- Welcome, everyone, to Wednesday Nite @ the Lab.
I'm Tom Zinnen.
I work here at the UW-Madison Biotechnology Center.
I also work for UW-Extension Cooperative Extension,
and on behalf of those folks and our other co-organizers,
Wisconsin Public Television, the Wisconsin Alumni Association,
and the UW-Madison Science Alliance,
thanks again for coming to Wednesday Nite @ the Lab.
We do this every Wednesday night, 50 times a year.
Tonight, it's my pleasure to introduce to you Erin Silva.
She's an assistant professor in the Department of Plant
Pathology and a state specialist
with UW-Extension Cooperative Extension.
She's going to be talking with us tonight about organic
agriculture in Wisconsin, the science and application.
Erin was born in Framingham, Massachusetts,
and grew up in the Boston area, and then she moved to Wisconsin
and went to high school in Hartland,
got her undergraduate degree at UW Stevens Point,
and then went out to Washington State University in Pullman to
get her master's and PhD in horticulture.
She came back to Madison and was at the Center for Integrated Ag
Systems for a while, and now she is an assistant professor in the
Department of Plant Pathology.
So please join me in welcoming Erin Silva
to Wednesday Nite @ the Lab.
[applause]
- Thank you, Tom. And good evening, everyone.
I'm very happy to be here tonight to talk to you about
organic agriculture, the focus of my program
here at UW-Madison.
To give a bit of an outline of what I'll be talking about
today, first I'll talk about the history of organic agriculture
in the US, move on to what is the US organic regulation,
talk about the status of organic agriculture in Wisconsin,
the US, and globally, talk about is organic a good option for
Wisconsin farmers, and, finally, end with some UW Madison
research projects supporting organic agriculture
here in the state.
So to give a very brief history of organic agriculture
here in the US and the National Organic Program,
pre-1970s there was organic farming,
but most of that organic produce was consumed on-farm or locally.
So those farmers that were not using pesticides,
not using synthetic inputs, were not necessarily selling
into a broader market.
Throughout the 1970s, though, as the US consumer was increasingly
involved with environmental movements,
increasingly concerned about water quality and soil quality,
environment quality more broadly,
there was an expansion of the organic market.
And with the expansion of the market and with the product
being removed from the farm on which it was grown,
there was a need for verification.
The consumer wasn't necessarily connected to the farmer and
wasn't necessarily first-hand observing the practices that
were used on the farm.
So throughout the 1970s and 1980s there were creations of
various third party certification programs.
Some of these certification programs were run by nonprofit
agencies, some for-profit agencies,
and some state agencies.
But each of these different agencies and each of these
different certification programs
may have had different standards.
As a US consumer, during this period,
if you were to go to the grocery store,
go to the farmers market and buy an organic product,
you weren't necessarily assured as to what the farmer was doing
to call that product organic.
So, as we moved into the late 1980s,
it was increasingly recognized that there was quite a diversity
in these standards and there was a need to get more unification
of the standards.
There was more market share for organic.
Again, still more consumer interest,
but since we didn't have a confidence in the consumer of
what they were buying, there was a danger of the organic market
being eroded and people taking advantage of the organic label
without necessarily using organic practices.
So in 1990, this was the first federal move
to a unified standards.
And, at this time, what was created as called the Organic
Food Production Act, and this act mandated the creation
of the NOP, the National Organic Program.
And this really set the groundwork
for a uniform organic standard.
From this first creation of the Organic Foods Production Act in
1990, it took a decade of debate to come up with what was agreed
upon as an organic standard.
And this was quite a contentious time.
There was a first iteration of this regulation that was
released to the public, released to organic farmers,
and within that first regulation there were several controversial
issues that got quite a lot of feedback, negative feed,
including the fact that GMOs were allowed within this first
iteration of the regulation, as well as other controversial
techniques that were then removed from the regulation.
There are thousands and thousands of consumers,
American citizens, gave feedback that they did not want these
certain aspects included within their organic food.
So after a decade of debate, a decade of discussion, in 2001,
that is when the implementation of what we now know as the US
National Organic Standards began.
And as of October 21, 2002, that was when a product was being
sold as organic, that farm or that processor needed to be in
complete compliance of these now standard federal regulation.
So when you see something as certified organic,
whether it be in the grocery store,
whether it be at the farmers market,
this indicates that that item has been grown according to
strict uniform standards that are verified by independent
state or private organizations.
There are several states in the US,
including Iowa and Washington state,
that do have more state-run departments of agriculture run
certification agencies, but that's not always the case.
Here in Wisconsin, we have 17, at least 17 different
independent agencies that are actively certifying organic
farms throughout the state.
But the certified organic label does indicate that there was
oversight and that were was an inspection and certification
process of that product that now has the organic label.
This includes inspections of farm fields and processing
facilities and detailed record-keeping
on part of the farmer.
It also ensures that that product has gone through
a three-year transition period
until it could be sold as organic.
So that farmer, that product, has been produced using organic
standards and not allowed to be sold as organic until it reaches
the end of that 36-month period.
So when you see this USDA organic label,
this green standard organic label,
sometimes it's black and white, most of the time it's green,
it means that that farm has had that oversight,
has had that inspection and certification process.
It is illegal for someone to have this label,
to use the word organic, and not have gone through that
inspection and certification process.
This is also the case with imported product
coming into the US.
Imported product coming from Europe,
coming from South America, if it's sold in the US as organic,
it has been still grown with those same federal regulations
or an equivalent standard.
And there is quite a discussion on the international market as
to what makes up an equivalent standard.
So when you see this label as aconsumer,
you can be assured that that farmer, that processor,
has been adhering the federal organic regulation.
There is a definition of organic,
and I do get questions as a state organic specialist,
what is organic production?
And this is the definition that was included in that National
Organic Program standard.
It is a production system that is managed to respond to site
specific conditions by integrating cultural,
biological, and mechanical practices that foster cycling
of resources, promote ecological balance,
and conserve biodiversity.
So what organic is really speaking to is the adherence to
a certain set of production practices.
And one thing of note and one thing that comes up in popular
press in the media quite often is that organic makes claims,
which it really doesn't, but makes claims that it's
pesticide-free or GMO-free.
And the organic regulation
really doesn't make those claims.
It doesn't make a claim that the product is pesticide-free.
It doesn't make a claim that that product is healthier.
What it's claiming is that the farmer or the processor that are
producing those products, that is putting those goods on the
market, has had to adhere to a very specific set of production
or processing practices.
And it's not really making a claim on the product itself but
the practices that went into producing that product.
So, with the heart of organic is that is an ecological based
management system, and it's not just what you don't use,
but it's what you do.
What the farmer does.
Often when a consumer thinks of organic,
what they think of is
what is known as really our national list.
And a national list is a set of products that can or cannot be
used in organic There's a broad overview regulation that
basically anything synthetic cannot be used organic,
but anything that's non-synthetic or considered
natural can be used in organic.
So, certainly, there are certain pesticides,
certain insecticides that organic farmers can use.
They're biological in origin.
For instance, they may be extracts of a biological
material, something that maybe is produced by a bacteria.
But it excludes synthetic chemicals, synthetic pesticide,
and it also excludes synthetic fertilizers.
But, indeed, organic is a lot more than that because it's not
just what the farmer does or does not use,
but it's what they do.
So some of the things an organic farmer does.
So an organic farmer must, by the federal regulation,
use a diversified cropping system.
You can't be an organic farmer and grow corn on corn on corn
every year, or even grow corn on soybean.
That is not allowed in the organic regulation.
You must be more diversified by that.
You must be having more crops on the field.
So, typically, many of our organic farms here in the Upper
Midwest use a corn, soybean, a winter wheat,
or an alfalfa rotation.
So they often have four or five different crops in the rotation.
Those rotations can be three to five years long.
They're much more diversified than many of the conventional
cropping systems common to the Upper Midwest.
That, again, is part of the federal regulation.
What the organic farmer must do.
Soil stewardship is, again,
at the heart of the organic regulation.
Maintaining and improving our soil resources.
And, really, a certifier looks for the organic farmer
continuing to improv their soil resources.
Crop rotation does a lot to improve soil resources,
but also looking at ensuring that, as an organic farmer,
doing what you can to minimize the potential for erosion.
Using cover crops to make sure the soil is covered as much
during the year as possible, which goes a long way to
minimizing and eliminating erosion.
Building soil, building carbon in the system,
building soil organic matter.
You must use practices that ensure that the system is
leading towards reaching those goals.
The animals must have access to pasture,
and this has certainly been an area
that has been more controversial in the organic system,
in part because the organic regulation allows
for site specific management.
It doesn't have a certain set number of days necessarily that
an organic grower has to be doing something or a really
strict list of practices because an organic farmer in Wisconsin
is going to be producing differently than an
organic farmer in Texas.
You really want to allow that farmer the flexibility to do
what's best for their environment.
But animals must have access to pasture,
and that varies depending on the system.
But, certainly, we've looked at continuing to strengthen that
aspect of the regulation.
One of the aspects of the organic regulation is that it's
not a static regulation.
There is a board, the National Organic Standards Board,
and that's a board of appointed individuals from across the US
that represent farmers and environmental groups
and industry.
And they meet twice a year, and they look at aspects of the
organic regulation and they look at what needs to be changed
depending on science, depending on the state of the industry,
depending on what we now know about best management practices,
and they continually strive to improve the organic regulation.
The organic regulation today is not the same
as what it was in 2002.
So animals' access to pasture, that's certainly something
that's going to continue to be evaluated throughout the
National Organic Standards Board and National Organic Program and
continue to address to make sure that that part of the standard
is strong and that, indeed, the animals do have access to
pasture, whether it be chickens or pigs or cows.
No antibiotic use on livestock.
Certainly there are other remedies
to help with animal health.
Homeopathic remedies, vaccines can still be used,
but antibiotics cannot be used.
If the animal's life is in danger,
the farmer has to use antibiotics if that is
absolutely necessary, but then that animal is removed from the
herd and cannot be sold as organic,
and even milk products cannot be sold as organic.
So the regulation is written to not compromise animal welfare,
but instead, again, lead to consumer confidence of what
they're buying in the product.
And, again, talking about the national list,
it does indeed prohibit synthetic inputs as well as
prohibit the use of GMO crops.
So there is some of what you can't do,
but it's a lot of what the farmer does do.
As I mentioned, the regulation is really written
to allow for flexibility.
It's not a cookbook.
It doesn't say that a farmer must have a corn, soybean,
small grain, alfalfa rotation.
It allows for flexibility depending on region,
depending on farmer resources, depending on what makes sense
for that particular environment, and depending on market.
So that allows for the best management practices for a
specific area of the country or even globally.
And a farmer's management plan is then going to reflect
the unique aspects of their operation,
depending on the needs to the land, the needs of the market,
and the resources available.
This is a map of the distribution of organic farms
across the US.
You see there are several hot spots in the US.
Let's see if I can get my mouse here.
There's a lot of organic farms in the northeast.
Certainly New York, Vermont, New Hampshire.
We have a lot of organic farms here in the Upper Midwest,
certainly in Wisconsin and Minnesota.
And then there is a lot of organic farms
across the west coast.
It is a lot more challenging to grow organically
in the southern regions.
And certainly one of the things that we're lucky to have here
with respect to organic management and natural
management of insects and diseases is our cold winters,
which can break up pest and disease cycles.
And certainly, as we look at warming trends throughout the
US, those are going to challenge organic producers because we're
going to be less confident of those natural ways to inhibit
pest and disease cycles.
But we do, across the northern tier of the US,
have quite a few organic farms.
And, like I mentioned, a lot of organic farms in Wisconsin.
We are really a leader in organic agriculture.
And those organic farms are really present
throughout the state.
Most of our organic farms, a lot of our organic farms are in the
driftless region, in Vernon County, Monroe County,
Crawford County, in the southwestern corner in our
driftless region in Wisconsin.
But certainly have many organic farms in Dane County and even
throughout the western part of the state.
A growing number too in our central sands and the
northeastern part of Wisconsin as well.
Like I mentioned, Wisconsin's organic certainly top
the national ranks.
Here in Wisconsin, we're number two for the total number
of organic farms, only behind California.
California is still quite a bit ahead of us,
but we are holding strong as number two,
and we really have been for the past decade.
Many, many organic farms.
And many farms transitioning to organic.
So not only are we holding stable and growing in the number
of organic farms, but really there are indicators that we are
going to continue to grow and continue to be a leader.
Number one in organic dairy farms.
Wisconsin is the dairy state,
and we certainly are the organic dairy state as well.
Number one in total organic beef farms.
Number two for total organic field crop farms.
So that's corn and soybean, our grain farms.
And number four for total organic vegetable farms.
So, across many commodities Across many different crops
and products we really lead the nation
and continue to lead the nation.
It makes it quite an exciting place to work in organic and
also be a consumer of organic.
This chart, it's a little dated.
We don't have the 2015 data on here yet,
but it's looking at the annual sales of organic products,
which have now reached over $36 billion in sales.
We are continuing to see this double-digit growth.
Organic continues to be of consumer interest.
More and more people are buying organic.
When we see the number of organic sales,
there was a little bit of a plateau here where I think we
had single digit growth around 2008, 2009.
We really were at the height of the Great Recession.
But we've really rebounded, and that is really predicted to
continue through the next decade and into the 2020s.
Looking at the number of people that are buying organic.
So it's not just kind of a core consumer group
that's buying more and more organic.
We're growing in the number of people that are buying organic.
Looking over the past five years,
number of people in millions.
We now have 47 million people in the US that are buying organic.
A lot of people are interested in buying some organic products,
maybe not all of the grocery cart is filled with organic,
but buy some organic products throughout the course of their
grocery shopping trips.
Where are they buying organic? Fruits and vegetables.
We do see many people buying organic fruits and vegetables.
And when we look at the number of acres across the US,
that's where we have the largest growth of organic
is fruit and vegetables.
But, certainly, people buy a lot of organic dairy too.
A lot of organic milk is purchased,
other organic dairy products.
Then beverages, packaged and prepared foods,
spreads and grains, snack foods, meat, poultry and fish,
and then finally condiments.
But, really, the core part of organic purchasing is in fruits
and vegetables as well as dairy.
And then, again, looking at the world's largest markets for
organic products, some of this is due to the size of the
country and the number or the population.
The US, on a national scale, buys a lot of organic products.
Germany and France, China, Canada, but the US truly,
as a consumer group, wants organic products on the market.
So, questions regarding organic production.
Again, as the organic state specialist,
I'm often asked about the different aspects
of organic farming.
And two of the questions I'm certainly asked very frequently
in organic production farming: Can organic feed the world,
is certainly a question that I get quite often,
and is organic profitable?
And the other question that I do think is important is maybe less
frequently asked, but does organic provide a higher quality
of life for farmers?
In the US, we tend to be losing farmers.
We have an aging population of farmers.
And does organic provide an option for younger farmers or
people interested in entering agriculture?
So I'll put this in the context of some of the research that
we've done and are currently doing at the University of
Wisconsin Madison throughout my organic agriculture research
program as well as others throughout the college.
I mean, I'm certainly not the only person addressing
organic agriculture.
Many of my colleagues in the College of Agriculture do,
which allows us to really look at organic agriculture and
research questions using a systems based approach,
integrating plant pathology and entomology and soil science and
agriculture economics, which makes it a wonderful place to
work in organic agriculture.
Not only am I lucky enough to work with, I think,
the greatest group of organic farmers in the country,
if not the world, but some of the greatest organic colleagues
as well.
So the first set of data that I'm going to talk to you about
is from our Wisconsin Integrated Cropping Systems Trial.
And this is located just about 20 miles north here of Madison,
Wisconsin, in Arlington, Wisconsin.
It's our flagship research station here in the state.
We have about 2,000 acres of field research as well as other
animal research done there.
And we also have probably around 80 acres or so
of organic fields.
So just like an organic farmer, on these organic research fields
we have to keep the same records,
we have to do the same practices,
and we have inspectors, and we go through that
same certification process.
So that is really something that was demanded by organic farmers
to ensure that the research that we are conducting and the data
that we generate is reflective of what's happening
in organic management system.
So on these Arlington research station fields we have several
organic sites, including some trials embedded within the
Organic Cropping Systems Trial.
It's a little hard to see here,
but you can see these various strips.
And these various strips represent different replications
of six different cropping systems that are common
to the Upper Midwest.
So we have one that's continuous corn.
So for 25 years of just growing corn on corn on corn on corn.
We also have a treatment that is a strip till,
conservation tillage corn-soybean rotation.
We have an organic rotation that integrates corn and soybean and
winter wheat as well as several different cover crops,
including clover.
We have a corn-alfalfa rotation that's managed organically with
three years of alfalfa because it has that long perennial phase
and has oat as a nurse crop.
It has three crops and is long enough to be considered
an organic rotation.
Also a conventional dairy similar type of cropping system
with corn and alfalfa.
And then finally a pasture-based system.
So after taking 25 years of yield data and input data off of
those different research fields using those representative
cropping systems, we're able to make some broader long-term
recommendations and observations for organic agriculture here in
the state.
So the first thing I want to point out,
and this research was really pioneered by the late Dr. Josh
Posner, who was a professor in the Department of Agronomy
here at UW-Madison.
A real pioneer in sustainable agriculture and organic
research, and he had, really, the forethought of putting in
these cropping systems trials in the late 1980s.
And they are really a treasure that we have here
at the University of Wisconsin.
And so after collecting data for about a 20-year period,
what we're able to demonstrate off of these cropping systems is
that organic systems can really yield quite well with grain
systems here in the Upper Midwest.
They can exceed and reach about 90%-95% of conventional systems.
So they're quite competitive yield-wise
with conventional cropping systems.
There's conventional corn you see on the landscape.
And similar to those conventional yield trends,
the organic grain crop yield trends are quite positive.
Yields are increasing with time.
So even on a long-term organic management system,
those yields are still increasing.
Those yields aren't going to crash necessarily
after 10 years.
Those continue to improve as we continue to get better as farm
managers, as we get better varieties on the market,
and we learn more about how to optimize
organic production systems.
So just some yield data here.
Some conventional yields averaged across time and across
systems for conventional versus organic.
174 bushel an acre in conventional
versus 166 in organic.
Soybean 52.5 versus 47.4.
Wheat 67.6 versus 55.8.
And organic alfalfa actually yielding a little bit more.
So there's still a little bit of a yield drag in organic,
but the yields are quite competitive with conventional.
Gross margin of the systems.
So it hearkens to the question, are organic systems profitable?
And with the price that organic farmers are able to get,
certainly it tends to be more
than conventional cropping systems.
Similar to conventional cropping systems,
organic prices can bounce on the grain market.
Milk prices have been a bit more stable,
quite a bit more stable over time.
Grain prices can still bounce up and down.
But overall, organic grain-- And I wouldn't-- These numbers
on the Y axis here can vary, but the relative magnitude, I think,
is pretty consistent overall as more profitable for farmers.
So this is the corn-soybean-wheat rotation.
Similar results when we look at those forage rotations.
Again, data from the Wisconsin Integrated Cropping Systems that
was really spearheaded by and data collected
by Dr. Josh Posner's program.
So this is some data from a thesis switching gears a little
bit, looking at more quality of life type data.
This was some data that was collected off of a survey by
several different professors and programs and Extension people
that were involved in our dairy science program here.
So looking at some survey data from organic and conventional
dairy farms throughout the state.
So this graduate student, Marion Dutreuil,
she looked at 26 conventional farms, 47 organic farms.
Quite an extensive survey.
It took a lot of time on her part,
on the researcher's part and on the farmer's part.
But, again, backs up the fact that organic
can be quite competitive.
Overall, the organic farms in the state tend to be smaller.
So it offers an opportunity for our smaller family farms
to be competitive.
They tend to be smaller in terms of land base.
But they tend to be more pasture-based overall.
The animals rely more on pasture.
Pay less on fertilization as they are relying
more on cover cropping.
Nitrogen fixing legumes that are able to incorporate atmospheric
nitrogen into a plant available form.
And even with organic production the number of hours worked is
quite similar to conventional.
But again, looking at some of the quality of life indicators,
again coming from that same graduate student work,
Marion Dutreuil, her PhD dissertation.
Looking at here-- The scale here is one is dissatisfied and
seven is very satisfied.
So overall, stress levels, there are more satisfaction in terms
of stress levels in organic, more satisfaction in terms of
physical demands of work, lifestyle,
the family opportunities for children, prices received,
time off from work, and net income.
So looking at these quality of life factors,
farmers that are switching to organic can be a bit happier,
maybe, than their conventional counterparts.
It allows for a nice lifestyle.
I'll switch gears again, as I go through some of the different
research that we've been doing here,
and talk a little bit about some of the research that my program
directly is doing.
And part of that is really looking at how organic farmers
can continue to improve their soil stewardship.
Like I mentioned, organic farming at the heart of those
organic regulations and what a farmer does do,
being a good soil steward, building their soil,
protecting their soil, is really a key aspect
of the organic regulation.
And certainly within my program, we're looking at continuing to
develop best management practices and ways that farmers
can be good soil stewards.
So a big part of what I've been doing here at UW over the past
10 years is to look at addressing kind of a key issue
in organic that has continued to be a challenge for organic
farmers, and that's tillage and cultivation.
And often we hear criticisms of organic agriculture.
It's the reliance of organic farmers
on tillage and cultivation.
Organic farmers cannot use herbicides.
It's considered a synthetic input.
And whereas there are biological inputs,
there are non-synthetic inputs that allow for disease and
insect management, particularly with vegetable crops.
So, again, these organic vegetable farmers do spray.
So, again, it's something I often hear in the popular press
that organic farmers spray pesticides, and yes they do.
It's a different type of pesticide.
It has a different level of residual.
It doesn't last as long in the environment.
So it certainly is a different type of input.
But when we look at weed management,
there really aren't any effective organic herbicides.
So in order to manage weeds, in order to keep weeds down
in organic fields, an organic farmer
has several different tools.
Again, certainly crop rotation and breaking up the way that--
Or diversifying the way that a crop grows on the field when
you're planting the crop, when a crop develops the highest amount
of biomass it, can certainly help break up week cycles and
prevent on particular weed from building up in the field.
So a crop rotation is certainly used.
Cover cropping is certainly used.
The cover crops that are intentionally planted to cover
the soil surface compete with weeds, they shade out weeds,
and they help keep weeds down while still enhancing soil
biology and building soil organic matter.
But along with these strategies, the organic farmer also uses
tillage and cultivation.
So they do some sort of soil inversion,
either primary or secondary tillage,
before they actually plant the crop.
And then they use cultivation.
So they use various machines, or implements I should say.
Whether it be a tine weeder, which is essentially fingers,
tines, that drag over the field and disrupt newly growing weeds.
Or more aggressive ways such as the rotary hoe or field
cultivator that, again, kind of scrapes and scoops weeds and
inverts them and disrupts their root systems.
And that's a big way that organic farmers manage weeds.
The issue there is several-fold First of all, as soil stewards,
any time that we invert the soil it's something that
we don't want to see.
It leaves that soil open for wind or water erosion.
It burns soil organic matter.
It's detrimental to building soil organic matter.
And those passes over the field using a tractor,
and it's not necessarily uncommon for a farmer to not
only have to do primary and secondary tillage but to have to
go over the field three, four, or five times with these various
cultivation equipment that uses fossil fuel.
And the organic regulation, the organic farmer,
more broadly is concerned with different other sustainability
metrics, such as fossil fuel consumption.
So it is of great concern of the organic industry and organic
farmers to look at tools to limit their cultivation needs
to manage weeds.
And this is some data from a Minnesota organic survey in
2010, and, indeed, weed management and this reliance on
tillage and cultivation is listed as a top challenge
for organic farmers.
And that's even increased beyond what it was in 2007
just a couple of years before.
I do also want to mention, as we look at changes in weather
patterns, we saw those yields
can be quite competitive to conventional.
The tillage and cultivation can be quite weather dependent.
So as we get into weather patterns in the spring like
we've seen over several of the past springs where we have very
wet continuous rains, heavy rain events,
not only does that possibly increase the potential for
erosion but it's harder to get out in the field and for organic
farmers to effectively manage these weeds through cultivation.
These weeds have to be managed very, very early,
to be managed effectively using these techniques.
And if a farmer can't get out in the field for five, seven,
10 days, that's when the weeds take over,
they compete with the crop,
and yields can be quite reduced in organic.
But, like I mentioned, organic weed management unfortunately is
still heavily reliant on tillage and cultivation.
So what my program has been doing in partnership with other
programs across the country is to look at implementing and
developing this technique called
cover crop-based reduced tillage.
So, essentially, what we're doing here is using a killed
cover crop to suppress weeds in organic systems.
And, really, the theory behind the technique is something that
people have been implementing in organic gardening
for many, many years.
It's really the same technique as when you're putting straw
mulch on your vegetable gardens.
Laying a thick layer of straw mulch
or newspaper or wood shavings.
We're blocking sunlight from reaching the soil surface,
and by doing that, we're preventing weed seeds
from germinating.
And we're essentially, just like on a garden,
creating this field of mulch.
So going-- Instead of doing a garden base, doing tens,
hundreds of acres this way.
It also allows the benefit of a cover crop.
So, certainly here too, it's an effort and a way to increase
soil organic matter, increase cover on the soil from fall
through the cash crop growing season the next year.
So there's multiple, multiple benefits of implementing this
technique and refining this technique to reduce risk and
allow farmers to adopt it across the state.
So here, this is essentially creating that mulch.
This is a cereal rye field.
So this cereal rye is planted in September.
So we can come in after harvesting corn for silage
or coming in after a cereal grain crop.
We plant this very, very thickly.
So about three bushel an acre, which, if you're a farmer,
that's quite heavy for a cover crop.
Seed this in September.
This grows a few inches before it goes into the winter,
and it still remains green.
So if you drive across the state and sometimes, you know,
late into the fall or early in the spring when the snow melts,
you see green on the field.
That very well could either be a winter wheat crop or it could be
a cover crop, including cereal rye.
Once the weather starts to warm up,
so pretty much around this time of year, early May,
that cereal rye cover crop becomes active and starts to
grow very, very quickly.
So during the three weeks of May it maybe grows from, you known,
that four inches or so coming out of the winter to about
five-and-a-half, six feet tall.
So this is probably about five-and-a-half, six feet tall.
Putting on about 10,000 pounds of dry matter biomass per acre.
And then we come down when this starts to flower.
So when it flowers, you see pollen coming off of the crop,
we essentially roll that down.
We roll that down using this implement
called a roller crimper.
So it's this big cylinder that's mounted on the front of a
tractor, and it rolls it down.
And right behind the tractor here is our planter.
So what it does, essentially, is plant that.
His is on 30-inch rows.
And you can see that planter drilled that seed right into the
ground through that mulch.
And just like your garden, you can see that straw mulch on
either side suppressing the weeds
and those soybeans coming right up through it.
This is that same field in July.
So there was no other weed management onto this field.
No herbicides. No cultivation.
The farmer, after rolling and crimping and planting,
didn't have to go over this field again.
So no reliance on weather conditions,
no reliance on soil conditions.
You can see what a nice job that's doing suppressing the
weeds, and those soybeans growing right up through it.
So that has really been one of the hallmarks of my research
program and working with more and more farmers throughout the
state to see how we can adopt this on farms to increase,
again, improve the organic production system to benefit
that soil stewardship and still allow for any sort of
minimization of outside inputs.
Another aspect that not only my program is involved in but
really University of Wisconsin Madison has emerged as a leader
is organic crop breeding.
So this is some of the organic land not at our Arlington
research station but at our west Madison research station.
So some of you might have driven by this.
It's just on the west side of town, just west of the Beltline,
past a Target out there.
You can see here, all the urban encroachment around it.
So it's this little pocket of agriculture research surrounded
by urban Madison.
But these are some kale trials we have going on here.
It's on the top of a hill, and if you go by,
you'll probably be able to spot that high tunnel there.
But organic crop breeding is certainly something that my
program has, again, put significant effort to over the
past 10 years as well as others here at the college.
And we do now have an organic breeding chair that we really
have benefited from the organic industry,
specifically Clif Bar and Organic Valley for investing
funds to really enhance, continue to enhance our breeding
program here in the college.
So, the question: is there a need to breed
within organic systems?
Why don't we use a seed that's been produced
for conventional cropping systems?
Well, as I outlined throughout the organic regulation,
really what a farmer must do to become a certified organic
farmer, just by nature of those standards,
the organic production system is an environment different from a
conventional cropping system.
It's a more highly diversified rotation.
We're looking at doing different activities to the soil that
would potentially impact soil biological activity.
We're using different fertility inputs,
and those different fertility inputs are going to have
different nutrient availability throughout the growing season
versus synthetic fertilizers.
So, indeed, the organic production system is a unique
environment, just like Wisconsin is a unique environment from
California or from Georgia.
We wouldn't necessarily use the cultivars, the same varieties,
that a California farmer was going to use.
Similarly, an organic farmer wouldn't necessarily use the
same varieties as a conventional farmer because they weren't
really bred for and optimized for that production environment.
And breeders know that varietal adaptation to environment is
critical to obtain best varietal performance.
And farmers know that as well.
They know the importance of selecting the right variety for
their farm and for their production system.
And many of the contemporary varieties that are currently
available to not only our vegetable farmers but also our
grain farmers have been bred in and bred for
conventional production systems.
And those are less than optimally adapted to organic
cropping systems.
And it's very important as a breeder to select within the
environment that you are ideally wanting to see
that germ plasm grown in.
So looking at developing varieties for organic,
it's really important to be breeding
within organic cropping systems.
So, what are some of the differences in traits that may
emerge from these different cultivars grown in organic
versus conventional environments?
Well, there's certainly different growth habits that
might be optimized for organic management.
I mentioned weeds are a major challenge for organic farmers,
quite honestly.
And there are different growth habits.
Like I mentioned those tools for weed management that aren't just
tillage and cultivation but also crop rotation
and cover cropping.
Another tool is very competitive early growth.
So, crops that are able to establish canopy quickly,
shade out weeds, give a broad canopy.
Those are optimized for organic production systems.
They help with the weed management.
Adaption to fertility inputs.
Whereas some of the synthetic inputs,
most of the synthetic inputs, are very readily available to
the crop, organic inputs, because they tend to be more
complex in nature, organic in nature,
they tend to rely on microbial activity and other processes to
allow those nutrients to be available to a crop plant.
So, for instance, when you're applying compost to your garden
and you calculate the amount of N that is potentially available
in that compost, usually you figure only 50% of that N is
available during the cropping system to be available to the
plant because it takes that much time for the nitrogen, that N,
to become available to the crop during the growing season.
So there's a different dynamic with respect to nutrient
availability and how the crop might access those nutrients
throughout the production season.
Root architecture and functioning symbioses with
beneficial microbes, and this is really just an enormously
exciting area in agriculture, in science,
not only the soil microbiome, but microbiomes in general.
Similar to how we're learning about the human gut microbiome
impacting aspects of health and well being that we're just
starting to understand.
Similarly in the soil, there's aspects of the soil microbiome,
the soil microbial communities, that we're just starting to
understand how they impact and communicate with plants and
stimulate plant defense mechanisms
and plant growth and development.
So a hugely exciting area that is impacted by the production
practices that we're putting on those crop fields.
And stand establishment.
Organic growers cannot use fungicide seed treatments that
conventional farmers do.
And those fungicide seed treatments allow those seeds to
be able to sit in cold, wet soil conditions,
similar to what we're seeing this spring,
for quite a longer period of time.
Organic seed and organic varieties must be able to
naturally withstand those organisms in the soil that might
lead to decay of the seed and be able to emerge and germinate
quickly as they don't have the protection
of these fungicide seed treatments.
A graduate student of mine, Alex Lyon,
she surveyed the vegetable growers here in the state and
looked at crops that those vegetable farmers here in
Wisconsin prioritized for organic plant breeding.
Winter squash, tomatoes, potatoes, melons, peppers, peas,
cucumbers, summer squash, onions,
quite an array of crops that our growers here in the state wanted
to see additional breeding investments.
And then, looking at what they're looking for when looking
for crops that might be optimized for organic,
increased disease tolerance, insect tolerance, yield,
germination, like I mentioned, being able to withstand those
cold soil temperatures without fungicide or insecticide seed
treatments, competition with weeds and season extension.
So a lot of horticultural aspects.
And then, finally, some of the aspects that consumers
are interested in as well.
Flavor and appearance, nutrient use.
This is more in terms of crop nutrient use
from a fertility standpoint.
And then ease of harvest.
So there's a couple different projects nationally
that we're engaged in.
NOVIC, the Northern Organic Vegetable Improvement
Cooperative, collaboration with breeders from not only
University of Wisconsin Madison but USDA and Cornell and Oregon
State, a nonprofit, the Organic Seed Alliance.
And then there's been some new variety releases.
So one of the releases that has gotten quite a lot of attention
from Dr. Bill Tracy's program is this sweetcorn variety
"Who Gets Kissed?"
And this was bred in partnership with a farmer
and Martin Diffley here, in the cornfield.
And it's a really great tasting sweetcorn that's open pollinated
so you can save the seed, a farmer could save the seed,
and also has good cold soil tolerance so it can come up
early in the spring, get early on the market when people are
just yearning for that local sweetcorn and being able to
allow for that lack of fungicide seed treatment.
So this is the direct outcome of that project.
There's another project that I'm involved in,
Carrot Improvement for Organic Agriculture.
Again, a national collaboration with Purdue, Wisconsin,
Organic Seed Alliance again, Washington state, USDA.
This is led by Dr. Phil Simon, a carrot breeder with USDA,
and UC-Riverside.
So we talked about weed management
and competitiveness against weeds.
One of the things that this is looking for in carrots,
if anyone has grown carrots, you know how poky those are coming
out of the field, coming out of the ground.
This is looking at this variation in top height and how
this might help with early competition with weeds and being
able to shade those weeds.
Organic carrots, they're really difficult to grow.
Quite a challenge. Quite a challenge.
So this is looking at tools through germ plasm,
variety selection, variety development
to help organic farmers.
Organic carrots are actually quite popular.
I think they're, after leafy greens, the second--
About 14% of the carrots sold in the marketplace are organics.
So, quite a popular crop in terms of vegetables.
And so this is not organic research from UW,
but I do just want to address it because this is another question
that I get quite a lot.
And, again, when we look at the National Organic Standards,
the National Organic Standards and the USDA National Organic
Seal is not making claims that organic is healthier.
It's really, again, it's assuring as a consumer that you
are buying a product that has been held to very specific
production standards and has had oversight in terms of that
farmer actually implementing the production standards.
But certainly there is this question of,
is organic produce healthier?
And I just want to highlight a couple studies.
This certainly varies.
There's a lot of differences that can lead to differences
with respect to nutrient content in vegetables.
The soil type, the growing conditions, the cultivar.
And a lot of these differences that are inherent in the
environment or production schemes or genetics of the crop
that's being grown, it's hard to make these judgments with
respect to is organic healthier when we look at these large data
sets because there's is so much variation beyond certified
organic versus grown conventionally.
But these are just a couple studies
that I did want to point out.
When we look at why consumers purchase organic,
and this certainly is a driver.
All these are related to health.
The broader judgment, are they healthier?
76% of consumers are buying it because they're healthier.
53% because they can avoid pesticides and other toxins.
51% because they are more nutritious.
There's certainly also consumers that are looking at those
environmental benefits that are really written into
the national organic programs.
Is organic better for the environment?
Other issues with respect to GMO-free.
Quite a range, but certainly health is one
of the primary drivers.
So this is a study that came out of the University of Washington
in Seattle.
And this professor now,
I believe he's at Harvard University.
This was published, gosh, almost 10 years ago,
but what this did was it looked at a cohort of school children.
So this top line here on the X axis,
this is the number of kids that were studied.
And this bottom number here is day.
So they looked at-- They took urine metabolites,
and they were specifically looking at metabolites of a
pesticide, an organophosphate pesticide.
So it's one class of pesticides.
They looked at and monitored the urine metabolites for four days,
and they had these kids eating basically a conventional diet.
And you see here, on days five, after day four,
day five through nine, the kids fed an organic diet,
just organic produce you purchase out of the grocery
store, how that dropped.
So, again, organic is not saying that's pesticide-free,
but this is certainly some intriguing data to show with
this cohort of 23 kids,
the impact of changing to an organic diet.
And then, as those kids were then transitioned at day 10 to a
conventional diet-- And this a university study--
This is all very controlled, and I'm sure they obviously went
through the specific approvals,
but you can see how that bounced back up there.
So some really intriguing data there.
Just another set of data in terms of conjugated linoleic
acid, and this is something that have heard about in milk,
and I think I saw a study about this just last week in terms of
health benefits of whole full fat milk.
But conjugated linoleic acids are a specific family of at
least 28 isomers of a linoleic acid that are found mostly in
meat and dairy products derived from ruminants.
And these acids, and this is from a review article by
Benjamin Spener, they have been purported to have a variety of
health benefits, including immune system support,
anti-carcinogenesis, anti-atherosclerosis,
anti-obesity, anti-diabetes, and immunomodulation.
And the levels of these acids are associated with animals fed
on a forage-based diet.
So, certainly, we have grass based agriculture that is not
necessarily certified organic, but as I mentioned earlier in
the lecture tonight, pasture and access to pasture is inherent
within the organic regulation.
So when you're buying organic, you can be assured that those
animals at some stage of the year,
depending on where they are, obviously in Wisconsin we can't
have pasture all year because sometimes there's snow on the
ground, but have been fed a pasture-based diet at some point
during the year.
And during the grazing system, in terms of dairy cows,
at least 30% of their dry matter intake must come from pasture
during that pasture season.
So this is from an article by Benbrook et al., in 2013,
and this is just one graph from that.
That article, which was a meta-analysis looking at data
from several different research studies,
but the open squares here are organic milk
and the more solid squares are conventional milk.
And you can see, and again this is indicative of milk that's
available during the pasture season, the grazing season,
that the levels of CLA in that milk which have been purported
to have health benefits are quite a bit higher.
Again, this is associated with the forage-based diet,
but as a consumer you can be assured with organic products
that you are getting product where the animals have had
access to pasture and have had a minimum of their dry matter
intake associated with a pasture-based diet.
So, with that, just to make a few conclusions,
organic farming is certainly and important part of Wisconsin
agricultural landscape.
The organic market and demand for organic produce continues to
grow in not only Wisconsin but across the US and globally.
Organic agriculture allows for a profitable market
diversification opportunity for farmers and is particularly
suited for smaller farmers.
And that continued research and extension efforts can help
support this sector of Wisconsin agriculture.
And, with that, I'd be happy to take any questions.
[applause]