02/26/2007

Organic association takes root

PHIL ROONEY , Staff Writer

A nonprofit organization is in place to help expand the growing organic foods industry that potentially is worth millions of dollars to Iowa farmers.

Jerry Rosman, a part-time farmer from the Harlan area, is executive director of the Iowa Organic Association. He believes the organization, founded late last year, is long overdue; and there's a need to get out a unified story about what's happening in the industry.

"Organic farming in Iowa has quite an impact," he said. "It's a growth industry out here."

The USDA's Economic Research Service lists about 64,000 acres of cropland and nearly 11,000 acres of pasture as certified organic operations. Iowa ranks fourth nationally in the number of certified organic operations with 453, trailing California's 1,738, Wisconsin's 580 and Washington's 527; and the 64,000-plus acres is 10th most in the nation.

Nationally, there were fewer than 1 million acres of certified organic farmland when Congress passed the Organic Food Productions Act of 1990. Certified organic farmland had doubled by the time the USDA implemented national organic standards in 2002, and it doubled again between 2002 and 2005.

That's not the whole picture, according to Rosman, who said the association is intended to be an umbrella organization that works with retailers, processors and consumers.

"There are a lot of operations out here that are doing everything organically but they haven't gone through the certification process," he said.

Reasons for the lack of certification range from not doing the needed paperwork to a desire not to be pigeonholed. The operations range from small garden plots to farmer's markets.

"We need to get some good solid numbers to show what's going on," he said. "A lot of the growth is coming in the meat and milk and poultry side of the industry."

Rosman points out that ethanol already has changed the market for producers by increasing corn and bean prices, and organic farming is expected further raise those prices. Organic milk prices are double the $12 to 13 per hundredweight market, and that is double in the organic market, he said.

Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey said his department is responsible for inspecting organic operations, and industry expansion has created the need for another inspector.

"We're seeing some growth to that," he said.

Another benefit to the state is the higher returns that can come from smaller acreages with organic farming are helping some people begin a career in agriculture who otherwise might not be able to do so, he said.

Barbara Haumann, a spokeswoman for the Massachusetts-based Organic Trade Association, said in 2005, the most recent year for which figures are available, organic food sales totaled just more than $13.8 billion or about 2.5 percent of total retail food sales in the United States. Nonfood organic products totaled $744 million that same year.

"It's been growing anywhere from 14 to 20 percent every year for quite a while," Haumann said.

The Iowa Organic Association has four core areas of emphasis: Education, research, promotion, and market development and policy.

Those in the industry point out an important distinction between organic and natural foods, and with the industry's growth, some fear that distinction is not fully understood.

With organic products, everything is traced from the farm to the consumer with certification of practices all the way through.

"There's a paper trail all the way from the farm," Haumann said.

Natural now means minimally processed with no additives, and the USDA definition involves only the processing of the animal, not the manner in which it was raised, she said.

Rosman said the seeds of the Iowa Organic Association were planted two years ago after the Iowa Legislature passed a bill that would prohibit local government from regulating agricultural seed. The concern was that genetically engineered seeds would contaminate organic products.

Opposition rose over pushing the law through, but the bill passed, Rosman said.

The offshoot of that was that several of the legislators who supported local control advised organic producers to create a unified voice. A steering committee was formed, and the Iowa Organic Association came into being.

Rosman said organic agriculture is good for family farms.

"It's a value-added," he said. "The premiums are right up there on it."

Organic farm production in southwest Iowa includes corn, beans, hay, edible beans, flax and livestock, including poultry and beef. Some dairy is produced in the state, including in Clarinda where Steve Williams is CEO of the start-up company Naturally Iowa, a dairy that makes ice cream and bottled milk that is sold in biodegradable plastic bottles made from corn products.

Williams, also a board member of the Iowa Organic Association, produces organic corn, oats and hay and raises organic dairy heifers. He's thinking of adding pork to his operation this year.

The organization has the potential to bring producers, retailers and consumers to do some advocacy for organic products, educate consumers and maybe attract more farmers to organic agriculture, Williams said.

It's a sign, he said, that organic farm production has grown into a real business.

"It's in every grocery store you go into. It's time we got organized," he said. "Before we were kind of fragmented and small."

©SW Iowa News 2007