Content-Type: text/html What's up for Organic Ag for Weeks of August 7-13 in Michigan? Brought to you by Michigan Organic Farmers Listserv, Michigan State University, Vicki Morrone ([log in to unmask]) 1. Southwest Community Harvest Festival Sunday Sept 17 at Tillers Intl 2. Local Food Events In Western Michigan 3. Bioneers Conferences Oct 20-22 4. Community Supported Agriculture workshop and conference November 10-12 5. Vegetable Pest Status Report August 3, 2006 6. Make Your Voice Heard in Federal Farm Policy 7. Organic Valley: A Sustainable Opportunity for Family Farmers 8. Workers on organic farms are treated as poorly as their conventional counterparts 9. USDA report disputes claim that farmers are vanishing breed 10. Vegetable Pest Status Report August 9, 2006 11. Michigan Asparagus wins Rural Route Film Award Southwest Community Harvest Fest Celebrating local food and local farming! Sunday Sept 17th 11:30 a.m.-6:30 p.m. Gates open at 11 a.m. ADMISSION: ONLY $10 PER CARLOAD (Bicycles are FREE!) LOCATION: Tillers International 10515 East OP Avenue Scotts, Michigan www.swmiharvest.org ******************************************* 2. Local Food Events In Western Michigan Food Grown in West Michigan Takes Center Stage in September; Local Food Week includes Films, Tours, Tastings and Festivals Grand Rapids, Mich. -- In honor of the State of Michigan's designation of Sept. 14 as Buy Fresh Buy Local Select Michigan Day, area groups have come together to celebrate the unique bounty of West Michigan with Local Food Week, a series of events highlighting the importance of a strong and diverse local food system. The sixth annual Organic Harvest Festival, this year presented by Mixed Greens ("Growing Kids Who Grow Gardens") kicks off Local Food Week on Sunday, Sept. 10. The event, to be held at Blandford Nature Center, will showcase organically raised food, with opportunities to purchase from West Michigan vendors. Throughout Local Food Week, which is sponsored by the Greater Grand Rapids Food Systems Council (GGRFSC) and Farms Without Harm, West Michigan residents will be able to enjoy several activities that emphasize the various aspects of a healthy local food system. They include a canning and food preservation party; a community gardens tour; a kids' day festival at the South East Area Farmers Market; a tour of farms run by women, and The Local FoodFarmFilm Fest. The latter event, an all-day film festival Saturday, Sept, 16, about farming and food that includes a tasting of dishes made by local chefs and farmer vendors, features appearances by directors of two films being shown: Kirsten Kelly, an Oceana County native who made the acclaimed "Asparagus (A Stalk-umentary)"; and Cynthia Vagnetti, director of "Voices from the Field," a film about women in agriculture. "Asparagus" has won several awards on the film festival circuit, including the Good Food Award sponsored by W.K. Kellogg Foundation at the Media that Matters festival and the Best Documentary at the Rural Route Film Fest in New York City. Vagnetti has created quite a stir with her photographic and film exploration of female farmers in Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin and Michigan. The full schedule for Local Food Week is: - Sunday, Sept. 10 -- Organic Harvest Festival presented by Mixed Greens at the Blandford Nature Center, 1715 Hillburn Avenue, NW in Grand Rapids. For details, call Mixed Greens at 301-3592. Admission is free. - Monday, Sept. 11A Preservation Party to learn how to can, freeze, or preserve by other methods garden and farm produce, sponsored by the GGRFSC. For details, call Cynthia Price, 231-578-0873 or e-mail [log in to unmask] - Tuesday, Sept. 12, starting at 4 p.m. Community Gardens Tour of several gardens in the growing Grand Rapids network, presented by the GGRFSC Community Gardens Committee and Mixed Greens. Meet at Mack's Garden next to the South East Community Association offices, 1408 Madison Ave. SE, Grand Rapids, to pick up a map for your own tour (school gardens available after 6 only), or to join a free, guided tour through the city. For more information, call Tom Cary 616-451-3051 or e-mail [log in to unmask] - Thursday, Sept. 14, 1-6 p.m. -- A Kids' Day Festival celebrating Buy Fresh Buy Local Select Michigan Day at the Southeast Area Farmers Market, at the corner of Franklin Street and Fuller Avenue. Free. For details, call Tom Cary 616-451-3051 or e-mail [log in to unmask] - Friday, Sept. 15 Women's Farm Tour, sponsored by the West Michigan Forum for Sustainable Agriculture. An afternoon tour of several area farms run by women. Filmmaker Cynthia Vagnetti will join the tour. For details, call Tom Cary at 451-3051 or email [log in to unmask] Made possible by funding from the Nokomis Foundation. - Saturday, Sept. 16, 1-10 p.m. -- The Local Food Farm Film Fest, a day- long food-tasting and screening of films about food and farming presented by Farms Without Harm and GGRFSC at the Wealthy Theater, 1130 Wealthy St. SE, Grand Rapids. Events include appearances by local filmmakers and chefs, panel discussions, and farmers selling their products in the lobby. Admission is $10; $7 after 5 p.m. For details, call 616-558-6490 or email [log in to unmask] - Sunday, Sept. 17, 2-4 p.m. Annual Heirloom Tomato Festival at Trillium Haven Farm. Taste 45 different heirloom tomatoes, and enjoy recipe tips from chef Amy Sherman. Cost is $20 per person. Please make reservations by emailing [log in to unmask], or leaving a phone message at 457-5822. Local Food Week is a joint effort of the Greater Grand Rapids Food Systems Council, a collection of groups and individuals working together to create a sustainable and just food system in West Michigan, and Farms Without Harm, a network of groups, small farmers and concerned citizens that promotes safe, sustainable farming through public education. For more information about the GGRFSC, visit www.foodshed.net and for Farms Without Harm, visit www.farmswithoutharm.org. 3. Bioneers Conferences October 20, 21 ,22 - Great Lakes BIONEERS Conferences - Traverse City & Detroit, MI Traverse City - Meeting at the Crossroads of ecology and social justice... and eating really well. Northwestern Michigan College. More info: www.glbconference.org [log in to unmask] [log in to unmask]> (800) 220-1415 Detroit - Visionary and Practical Solutions for Restoring Detroit, Michigan and the World. Wayne State University. More info: www.sustainabledetroit.org/bioneers [log in to unmask] [log in to unmask]> (313) 894-1303 x 119 ************************************************** 4. Community Supported Agriculture workshop and conference November 10-12 A Conference for Community Supported Agriculture - Tustin, MI CSA offers a path to farm preservation, stability and profitability. It connects people with their food supply, builds a sense of community around land and cuisine, enhances community health and increases biodiversity and food security. CSA's popularity has been growing steadily throughout the U.S. and especially in the Mid-west. "CSA in the 21st Century, a Conference for Community Supported Agriculture" is your opportunity to become involved in a conference for and about one of the most creative innovations in small farm management, structure and marketing. Website: http://www.csafarms.org/csaresources.asp 5. Vegetable Pest Status Report August 3, 2006 By John Mishanec, IPM Vegetable Program General Conditions Crops are late but beginning to come on strong. Most growers are beginning to harvest tomatoes in quantity. Growers are reporting their sweet corn harvest has gone well and most farms are into their second and third plantings of early season vine crops. The pumpkin crop looks late. At this point in the season, you shouldn't be able to see the ground between plants. I talked to someone who just finished cultivating their pumpkins. Don't expect a premium if you do have pumpkins as there always seems to be lots being brought in from Canada and Penn. Sweet Corn Up until a couple weeks ago we were experiencing the normal mid season drop in all trap catches. Around the 4th of July weekend we started catching corn ear worm (CEW) in a couple of traps in the region. Over the next week to 10 days, CEW trap catch numbers slowly increased in most of the other traps in central eastern NY. Peak numbers were right around the threshold of two CEW per night. In lower part of the region from Orange County up to Kingston, trap catches were initially low. Currently, we are not catching very many in the capital region but in the lower Hudson valley and Orange county, numbers are increasing to around the two per night threshold. In the past week, European corn borer (ECB) trap catch numbers have increased and will probably continue to increase in the coming week. This is the normal ECB second generation flight and it is pretty much the same numbers and timing as every other year. Because of the presence of CEW, I have been asked by a number of growers if I thought they should be on a spray schedule for their corn in green silk. Basically, I think if you covered your silk corn when we had the small spike of CEW a couple weeks ago, than you are probably in good shape. If you didn't, than I think you probably will not be hurt too bad as the numbers of CEW were pretty low. From experience, this spike was not the true arrival of CEW. When CEW arrives, there are lots and lots of CEW in the traps. I stop counting and say there are 50+ in the trap. That's when you need to be protecting your silk corn and even then, it's difficult with a 3 day schedule. I was in a sweet corn field on Monday where there were four successive planting, from a foot high to knee high to waist high to chest high. Nothing was in tassel yet and it was a good chance to evaluate the pest levels in the various plantings. The tallest corn had 48% infestation and each successive planting had less. The smallest corn had less than 3% infestation. This is what I would expect to find as the more mature corn has been around longer and the insects are more attracted to mature corn. A surprise was that most of the damage was from fall army worm (FAW). FAW is not a real big problem to sweet corn growers. It is happy to eat anything on the plant. FAW does not zero in on the ear and it likes the warm so it is out in the open and easy to kill. It is easy to spot in a field so I do not even trap for it. Any sprays for CEW or ECB will control FAW. In NJ, trap catches for CEW are increasing in the southern part of the state and reports from North Carolina, Virginia and Delaware show a "large scale emergence is heading our way". Out on Long Island, they are in the thick of it. They are catching one to two hundred CEW per trap. From this information, everyone should be closely watching the weather reports for storms emerging from the south. These storms will be bringing with them lots of CEW. For now, it is important to spray corn with emerging tassels if the field is over a 15% threshold of worm infestation. To make a decision on spraying the rest of your corn, it is important to follow the trap catches in your location. CEW are the most dangerous. CEW lay their eggs on the silk and when the eggs hatch the larvae will go directly into the tip of the ear. CEW eggs hatch with 76 degree days (DD). With a 70 degree temperature average, you will accumulate around 20 DD per day. Our higher temperatures in the 90's will really push this and you can expect eggs to hatch in 3 days or less. ECB eggs hatch with 100 DD so it takes a little longer for ECB to hatch. ECB lay their eggs in the ear zone either on the ear or on the undersides of leaves around the ear. When the ECB larvae hatch, they are small and it takes a while for them to be big enough to get into the ear. You have some space with ECB but not with CEW. The CEW levels drive your spray schedule. With the levels of CEW we are catching, a 5 day schedule on silk corn is called for. Once we start catching more CEW, than everyone will need to tighten up their schedules. Many growers report that Warrior has not been doing the job it once did. Try different products if this has been the case on your farm. For organic growers, Entrust will work fairly well against CEW when the numbers are low. If insect populations skyrocket, than even hard chemicals have a hard time doing the job. Peppers In some fields we have found bacterial spot on pepper. The lower leaves have numerous quarter inch and smaller size spots. The lower leaves Then turn yellow and begin to fall off. Fixed copper plus maneb is the recommendation for conventional growers and copper alone for organic growers. The second flight of European corn borer (ECB) is just beginning. ECB will lay their eggs on peppers and when the larvae hatch, they will make a hole just at the edge of the cap. Water gets into the hole and then the fruit rots. Spintor of for organic growers, Entrust will work very well in controlling the ECB larvae on a 5-7 day schedule. You can use Orthene only on non-bell peppers. Tomatoes We are also finding lots of early blight on lower leaves. Look for bronze colored spots with concentric rings in them. Sometimes the spots are at the edge of the leaf and sometimes they appear as small, quarter inch size spots on the leaf. Early blight is not an aggressive disease. It comes on when the plant is stressed and in a weakened condition. This can be environmental or just from a heavy fruit load. Now with fruit sizing up, it is putting stress on the plant and along with moist conditions, we are seeing this problem in most fields. The traditional fungicide for early blight is Bravo but Quadris also dose a great job in controlling the disease. For organic growers, copper is the best product to use. We found a field with small levels of bacterial spot on tomato. For now, mostly we are finding foliar problems that do not directly impact the fruit. Bacterial diseases will always cause fruit problems and should be treated with copper. Vine Crops There is a lot of powdery mildew in summer squash. This is always going to be the crop that gets powdery mildew first. If you have it located next to cucumbers or your pumpkins, you will be spreading PM into those crops more quickly than if you had the summer squash isolated. We have not seen PM in pumpkins yet. Walk into your pumpkins and look for pail yellow spots on the top of the leaf. Turn over the leaf and you will see the white powder like spores. Do not start your fungicide schedule until you find PM in your pumpkins. From Long Island, there are a number of fields with downy mildew (DM). This is a serious disease that is carried by storms to other locations. It used to be fairly rare but we have seen it now for the last three years. Look for lots of small, less than a half inch, brown angular spots on your vine crop leaves. After it lands on your field, the leaves will turn brown and die. On pumpkins, the stems will be still upright and the leaves limp as if the field was hit by frost. Fortunately, if spotted quickly, there are a number of fungicides that will keep the disease under control. Forum, Tanos, Phostrol, Ranman and Gravel are all labeled for DM. Curzate and Tanos will have some kick back activity. You must tank mix these fungicides with protectant fungicides (Bravo, copper, Maneb, etc) Potatoes We have late blight close to our region on Long Island, it is very important to have protective fungicide sprays already on the plants. Late blight produces large black spots on the leaves. Sometimes, on the stems, you will see black areas at a stem where a spore germinated. If you find something you think is late blight, call your local Cooperative Extension office and have someone come out to positively ID the disease or call me at 518-434-0016. Leaf hopper is being found in very high numbers in most fields. Go out and flop a plant into the row and shake it, than flop the plant to the other side of the row. Inspect the ground for leaf hoppers that have fallen off the plant onto the ground. This is an easy way to see what is happening in the field. We've already started to see some burning on susceptible varieties. The edges of the leaves will turn dark brown. Eventually the whole plant will turn brown and die. It's important to pay attention to leaf hopper because they can seriously decrease yield without being very evident. For conventional growers, Phaser and Thionex are the insecticides least toxic to ladybird beetles This is important for aphid suppression. For organic growers, the options are limited. Pyganic is the only product that is organic certified that will do the job. Cornell Recommends The online version of the 2006 Integrated Crop and Pest Management Guidelines for Vegetables is now available at http://www.nysaes.cornell.edu/recommends/ -- 6. Make Your Voice Heard in Federal Farm Policy August 4, 2006 We want to let you know about an extremely important opportunity to speak up for organic farming. Right now, the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives are in the early stages of work on the 2007 Farm Bill. This bill will be a package of legislation that will determine basically all U.S. Farm policy for the next 5 years. Now is the time to let Congress know you expect them to do more to support organic agriculture. The Senate and House Committees on Agriculture have created feedback forms on their websites to allow people to give input on what is or is not working with current farm policy and recommendations for what should be changed in the next farm bill. The feedback forms are accessible here: House Feedback Form and Senate Feedback Form . We encourage you to share your opinions on how to better support organic farmers at both websites. When leaving your feedback, tell them your interest in/relation to organic agriculture. Let them know U.S. organic production should receive a share of USDA resources that reflects the growth and opportunities of the organic marketplace. See below for sample talking points. * Research : Little production and marketing information is available to organic producers. Research programs at the USDA Cooperative State Research Education and Extension Service, and the USDA Agricultural Research Service should receive more funding dedicated to organic research and education. * Conservation Programs : The Conservation Security Program is important to organic producers, but basic organic practices such as cover cropping and crop rotations should be prioritized. Congress should expand the EQIP cost share for organic transition to include all states. Technical assistance providers trained in organic practices must be made a part of this program. * Organic Certification Cost Share Program : The 2002 Farm Bill created this program to defray the annual costs for certification. More funding is needed to continue the program. * Risk Management : Organic farmers should not have to pay the 5% additional fee surcharge they currently must pay to be covered by Crop Insurance. When they incur a crop loss they should be reimbursed at the price their organic product would have received. Whole-farm Revenue insurance programs should be offered in all parts of the country. For additional talking points or more detail on any of the above points, you can read OFRF's Initial Concepts for the 2007 Farm Bill . You can also visit the policy page on our website. If you have any questions or want to share your views with us at any time, email Brise Tencer at [log in to unmask] Farmers.Coop Created by plone Last modified 01:01 PM 02/14/06 7. Organic Valley: A Sustainable Opportunity for Family Farmers Organic farming is breathing new life into agriculture and rural communities. This is a new opportunity for America's Family Farmers. CROPP Cooperative can be your organic resource and guide your every step along the path to organic production. Call our farmer hotline: 1-888-809-9297 The mission of CROPP Cooperative and its brand Organic Valley is to create a marketing cooperative which promotes regional farm diversity and economic stability by means of organic agricultural methods and the sale of certified organic products. Read our mission statement. We created this site to share information about our cooperative. Farmer-members may log in at left to receive co-op business updates. Visiting farmers are invited to explore our public links to learn about our unique organic opportunity. Formed in 1988, Organic Valley is the nation's largest and most successful organic farmer cooperative. Our success is due to our commitment to our farmer owners, our commitment to supply management and our commitment to a fair and stable pay price. Our strong growth means that we have ongoing opportunities for family farmers. To learn more about the Organic Valley brand, visit www.organicvalley.coop. Put your roots down in Organic Valley! Call Our Farmer Hotline: 1-888-809-9297 ________________________________ Vicki Morrone Organic Vegetable and Crop Outreach Specialist Michigan State University C.S. Mott Sustainable Food Systems 303 Natural Resources Bldg. East Lansing, MI 48824 517-353-3542 517-282-3557 (cell) 517-353-3834 (fax) If you would like to access previous postings to the Mich-Organic listserv you can copy and paste the following URL into your browser address bar http://list.msu.edu/archives/mich-organic.html