Performing Department
N. Willamette Exper Station
Non Technical Summary
Fresh market and processed vegetable organic producers in the Western US are facing steep challenges to maintaining profitable production (see Introduction). Labor costs, increased food safety measures, and low prices from import competition are cutting farm profits, as much 25% in the last 5 years (personal conversation, Buckland 2019). This project will help identify new crops and barriers to adoption to direct future research for high value crop rotation option with Asian herb crops that have potential to keep farms profitable.
Animal Health Component
(N/A)
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
(N/A)
Developmental
(N/A)
Goals / Objectives
The goal of this project is to provide a roadmap to industry research needs sufficient to organize and coordinate future grant proposals that will provide support to the developing organic herb industry. To foster growth in production of these crops in Oregon and Washington, this project will:Convene an industry stakeholder group.Identify promising crops for production, as well as any obstacles to their widespread adoptionIdentify obstacles to widespread adoption and describe research needs for a short list of promising crops.
Project Methods
Objective 1: Convene a medicinal herb production stakeholder group.Task 1: Gather medicinal herb experts for one-day production planning conference. Oregon and Washington are home to several large and many small herb farms and processing companies. This project would work to convene these farmer and processors together with other interested farmers (fresh market vegetable, specialty seed, processed vegetable, and fruit farms) and buyers of medicinal herbs in a stakeholder group. Below is a table of stakeholders contacted thus far.Table 3. Conference attendees. NameAffiliationExpertiseHerbalist ExpertsBen Marx1St Luke's Cancer InstituteAcupuncture, medicinal herb researchBonnie SweetlandOregon College of Oriental MedicineChinese medicinal herb purchasing and qualityRicho CechStrictly MedicinalsHerbal Supplier, herb qualityCasey AronGolden CabinetLargest herbal supplier in OregonHerb Farming ExpertsPeg Schafer1Chinese Medicinal HerbHerb variety sourcing, production, quality and salesRandy and Pam BureshOregon's Wild HarvestHerb production and salesElise HigleyOshala FarmHerb production and salesMatt DybalaHerbFarm, Pacific BotanicalsHerb production, extraction, market assessmentsPotential Adopting FarmsKristine Buckland1Oregon State UniversityVegetable and seed crop ExtensionMatt CookCook Family FarmOrganic vegetable and hemp producerNick AndrewsOregon State UniversityOrganic vegetable and small farms ExtensionRyan KochKoch Legacy FarmsOrganic vegetable, hemp and seed producerRichard MontecuccoMontecucco Family FarmsOrganic vegetable producer1Signifies topic organizerTopic organizers (Marx, Schafer, Buckland) will solicit additional interested parties for conference preliminary inputs and in-person attendance through professional organizations (such as the Lilium Initiative https://liliuminitiative.org/about-us ) and established industry connections from the project team. Target attendance for the conference is 40 individuals.Task 2: Convene this group in a one-day meeting. The diverse nature of this group, (herbalists, buyers, farmers) requires a unique event timing specific to key cooperators' availability. We will poll cooperators for their availability to schedule conference events and offer travel support and honorariums to help offset costs of lost work time.Objective 2: Assess the potential for organic medicinal herb production in Oregon and Washington. Task 1: Identify, prioritize, and describe potential crops. While medicinal herb production is currently limited in the US and in Oregon, and there are more than 5,000 medicinal plants grown in China alone, researchers (Kraker and Giblette 2002) and farmers (HerbPharm and Pacific Botanicals) have identified a much shorter list of crops with very strong northern US production potential.Herbs currently grown in Oregon (farms with greater than 1 acre) include astragulus root, burdock root/seed, gingko leaf, bacopa and gotu kola. Other potential herbs with large market potential include ginseng root, reishi fruiting body, schisandra berry and licorice root. Herbs that are also suited to local production but with smaller yet consistent demand include: andrographis, Artemisia annua, chrysanthemum, codonopsis, eclipta, red sage, rhubarb (rheum palmatum), and Baikal skullcap.Project staff will survey additional stakeholders to adapt and refine the priority crop list and gather available production and processing information on the priority crops before convening the stakeholder meeting. The project team will consolidate information into a crop summary for each potential crop; crop summaries will be made available to stakeholders before the meeting. An example crop summary sheet is in Appendix A. We plan to organize the conference discussion in the following manner:Table 2.USDA Hardiness Zone (Zones 5-8 are suitable)Well drained soilsPoorly drained soilsCrops currently in production Crops currently in production AnnualAnnualShort-term perennial (1-3 years)Short-term perennial (1-3 years)Long-term perennial (3 + years)Long-term perennial(3 + years)Potential new cropsPotential new cropsAnnualAnnualShort-term perennial (1-3 years)Short-term perennial(1-3 years)Long-term perennial (3 + years)Long-term perennial(3 + years)Task 2: Identify obstacles to production and processing for priority cropsOpportunities and obstacles (seed/cutting/transplant sourcing, propagation, weed/insect/disease problems, nutrient management, soil types, staking, pruning, irrigation, processing) to the production and processing of each potential crop will be described in crop summaries; the stakeholder group will further discuss these at the stakeholder meeting.Task 3: Establish research priorities for priority crops. The final task for the conference event for crops identified as high priority at the stakeholder meeting.Objective 3: Engage a broader group of stakeholders in project findings.Task 1: Develop report on potential for organic medicinal herb production in Oregon and Washington. The project team, in cooperation with the conference facilitator, will develop a comprehensive document detailing the results of exercise in Objective 1. An example of a similar conference report developed by project team members as an Organic Extension Summit Report can be found here: https://extension.oregonstate.edu/sites/default/files/documents/8161/osu-organic-extension-summit-report-2019-final.pdf.Task 2: Make report and supporting resources available through medicinal herb production website. The meeting and priority crops summaries, as well as supporting resources for farmers and buyers will be made available at a new website (oregonmedicinalherbs.com) as well as existing Extension websites.Task 3: Assess the impacts of project. Throughout conference delivery and following the meeting, we will evaluate the success of achieving project objectives. We will assess:1. Number of stakeholders reached at conference delivery2. Number of new crops identified3. Number of research needs identified4. Conference evaluations on quality, inclusivity, and efficacy of towards achieving objectives.At the beginning of the conference, we will present the objectives and tasks for the day as described here. We will ask participants to provide a quick survey via electronic clicker to assess knowledge levels and industry needs prior to discussion exercises. Following conference delivery, we will administer an exit survey where participants will indicate their experiences and provide feedback on the process and perceived success of the conference content. Finally, following the development of the conference report, we will once again survey (via email electronic survey) the participants to assess the value and accuracy of the developed document and overall project process.