Cultivating an Ecological Conscience: Essays from a Farmer Philosopher

Is the USDA Accounting for the Costs to Farmers from Contamination Caused by Genetically Engineered Plants?

Is the USDA Accounting for the Costs to Farmers from Contamination Caused by Genetically Engineered Plants? I would like to thank the chair, Representative Kucinich, the ranking member , Representative Issa, and the members of the subcommittee for this opportunity to speak on this matter which so greatly affects the livelihoods of the U.S. organic producer. My name is Frederick L. Kirschenmann. I am a professor of religion and philosophy currently serving as a Distinguished Fellow at the Leopold Center at Iowa State University, after having been the center’s director since July of 2000. However, I appear before you today as an organic producer and manager of our family’s 3,500-acre mixed-crop and livestock farm located in south-central North Dakota. Of those 3,500 acres, approximately 1,000 are still in native prairie, which our family uses to graze livestock in the summer months. The remaining 2,500 acres are cultivated. Approximately one-third of the cultivated land is in leguminous cover crops—alfalfa and clover. Alfalfa serves as a forage crop for our animals, and the clover is a green manure crop that provides essential nutrients for other crop production. The remaining 1,700 to 1,800 acres are planted into small grains that are part of a complex crop rotation plan that I will discuss at great length later in my testimony. We compost all of our livestock manure and apply it to our fields to improve the health of our soil. This farming method has proven very successful for our farm family, especially since we made the transition to organic farming in 1976. We 226 This is a slightly revised version of Frederick Kirschenmann’s statement before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Domestic Policy Subcommittee, March 13, 2008. Appreciation is expressed to Bill Wenzel, national director of the Farmer to Farmer Campaign on GE, for his research assistance in developing this statement. 227 The Costs of Contamination Caused by Genetically Engineered Plants have been certified organic since 1980, and due to our stable production achieved by virtue of our rotation scheme, we have not borrowed operating capital since the certification was received. I do not come here today pretending to represent organic producers. However, I do have extensive experience in agriculture that complements my work at the Leopold Center and in the management of my farm, which provides unique insights into how shortcomings at the USDA in the regulation of genetically engineered crops have significantly affected organic producers economically. I assisted in the formation of Farm Verified Organic, Inc., a private organic certification agency, and the Northern Plains Sustainable Agriculture Society. I was appointed to and have served on USDA’s National Organic Standards Board, the USDA’s North Central Region Sustainable Agricultural Research and Education Administrative Council, and the board of directors of the Henry A. Wallace Institute for Alternative Agriculture. I also serve as president of the Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture at Pocantico Hills, New York. The Stone Barns Center, initially funded by David Rockefeller and his family, is a demonstration and education center in sustainable agriculture. I am a member of the National Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production operated by the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, funded by Pew Charitable Trusts, and I am the convening chair of a multistate task force, Agriculture of the Middle, that focuses on research and markets for midsize American farms. This group is also responsible for establishing the Association of Family Farms to create standards and markets for the farms that are the focus of Agriculture of the Middle. In order to understand the monumental challenges posed by genetically engineered crops to the management and profitability of an organic farming system, you need to have a basic understanding of the system itself. Successful organic farming depends in large part on putting together a mix of crops in a complex crop rotation plan. Because organic producers do not use agricultural chemicals, the mix and sequence of crops in a rotation must help control weeds, suppress pests and diseases, help recycle nutrients, and be profitable in agricultural commodity markets. Naturally, the crop choices available to accomplish this multifaceted set of goals are determined by climate, soil type, available markets, and practical considerations such as availability of necessary machinery and equipment. We have discovered 228 Cultivating an Ecological Conscience that coming up...