Budget
Cuts Stunt Growth of Sustainable Agriculture Program
By
Repps Hudson, quotes Mary Hendrickson
St.
Louis Post-Dispatch
October
31, 2004
The program has been trimmed from $135,000 in 2001, which funded about 30 grants of up to $4,500 each, to 16 grants of $3,000 each this year.
KINGDOM CITY, Mo. - Since 1995, the Missouri Department of Agriculture has handed out thousands of dollars in small grants to farmers to help them experiment with different ways to grow food.
Mark and Julie Jones Price of Kingdom City count themselves among the success stories generated by the sustainable agriculture awards.
In 2001, they received a $3,000 grant from the state program.
But today, the program that helped the Prices get a start raising hot peppers - not a traditional Missouri crop - is endangered by state budget cuts, advocates say.
Joan Benjamin, the program coordinator, said money for the program has been cut from $135,000 in 2001, which funded about 30 grants of up to $4,500 each, to 16 grants of $3,000 each this year. Next year, the program is projected to offer 14 grants of $3,000 each.
Critics of the cuts say this approach is shortsighted, since sustainable agriculture can help revive and protect small farms.
"It would help farmers go back toward more crops and animals on the farm," said Bryce Oates, spokesman for the Rural Crisis Center in Columbia, Mo. "Instead of one or two crops (like corn and soybeans), they'd have a lot more."
Missouri has the second-largest number of small farms in the United States. Rural sociologists like Mary Hendrickson, an assistant professor at the University of Missouri at Columbia, believe such diversity in agriculture is healthy for the state's farmers and economy in the long run.
"The trend is to try to get more money out of each acre," said Hendrickson. "They can do it sustainably by being diversified."
She added that grants for trials in sustainable agriculture can give creative farmers a way to try something that could turn out to help small farms survive.
"These people are the innovators," she said. "They are the crazy ones. They are smart. They have good ideas."
Benjamin defines sustainable agriculture as "good for the farm, good for the family and good for the farm community."
Another definition, offered by Ron Macher, editor of Small Farm Today magazine and founder of the annual Small Farm Show in Columbia (Nov. 4-6 this year), is that sustainable agriculture is "economically viable, socially acceptable and environmentally friendly."
That definition rules out chemically supported and biotech farming that many large-scale producers practice when they primarily raise corn, soybeans and wheat.
The cuts in the sustainable agriculture demonstration program were part of overall budget cuts, said Peter Hofherr, director of the state Department of Agriculture.
Hofherr said the program should be funded at $750,000 to $1 million a year.
"The level we have now is barely on life support," he said. "If you take a businesslike approach to this, this could make Missouri something to be proud of."
Mark and Julie Price own A Taste of the Kingdom, a small company that two years ago turned its yield from 2 1/2 acres - that's 7 1/2 tons - of hot peppers into a variety of spreadable condiments sold through high-profile outlets such as Bass Pro Shops, Whole Foods Market and Straub's.
Two contract growers in mid-Missouri grow five varieties of peppers: Anaheim, serrano, jalapeno, habanero and cayenne.
They also buy walnuts, pecans and chestnuts from Missouri growers to use in their products.
"As much as we can, we try to source (ingredients) from Missouri farmers," said Julie Price, 41.
She and her husband, who's 61, are native Missourians, but they have lived abroad in such cities as Singapore, where they both practiced corporate law and became interested in exotic foods.
Since 1997, they have focused their energies on developing a line of condiments with no chemical additives and preservatives. Julie Price developed the condiments in her kitchen. The products, sold in 8-ounce jars with such names as Jalapeno Apple Crunch, Cayenne Serrano Serenade and Habanero Xtreme, are aimed at consumers who want foods produced in small quantities and under specific conditions.
This year the company will ship 50,000 jars to retail outlets in the United States and Canada. Last week they were in Atlanta, running demonstrations at a Whole Foods store.
Mark Price said he and his wife have invested $500,000 in their company over the last seven years, with sales doubling in 2003 over 2002. This year's sales are up 70 percent over last year's. They have three part-time employees, plus others who pitch in during the pepper harvest.
For the first time, they may pay themselves for their efforts.
"Or we may reinvest," said Mark Price. "If we do reinvest, it'll go into marketing."