Missouri Ends its Certification Program for Organic Farmers
By Repps Hudson, quotes Mary Hendrickson
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
April 13, 2005
The Missouri Department of Agriculture has eliminated its organic certification program for the state's farmers as part of a $1.9 million cut in the agency's budget for the next fiscal year.
"This is a real blow," said Andy Ayers, owner of Riddle's Penultimate Cafe & Wine Bar in University City, who serves many locally grown organic foods. "A lot of people I know have spent many volunteer hours to establish this program for the state. ... The governor (Matt Blunt) is literally kicking organic farmers in the teeth."
The state's handful of organic producers is among the fastest-growing sector in agriculture, advocates say, because of a growing demand for certified organic foods.
Ayers and other supporters of the fledgling program, which was started in August 2003, charge that eliminating organic certification will prevent more farmers from getting their vegetables, fruit, grains and livestock certified because of the higher cost for certification. The state's charge for an annual review of seeds, fertilizers, soils and other inputs was $100. Now, organic farmers will have to turn to private organizations.
"It's $500 to $1,000 and on up," said Sue Baird, the organic program coordinator whose $42,000 a year job was eliminated April 1.
Matt Boatright, deputy director of the state's agriculture department, said the discretionary part of the state's $40 million agriculture budget was about $10 million in the current fiscal year. It's being cut 20 percent. To balance the budget by the end of the 2005 fiscal year on June 30, the department cut 13 full-time positions and expects to keep another 17 unfilled.
"There was not enough money to get through '05," he said. "We're all sharing the pain. Not a single department is being spared."
But Jill Lucht, director of member services of the 1,500-member Missouri Farmers Union, said, "We feel the cuts have been targeted at small and mid-sized family operations."
She cited the recent dismissal of the state's agritourism director, who helped show farmers how they could add income to their operations by having tourist attractions. Also eliminated was the state's demonstration program for sustainable agriculture, which has helped some of the state's leading organic and natural farmers get started.
Though they are a small segment of the state's 107,000 farms, organic operations -- some as small as an acre or less -- are among the fastest growing sector in the state's agriculture economy. In 1997, about 5,000 acres were certified organic. In 2004, the total was about 33,000 acres, said Baird.
"Small farmers that rely on the Missouri state organic certification would appreciate continuity in a program that Sue Baird originated and is beneficial to them," said Julie Ridlon, a caterer and founder of the Clayton Farmers Market.
Missouri has about 30 million acres devoted to farming, according to the Census of Agriculture in 2002, the most recent available data.
Five years ago, the Census of Agriculture found 112 organic farms in Missouri that produced $979,000 worth of agricultural products. The state's farmers raised $5 billion in agricultural products of all kinds that year.
Mary Hendrickson, a rural sociologist with University of Missouri Extension, said part of the problem for the state's organic producers may be their lack of an effective lobbying presence in Jefferson City.
"The people who have an interest in organic farming are consumers, but they don't know the politics of agriculture. Things won't change until the consumers at farmers' markets have a political voice. They've got to do that," she said.