What’s Happening In Michigan for Organic Farmers?
Apr 27 – May 7, 2007
1.
MSU Vegetable PRODUCTION
NOTES
2.
Trio look to push
locally grown products
3.
VENEZUELA: Chavez
dumps Monsanto
4.
Secrets
to a Successful Greenhouse and Business (2007 Edition) book review ,
5.
Seeking Michigan
Products
6.
'Slow food' groups support local farmers, culinary heritage
7.
U.S. has huge appetite for organic food: industry
8.
Possible Changes to
allow cottage food industries produce food without inspection in Michigan.
9.
North Central US
States join together to promote biofuels
10.
Monsanto having a
cow in milk label dispute
11.
Home Grown
12.
Healthy Lives Symposium,
May 24 Lansing Community College
13. Value Added Producer Grant Applications Due May
17
14.
SARE (Sustainable Ag Research and Extension) Grants Farmer/Rancher Grant
Due apx Dec 1, 2007
1. Vegetable
PRODUCTION NOTES:
MSU CAT Alert newsletter, http://www.ipm.msu.edu/cat07veg/v05-02-07.htm#1
May 4,
2007
Early season
insect pests: The maggots
Beth Bishop
Entomology
Early season maggot flies (onion, cabbage and seed corn) are active and laying
eggs. (view
images) These insects are adapted to cool weather; they are more of a
problem early in the season. Adult flies look similar to small houseflies. They
are very mobile and do not spend much time in the field. Control methods should
be directed toward protecting seeds, seedlings and young plants.
Seed corn maggots feed on a variety of vegetable crops, including corn, beans and
vine crops. They are the most cold tolerant of the three maggot species and,
therefore, appear earliest in the season. Seed corn maggots cause more problems
during extended periods of cool, wet weather, in soils with high organic
matter, and when green manure has been recently incorporated. Simply delaying
planting until the soil warms, and waiting a week or so after turning over
green manure, will reduce damage. Planting insecticide-treated seed will also
control seed corn maggot.
Cabbage maggot flies lay eggs at the base of young cole crops. Adult cabbage
flies first become active and lay eggs in the spring about the time yellow
rockets bloom. The next generation of flies begins to lay eggs about the time
daylilies bloom. Damage can be reduced if growers are able to wait until the
soil warms in the spring to plant and avoid planting during peak egg-laying
periods. Insecticide treatments at planting or transplanting will also reduce
injury. See MSUE
Bulletin E-312: 2007 Insect, Disease and Nematode Control for Commercial
Vegetables for insecticides registered for control of cabbage maggot on
different crops.
Onion maggot flies lay eggs at the base of onion plants. Upon hatching the
small maggots feed on the plant roots, causing wilting and seedling death. The
first generation of maggots cause the most damage. Rotating fields and
eliminating cull piles (in which onion maggots overwinter) can reduce onion
maggot populations. Using treated seed (Trigard), or applying Lorsban at
planting will protect young onion plants. Both Lorsban 15G and Lorsban 4E is
registered as an at-plant treatment for onion maggot. In addition, Lorsban 4E
can be used as a post-planting drench spray, although drench treatments are not
as effective as at-plant treatments for control of onion maggot. See MSUE Bulletin E-312:
2007 Insect, Disease and Nematode Control for Commercial Vegetables. The
at-plant treatment for Lorsban 4E was inadvertently left out of this
bulletin—the rate is 1.1 fl oz/ 1,000 row feet (based on 18 inch row
spacing--see label for directions).
2. Trio look to push locally grown
products
The Morning Sun
May 4, 2007
http://www.themorningsun.com/stories/050407/loc_trio.shtml
Residents
can purchase food at local supermarkets, but where are the locally grown meats,
poultry, eggs, fruits and vegetables?
Aside
from the warm-weather Farmers Market in Alma and some roadside stands,
newcomers to the area are often at a loss to find home grown, tasty and organic
foods. Three Gratiot County women are part of an effort to introduce small
local farmers and their produce to the area.
Gretchen
Harrison, and Brenna and Bethany Kline have been against the concentrated
animal feeding operations, but as they are quick to point out, they are not
against the farmers. They and they believe lots of others want to buy
locally grown and organic foods.
“We
want food that hasn’t traveled 1,500 miles,” Brenna Kline said.
With the
help of Michigan State University Ag Agent Dan Rossman, they and others held a
meeting with three area farmers this past week at the Alma Public Library.
Their farms aren’t all organic, but they are practicing organic farmers
and would be become organic farmers if the demand were there.
They
found three local farmers : Jim and Pat Graham, of Rosebush who sell organic
beef and chickens, Ithaca’s Bill Wessenberg, who isn’t an organic
farmer with his fruits and vegetables but could be, and Lori and Tim Frisbie of
Forest Hill who are following organic practices with their eggs and vegetables.
Wessenberg
is part of the Community Supported Agriculture, which is kind of an agriculture
co-op. A fee is paid at the beginning of the season, entitling the family to
receive so many pints or quarts of fruits and vegetables a season. He sometimes
has a stand at Family Farm and Home on Alger Road.
The
Grahams have a store in Rosebush and the Frisbies are newcomers and would like
customers to stop at their home for fresh eggs.
Locally
grown food is fresher and healthier, as Brenna pointed out, and they hope more
people will become interested. Because there is more work involved, folks
buying organically grown food pay a premium price The meeting held earlier was
the first of what they hope will be many. Rossman will continue to help them
find local producers and they are planning more meetings open to the public.
Local
stores might want to sell locally grown and organic food if the demand were
there. The women, part of ECCO, Environmentally Concerned Citizens Organization
hope to make that demand grow.
Anyone interested in learning more about the group,
food or the farmers can check the website at www.iamforecco.com. Questions
about where to get particular types of food are welcome and they will try to
find the answers.
3. VENEZUELA:
Chavez dumps Monsanto
Sunday, April 29, 2007
1:34 PM
Copied from SANET
listserv, May 4, 2007
Venezuelan President Hugo
Chavez Frias has announced that the cultivation of genetically modified crops
will be prohibited on Venezuelan soil, possibly establishing the most sweeping
restrictions on transgenic crops in the western hemisphere.
Though full details of
the administration's policy on genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are still
forthcoming, the statement by President Hugo Chavez will lead most immediately
to the cancellation of a contract that Venezuela had negotiated with the US-based
Monsanto Corporation.
Before a recent
international gathering of supporters in Caracas, Chavez admonished genetically
engineered crops as contrary to interests and needs of the nation's farmers and
farmworkers. He then zeroed in on Monsanto's plans to plant up to 500,000 acres
of transgenic soybeans in Venezuela.
"I ordered an end to
the project", said Chavez, upon learning that transgenic crops were
involved. "This project is terminated."
Chavez emphasised the
importance of food sovereignty and security - required by the Venezuelan
Constitution - as the basis of his decision.
Instead of allowing
Monsanto to grow its transgenic crops, these fields will be used to plant yuca,
an indigenous crop, Chavez explained. He also announced the creation of a large
seed bank facility to maintain indigenous seeds for peasants' movements around
the world.
The international
peasants' organisation Via Campesina, representing more than 60 million farmers
and farmworkers, had brought the issue to the attention of the Chavez
administration when it learned of the contract with Monsanto. According to
Rafael Alegria, secretary for international operations of Via Campesina, both
Monsanto and Cargill are seeking authorisation to produce transgenic soy
products in Venezuela.
"The agreement was
against the principles of food sovereignty that guide the agricultural policy
of Venezuela", said Alegria when informed of the president's decision.
"This is a very important thing for the peasants and indigenous people of
Latin America and the world."
Alegria has good reason
to be concerned. With a long history of social and environmental problems,
Monsanto won early international fame with its production of the chemical Agent
Orange - the Vietnam War defoliant linked to miscarriages, tremors, and memory
loss that more than 1 million people were exposed to. More recently, the
company has been criticised for side-effects that its transgenic crops and
bovine growth hormone (rBGH) are believed to have on human health and the
environment.
Closer to home in
Venezuela, Monsanto manufactures the pesticide "glyphosate", which is
used by the neighbouring Colombian government as part of its Plan Colombia
offensive against coca production and rebel groups. The Colombian government
aerially sprays hundreds of thousands of acres, destroying legitimate farms and
natural areas like the Putomayo rainforest, and posing a direct threat to human
health, including that of indigenous communities.
"If we want to
achieve food sovereignty, we cannot rely on transnationals like Monsanto",
said Maximilien Arvelaiz, an adviser to Chavez. "We need to strengthen
local production, respecting our heritage and diversity."
Alegria hopes that
Venezuela's move will serve as encouragement to other nations contemplating how
to address the issue of GMOs.
"The
people of the United States, of Latin America, and of the world need to follow
the example of a Venezuela free of transgenics", he said.
From SANET listserv April 27, 2007.
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)
http://www.MichiganOrganic.msu.edu/
http://www.mottgroup.msu.edu/
