An Organic Inspector’s Dilemma: Responding to Questions on Production Standards Requirements and Sharing Relevant Research While Avoiding Consulting with Organic
Operators.
J. G. Gibson
Chair Organic Food Council of Manitoba - a chapter of Canadian Organic Growers.
Organic standards in Canada require producers to “establish and maintain a fertile soil using practices that maintain or increase soil humus levels that supply an optimum balance and supply of nutrients and that stimulates biological activity within the soil.” (Canadian General Standards Board) CGSB/CAN 32:310, Section 5.4 Soil Fertility and Crop Nutrient Management. Organic inspectors assess producers’ compliance to this and all relevant standards while conducting the required annual on-site organic inspection of the operation. This assessment involves making many management system observations about the implementation and effects of their Organic System Plan and its annual update. Inspectors need to frame and pose questions to organic operators to assess the understanding that informs their production system problem solving and planning. This usually involves an exchange of questions, a conversation between operator and inspector, leading to references to specific standards, applicable in the situation under discussion.
The protocol requirements of the Canada Organic Office must meet ISO requirements,
offering consultation to solve compliance issues during an inspection. However, inspectors often have access to research resources that may assist the operators in more fully understanding the application of the seven Organic Principles and Section # 5.4 of the Canadian Organic Standards (COS) in specific contexts. Extension services from organic specialists are available with wide access variations across Canada. The most frequent on-farm organic visitor often is the organic inspector. Assisting operators to understand the relevant COS required for their operations to meet standards is a responsibility of organic inspectors, yet this must be done without consulting. Methods to help producers understand the COS while respecting the limits of inspectors’ responsibilities include having open discussions with growers to encourage the producer to propose solutions to problems. Meeting the ISO requirements does not mean inspectors have to be ‘shut up, take notes, and report’ inspectors. Organic inspectors must understand the potential impact of how they ask questions and what questions they ask!
Sharing publicly available references to research findings within the context of the on-site inspection can be very useful for producers’ understanding of applying the organic standards. Examples of two recent discussion topics during field inspections include 1) mitigating flood impacts on soil quality, and reference to Dr. Yvonne Lawley’s green manure work and the
Manitoba Composting Associati
effective horticultural pest control and reference to Landing Theory.
Inspectors can meet their requirements as organic inspectors, maintain their Codes of Ethics and Conduct (#2. Inspectors support and encourage the development, implementation and advancement of organic agriculture and processing) and play an important role in organic extension, once they have answered where the inspection role starts and stops on the continuum of sharing extension resources.
Winnipeg, Manitoba February 21-23, 2012
Canadian Organic Science Conference and Science Cluster Strategic Meetings
133
Using a 12 Acre Organic “Mini-farm” for Extension and Education.
M. H. Entz*, K. C. Bamford, G. Martens, I. Vaisman, J. R. Thiessen Martens, H. Cicek, C. Halde, K. Podolsky, R. Evans and A. Iverson
Department of Plant Science, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB.
*
Background:
To strengthen education in organic agriculture, we established a 12 acre organic “mini-farm” at the Ian N. Morrison research farm, Carman, MB in 2003. The mini-farm has been used for farmer, student and extension worker education and training.
Project Overview:
A 6-year crop rotation has been followed for the past 8 years: Oat/pea green manure-spring wheat-soybean-hairy vetch/barley green manure-flax-fall rye (or oats). Each field in the rotation is 2 acres, so commercial farm equipment can be used. Novel practices include: 1) use of a blade roller instead of tillage to terminate green manures; 2) no-till seeding of flax into hairy vetch/barley green manure and no-till seeding of fall rye into flax stubble; 3) chaff collection at grain harvest for weed and volunteer crop seed capture; 4) in-crop harrowing in wheat and soybean; 5) detailed soil analysis to monitor nutrient status; 6) calculation of rotation economics; and 7) pest monitoring. Rotation information and annual yields are available on our website
The rotation is used for 3 main extension events: 1) The crop diagnostic school; a 2 week event where farmers and crop advisors visit the research farm for one day (400 visitors/yr); 2) the “Ecological and organic field day” held in July (80 visitors/yr); and 3) a University open house (150 visitors/yr). Smaller tours also occur. Responses from participants have been very positive. Diagnostic school students regularly rate the organic mini-farm at 3.5/4, similar to the best conventional extension components of the school. One participant in the 2011 organic tour wrote in his blog “Through the judicious use of plants that fix atmospheric nitrogen and return biomass to the soil, they have been able to achieve yields that come very close to the yields achieved by what is currently seen as conventional agriculture.” The mini-farm allows graduate students to get hands-on experience with extension.
The mini-farm cost is $30,000 per year. We have been able to manage these costs since the mini-farm is an integral part of our overall organic crops research program.
Conclusions:
The mini-farm continues to be a unique place for learning about sustainable organic cropping systems, and allows for meaningful interaction between farmers and scientists.
Acknowledgments: Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Initiatives, Manitoba Rural Adaptation Council, Manitoba Forage Council, Manitoba Pulse Growers Association, NSERC.