Organic News

Farm to Table & I-57

Sheep It’s a Tuesday evening at Prairie Fruit Farm just north of Champaign, IL. Goats are munching on organic alfalfa outside in the yard and inside the house laid flat on the floor is a large map of Illinois. Sitting around it are eight people: Two farmers, a cattle rancher, a goat cheesemaker, and an U of I student, two of Mayor Daley’s farmer’s market administrators, a veterinarian-rancher specialist, and an organics supplier. Three other diverse groups with maps are gathered throughout the house. They are collectively contemplating Interstate-57’s undulating line of transportation. It rises from Illinois’s southern-most forest preserve tip up to banks on Lake Michigan—Chicago. If you listen in on one of the groups, you’ll find discussion is focused upon how they can bring together area producers to re-create the I-57 Farm to Table Corridor.

Their attention is upon a 150 year-old route, originally populated with trains attached to the Illinois Central Railroad track. Linking tracks with the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad to Chicago, this route was a boon to farmers in Central and Southern Illinois and the Chicago industrialists who were discovering the quality of their own local food baskets. By 1970, funds from Eisenhower’s 1956 Federal-Aid Highway Act had trickled down far enough that a proximate interstate roadway could be finished, ultimately usurping the efficiency of the Illinois Central Railroad. This was I-57, built in part, like other interstates, to defend the nation in the event of an emergency but to also spur and speed the development of commerce throughout the country.

The commerce that developed from these paved national passageways was a link for Chicago to glamorous, mass-produced product from all over the country. Without the demand or its reliable railroad, its own food basket became disorganized and forgotten.

But today’s renewed value for what’s local is inspiring Illinois producers to cooperate in reinventing a wheel their grandparents used so well. “It’s almost as if we have forgotten how things happened just 60 years ago,” says Terra Brockman of The Land Connection, a participant in the meeting. “What we should really do,” Harold Wilken of Janies Farm inserts at the beginning of his group’s discussion, half-playfully, “Is visit all the nursing homes along I-57, ask them what they did, and write down their oral history of this route.” He tells me the next day, “Transportation has become so mobile and easy and yet complicated enough that we are missing the obvious.”

Though the landscape has changed and the people and issues are different, the obvious remains: Organization around I-57. “The Corridor could begin to fill Chicago’s bottomless demand for local product,” says the meeting’s facilitator, Farm Forager Mari Coyne. She was hired by the City of Chicago and Chicago’s Green City Market to find more farmers to fill their markets’ slots. In visiting farms throughout the state, she has been a witness to their ideas and challenges in getting to Chicago. So she has orchestrated this Tuesday meeting to facilitate conversation about how to access the variety of end-users in Chicago.

“We want to look at a whole suite of solutions,” host Wes Jarrell says to open dialogue, just after dinner. In this vein, group discussions welcome all suggestions from the attending producers, food-buyers, distributors, marketers, and resource agencies concerning their assessment of key organizational strategies and resources.

“My group was really diverse and representative of everybody necessary to accomplish this local throughway,” Buyer for Goodness Greeness, Ben Perkins later recalls, “There was a representative from the Department of Agriculture, an organic farmer, a meat producer, a chef/owner, the director of Green City Market, and myself—the distribution buyer and supplier. From my perspective, I kept stressing that Chicago is a large block of concrete and regional suppliers all over the state of Illinois, not just around the city itself, are our “local” supply. It was a productive meeting. We saw there’s still a lot of hard work to be done but that it is a feasible idea.”

Discussion of the nuts and bolts was intended to generate modest but solid returns: To get ideas rolling. “We’re not trying to change the business models of these producers but to open opportunity,” Coyne says later over the phone, adding, “And to inform producers about the demand in Chicago—that this city is serious about local food.”

At the meeting’s summation, many responses from producers and consumers alike highlight how informative and eye-opening the evening has been. Many urge that more discussions on the topic should take place, spearheaded by individuals who would start isolating parts and solutions.

Despite the late hour and the long drive ahead, many groups linger, abuzz with the possibilities and the many challenges to come. It is clear something has been started. With the meeting closed, those large maps folded, and the goats probably satiated for now, the route from a farm in Illinois to a table in Chicago is wide and open. And it’s time to fill it.

Mercedee Renz, Goodness Greeness

Farmer Spotlight: Grasspoint Farms

As informed, sustainable shoppers, we rely on the transparent labeling of our products, looking for key words like: USDA Organic, Third-Party Certified, Fair Trade Certified, Locally Grown, 100% Post-Consumer Recycled, Non-GMO, No Additives, Hormone-Free, and…SALE! We are engaged in the ultimate consumer treasure hunt, one that does not just consume.

Another gem label to add to the list is now touted on brand new milk cartons, butter boxes, and cheese packages from local Wisconsin dairy group Grasspoint Farms. The label is nationally standardized as “Certified Humane Raised & Handled”. It is a certification from a 501c3 non-profit organization called Humane Farm Animal Care (HFAC) and is supported by The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, The Humane Society of the United States, and is endorsed by over twenty-five other humane organizations. Their inspectors are trained and educated in Animal Science and Veterinary Medicine and follow Animal Care Standards that were developed by an international scientific committee of twenty leading professors, scientists, and veterinarians. To-date since their inception in May 2003, they have Certified Humane fifty-two products.

A Label for the Humane Farmer
To find out what the new label means, we asked one of the farmers of the new Grasspoint Farms, Joe Tomandl. “It means our cows are treated well,” he says, “And for us, we had to change very little. We never used hormones; we did not mutilate our cattle by docking their tails and each cattle has been grazing on at least two acres of fresh pasture for over fourteen years. And when we do supplement their feed with grains and then balage in the winter, we do not lace them with antibiotics. Certification included actions that were to us small farmers basic, common sense.”

The Tomandls manage a farm of sixty cows while the size of other Grasspoint Farms can range from forty to a hundred and twenty cows. They are a fourth-generation dairy farm family, their 120-acre farm first established in 1918. “Our three sons have also committed to pasture farming, which is really gratifying. Conventional dairy farming is a sunup to sundown business and we wonder why the next generation is not interested. Pasture farming requires less labor because the cows feed themselves and they fertilize the land themselves. They have space to graze so they are more healthy and athletic, and they end up living longer. It’s a really neat system, how it loops like this. It provides a sustainable income too. The University of Wisconsin found that a pasture raised farm can net the same profit as a conventional farm—with half the number of cows.”

An increased quality of life for both the farmers and the cows is just one of the added benefits of managed rotational grazing (MRG). The immediate draw for the Tomandls was the economic independence. Since 1990, the Tomandls have been part of a Wisconsin community of small grazing farmers. The group has organized conferences at a grass-root level to exchange their knowledge and experience, gathering much information from farmers in New Zealand. “Their dairy is the most economically productive in the world,” Tomandl said, “We knew we could learn from them.” Since then, farmers like the Tomandls have been honing the practice of MRG, a rotational system of ushering herds to various sections of pasture (paddocks) to ensure the forage quality and quantity available to them.

The Making of a Label
It was at the grazing conferences that the Tomandls met Chad Pawlak and Bruce Ellis of Organic Farm Marketing (OFM) and Wisconsin Organics. “They are sincerely interested in doing something for rural communities and the small farms surrounding them,” Tomandl remarks. The Tomandls and farmers like them quickly realized the potential of linking with OFM, the missing marketing link of past grass-fed ventures. Grasspoint Farms began creating their standards and market niche in the summer of 2005. “We wanted to differentiate our product and offer a price point between conventional and organic,” says Tomandl. “In the end, we wanted to show how our cows are treated on our small farms.” That is when they required inspections of implemented conservation, grazing, and nutrient plans drawn up with the help of Natural Resources Conversation Services. They also required hormone-free, pasture-based treatment of their cows and found a third-party agency that would inspect their care.

The Good Life
The beneficial impacts go beyond sustainable income to the environment and health. For example, less fertilizer waste and manure runoff enter river systems and the soil itself is being fed rather than eroded. Increased levels of omega-3 fatty acids are found in grass-fed dairy products. “There are no losers in producing cattle entirely on pasture,” concludes Dr. Kate Clancy of the Union of Concerned Scientists in a report this last June, “Farmers win, consumers win, the environment wins, and even the cattle win.”

Like those of us at Goodness Greeness, Holly Bridges of HFAC has been anticipating this summer’s launch of Grasspoint Farms. “They’re amazing,” Bridges says, “People like Chad Pawlak and the farmers at Grasspoint are dedicated stewards, visionaries. They have a right to be proud of their product and consumers can be assured their handling practices are humane.”

Now, one hundred and fifty other dairy farmers wait to join the ranks of Grasspoint. They wait for the growing demand of educated consumers, investors in labels that signal a bejeweled evolution of the way we consume.
Mercedee Renz, Goodness Greeness

Intervene in an Action Alert for the new USDA grass-fed meat label. Support the rule, Docket No. LS-05-09, but propose a more explicit definition of “immature grain” and urge that the rule prohibit hormones and feed rations with antibiotics. To find out more, visit the Midwest Sustainable Agriculture Working Group: http://www.msawg.org/.

Farmer Spotlight: CROPP Cooperative

Walk into a co-op to buy groceries and you register a different style. It’s like a grocery store, but more. Willy Street Co-Op in Madison, Wisconsin is like this, a bustle of live music and the distinct “co-op aroma” of fresh food—fruit and vegetables, fresh-baked bread, hot deli items, and bulk bins of whole grains, the aromas touched with a tinge of nag champa. Lynn Olson, the Cooperative Services Manager, says the real difference is the educational quality of a co-op; a cooperative customer receives an education. Purple keys around the store display what is local and where it is from. Their newsletter and website offer healthy recipes, an ingredient glossary, natural news articles, resources, and health tools like a BMI index and various profile assessments. 11,000 members roam their aisles, voting them their city’s best Natural Foods store for the last five years. When asked what they are teaching, Lynn said, “We emphasize less-traveled food, organics, and other cooperative projects.” They are a cooperative supporting other cooperative projects like Frontier, Equal Exchange, and their 1974 opening with Nature’s Bakery.

Another local, organic cooperative is shelved in at least four of their refrigerator doors of dairy, eggs, cheese, and dairy-alternate products. They are from the Cooperative Regions of Organic Producer Pool (CROPP), also known as Organic Valley. “The value of the Organic Valley label is huge,” Lynn says, “And I have a great amount of respect for them because they are a cooperative. Cooperatives must be transparent, which means they can uphold the integrity of organic standards.”

The history of cooperatives runs far back—some would say to the beginning of civilization. The modern cooperative movement is often recognized to have been founded in mid-19th century England. They were characterized as business owned and controlled by the people who used them. Cooperatives specialist Greg Lawless, in his article “History of Cooperatives in Wisconsin”, notes, “The Scandinavian countries were particularly adept to forming cooperative ventures, and immigrants from Finland and Norway who settled in Wisconsin brought that experience with them.” He adds, “Wisconsin developed a cooperative tradition that even today is rivaled by few other states in the country.” Lynn confirmed this historical impulse for her region, noting that even so, the Willy Street Co-Op is an anomaly.

So, too, is the CROPP Cooperative centered in La Farge, Wisconsin, the largest farmer’s cooperative in the United States. Unlike Willy Street “service cooperative”, CROPP is a producer “marketing cooperative.” They are comprised of 300 employees and 801 farms, specifically 600 dairy producers throughout nineteen states. Their farmers represent 10% of the organic farming community. It all started with seven farmers in 1988 and has since grown to $245 million in sales in 2005. “Being a cooperative has helped us grow and attract new producers to match the growing consumer demand,” says David Bruce, Director of JEPSF Pools at CROPP (Juice, Eggs, Produce, Soy, and Feed—“everything except dairy and meat”).

When asked about the influence of Wisconsin’s Scandinavian cooperative history upon the formation of CROPP, he says, “There were other co-ops in the area at the time but our cooperative structures were researched and based on a new model called ‘new generation cooperatives’” (NGC’s). Most NGC’s first sprouted in the 1990s to split from the negative perception of past administrative-top-heavy co-ops that had often garnered farmer dissatisfaction until they failed.

NGC’s are markedly different in how they match supply to demand. “We offer a stable pay price so the farmer can plan and budget. It is called Y in the Road Philosophy: The farmer is paid first. So in the end we’re not basing our price on a market price,” Bruce says. For farmers, the stable CROPP pay prices are a welcome relief. In addition to higher prices, CROPP gives many farmers marketing they do not have the time or background to do on their own. They also receive support in production, certification, farm planning, feed sourcing, and veterinary consultation. Every month a farmer review on price allows them to help determine their own market price.

The CROPP Board of Directors comprised by farmer owners governs the cooperative. Members’ opinions and issues are carried to the Board through regional executive committees in which each member is encouraged to participate. It is a democratic model that is sometimes a challenge. “We are really slow to move,” Bruce says, “Around here we’ve come to say, ‘Slow and steady wins the race’. But because quick decisions are not made, our operations are more careful and strategic.” Their steady operations have introduced many of the nation’s organic “firsts”, like in 1990 their organic butter, and between 1995 to 2000 their cottage cheese, string cheese, lactose-free milk, and Parmesan cheese. Much of their early growth was due to partnerships with companies who purchased their bulk industrial ingredients, CROPP helping launch the first organic yogurt brand in 1992.

When asked what they would like consumers and retailers to know about their national cooperative position in the organic market, Bruce remarked, “Most consumers and retailers don’t know we are regionally based. We use existing local infrastructures instead of building our own, like bottling and cheese processing plants. Though we are a nationally recognized label, we are organized within each region, using what’s already in place to generate more jobs and meet their local needs.” The distribution of local product within just Wisconsin consists of nine routes. In the entire Midwest Region, over sixteen routes channel just the liquid dairy. A new distribution center in Cashton, opening in June 2007, is being built to hone their efficiency by shipping multiple products together from one house.

This week has been the busiest of the year for CROPP, their Kickapoo County Fair being held July 29 and 30, http://organicvalley.coop/kickapoo/. It takes place at their national headquarters in La Farge and is a fantastic celebration of rural heritage. Five thousand guests are estimated to be in attendance, everybody from farmers, to sustainable living specialists, consumers roaming the grounds and paddling canoes, animals galore, beekeepers, puppets, 4-H clubs, and so much more. It is one example of their excellence in education within the organic movement they have helped foster. Their highly informative website is another illustration. Though their presence and altruistic work in the organic community may come as a pleasant surprise, it shouldn’t. It’s just like the distinct co-op aroma, rising to meet you. It’s Co-Op Style.

Mercedee Renz, Goodness Greeness

For an independent case study about CROPP from January 2003, download from the University of Wisconsin’s Center for Cooperatives http://www.uwcc.wisc.edu/info/uwcc_pubs/casestudies.html.

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