Sustainable Agriculture & Food Policy

A 2011 change in Oregon law freed poultry processors from state licensing if they handle no more than 1,000 birds per year, raise the birds themselves and process them on site. The legislation changed Oregon law to line up with the federal standard, which says producers are exempt from mandatory USDA inspection and can sell uncooked poultry on the farm and at farmers’ markets if they stay below the 1,000-bird threshhold. ...

The European Union led the world in wheat production and exports in 2014-15. Yet Europe is also the region where productivity has slowed the most. Yields of major crops have not increased as much as would be expected over the past 20 years, based on past productivity increases and innovations in agriculture. Finding the causes of that stagnation is key to understanding the trajectory of the global food supply.

There's a growing understanding of the factors that contribute to ocean acidification in coastal areas and how shellfish respond. A new study looks at the risks to shellfish and identifies areas where livelihoods are most at risk. ...

Africa needs more food. And to get more food, you need more farmland. There's a relatively simple solution — it's called "land conversion," and it can mean creating new fields to grow crops next to fragments of forest. Only there's a catch. The rats of the forest are drawn to the crops of the farmland — and to the grains that farmers often store outside their homes. And those rats can carry the bacteria that causes plague — the very same plague responsible for claiming millions of lives during the Middle Ages.

California’s Rice Certification Act (RCA) requires specific planting and handling protocols for rice, including genetically engineered (GE) rice that could pose commercial risks to rice growers. Based on interviews with growers, marketers, activists, and other stakeholders, as well as secondary sources, this paper describes this policy’s emergence and evolution using a global commodity chain approach. Several studies suggest that GE herbicide tolerant rice would yield profits for California growers struggling with rising weed control costs.

With both Wal-Mart and Whole Foods moving aggressively to measure sustainability of their suppliers, Jeff Dlott believes meeting expectations of buyers can be both a requirement for doing business and a market opportunity for produce marketers. “Don’t kill the messenger, but sustainability is becoming a requirement in major markets,” said Dlott, president and CEO of SureHarvest, Soquel, Calif., at a workshop at the 2015 Potato Expo on Jan. 8. He urged suppliers to be clear on their target markets and align their strategy accordingly.

According to Lisa Bunin, Organic Policy Director at the Center for Food Safety (CFS), “Both stages in the strawberry production process use enormous amounts of methyl bromide, and both represent critical junctures in the supply chain that need to figure out alternative production strategies.” According to a recent in-depth report by the Center for Investigative Reporting, CFS is leading a project to grow an experimental nursery crop of organic strawberry starts in Central California, and late last year, six organic farms planted those starts in soil for the first time.

U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) organic standards are based around the principles of sustainability and health. In addition, organic farming has many environmental advantages when compared to conventional farming. Organic farming supports biodiversity and soil health, decreases nutrient runoff and has the ability to mitigate climate change. These science-based facts are missed in Henry Miller’s opinion piece “Why Organic Isn’t Sustainable” published in Forbes magazine. Several of Miller’s points lack sources, and when citations are provided, they often link to papers that do not support his claims. In fact, some of the studies he cites contradict his arguments. This is not the first time The Organic Center has responded to Miller’s opinion pieces. This piece, like his previous articles, should have been fact checked before published.

SureHarvest, a leading agrifood sustainability solutions company, announced that it is rolling out sustainability performance management software with three new clients – produce supply chain management company PRO*ACT, the California Cut Flower Commission and the Oregon Hazelnut Marketing Board. These organizations are deploying SMIS, SureHarvest’s secure online sustainability performance management platform.