Performing Department
Applied Social Science
Non Technical Summary
Disproportionate adoption of USDA Certified Organic Production has left certified producer numbers lower in the Lower Midwest and Mid-South than in other regions of the country such as the Upper Midwest, West Coast, or Northeastern US. These clusters suggest regional characteristics impact adoption of organic agriculture. An interdisciplinary team proposes an integrated project to examine the following: the biophysical, market and cultural barriers to organic production in the Mid-South; the region-specific opportunities and farmer-led innovations present, and what support is needed; and state-level policies to increase the region's number of organic farmers and expand production. The project will also identify region-specific barriers and opportunities to organic production, and examine the effects of policy supports for organic farming. Findings will inform outreach that builds educator skills to support organic producers and strengthen emerging organic farmer networks. Specific objectives include: 1) identifying region-specific barriers to organic adoption; 2) identifying region-specific opportunities and farmer-led innovations to increase organic operations and acreage; 3) analysing impacts of potential state-level public policy; 4) implementing an outreach program for farmers and educators addressing specific challenges and opportunities; and 5) supporting networks of organic producers in peer-to-peer learning, collectively securing inputs, and pursuing new markets. In-person interviews of 75 current and former certified organic farmers will identify barriers and opportunities. Results will inform educator training to prepare them to support organic farmers and farmer networks. Policy analysis will quantify the impacts of potential regional policies. Research results will be presented at regional extension/farmer meetings as well as academic conferences. Expected outcomes of increased understanding of barriers to organic adoption, expanded membership in organic producer networks, and better understanding of needed policy and market interventions will lead to agricultural sustainability and profitability in the region.
Animal Health Component
100%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
100%
Developmental
(N/A)
Goals / Objectives
The goal of this research is to identify adoption challenges specific to the Mid-South, and to offer insights about specific policy supports, agricultural research, organic processing infrastructure development, and market development needed in the region. By identifying and better understanding these challenges, extension, university, and governmental agencies will be better equipped to serve producers in the region. The specific objectives of this project are:Research Objectives:To identify region-specific economic, social and biophysical barriers to USDA Certified Organic adoption in the Mid-South, a region including parts of Missouri, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Tennessee;To identify region-specific opportunities and farmer-led innovations that could increase USDA Certified Organic farm numbers and acreage;To identify public policy measures that have impacted organic adoption in other regions and explore their feasibility for the Mid-SouthExtension Objectives:To develop and implement an outreach program for farmers and educators addressing specific challenges and opportunities identified by this research;To support new, and strengthen emerging, networks of producers that can support peer-to-peer learning, develop collective methods to secure inputs, and pursue marketing opportunities.
Project Methods
Approach and Methods:Objective 1: To identify region-specific economic, social and biophysical barriers to USDA Certified Organic adoption in the Mid-South, a region including parts of Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Tennessee;Objective 2: To identify region-specific opportunities and farmer-led innovations that could increase USDA Certified Organic farm numbers and acreage;We will conduct 75 semi-structured interviews with current and lapsed certified organic producers who are located within southern MO, western TN, northern AR and eastern OK. Using the list of currently certified and formerly certified organic growers in the online USDA database of organically certified growers, we will draw a sample that will include a variety of farm sizes, locations and products produced. We will try to pair interviews of lapsed and currently certified farmers in locations, sizes and products produced. The interview protocol will include questions regarding a) biophysical barriers to producing organically; b) perceptions of regional access to markets and infrastructure; c) perception of cultural attitudes about organic production; d) sources of information and support for organic farming; and e) new opportunities that are emerging for their farm operation. Lapsed organic growers will provide a contrasting perspective about the value of certification and of organic production. Face-to-face interviews will be transcribed and qualitatively analyzed using NVivo software, coding first for emergent themes, and recoding by theoretical category.Objective 3: To identify public policy measures that have impacted organic adoption in other regions and explore their feasibility for the Mid-SouthTo meet Objective 3, we will compile state-level organic policies, certification processes, and other state support programs through policy searches conducted through the Thomson Reuters Westlaw legal research database, complimented by phone interviews with state agriculture personnel responsible for alternative markets, state extension specialists supporting local, sustainable and organic production, and leaders in organic grower and land stewardship organizations. We will focus on at least 4-5 states with larger grower numbers as well as our target states. We will qualitatively analyze the information collected in this phase to examine nuances in state policies, how the organic certification process is implemented in the state, availability of support programs to educate producers or to provide cost-shares, and other issues that emerge in terms of how they affect organic farm revenues and expenses.In the quantitative phase of this project, the policies and processes will be translated into their economic impacts on organic farm revenues and expenses for each state. Based on USDA data of organic prices, costs of production, crop area involved in production and yields cross-checked with our participating farmers, organic farm enterprise budgets will be constructed to illustrate how different policies, processes, and support programs impact revenues, expenses, and net farm income by state. These budgets will be compared with actual reported organic farm enterprise budgets from the FINBIN database (maintained by the University of Minnesota https://finbin.umn.edu/). In addition, organic prices will be compiled from USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service database. Comparing organic prices across states will provide insight about the demand for organic production in each state. The results obtained from the quantitative analysis will provide insight into how policies, certification processes, and other support programs can be modified in the Mid-South to be more conducive to organic production.Objective 4: To develop and implement an outreach program for farmers and educators addressing specific challenges and opportunities identified by this research;Two distinct kinds of activities will be used to achieve Objective 4; targeted training for extension and other educators, and incorporation of research results into on-going training in the University of Missouri's Organic outreach program and Kerr Center's on-going outreach. First, using results from the interviews and the policy analysis, we will plan a 1.5-day training opportunity in the second half of Year 2 for 30 regional Extension educators, non-profit personnel and organic producers. The training will be modular with half-day programming sessions oriented to horticultural crops, grain crops and livestock to allow for greater participation from educators with limited time.The goal of this training is to build the capacities of educators and farmer leaders to understand barriers to adoption of organic in the Mid-South in order to better assist producers and communities both in identifying potential organic opportunities as well as strategies for organic management in a changing climate. In addition, the preliminary results of the policy analysis will be presented so that educators and farmer leaders can inform policy makers of potential impacts of state level organic policy. This workshop will help educators develop programming that can provide ongoing support for emerging organic networks. A second set of activities will be conducted through the Kerr Center's existing outreach program, MU's Organic outreach program, as well as through Missouri's Agriculture Business and Policy extension program. This will include:Research results presented at annual MU Organic Field Days held at farms of research collaborators and farmer network members.Research results incorporated into existing Kerr Center and MU workshops/conferences/meetings.Research results fed into the MU Twitter feed, which reaches thousands in the state.A presentation on identifying barriers and opportunities at the Mid-America Organic Association (MOA) and SSAWG conferences.Quantitative policy analysis results including organic production budgets, the costs of converting to organic production, as well as other organic production issues will be added as module to the "value added" program in Missouri's Agricultural Business and Policy Extension outreach. Objective 5: To support new, and strengthen emerging, networks of producers that can support peer-to-peer learning, develop collective methods to secure inputs, and pursue marketing opportunities.We will use a small mini-grant program to support the development or expansion of networks of organic producers in the region (eastern OK, southern MO, western TN, northern AR) which will be coordinated by the Kerr Center. As coordinator of the southern region SARE PDP, Kerr Center has experience in managing a grant program, with the ability to facilitate paperwork for farmer groups who wish to apply. We plan to provide $7,500/year in Years 2 and 3 to between 3-5 producer groups to allow them to engage in peer-to-peer learning opportunities (e.g. informal field days, online collaboration and training, mentoring, social activities oriented to learning new organic techniques), OR to collaborate in collectively acquiring inputs or pursuing marketing opportunities. During the first three months of the project, the project team will agree upon criteria for the grant program, using regional SARE producer grant criteria to guide the process, as well as establish the application protocol. Grants will be capped at $3,000 per group per year. Grants will be publicized through extension and existing organic producer networks, as well as to eligible producers at the at the 2021 and 2022 SSAWG and MOA winter meetings. Grants will be awarded in the first month of Years 1 and 2 (September) for completion within the year. A network representative of each grantee will be encouraged to discuss the results of their mini-grant activities at field days and/or MOA/SSAWG conferences.