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Kansas Farmer Gradually Transitions Thousands of Acres to Organic Field day Innovations Grower Hawaii’s schedule for CSAs co-op model GMO issues 7 10 13 14 Volume 25 | Number 3 Midwest Organic & Sustainable Education Service May | June 2017 Kansas farmer gradually transitions thousands of acres to organic By Bailey Webster Tim Raile comes from a long line of innovative rotation, the land farmers. The Railes were German farmers from is tilled in August the 16th to 19th centuries, moving to Odessa, and September, Russia in about 1800. To escape military service, and then again then considered a death sentence, Gottleib Raile in the spring, and Sr. emigrated from Russia to the United States through the sum- in 1885. Gottlieb Sr., Tim’s great-grandfather, mer as needed. put down roots in Northwest Kansas. The family By October, little farm has been passed down from father to son for residue is left and four generations. winter wheat can Today, Tim Raile and his son, Michael, oper- be planted again, ate the farm. Tim’s wife, Robyn, manages the benefitting from farm’s accounting, and Michael’s wife, Ashley, also the moisture kept offers support. Tim’s daughter, Jessica, and her in the soil during husband, Geiler, have also been instrumental in the fallow period. developing the farm’s website and business plan. An obvious Tim and Michael operate 8,500 acres in St. drawback of fal- Francis, Kansas, and just across the border in lowing is that the Colorado. About one-third of that acreage is land soil is bare for a they own; the rest they rent from other landowners, year at a time. many of whom no longer live in the area. The Although the Tim Raile (right), his son, Michael, and Michael’s son look over one of the fields the family preservation of farm is located in a semiarid climate, where aver- is transitioning to organic production. The Railes operate 8,500 acres that they are age annual rainfall is 14-15 inches. By contrast, moisture in the systematically switching to organic over the next five to six years. the average annual rainfall for most of Wisconsin soil has decreased Photo submitted is upwards of 30 inches. Dryland farming tech- erosion problems niques, the primary focus of which is moisture significantly since the Dust Bowl days, wind and prevents evaporation of rainfall and increases preservation, are practiced throughout the region. water erosion are still issues with fallowing. The water infiltration into the soil. concept of no-till was developed in the 1940s to Challenges of Dryland Farming address erosion issues, and began to gain traction From No-Till to Organic The lack of precipitation in semiarid regions with the advent of chemical herbicides after World Tim considers himself an agroecologist—one presents unique challenges to farmers, particu- War II. No-till began to emerge as a mainstream who “views agricultural areas as ecosystems and larly organic farmers. The first pioneers to settle farming method in the mid-90s, gaining traction is concerned with the ecological impact of agri- the Great Plains in the late 1800s were met with in the early 2000s. Few farmers are completely cultural practices.” He speaks with pride of his an unusually wet period, which led to a complete no-till; most farmers use a version of minimum- family’s long history of curiosity and innovation in misunderstanding of the ecology of the area. tillage to varying degrees. farming, adding that he has always been intrigued A popular phrase among real estate agents at In a no-till system, the previous season’s crop by organic farming. A lack of understanding of the time was “rain follows the plow.” Decades of is killed with an herbicide and the next crop is national organic standards coupled with prohibitive continuous wheat production and overgrazing, drilled into the residue. The soil is covered at all financial hurdles have kept Tim from transitioning coupled with severe drought, led to the Dust Bowl times, which not only prevents erosion but also Raile Farms to organic—until now. of the 1930s. To Thousands of Acres on page 6 As a result, the practice of fallowing was developed as a method of moisture retention. In a fallow period, no crop is grown for a year, and the Organic production shortfall in U.S. encourages imports, creates risk land is tilled 6-7 times to keep weeds from pull- By Peter Golbitz ing moisture out of the ground. In a wheat/fallow The organic food sector is a bright star in U.S. grown by about 1 percent annually since 2008. rotation, winter wheat is planted in October and food retailing with sales increasing by over 10 Conversely, according to statistics tracked by harvested the following July. During the fallow percent in 2015 to reach $43.3 billion, according to the U.S. Commerce Department and reported the Organic Trade Association. The world’s largest through the USDA FAS GATS database, imports consumer packaged goods companies, such as of organic products have grown at over 35 percent General Mills, Kellogg’s, Danone, Coca-Cola, and per year since 2012, from $496.3 million to $1.67 Pepsi, are all players in the market through scores billion in 2016. of acquired brands. You can find organic foods in While it may make complete sense to import every major U.S. retail chain, including Walmart tropical or exotic products such as coffee, bananas, and Costco, which according to industry analysts, mangoes, and avocados, or even fresh seasonal Eau Claire,Eau WI PERMIT # 203 eclipsed Whole Foods in the sale of organic foods fruits, two products are in the top 10 organic NONPROFIT ORG. U.S. POSTAGE PAID last year. import list that weren’t there just a few years ago With all of this dynamic growth and increasing –soybeans and feed corn. interest in organic foods by shoppers, particularly among the millennial generation, one would Growing Demand for Livestock Feed expect that U.S. organic farm production would be Since 2012, imports of organic soybeans have increasing as well. Instead, U.S. food processors grown at an average rate of 29.1 percent per year and marketers have been steadily increasing while imports of feed corn have grown 63.6 per- organic imports. While this may benefit the mar- cent per year. The volume for these two grains is ketplace today, it also may create risk for the shocking given that the U.S. is the world’s largest industry in the very near future. producer of both soybeans and corn. In 2016, the According to the USDA National Agricultural U.S. imported 13.8 million bushels of soybeans, Please renewPlease your free before subscription expires! it Statistics Service (NASS), there were 2.4 million and 21.7 million bushels of feed corn with a com- acres of organic cropland in 2015, just 0.7 percent bined value of $411 million. Based on the average of total acres dedicated to crops in the U.S. While yields for these organic crops in the U.S., this is NASS also estimated that nearly 142,000 acres equivalent to about 607,000 acres of production, were in transition to organic cropland during that PO Box 339, Spring Valley, WI 54767 Spring Valley, 339, PO Box year, land used for organic production has only To Import Risks on page 8 From the Executive Director TM We all want to see more acres of U.S. farmland in organic production. For the good of organic agriculture, we need this growth Volume 25, #3 May | June 2017 now more than ever. By now you’ve heard of the Washington Post report on the two shiploads of grain from Turkey that were falsely labeled as organic. Given the rapid increase in volume of “organic” Executive Director John Mesko grain coming from Turkey in recent months, one is left wondering if Editor Audrey Alwell there have been other suspect shipments which have gone undetected. Advertising Coordinator Eric Hatling MOSES is playing a key role in addressing this issue, but we have more to do. At the recent MOSES Organic Farming Conference, we hosted a session with our partners at OFARM focusing on this very issue. About 200 grain farmers from around the country had an opportunity to hear about the issues related to the integrity of imported grain labeled as organic, as well as learn how the USDA is ensuring what is The Organic BroadcasterTM is a bimonthly labeled as USDA Certified Organic actually is. newspaper published by the Midwest Organic Also at the 2017 MOSES Conference, we had a significant number of large-scale grain producers attend and Sustainable Education Service (MOSES), a nonprofit that provides education, resources and learn about the organic systems approach to grain production. These producers are coming from and practical advice to farmers. throughout the Corn Belt and as far away as California to gain information about organic production and certification, and to gain contacts with buyers, suppliers, and other grain farmers. Opinions expressed by the authors do not necessarily reflect those of the publisher. MOSES is also a key sponsor of the Organic and Non-GMO Forum this November in St. Louis, Mo., Inclusion of an advertisement does not imply where organic producers, as well as companies in the organic food supply chain will gather to learn endorsement of a product. We reserve the right about ways to rapidly increase the number of certified organic acres in production, particularly grain to refuse inappropriate advertising. production. © 2017 MOSES But there is more to do. We welcome a more stringent accounting of certified organic imports from other countries, and applaud the efforts to uncover any wrongdoing.
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