“Will Feds Bankrupt Small Farms With Food Safety Rules?”

This article from the Huffington Post is about the new FDA rules included in the 2013 Farm Bill. Many are protesting the new rules, which were created to help insure food safety and terminate contamination. The protesters believe that small farmers will be forced to abandon their farms in order to oblige to some of the new rules. The “Food Safety Modernization Act” changed the rules on water testing, for example. Farmers fear that this new water regulation makes it near impossible for them to find usable water, because this act declares many water sources contaminated and unfit for agricultural use. Another part of this act tightens the use of natural fertilizers, such as compost and manure, which are two key ingredients to farmer success in terms of sustainable practices. Many also complain that this act makes aggregating farm products, or combining many scrap resources such as fruit excess to make jam, near impossible. Not only do these regulations fail to facilitate a small farmer’s job, but the government also has yet to create training programs to help the producers adequately meet the requirements.

The author of the article projects that small farmers will have to pay 4 to 6 percent out of their gross income to accomodate these new regualtions. If this proves to be an accurate projecture, then many farmers could percievably suffer.

The article also mentions important programs that were excluded from the 2013 Farm Bill, which includes the following: Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program (BFRDP), Farmers Market Promotion Program (FMPP), Organic Agriculture Research and Extension Initiative (OREI), Outreach and Assistance to Socially Disadvantaged Farmers and Ranchers (OASDFR), and Specialty Crop Research Initiative (SCRI).

As someone who has meticulously analyzing the 2013 Farm Bill, I can say that by excluding the above programs, the 2013 Farm Bill is not necessarily damaging farmers. The goal of the 2013 Farm Bill was to mainly prevent overlap in programs, and to efficiently consolidate instead of having an excess of programs to oversee. While I am not arguing that some of the programs taken out are very beneficial for small- scale farmer success, I do see what the government is trying to accomplish. Many of these programs have not disappeared  but are rather consolidated under other titles. In addition, I am excited about new programs that are included that this article failed to mention, such as ARC.

Instead of focusing on the detrimental changes to the Farm Bill, I chose to focus on the positive additions. While I want to be open to understanding how the changes will have a negative impact, I believe it is more productive for me to focus on how farmers can adapt and use their provided resources to still be successful.

Here is the link to the article: 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jim-slama/food-safety-rules_b_4235080.html

General Steps to Successful Farming

I recently read a comprehensive report on steps to success in small- scale farming. I got the report from nebeginningfarmers.org, which is one of the many websites that offers great resources to farmers specifically in the North East. I have been looking at these websites to learn how to write a resource guide, because there are many exemplary ones for farmers in other areas. The goal of this report is to “leave readers contemplating possible benefits of adopting these recommendations against their likely costs in particularly social and ecological contexts”. The steps for success that this report synthesized apply to all farmers, and I found them to be very concise and accurate. I will note that I combined a few of the points into one.

Key Social Conditions for Success Failure

1.       Access to materials

2.       Accessible farm input suppliers, info providers, service providers

3.       Good markets with room for specialty niche

4.       Must have supportive family, community, and neighbors willing to help

5.       Surrounding land that is compatible with enterprise

6.       Taxation and other costs must be reasonable relative to income

7.       Suitable policies with farming and marketing

8.       Access to adequate health care

Personal Characteristics of a Farmer Necessary for Success

1.       Willingness for physicality

2.       Appropriate managerial knowledge technical skills for producing, harvesting, storing,   delivering, and marketing

3.       Flexibility and innovativeness

4.       Fast learning through trial and error

5.       In tune with business world

6.       Able to avoid too rapid growth

7.       Take outside opinions, especially with marketing/ susceptible to cultural knowledge

8.       Creative in marketing the farm portfolio

9.       Above all, persistence and perseverance

Farm Business Characteristics Necessary for Success

1.       Adequate resources and cash flow

2.       Sounds farm vision and contingency plans

3.       Balance diversification and specialization, rationally setting rates of expansion or contraction

4.       Must match concentration of production scale, production technology, and available resources

Another point from this report that I found very interesting was the definition the writers used for success and failure of farmers. They prefer to use the term “continuation” for success and “exit” for failure. I appreciate these new terms because I think that it is an interesting way to describe the success and failure of farmers. Since farming is such a unique occupation, it makes since to me that there should be unique terms for farmer success and failure.

"Growing Pains" at the SC State Farmer Market

Earlier this month, there was an article in the Post and Courier called “Growing Pains”, which is about the new location of the state farmer market. The market was recently moved to West Columbia from central Columbia in 2010, and it hasn’t been doing well ever since. Although money has been raised to make new additions to the market, many feel that the state should hold off on pumping more money into it until it becomes more stable. In this sense, the choice of what to do to improve the market is very controversial.

In terms of the purpose of this market, South Carolina’s primary interest is to promote the sales of South Carolina produce, then to aid wholesalers, and then to spur retails. Another goal of the state is to adjust the private- public partnership through this market. The market is not only bringing together the public and private sectors, but also many different groups of farmers.

So why isn’t the market making much money? The answer is competition. As the “buy local” movement becomes increasingly popular, there are many farmers markets being created all over the state. These markets are highly competitive with the state farmers market. In addition, there seems to be a great deal of controversy over who should control the state farmer’s market. Many argue that Lexington County and the city of Columbia ought to control the market since it is located in their area.

As one can imagine, it is difficult for farmers to stay at this market without generating much profit. Some farmers that sell at the state market are unhappy because they don’t agree with having to pay $15-$20 for their trucks to come onto the property to drop off the produce, which goes towards the savings for the market as a whole. Many farmers are frustrated and only stay out of hopes for improvement. Many think that new improvements to the market will draw in more customers.

As we can see through this article, the state is trying to get involved in the farmer market business in hopes that it will be a great investment for the future of South Carolina. The public has yet to see if the market will have a turn- around. Many are waiting to see if the state will intervene with the situation and decide to invest the money they have raised to further fortify this market.  

Conference With Chip Petrea....One Shoe Does Not Fit All

This past Friday, I had a phone conference with Chip Petrea. Mr. Petrea is a principal research specialist on Ag safety and health at the University of Illinois. He is highly involved in the Illinois AgrAbility Project, as well as the Ag Safety and Health Network. Mr. Petrea’s passion stems from his first hand experience of injury on the farm. In a previous blog post, I mentioned the article on Mr. Petrea in “Beyond the Bean”, which explains Mr. Petrea’s main focus- educating other farmers on farm safety in a unique way.

Here is a summary of my conference with Mr. Petrea:

1. I asked him about the points he covers in his presentations on farm safety.

His response was that he tries not to focus on the “do’s and don’ts”, but he will give basic advice. For an example, he usually recommends farmers to purchase ROPS, which is a structure that is similar to a car roof, but on a tractor. He also recommends that all farmers wear seatbelts in the tractor if the tractor provides it. He told me that he focuses on behavior, and how that might affect farm safety. For an example, many farmers allow their children to drive the combine down the road, but is that safe? In small farming communities, many people give their children a little more freedom- it is a different culture. Mr. Petrea said that he studies these types of behaviors and identifies the specific behaviors that are largely contributing to farm- related accidents.

2. I inquired about how stress of a farmer differs from the stress of a regular civilian, and how that stress might distort behaviors in a farming community.

Mr. Petrea explained that much of farmers’ stress comes with meeting demands. When it comes to farming as a profession, there are not many ways to be flexible in meeting their demands, which largely differs from the more freely given flexibility in normal civilian life. Additionally, he explained that farming communities are very different in general because it is a much tighter community. This means that an individual in a rural community is unlikely to be accepted as a member of society if he or she does not agree with the common views on religion, politics, parenthood, etc. These pressures greatly impact the way of life in a farming community. As a result, similar behaviors seem more common and stress seems to be augmented in a farming community.

3. Lastly, I asked what happens to farmers that get injured on the farm, and if there are any programs currently in place to cater specifically to farmers upon injury.

Mr. Petrea says that there are 24 registered states for the Disabled Farmers Program. He says that many farmers who get injured, however, do not reach out to this program either because it requires too much paperwork for the result, because the farm agents are unaware and uninformed, or because of some other reason. He explained that this is not the fault of the program itself- it is very hard to reach out to farmers in need. Although many farmers check their emails to receive notifications about programs, many still remain disconnected- maybe because they ignore it or aren’t interested at the time. Mr. Petrea is confident that many farmers need convincing to get aid. Many are too afraid to reach out for help on their own, because they know that it might mean rehabilitation and time away from the farm. In terms of on- site assistance upon occurrence of a farm accident, Mr. Petrea told me that there is no direct training that the government provides in case of farm accidents specifically. Therefore, rescue teams must apply what they do in case of a car accident to farm accidents. Once the injured farmer is transferred to the hospital, he or she is provided the same treatment as those that suffer from automobile injuries. Mr. Petrea highlighted the point that in case of farm accident, there is no help specifically for farmers either on the sight of the accident, or for farmers’ medical treatment following the accident. Many farmers are provided with prosthetic designs that work efficiently in normal civilian’s life, but are not designed for the tasks involved in a farmer’s life.

I have synthesized from this interview and from other resources I have been studying this month that there needs to be aid given to farmers that is modeled to help them specifically. One of the main resources I investigated was Obama care, and how it will affect farmers specifically as a group. The answer is that farmers will be affected the same as every other citizen- there is no provision in Obama care that caters specifically to farmers. In other words, “one shoe fits all” through Obama care. Through my research, I have approached a conclusion. Farmers have a very unique way of life, and their needs should be catered to specifically through both economic and medical aid. I believe that the enhancement of these specific programs would be a great investment in America’s time and money. After all, farmers are the future… especially with the rapid increase in global population and world hunger. 

Precision Agriculture... So Interesting!

Lately, precision agriculture has been somewhat of a "hot topic" in the ag world. As I have mentioned in previous blog posts, this is the idea that farmers should apply nutrients to crops based on what they need, instead of covering whole fields with additives or water that will cause excess run-offs. 
Science Daily has two particularly good articles about this technique. The first article quotes a well known agronomist named Raj Khosla; "Precision agriculture is a grossly misunderstood field...the principles can be applied to 2 acres of 2,000 acres". That is the beauty of this farming technique- it is new, innovative, and can be altered to fit any type of farm. Whether this concept is used by a large- scale cotton farmer or a small- scale tobacco farmer, all of the farmers must be creative with the technique. The second article from Science Daily explains how geostatistics is used in precision agriculture. It also highlights the positive outcomes of precision agriculture, which include the improvement of the farm economy and the crop health, as well as the improvement of food security (which is a very pressing issue as the environment is faced with more and more biological limiting factors due to the poor stewardship towards the environment). The links to the articles are posted below: 
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/10/131008152051.htm
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/04/130423110747.htm
I decided to go a little deeper into how precision ag works. I stumbled upon an online program called "ArcGIS Software" that provides help with geostatistics. The spatial technology solution helps farmers make the best use of their land, whether for the production of agricultural food crops, biomass material, or both through the evaluation of fertilizer treatments. Based on fertilizer type, amount, and distribution, the difference in crop yield is included in the cost/productivity calculation as a final result. In all, the software provides help with all of the following: 
-dynamic modeling

-advanced visualization

-statistical analysis purposes

-sustainability analysis

-surface analysis

-math analysis

-cost path analysis (of traveling from one point to another)

-density mapping

-distance analysis

-weighted analysis

-suitblility analysis

-demographics

-fire risk 

Here are some images to help better understand the technique and how it works. The red spots indicate areas lacking in the particular nutrient. 

McGill University offers an easy- access tutorial on how to operate the ArcGIS Software for Precision Agriculture, free of charge: 

http://adamchukpa.mcgill.ca/arcgis/