers and ranchers may augment their letter exchanges with photos and /or video from their agricultural operations, crop samples, and classroom visitation.

Oklahoma: In a program similar to reality TV, the Oklahoma Farm Bureau (OFB) Harvest Watch follows the journey of four farm and ranch families as they plant, manage, and harvest crops. Students monitoring the reports, photos, and video of these families' toils get to see the labor and time it takes to supply the world with food, fuel, and fiber. With the families of OFB’s Harvest Watch sharing their experiences, students gain a more intimate understanding of the agricultural lifestyle. For a different perspective, Oklahoma's

A student poses with a pumpkin from Dugway Elementary School’s garden in Utah.

growing agritourism industry has opened numerous field trip opportunities for students to see a variety of farms and ranches.

Missouri: Through the Missouri Farm Bureau and Missouri State University, the state's AITC offers students a virtual video series with clips of farm and ranch activities throughout the state. Videos show a wide range of entertaining and educational topics including combine and crop spraying operation, newborn calves learning to walk, turkey barns, sheep shearing, and cow-milking parlors.

Arkansas: Students in the Razorback State enjoy the educational fun of the Arkansas Mobile Ag Experience. An educational specialist

YOUTH EDUCATION

from the Ag in the Classroom program brings the Mobile Ag Experience to school and engages students with a presentation that involves interactive displays and demonstrations of cotton ginning and rice milling. Students can also practice their milking skills on the life-size, fiberglass dairy cow and plant seeds at the Germination Station.

Florida: For its annual Florida Agricultural Literacy Day, the Sunshine State's AITC invites agriculture industry volunteers to read its newest storybook to elementary school children. Guest readers, including Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services employees, 4-H agents and master gardeners, Florida Farm Bureau members, and Florida Cattlemen and Cattlewomen members, bring their professional insights to the classroom, while connecting real-world careers to the students' agricultural lessons.

U.S. AGRICULTURE OUTLOOK

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YOUTH EDUCATION

UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL

Elsewhere in the Sunshine State, Jerry Mixon has spent much of his adult life raising blueberries on his family's Sunny Ridge Farm (now part of Dole Food Company). He has long appreciated Sunny Ridge's support of the local 4-H club and the National FFA (formerly Future Farmers of America) through youth fair sponsorships, as well as on-site tours.

“I do find [youth programs] to be very important; I think that encouraging sharp young people to know that the ag industry is an option can give them an exciting career path,” Mixon said. “Sometimes, I think that the perception of agriculture is dirt farming and changing that perception is very important.”

One of the ways that Sunny Ridge Farm supports local schools is by donating blueberry plants for ag students to cultivate on schoolyard farm plots. Offering agriculture guidance and mentorship are key elements in the ongoing process of guiding future ag professionals. Also important, Mixon said, are regional ag events like the one presented by Florida's Polk County Farm Bureau.

Agri-Fest – a cooperative venture between Polk County Public Schools and the local agriculture industry – hosts more than 300 teachers and 6,000 Polk County fourth-graders to explore interactive exhibits and attend hands-on workshops on citrus, beef cattle, beekeeping, horticulture, forestry, and soil and water conservation.

“They bring all the area fourthgraders into one [regional site] and let them see all the different ag industries that are in Polk County,” he said. “They get to see different presentations all day. They get to see that the milk their parents buy in the store actually comes from a cow and that honey comes from actual living beehives and not from a jar, and that blueberries come from the bushes that we show them.”

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U.S. AGRICULTURE OUTLOOK

Local festivals and fairs often present great opportunities for spotlighting youth agriculture programs. At Florida's Strawberry Festival, held annually in Plant City, students from area schools display livestock they've raised through ag riculture clubs. In Valejo, Calif., the annual Youth Ag Day is a collaborative effort of the Solano County Fair and agricultural related businesses, organizations, farmers, ranchers, and other individuals to encourage Solano County third-graders to experience agriculture firsthand and learn about the region's food and fiber production. Hands-on activities like butter making and educational exhibits from worm composting to sheep dog demonstrations always prove fascinating.

KEEP THEM INTERESTED

Complementing the ef forts of schools and local community groups, the USDA offers a diverse menu of youth-oriented educational resources such as: Animal Improvement Programs Laboratory (AIPL) Kid's Corner: Games and puzzles designed to teach kids about the dairy lab, cows, and dairy products.

Agricultural Fact Book: This handy reference tool offers information about U.S. agriculture, describes all USDA programs, and provides useful information about food safety, nutrition, rural issues, research, education, and natural resources.

National Agricultural Kids' Science Page: T he National Agricultural Library offers children's books and articles on specific agricultural subjects including science fair projects and supplies, biographies of leading agricultural scientists, and “learn by doing” 4-H youth projects.

FSA Kids: The Farm Service Agency offers an ag-themed Game Zone, coloring pages, fun farming facts, and tips for conservation and environmental stewardship.

The FSA also helps finance incomeproducing, agriculture-related projects through operating loans of up to $5,000 to rural youths 10 to 20 years old. Eligible projects must be of modest size, educational, and initiated, developed, and carried out by rural youths participating in 4-H clubs, FFA, or a similar organization.

FSA also requires that the project be an organized and supervised work program that must be planned and operated with the assistance of the organization adviser, produce sufficient income to repay the loan, and provide the youth with practical business and educational experience in agriculture-related skills.

Clearly, the level of agricultural interest where financing, income, and loan repayments enter the picture comes a few steps past initial exposure. But the road has to start somewhere. So, whether it's a creative classroom exercise, a field trip to a local farm, or interactive ag-based online games, securing a future supply of talented and dedicated workers all comes down to planting these seeds in the fertile soil of youthful enthusiasm. Most agree that the same careful selection that determines which crops reach the market must also be applied to the selection of up-and-coming ag professionals. First step, though, is establishing that crop.

“We need high-end kids; we don't just need a program that says, 'This is an easy A,'” Mixon said. “We need [industry professionals] that are really encouraging a desire to find out what all is going on in agriculture. I think, for the most part, the youth programs do a good job of that.”

Roe agreed, adding: “Anytime you can put your business in front of a group of young minds, it's a great way to expose them to what's out there. Farming is a dying industry, it's not a popular [career field]. It's a hard-working industry, but yet it's so rewarding. If we can get kids interested in it and excited about it, that's going to perpetuate our industry.”

agroforestry

putting trees to work Agroforestry can help farmers and ranchers conserve their resources and increase their incomes.

By craig collins

I

n 1981, when Dan Shepherd’s father planted his first rows of pecan trees on a newly purchased wheat farm near the small community of Clifton Hill, Mo., his farming philosophy was driven by one main principle: “You stand to make a little money doing what everyone else does, but you can make a lot of money doing what nobody else does,” he said.

Not many people were planting pecan trees in Missouri, where the trees can take 20 years to mature – twice as long as in places such as Texas, where the growing season is longer. But the Shepherds bided their time. While the trees matured, they planted corn, soybeans, and wheat in the 40-foot-wide rows between them (30 years ago, the machines that applied fertilizer were 40 feet wide) and made an annual income off those crops.

Today, Shepherd Farms has one of the largest pecan orchards in the state – 200 acres – with its own cracking and shelling facility, and a country store that’s open in the months after the harvest. Shepherd describes himself as semiretired: “I don’t mess with anything but pecans.” His pecan trees are so big that he doesn’t plant row crops between them – they cast too much shade, and today’s equipment is too big for the rows anyway.

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U.S. AGRICULTURE OUTLOOK

With a steady and stable income from the pecans – a net average of about $500 an acre – Shepherd plants and harvests an annual hay crop between them.

Over the years, Shepherd has tried a few other things nobody else was doing – until recently, he ran a freerange bison herd on the farm; he was, for a while, the nation’s largest producer of eastern gamagrass, a prairie native, until the Midwestern floods of 2008 wiped out his crop – but today only he and his pecans are still standing.

“Pecan trees very rarely die,” he said. “Lightning might hit one once in a while, or the wind will take one down, but very rarely. It’s kind of a nice business. You don’t have to plant it every year like you do a real crop.

If you plant it and take care of it, it’s there forever … when I get up in the morning, that pecan tree is just exactly where I left it the night before.”

Shepherd didn’t realize until later that he was practicing agroforestry – the integrated use of trees or shrubs with crops and/or livestock to create a more diverse, productive, healthy, and sustainable land-use system. He was just doing what he thought was best for his family and his land. By pairing complementary trees and row crops, he provided erosion control and habitat for wildlife and beneficial

insects. Neither the gamagrass nor hay crops required annual disking or pesticide applications, which boosted soil nutrients and water quality.

Shepherd has been pleased with these benefits, but for him, they have been a means to an end: “We did it,” he said, “for the money.”

An Old Idea Made New Again

Agroforestry has been practiced for centuries around the world, mostly in tropical and subtropical regions, and has been practiced since the early 1900s in the United States.

The use of tree-protected systems to optimize production on arable lands gained some traction during the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, but there was little need for tree crop projects in the post-World War II economic and technological boom of the 1950s and 1960s. Interest in agroforestry – prompted by several factors, including rising fossil fuel costs, the effects of soil erosion on food production capacity, and other environmental concerns – re-emerged in the early 1970s.

Agroforestry technologies can help achieve several benefits in land-use systems, including: protection for topsoil, livestock, crops, and wildlife; greater agricultural productivity; reduced energy and chemical inputs;

Photo courtesy of the University of Missouri

AGROFORESTRY

more efficient water use; better air and water quality; more diverse local economies; and greater biodiversity.

There are five primary types of agroforestry practiced today: Alley cropping. Just as Shepherd discovered, alley cropping – the planting of trees or shrubs in widely spaced rows, with crop growth in the alleyways – can diversify farm income, improve crop production, and provide protection to crops. The method can provide both shortand long-term income. In situations where traditional row or cereal crops are unfeasible or otherwise undesirable, nontraditional, or specialty crops – sunflowers, vegetables, or medicinal herbs – can be grown. In North America, alley cropping can be performed with nut trees, nursery stock, or fine hardwoods such as ash, walnut, or oak species that can provide high-value lumber or veneer.

In Africa, intercropping of maize and

leguminous trees with nitrogen-fixing roots has been shown to boost maize yields by up to 50 percent.

Riparian forest buffers. Living filters comprised of trees, shrubs, and grasses, riparian buffers near streams have several uses. They reduce the loss of soil and nutrients from surface runoff into these streams by providing both a physical barrier and root systems that absorb and hold nutrients. They protect the water quality of streams and lakes, and provide food and cover for wildlife or livestock. Riparian buffers can also contribute to farm profits by including woody florals – such as curly willow or dogwood – or berries that can be harvested and sold.

Windbreaks. Likewise, field windbreaks or shelterbelts, planned or managed as part of a crop and/ or livestock operation, can protect a variety of wind-sensitive row, cereal, vegetable, orchard, and vine

Ray Glendening, superintendent at the Horticulture and Agroforestry Research Center in Missouri, scans a row of pine needles ready for harvest.

crops. They can reduce the wind erosion of valuable topsoil, increase bee pollination, and enhance the effectiveness of pesticides by reducing drift.

Forest farming. These systems, in contrast to other agroforestry practices, add agriculture to forestry.

High-value specialty crops such as ginseng, maple syrup, mushrooms, berries, nuts, and ornamentals are grown under the protection of a forest canopy modified to provide the appropriate shading, while highquality trees are being grown for wood products.

About 20 0 miles south of Shepherd Farms, in the Big Springs region of the Ozark Mountains, U.S. AGRICULTURE OUTLOOK

93

Nicola Macpherson and her husband grow shiitake mushrooms on about 18,000 oak logs thinned from their family timber farm and neighboring operations. They got the idea 30 years ago, when Macpherson’s husband attended an alternativefarming symposium and learned that the Ozarks had a climate similar to northern Japan, where shiitake growing practices were developed.

The mushroom farming operation is of mutual benefit to Ozark Forest Mushrooms and the family timber operation – in harvesting a renewable supply of mushroom bed logs from dead, decaying, or lower-grade timber, the farmers keep their forest healthy. The spent mushroom bed logs – they last about four or five years, according to Macpherson – are used to fuel the furnace that heats an in-ground greenhouse.

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U.S. AGRICULTURE OUTLOOK

“There are not many people doing this commercially,” Macpherson said, “because it’s very labor intensive and you need access to a lot of timber. We inoculate about 5,000 logs every year.”

Silvopasture. The combination of forestry and grazing operations, silvopastoral systems incorporate a tree overstory to create a favorable microclimate for growing forage for livestock; at the same time, they grow a valuable tree crop.

Silvopasture differs from traditional forest or range management, in that it is intentionally created and intensively managed. Silvopastoral systems are the most prominent agroforestry practice in the United States, particularly in the Southeast.

Until recently, the spread of agroforestry has been largely due to anecdotal evidence and common

sense: It seemed only natural for Shepherd to plant crops between his pecan saplings, as it did for Macpherson and her husband, once they’d learned of the Japan/Ozarks congruity, to make use of thinned and substandard wood that would otherwise go to waste.

As agroforestry practices continue to evolve, a growing body of data is spelling out both the economic and environmental benefits. At the same time, a national network of research centers is maturing, not only to gather this data, but to extend advice and technical assistance to interested farmers and ranchers. In July 2012, for example, the USDA’s Center for Agroforestry released its first practical handbook, Profitable Farms and Woodlands, written primarily for underserved and limited-resource farmers and

USDA photo

agroforestry

Photo courtesy of Peter Smallidge

AGROFORESTRY

woodland owners in the Southeast.

The manual offers an overview of agroforestry practices and lists available local, state, and federal resources.

Photo courtesy of Biohabitats Inc.

The Farmer’s Wallet

Both Shepherd Farms and Ozark Forest Mushrooms have been featured in tours offered by the Center for Agroforestry at the University of Missouri, a global research center that educates landowners and natural resource professionals about new agroforestry research and

Opposite: As wind blows against a windbreak, air pressure builds up on the windward side (the side toward the wind), and large quantities of air move up and over the top or around the ends. TOP: This riparian buffer helps protect and revitalize ecosystems and biodiversity along a stream corridor in the southern Rocky Mountain region of Colorado. ABOVE: The trees in a silvopasture system are typically managed for high-value sawlogs and, at the same time, provide shade and shelter for livestock and forage.

demonstrates how this research can be applied on working lands.

While many people are familiar with the environmental benefits of using trees in agriculture, said the center’s director, Shibhu Jose, Ph.D., fewer are aware of the ways in which agroforestry can boost farm and ranch profits. “It’s a simple economic principle,” he said. “You diversity your farmscape, and by doing so, you are not dependent on just one product coming out of your land. If the price fluctuates on one product, you may have a backup plan with another product. Or let’s say, as a result of serious drought or flood, you lose one crop – but there is another crop that can help you avoid hitting economic bottom. You have at least some cushion there.”

Research institutions such as the Center for Agroforestry are beginning to quantify some of these economic benefits, Jose said. Even a limited application of silvopasture – the planting of scattered patches of trees over a large area of rangeland – can have a dramatic effect on the growing season of forage, which helps ranchers avoid costly hay purchases for longer periods.

Additionally, silvopasture systems can alleviate two of the biggest stress factors affecting the productivity of both beef and dairy cattle: extreme heat and cold.

“In the heat of summer,” Jose said, “the cattle get stress reduction as a result of the shading from the trees. In the winter, they get protection from serious winter weather.

What we found in our trials here in Missouri was that if you compare a silvopasture system with a traditional pasture, just by looking at the weight gain of the cattle, that stress reduction earns you about $43 more per cow-calf pair. And we haven’t even looked into the income from the trees that could come from future timber harvests.”

The Center for Agroforestry at the University of Missouri is also a leader in researching and encouraging U.S. AGRICULTURE OUTLOOK

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special applications for agroforestry – including the development of feedstocks for a growing biofuels market.

The center was recently awarded part of a $125 million Indian-U.S. Joint Clean Energy Research and Development Center Grant, funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE), to investigate alternative energy technologies.

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U.S. AGRICULTURE OUTLOOK

Sougata Bardhan, a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Agroforestry, is evaluating flood tolerance of cottonwoods, willow trees, switchgrass, and sorghum.

The center’s part of the grant involves investigating which potential biofuel plants grow best in the marginal lands – tracts unsuitable for farming – along the Missouri and Mississippi rivers. Riparian buffers, Jose said, can help hold back 80 to 90 percent of the agrochemicals that get into streams and cause environmental harm – and eventually, once they reach the Gulf of Mexico, economic harm to fisheries by creating vast “dead zones” near the mouth of the Mississippi.

“When you think about the species used for creating these buffers,” Jose said, “and the species we are looking at as biofuel crops, these are the same three major species: perennial grasses, willow as a short-rotation woody crop, and cottonwood or poplar as a short-rotation woody crop.”

The biofuels market – with plenty of help from the USDA, the DoE, the Department of Defense, and other federal agencies – is evolving, but slowly. Jose said the feedstocks from riparian buffers could be used for the production of electricity or compression into fuel pellets – but future uses could include processing and refining into liquid transportation or aviation fuels.

Jose thinks that if just 10 percent of the marginal lands in the Missouri and Mississippi river floodplains are cultivated with biofuel crops, it could lead to the production of 8 billion gallons of advanced biofuels annually – more than a third of the congressional goal set for the year 2022.

As these markets grow, they create the potential for agroforestry practitioners to wring even more profit from their working lands in the future – but for now, agroforestry offers farmers and ranchers plenty of opportunities to make their businesses more stable, diverse, and prosperous. “Because you have multiple crops and multiple products coming out of your farm,” Jose said, “your farm will be more resilient ecologically, but also more resilient economically.”

Photo courtesy of University of Missouri

agroforestry

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