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Why many organic farmers ‘didn’t notice the trade war’
The Times - Delivering Your Community • Thursday, February 20, 2020
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Organic farmer Joel Layman on his farm in Berrien Center, Mich. Layman says he and his peers have not been affected by the trade war as severely as farmers in conventional agriculture because organic is more embedded in the local community and not as reliant on exports. Chad Tidey/Courtesy of Joel Layman/Pew Charitible Trusts/TNS
April Simpson Stateline.org (Tribune News Service) WASHINGTON — Michigan farmer Joel Layman hesitates before he just comes out with it. “I feel a little bad saying this: My farm didn’t notice the trade war.” Layman grows certified organic vegetables, dry edible beans and grain crops on the organic portion of his 2,100-acre farm in Berrien Center, a township in southwest Michigan. “We have a little more autonomy,” Layman said of organic farmers. “I’m not reliant upon the world market. I’m relying on my neighbor who’s my customer.” Layman’s peers in one of the fastest-growing sectors of American agriculture generally agree: While President Donald Trump’s trade war with China has dominated conversation among conventional farmers, organic farmers have had the luxury of focusing on other things. “In terms of what you hear about from the broader community, this hasn’t been it,” said Patty Lovera, policy director for the Organic Farmers Association.
Only about 8% of U.S. fruit and vegetable exports are organic, and their primary foreign markets are Canada, Mexico and Japan rather than China, which levied retaliatory tariffs on nearly all U.S. agricultural products beginning in 2017. However, the trade war reduced demand for all agricultural products, which depressed prices for both conventional and organic farmers. And organic farmers received some of the federal payments the Trump administration doled out to compensate for the trade war. Laurie Isley, president of the Michigan Soybean Promotion Committee, said that’s fine with her, because the trade war had far-reaching effects across U.S. agriculture. Organic products are in high demand, but they too are affected when conventional markets are down. While organic farmers typically earn more for their products, they also have higher costs than conventional farmers. “I don’t have a concern with those payments going to both conventional and organic farmers,” said Isley, who farms in Palmyra, Michigan. “We’re not trying to distinguish between, ‘Are you organic?’ or ‘Are you conventional?’”
Organic farmers such as Layman who grow eligible crops such as corn and soybeans were entitled to participate in the Market Facilitation Program (MFP), intended to compensate farmers whose exports to China plunged because of the trade war. The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced this week that it is making a third, and final, payment to farmers, bringing the total for tariff payments to farmers on 2019 production to $14.5 billion. Between the Market Facilitation Program and two additional programs, the Trump administration authorized roughly $28 billion in 2018 and 2019 to compensate farmers and ranchers for losses related to the trade war. The Agriculture Department did not respond to repeated requests for information on how much organic farmers received in MFP payments. “I have no imminent plans of repaying my MFP out of conscience, I’ll tell you that,” Layman said. “That’s how the program was written and as a businessperson, I should be able to take advantage of it.” In any case, Layman said, organic farmers received only a tiny percentage of the MFP money. “My guess is it’s a
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“The question is how the payments are calculated because ideally, you should be compensated for the harm that was caused to you as a producer and because organic farmers sell for higher prices, the harm, on a per unit basis, probably was greater.” Organic farming has become a $50 billion industry in the United States, which boasts the largest market for organic products in the world. Sales of organic products have grown by between 7% and 9% in recent years, compared with a roughly 1% annual growth rate for conventional products, according to the Organic Trade Association. But organic agriculture still represents less than 1% of U.S. farmland. Most organic consumption is on the coasts, but
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SPRING FARM | The Times - Delivering Your Community • Thursday, February 20, 2020
rounding error,” he said. Historically, organic farmers have been excluded from many forms of support, said Carolyn Dimitri, associate professor of nutrition and food studies at New York University. For example, in the past, organic farmers were ineligible for certain farm programs, and were unable to get crop insurance, in part because the USDA collected little data on organic agriculture. The challenges limited the industry’s growth, Dimitri said. But farm policy is for all farmers. If organic farmers are being affected by the tariffs, they should be entitled to payments, Dimitri said. “It’s just the same payments as everyone else,” Dimitri said.
the top five states for organic cropland acres are California, Montana, New York, Wisconsin and Oregon. The “phase one” trade agreement the U.S. and China signed in January eases some tariffs on Chinese goods. In return, China has promised to buy more U.S. goods and services. But China restricted U.S. organic produce even before the trade war. “China is already one of the most difficult markets for organic exports,” said Alexis Carey, international trade manager for the Organic Trade Association. She noted strict import restrictions and a limited number of acceptable organic products. “There’s a really large amount of government oversight in China that isn’t present in a lot of other countries.” The Chinese government, for example, has an extensive and costly process for imports to meet its organic standards. Even after the certification process, there’s no guarantee that the Chinese government will accept the product, according to the Organic Trade Association. “That’s more important to these farmers — being able to get their products into a market in the first place,” Carey said. U.S. organic farmers also worry about competing with imports that may be labeled “organic” but aren’t. It’s unclear what impact the recent deal between the U.S. and China will have on organic farming, but the Organic Trade Association says the reduction in tariffs is a “welcome change.” The deal may result in an increase in organic exports to China, said Iryna Demko, a research associate at the Center for Economic Development in the Levin College of Urban Affairs at Cleveland State University. The share of organic exports relative to total exports has been increasing in fruits and vegetables, a trend Demko expects to continue. “Over the next two years,” Demko said, “we should expect only good things coming under the assumption that everything will go smoothly.”
The Times - Delivering Your Community • Thursday, February 20, 2020
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Soil carbon is a valuable resource, but all soil carbon is not created equal’ Human society is literally built on soil. It feeds the world and produces vital fuel and fiber. But most people rarely give soil a second thought. Recently, though, soil has been getting some well-deserved attention from environmental organizations, policymakers and industry leaders. It has been covered in news articles, argued over in policy debates and has even received an international day of recognition. Why all this attention? Because the world urgently needs ways to keep carbon out of the atmosphere, and to build food security for a rapidly growing global population. Soil can do both. However, current efforts to promote carbon storage in soil miss a key point: Not all soil carbon is the same. As scientists focusing on soil ecology and sustainability, we believe that managing soil carbon effectively requires taking its differences into account.
Soil carbon is amazingly complex Building up soil carbon can help cut greenhouse gas concentrations in the air. It also improves soil quality in many ways: It gives soil structure, stores water and nutrients that plants need and feeds vital soil organisms. But carbon in soil doesn’t exist on its own. It is combined with oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen and other elements, in compounds that scientists collectively call soil organic matter. This material is amazingly complex stuff, made of thousands of different chemical compounds that remain from the decomposition and transformation of plants, animals and microorganisms. Adding to this complexity, carbon can be found in different physical states within soil. It can be dissolved in water, present as larger chunks or “particulates,” enveloped by soil particles or bonded to minerals. These various forms all behave differently, and ultimately have very different impacts on plant growth, soil structure and carbon sequestration. The challenge is how to conceptually divide up all of these different forms without getting completely lost in the muck. The soil science community – yes, we are out there! – has been studying this question for decades. As we discuss in a recent study, one key distinction can provide an underlying framework for soil carbon management: particulate organic matter versus mineral-associated organic matter.
sists mostly of microscopic coatings on soil particles, derived mainly from the bodies and byproducts of microorganisms and certain plant compounds.
more slowly, that nitrogen isn’t all usable. Particulate organic matter, meanwhile, contains less nitrogen relatively speaking, but that nitrogen is more readily available.
One key difference between the two is that mineral-associated organic matter is stuck to soil particles, so it tends to stay there for a long time. Particulate organic matter, on the other hand, is freely available to microorganisms, so it gets broken down much faster. It’s also more vulnerable to agricultural practices like tillage that disturb the soil.
It helps to think about these two types of soil carbon like a checking and a savings account. Particulate organic matter is the checking account: It receives money every payday, but gets spent pretty quickly to cover everyday expenses. Mineral-associated organic matter is the savings account. It usually receives less money from each paycheck, but that money isn’t spent as quickly.
Like money in the bank
A second key difference is their nutrient contents. Remember that organic matter contains not just carbon but lots of other elements, including nitrogen, a natural fertilizer that plants need to thrive.
Particulate organic matter is the stuff you generally can see. It contains partially decomposed organic fragments, such as tiny bits of leaves or roots. Mineral-associated organic matter con-
Mineral-associated organic matter contains more nitrogen per unit of carbon than particulate organic matter, but because mineral-associated organic matter is less available and cycles
When humans face a big unexpected expense, they typically will drain their checking accounts and may also dip into their savings accounts. If this happens over and over, eventually both accounts go broke. This is exactly what happens when an ecosystem loses lots of soil carbon – for example, when a meadow is plowed and
To make matters worse, annual crops tend to have tiny roots that do not add much carbon into the soil; put another way, they have very low paychecks. This means that particulate organic matter and mineral-associated organic matter aren’t replenished and continue to decline. Without a boost of “cash,” in the form of more decomposing plant matter, soils will go broke and become less healthy and productive.
organic matter for longer-term carbon storage, while also producing high-quality particulate organic matter with lots of nitrogen to help boost crop productivity. Natural healthy soils show us that providing continuous and diverse plant inputs that reach all the way to deep soil are key for achieving both high mineral-associated organic matter storage and particulate organic matter recycling. There are many promising ways to do this, such as maintaining plant cover on fields year-round; growing diverse crops that include high-nitrogen legumes and perennials with deep roots; and minimizing tillage.
Initiatives such as “4 per mille” and Terraton aim to sequester huge amounts of carbon in soil. The 2018 U.S. Farm Bill includes the first-ever incentives for farmers to adopt practices aimed at improving soil health and sequestering carbon. But these initiatives are missing a key point: not all soil carbon is the same. The very different lifetimes of particulate organic matter and mineral-associated organic matter have important implications for these efforts. For example, adding low-quality crop residues to agricultural fields would likely create more particulate organic matter than mineral-associated organic matter. This could increase soil carbon in the short term – but if that field later is disturbed by tilling, a lot of it would decompose and the benefit would be quickly reversed. The best practices focus on building up mineral-associated
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Before implementing any management practices for carbon sequestration, participants should first assess the carbon storage potential of the local soil, much as a doctor studies a patient before prescribing a cure. Sequestering soil carbon effectively requires an understanding of how particulate organic matter and mineralassociated organic matter work, how human actions affect them, and how to build up both types to meet our planet’s climate and food security needs. This article originally was published in The Conversation and distributed via the Associated Press. The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts, theconversation.com.
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Managing soil carbon for climate change However, not all soils can accumulate both mineraland food security associated organic matter and particulate organic matter.
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Illinois college’s newest program this fall: How to grow cannabis Nassim Benchaabane St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Tribune News Service) A public university here this fall will join a handful of colleges across the country offering students classes on the state’s newest cash crop: cannabis. Starting in August, agriculture students at Western Illinois University will be able to enroll in a minor designed to teach them all about growing the cannabis plant: both marijuana and it’s nonpsychoactive relative, hemp. The university approved the program Feb. 4, shortly after marijuana dispensaries in Illinois reported more than $40 million in sales since the state legalized recreational use Jan. 1.
Starting in August 2020, agriculture students at Western Illinois University will be able to enroll in a minor designed to teach them all about growing the cannabis plant: both marijuana and it s nonpsychoactive relative, hemp. Dreamstime/TNS
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Anywhere from 20 to 30 students are expected to sign up for the first class in the fall, said Andy Baker, director of WIU’s School of Agriculture. “We’ve seen a lot of interest from students,” Baker said. “We’re really excited about the future potential of this.” The school joins a handful of colleges in states with legal marijuana use and industrial hemp production that have created coursework for students interested in the industries. WIU offered a trial class on cannabis production last spring, Baker said. At least 17 students enrolled in the class. Because of the interest, the university wanted to move quickly, building a program around established courses to gauge student interest, he said. “Growing plants is what we do, so we felt pretty confident about moving forward,” Baker said. “But like anything, it’s going to take some time to figure out the needs and interests of our students and hit the mark on that.” The key class for the minor course will teach students about cannabis anatomy, physiology, breeding, propagation methods, management techniques, post-harvest processing, commercial production, crop rotations and product applications, Baker said. Students can also take other classes on horticulture, plant biology, plant genetics, pest management, plant breeding and two cultivation methods preferred by the marijuana industry: greenhouse management and hydroponics, a method of growing plants without soil in a water solvent. “You just don’t know where the market is going to go from here,” Baker said. “But there are a lot of different facets here and students will see some opportunities that we’ve never seen before.”
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The Times - Delivering Your Community • Thursday, February 20, 2020
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U.S. farm income is forecast to fall by 9% in 2020 due to rising expenses, lower government payments and ultralow prices for corn and soybeans, the nation’s biggest crops. That decline will happen even though farm revenue is projected to rise 2.7%, according to data released this week by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. “That increase in cash receipts is expected to be eclipsed by the drop in government payments, because we’re looking at a drop in government payments for the sector as a whole of almost $9 billion,” Carrie Litkowski, a USDA economist, said. “On top of that, we’re forecasting an increase in cash expenses.” The department’s forecast assumes that the Market Facilitation Program, the USDA’s trade-war bailout that shored up farms across the country, will wind down. Direct government payments to farmers spiked in 2019 thanks to $14.3 billion in trade aid, but the agency forecasts only $3.7 billion in payments in 2020 because the U.S. and China settled some of the dispute. China on Thursday confirmed that next week it would reduce its tariff rate on U.S. soybeans and pork to 5% from 10%, a step that should lead to greater purchasing of U.S. farm products and reduce the need for the MFP bailout. “We are assuming in this forecast that these will be the final MFP payments in 2020,” Litkowski said.
The profitability of farms will vary by type, the USDA’s data showed. Its forecast assumes corn and soybean prices will remain low or drop further. Soybean revenue will drop by about $1 billion, or 2.5%, because there are fewer soybeans to sell, and corn revenue will rise by about $1 billion, or 2.1%, because of the abundance of that commodity. Dairy, beef and hog farm revenue is expected to grow. Milk revenue should rise by about $2.1 billion, or 1.6%, and hog revenue should rise $4.2 billion, or 18.4%, “reflecting both higher prices and quantities sold,” the agency said. Feed, labor, seed, pesticide, fertilizer and fuel expenses are all expected to rise in 2020. Farmers in southwest Minnesota and eastern South Dakota are being asked to cut costs, said Jeff Hoover, a banker at Minnwest Bank in Marshall, one of the largest ag lenders in the state. “It certainly seems that the market wants to pay threeand-a-half dollars for corn and eight-and-a-half dollars for soybeans, so we’ve got to lower our cost structures so we can scratch out a living,” Hoover said. Low interest rates are keeping land prices high, because they keep the debt service on a land purchase down and preserve some return on the land after the monthly land payment. That’s been a boon for farmers. But the strong dollar is hurting U.S. corn and soybean prices and there’s simply too much supply of those two row crops.
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9 SPRING FARM | The Times - Delivering Your Community • Thursday, February 20, 2020
USDA: U.S. farm income will drop by 9% in 2020
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USDA urges farmers to observe Grain Bin Safety Week The Times Staff U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue issued a proclamation naming Feb. 16-22 as Grain Bin Safety Week. Last week, the secretary sat down with South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem to talk about the importance of grain bin safety on the farm. Gov. Noem grew up on a farm in Hamlin County, South Dakota, and has a personal connection to farm safety. She has been an advocate for increased grain bin safety efforts for years. “We hope grain operators, farmers and community leaders will join us in expanding knowledge of safe practices not just during National Grain Bin Safety Week, but year-round,” Perdue said. “Tragedies like the one Gov. Noem’s family experienced happen too frequently and call for greater action, which is why I have signed a proclamation naming Feb. 16-22 Grain Bin Safety Week.” The purpose of Grain Bin Safety Week is to promote education and awareness of hazards and safe work practices in an effort to reduce the number of accidents associated with grain handling and storage. In 2018, there were 30 documented grain entrapment cases, with half of those entrapped resulting in a fatality. Noem said her father was killed in a grain bin accident. “My life changed forever when we lost my dad in a grain bin accident, and while farmers are often in a hurry to get things done, nothing is worth losing a life,” Noem said. “This Grain Bin Safety Week, I want to encourage producers to evaluate safety procedures on their farms and ranches. Slow down and be safe – your family will thank you for it.” Illinois has had one fatality linked to a grain bin entrapment this year. A central Illinois man died Feb. 10 after becoming buried in corn while working inside a farm’s grain bin. David L. Lowis, 61, was pronounced dead at the scene at a farm in rural Morrisonville. Christian County Coroner Amy Calvert Winans said first responders had to cut a hole in the grain bin to get to Lowis, but the Taylorville man died after being submerged in the corn. Bureau and La Salle county emergency responders were called to a similar grain bin entrapment in October 2019 after 57-year-old Laverne Molln, of Walnut, fell into a bin on a rural farm west of Van Orin. Molln was pronounced dead at the scene after emergency crews cut the side of the bin to release the grain and search for him. It takes only seconds to be completely engulfed in flowing grain and be overcome by oxygen-deficient atmospheres, the USDA reported in a news release. Due to increased training and more public awareness, deaths from grain bin entrapments declined until 2014. The USDA reported 38 documented entrapments nationally in 2014, resulting in 17 deaths.
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The farmers of yesteryear might not be too familiar with their surroundings if they were to visit a modern farm. While the men and women who made their livings as farmers decades ago would no doubt still recognize certain farm features that have withstood the test of time, they might not understand the inner workings of the modern farm, particularly in regard to the role technology now plays within the agricultural sector. Technology has changed agriculture in myriad ways. The methods farmers employ to produce food and improve the efficiency of their operations has changed as technology has evolved. One of the more noticeable changes that’s hard to miss on modern farms is the use of agricultural drones. Drones have been around for decades. Sometimes referred to as “unmanned aerial vehicles,” or “UAVs,” drones can be utilized in ways that can save farmers money and protect the planet.
• Monitor crops: According to senseFly, the commercial drone subsidiary of Parrot Group, drones can help farmers effectively monitor their crops. With a drone flying overhead, farmers can spot and quickly identify issues affecting their crops before those issues escalate into something larger. • Soil analysis: Another potential benefit of agricultural drones highlights their role in analyzing soil. Agricultural drones utilize complex mapping functions to gather data about the soil, including areas where it might be stressed. That enables farmers to develop accurate soil samples that can be used to guide decisions in regard to irrigation and fertilization. • Reduce waste: SenseFly notes that data gathered by drones can help farmers determine the vigor of their crops at various stages of growth. Such information can prevent overfertilization and overwatering, thereby reducing waste and runoff, benefitting the planet as a result.
• Planning: Drones can be used to collect data on crop growth and health at various times throughout the growing season. That can help farmers develop accurate predictions regarding harvest quality and crop yield, making it easier for them to plan ahead.
Agricultural drones are one of the many examples that illustrate how technology has changed and will continue to change the ways modern farmers conduct business.
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SPRING FARM | The Times - Delivering Your Community • Thursday, February 20, 2020
How farmers are using drones
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