In the News

On June 12^th, a “Sustainable Agriculture Summit” was held at Fort Valley State University, Georgia. About 150 farmers, extension agents, researchers, and home gardeners attended. The theme was ideas and opportunities for advancing sustainable agriculture in Georgia. The participants broke up into focus groups to develop ideas, and then presented their findings to the re-assembled main group.

Jason Mann and Carl F. Jordan of the Odum School of Ecology took the opportunity to present the findings that emerged from the Feb. 29^th workshop of Georgia Organics on Priorities in Organic Agriculture*, a specific type of Sustainable Agriculture. That workshop identified “Place-Based Research” as the most pressing need in organic agriculture”. Specific items included:

1. Weed control and Pest Management
2. Soil testing
3. Fertility Management
4. Fire ant control
5. Market trends and access
6. Crop Rotations
7. Cultivars

The re-assembled participants at the Fort Valley Summit overwhelmingly voted “Place-Based Research” as defined by the 7 specific items above, as one of the most important priorities for Sustainable Agriculture in Georgia. It is striking that although there has been substantial research on these issues for agriculture, most of it is pertinent only to strategies that employ inorganic fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides in large scale monocultures. This type of agriculture is highly reliant upon intensive use of energy such as the Haber process to manufacture nitrogen fertilizers. Because of the rapidly increasing costs of energy, the sustainability of these strategies is questionable. For this reason, these same issues must be addressed but re-focused on reducing energy-expensive methods and approaches. While organic agriculture in a form that emphasizes energy-reducing strategies has been around for decades, research is only in its infancy.

*Supported by SARE

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The Top Five Priorities for Organic Farmers in Georgia

Organic farming is more challenging in the Southeast than in other regions of the United States due to the unique ecology, history, and climate of the area. To serve the localized needs of Southeastern organic farmers, the Agroecology Laboratory of the Odum School of Ecology received a grant from SARE (Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education) to hold a workshop entitled “Managing the Southeastern Organic Farm: Establishing Priorities for a UGA/Georgia Organics Research and Development Program”. The forum was held as part of the Georgia Organics annual conference at Dalton, Georgia, on Feb. 29^th, 2008.

There were 40 participants divided into four focus groups: researchers, extension agents, and two groups of experienced organic farmers. The objective was to conduct a strategic assessment of the needs of organic farmers, and produce a prioritized list of recommendations that will be the basis of a program for a regional Program for Organic Agriculture with integrated capabilities of research, education, and outreach. Each group first came up with their own list of priorities, and in a second round, results from each group were pooled into a list of top five priorities.

The top five were:

1. Place-based research (research specific to the problems of Georgia organic growers).
2. Establishing regulations that would permit small scale farmers to legally process fruit, vegetables, and animal products.
3. Developing of new organic markets, organic products, and packaging for organic products.
4. Increasing net profit, determining the most profitable crops, and demonstrating profitability of organic versus conventional agriculture.
5. Improving methods for soil building and increasing soil fertility.

(Fig. 1 shows Paul Hirsch, facilitator for the group negotiating with the groups to develop a list acceptable to all).