Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture

Organic conference marks more than decade of research, bright future ahead

Back to Leopold Letter Winter 2010

Organic practices may be agriculture’s best bet in coping with the many challenges it faces, from world hunger to depletion of fossil fuels and climate change. This was the conclusion offered by keynote speaker and organic farmer Bob Quinn, who shared in the optimism surrounding the 10th anniversary of the Iowa Organic Conference.

“The future increasingly must be organic in this era of limited oil stocks and the inevitable rise in petroleum-based agri-input costs,” Quinn told an audience of more than 220 farmers, industry reps, Extension staff, researchers and students who attended the November 22 event in Ames. Organic agriculture does not use synthetic inputs, yet yields can be similar to those in conventional agriculture.

Quinn, who also has a Ph.D. in plant biochemistry, has organic certification for 4,000 acres of his family farm in Big Sandy, Montana. He encourages on-farm biodiversity that spreads risk and provides ecological services such as soil fertility through longer crop rotations and legume cover crops that fix atmospheric nitrogen. Among his farm’s other innovations, he powers much of his equipment using vegetable oil grown and refined at the farm. The USDA’s Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program also has recognized Quinn for his work.

Similar optimism about the future of organic agriculture was expressed by John Jemison, soil and water quality extension specialist at the University of Maine who spoke at the conference.

“Organic agriculture is where the life of agriculture is right now,” he said, pointing to growth of farmers markets and interest in local food.

Jemison noted that organic systems have been shown to leach four to five times fewer nitrates than conventional systems, and they take advantage of solar energy. “We need to have a real connection to agriculture and see the benefits, such as removing nutrients from our water and growing our food,” he said.

The annual conference is coordinated by Kathleen Delate, ISU professor of agronomy and horticulture, who also directs ISU’s Organic Agriculture Program. The Leopold Center was a conference sponsor and has supported organic research since 1997, when Delate and Jerry DeWitt held focus groups to decide the design of the Long-Term Agroecological Research (LTAR) plots that were set up near Greenfield in 1998.

“This year was not without its challenges, for conventional farmers and organic farmers alike,” Delate said. “Even under very wet conditions for the second year in a row, our organic corn and soybean yields at the LTAR plots were equal to conventional − 147 bushels per acre for corn and 57 bushels for soybean.”

Now in its 13th year, the LTAR experiment is one of the longest running comparisons of organic and conventional crops in the country. USDA soil scientist Cynthia Cambardella said the research also has demonstrated a clear benefit from organic practices in terms of greater carbon sequestration in the organic plots to help offset harmful global CO2 emissions from burning fossil fuels.

Delate has successfully leveraged Leopold Center support for related research. In 2009, the USDA awarded Delate a $599,000 grant to study water quality and impacts of organic and conventional systems. Most recently, she received a $691,969 grant from the USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture in the Organic Transitions Program. The research project is designed to improve organic vegetable farming practices with regard to pest management, crop quality, profitability and soil quality.

Delate said these new opportunities reflect both a change in attitude toward organic agriculture, once considered on the fringe for lack of scientific research, and growing consumer interest in buying organically grown food. The 2008 Farm Bill provides about $20 million for organic research annually, compared to past levels of about $3 million.

The USDA reported 518 organic farmers in Iowa in 2008, and the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship reports 106,000 acres of certified organic land. There continues to be consumer demand for organic products, even during the recession, with growth in organic food sales projected at 5 to 7 percent this year, according to the Organic Trade Association.

Ron Rosmann operates a livestock-grain organic farm near Harlan in west central Iowa. He agreed that more research is critical for most organic farmers to remain competitive.

“Seed genetics seem to loom very large for me,” he said. “We do not have as many choices for organic seed and most if not all of the private companies cannot afford or easily obtain access to the best genetics out there. Conventional seed stock varieties without genetically modified traits are becoming increasingly more difficult to obtain.”

Northwest Iowa organic farmer Paul Mugge spoke at the conference about transitioning to organic. He said more research is needed on how to make organic systems more resistant to the effects of weather swings. Wet weather can be very difficult for organic farmers who rely on tillage for weed management. Rain also is a problem during harvest; Mugge’s farm had 11 inches of rain in July when canola fields were ready.

However, Mugge said many aspects of organic systems bode well for the future.

“Research is showing that organically managed soils are able to sequester more carbon and hold onto it for a longer period of time, which might help us down the road in mitigating climate change,” he said. “We know we can get roughly the same yields on organic as with conventional agriculture, so this would be yet another benefit.”

Common questions about organic agriculture

Why would the Leopold Center invest in organic systems research?
We can learn a lot about how to implement Aldo Leopold’s idea of the ‘biotic community’ from organic agriculture, which takes a system-wide approach. Consumer demand for healthier food and cleaner environments provide a compelling reason to look at alternative systems and their impacts.

Organic systems research also adds to our scientific knowledge regarding ecological theory and can be transferred to non-organic farming systems, thus strengthening all aspects of agriculture. For example, organic farming fosters biodiversity, which offers unique services such as pest management in the ecosystem. How biodiversity affects pest management on farms is not fully understood and can be tested in organic systems.

What is organic agriculture?
According to the USDA National Organic Standards Board (NOSB), organic agriculture is defined as "an ecological production management system that promotes and enhances biodiversity, biological cycles, and soil biological activity. It is based on minimal use of off-farm inputs and on management practices that restore, maintain, or enhance ecological harmony. The primary goal of organic agriculture is to optimize the health and productivity of interdependent communities of soil life, plants, animals and people." (USDA-AMS NOSB, 1997)

How is organic agriculture different from conventional agriculture?
One of the fundamental differences is in the farm operator’s role in organic agriculture. Farmers have played and continue to play a significant role in developing this farming system. Organic agriculture is grounded in diverse crop rotations, which requires both research and management strategies that are integrated and systems-based. Organic practices and measures of success are intentionally multifunctional over time: the goal is not to simplify.

What are “ecosystem services”?
Ecosystem services are how we talk about basic planetary functions for life’s processes (such as nutrient cycling, circulation of water, soil formation, and atmospheric gas exchanges) when we are looking at them from the perspective of their relationship to human communities (Costanza et al., 1997; Daly, 1997).

By this definition, “ecosystem services” include:

  • Provisioning services (supplying necessary goods such as food, fodder, fuel, building materials, etc.)
  • Supporting services (maintaining the integrity of the system – conserving soil structure, encouraging nutrient cycling, fostering beneficial species-to-species interactions such as biological control of pests)
  • Regulating services (ensuring desirable outcomes – generating groundwater, quality of ground and surface water, climate regulation, retention/slow release of rainwater during flooding)
  • Cultural services (aesthetic beauty, recreation, tourism and wild diversity)

Back to Leopold Letter Winter 2010