Key MessagesMake Agriculture Truly Sustainable Now for Food Security in a Changing ClimateBy the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development - Trade and Environment Review 2013

The 2008 food crisis was an import-ant catalyst for realizing the need for a fundamental transformation and questioning some of the as-sumptions that had driven food, ag-ricultural and trade policy in recent decades.However, actual results achieved since 2008 suggest that a paradigm shift has started, but is largely incomplete. Priori-ty remains heavily focused on increasing industrial agricultural production, mostly under the slogan “growing more food at less cost to the environment”. The per-ception that there is a supply-side pro-

ductivity problem is however questionable. Hunger and malnutri-tion are mainly related to lack of purchasing power and/or inabil-ity of rural poor to be self-sufficient. Meeting the food security chal-lenges is thus primarily about empowerment of the poor and their food sovereignty.

The fundamental transformation of agriculture may well turn out to be one of the biggest challenges, including for international security, of the 21st century.Much slower agricultural productivity growth in the future, a quickly rising population in the most resource-

an annual publication from the Ecological Farming Association - 2014www.eco-farm.org

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EcoFarm - Cultivating Sustainable Farming for 35 years!Check inside for program updates and upcoming events!

Much hubbub has followed the recent NY Times article urging paternalistically,

“Don’t let your children grow up to be farmers.” While the article made some valid points about the long hours, low pay and lack of security under the high risk conditions that today’s farmers face, an opportunity seemed missed by focusing solely on the impracticality of deciding to farm. How about focusing on the reality that the economic and political structure of our agricultural system needs fixing? Why not talk about the efforts of these bold new farmers as part of the solution or discuss the merits of their

new agrarian vision and what shifts in our economic structures are needed to foster their efforts? Is no one at the NY Times aware of the destructive nature of the industrial food and farming system, built on inequity and a lack of ethical guiding principles (other than profit)? To this day, mother’s milk as well as the air, soil, and water is filled with the chemical residues of our industrial food system! People are sickened and even die from super pathogens such as e. coli that are bred as a result of conventional agriculture’s profit-driven design and the complacent policies protecting its toxic dysfunctions.At the Ecological Farming Association (EFA), none of the dynamics that the NY Times has just discovered about farming is news. Our work together as the EcoFarm community has taken on these challenges for thirty-five years. Together we continue to work for conditions to reform our food and farming system. We have made some significant progress and continue to collaborate and innovate to be the change we want to see, including supporting the new and beginning farmers whose mission we endorse. People deciding to farm against such odds ought to be celebrated and given meaningful support in their work to make things better.EFA is working to take the hidden message in the article, the “elephant in the room” and let it ring loud and clear: “Farmers, Organize!” This is far more useful and interesting than presenting farming-as-if-people-and-nature-mattered, as foolish. These farmers, as well as America’s working poor and working class require justice that our bought-and-paid-for political system will not provide. To achieve more equitable conditions, regulations, and rates of exchange; farmers, like every other segment of society in history, will have to work together.Each year EFA offers the EcoFarm Conference, the Hoes Down Harvest Festival, the Heartland Project, the Farmer Fellowship and Farmers’ Association, year-round technical trainings and curriculum, and our collaborative partnerships in order to further the goals of farmers as independent owner operators. We want them to prosper while stewarding our

Farmers, Let’s Organize!

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PAIDPermit #145

Santa Cruz, CA

2901 Park Avenue, Suite D-2Soquel, CA 95073(831) 763-2111

My husband and I operate a small sustainable farm in the Santa Cruz Mountains, growing row crops year-round, raising livestock for meat and eggs, selling wool products from our flock of sheep, and harvesting our fruit trees to sell at our local community farmer’s markets.

We have only been farming for four years and have learned that even though farming has its own risks and rewards each season, one of the biggest challenges for all farmers both new and more experienced, is the lack of local infrastructure. It’s hard enough dealing with what Mother Nature throws at you every year when you are already fighting an uphill battle to conduct business; dealing with everything from a lack of local slaughter houses or local seed banks, to complicated government regulations. Personally, we struggle to provide health insurance, retirement savings, and having enough buying power, (which a larger farm would enjoy), to purchase in volume at a lower cost.

When I first found out about the Farmers’ Association and later the Meat Co-op, I was excited that for the first time, there was something that was being driven and created by fellow farmers who were facing similar challenges, and who wanted to find a solution. I felt that

I could be part of the solution with my fellow farmers, rather than all of us trying to solve it individually. Also, understanding the collective power of many, versus one, the Farmers’ Association feels like a resurgence of the Grange Movement of over 100 years ago, when the farmers of yesterday were fighting to equalize their social needs and combat the economic backwardness of farm life.

The creation of a local slaughter and cut-and-wrap facility is a long term goal for the Central Coast. Already, the newly formed Meat Co-op and EFA has gathered producers together from around the region to conduct an analysis with the California Center for Cooperative Development (CCCD) to determine the expected animal quantity and species for this year and for 2015 - an important snapshot to utilize for infrastructure planning. We are also working on near term projects such as a member calendar to coordinate animal slaughter transportation, bulk purchasing of livestock feed, and shared refrigerated transportation for cut-and-wrap deliveries.

I look forward to the future of the Farmers’ Association and the Meat Co-op, and the creation of locally owned programs and infrastructures to support the economic sustainability of my farm and that of my local farming community.

Wakeup

BeforeItIs

TooLate

From Our Fellow FarmerAlison Charter-Smith of Madrone Coast Farm on the Power of the Collective

constrained and climate-change-exposed regions (in particular in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia) and a burgeoning environmental crises of agriculture are the seeds for mounting pressures on food security and the related access to land and water. This is bound to increase the frequency and severity of riots, caused by food-price hikes, with concomitant political instability, and international tension, linked to resource conflicts and migratory movements of starving populations.

The world needs a paradigm shift in agricultural development: from a “green revolution” to an “ecological intensification” approach.This implies a rapid and significant shift from conventional, monoculture-based and high-external-input-dependent industrial production towards mosaics of sustainable, regenerative production systems that also considerably improve the productivity of small-scale farmers. We need to see a move from a linear to a holistic approach in agricultural management, which recognizes that a farmer is not only a producer of agricultural goods, but also a manager of an agro-ecological system that provides quite a number of public goods and services (e.g. water, soil, landscape, energy, biodiversity, and recreation).

The required transformation is much more profound than simply tweaking the existing industrial agricultural system. Rather, what is called for is a better understanding of the multi-functionality of agriculture, its pivotal importance for pro-poor rural development and the significant role it can play in dealing with resource scarcities and in mitigating and adapting to climate change. However, the sheer scale at which modified production methods would have to be adopted, the significant governance issues, the power asymmetries’ problems in food input and output markets as well as the current trade rules for agriculture pose considerable challenges.

Farmer’s FieldsThe Arkay FoundationDriscoll’s Full Belly FarmNutivaUNFI Foundation Inc.

Farmer’s FamilyThe 11th Hour ProjectAlaska Seafood Marketing InstituteCafé Mam – Royal Blue OrganicsCal-Organic/Grimmway FarmsCalifornia Organic FertilizersClif Bar & CompanyEarl’s Organic ProduceFarm CreditNature’s Path FoodsSacramento Natural Foods Co-opSafer© BrandTrue Organic Products, Inc.Veritable VegetableWhole Foods Market

Farmer’s FriendBi-Rite Family of BusinessesBioFloraDr. Bronner’s Magic SoapsFlea Street Café/CoolEatzFrog’s Leap WineryGreenLeafGrower’s OrganicHarmony Farm Supply & NurseryHeath & LejeuneHomegrown Organic FarmsLakeside Organic GardensModesto MillingOrganic Trade AssociationOrganically Grown CompanyPaicines RanchRincon-Vitova InsectariesStraus Family CreameryTomKat Ranch Educational FoundationUS Pure WaterViva Tierra Organic, Inc.Westbridge Agricultural Products

Farmer’s TableAmy’s KitchenAwe Sum OrganicsBig Tree FarmsCalifornia Certified Organic Farmers (CCOF)Charlie’s Produce/Farmer’s OwnChelsea Green PublishingDevine OrganicsDuncan Family FarmsFeather Down Farms® USAFrey VineyardsGood Humus ProduceJacobs Farm/Del CaboLundberg Family FarmsMGK Crop ProtectionNew Leaf Community MarketsOrganic Valley/CROPP CooperativeRecology Grover Environmental ProductsSan Francisco Wholesale Produce MarketSutherland Produce SalesWild River Marketing

Farmer’s AdvocateA&A Organic FarmsAmerican AgCreditAnimal Welfare ApprovedBiodynamic AssociationBlue Mountain MineralsBlue River Organic SeedCadia©California Farmers UnionCapay Organics/Farm Fresh to YouThe Catalyst Product GroupCoke FarmCo-op Partners Warehouse/Wedge Co-opDemeter USAEden FoodsThe Farmer & the CookFrog Hollow FarmFrontier Natural Products Co-opGophers Limited Wildlife ControlHeger Organic FarmsThe Jewel Date CompanyNew Era Farm Service, Inc.Peninsula Open Space TrustPhil Foster Ranches/ Pinnacle Organically Grown ProducePleasant Grove FarmsRobinson, Lyon & FultonSan Miguel Produce, Inc.Sourcery

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Seeds sharing at the EcoFarm Seed Swap- Trav Williams, Broken Banjo Photography

...continued from first page Board of Directors

Lisa Bunin, PresidentCenter for Food Safety

Molly NakaharaVice President / TreasurerDinner Bell Farm

Hallie Muller, SecretaryFull Belly Farm

Dru RiversFull Belly Farm

Jesse CoolCool Eatz/ Flea Street Cafe

Hansel KernKern Family Farm

Jean CooperPinch-Hitter Consulting

Steve SprinkleFarmer And The Cook

Thomas WittmanGophers Limited

Thank you to all the 2014 EcoFarm Conference Sponsors!

FARMCREDIT.COM

health, as well as the health of the air, water, and land.The Farmers’ Association is organizing a new Central Coast Meat Producers’ Coop and a Seed Growers’ Coop, continuing to develop support for the success of triple bottom-line farmers and ranchers who care for People, Planet, and Profit. If you would like to engage in these efforts please contact us at fellows@eco-farm.org!Support our mission by getting involved! Join us at one or more of these events. Donate to EFA at www.eco-farm.org or by returning the enclosed envelope.Let’s make some real news creating the food and farming system we know is possible!

Elements and key achievements for the required transformation of agriculture, elaborated upon by the authors of this report include:Increasing soil carbon content and better integration between crop and livestock production, and increased incorporation (not segregation) of trees (agroforestry) and wild vegetation.Reduction of direct and indirect (i.e. through the feed

chain) greenhouse-gas emissions of livestock production.Reduction of indirect (i.e. changes in land-use-induced) GHG emissions through sustainable peatland, forest and grassland management.Optimization of organic and inorganic fertilizer use, including through closed nutrient cycles in agriculture.Reduction of waste throughout the food chains.Changing dietary patterns towards climate-friendly food consumption.

Reform of the international trade regime for food and agricultural products.

In pursuing a fundamental transformation of agriculture, one should take into account systemic considerations.In particular (i) the need for a holistic understanding of the challenges involved due to inter-linkages between sometimes competing objectives: (ii) the merits and demerits of single climate-friendly practices versus those of systemic changes (such as agro-ecology, agro-forestry, organic agriculture); and (iii) the need for a two-track approach that drastically reduces the environmental impact of conventional agriculture, on the one hand, and broadens the scope for agro-ecological production methods, on the other. For the full report, visit http://unctad.org

EcoFarm will be unveiling a new website THIS FALL!We are working away at ensuring our new site will be user friendly, helping you easily explore EcoFarm and all it has to offer each year. No more secondary conference website. Just one site, and one-site only!

SAVE THE DATE! EcoFarm Conference Registration opens October 28, 2014! DONATE to EFA at www.eco-farm.org or by returning the enclosed envelope. Thank you!

A farmer is not only a

producer of agricultural

goods, but also a manager of an agro-ecological system...

Executive Director