Sept/Oct 2000 LSL

When the Customer Speaks

Who needs a sales staff when you have concerned consumers?

By Brian DeVore

It’s late afternoon on a weekday in St. Paul, Minn., a time when a place called "Tim and Tom’s Speedy Market" is given a chance to live up to its name. Situated on a busy street in an upper middle class neighborhood called St. Anthony Park, the corner grocery store is a hurly-burly of activity as urbanites rushing home from work and school pick up the kind of last minute items that one can purchase, prepare and eat without giving it a second thought.

But tucked in the back of the store, past the instant mixes, the ready-to-eat items and the pre-cooked meats, right in front of the deli counter, sits a small chest freezer that represents a different way of looking at food. The Whole Farm Co-op meats housed in that freezer require consumers to think about how their food was produced and by whom. As the small typewritten card taped to the glass lid explains, these meats were produced by small family farmers using methods that are good for the environment and good for the animals. The time it takes to read that message and ponder what it means would drive many frazzled, clock-racing shoppers crazy. But some do take the time, and respond by choosing Whole Farm chicken, pork or beef over the factory farm products sitting in fancy displays just a few feet away.

And for the owners of Speedy Market, Tom Spreigl and Tim Faacks, those sustainable products produce more than ringing cash registers.

"I get a lot of comments from people thanking us for carrying Whole Farm products," says Tom. "It’s nice to be thanked instead of yelled at."

How a group of farmers got their food in one corner grocery store in the big city is a story of how teamwork, patience and timing can help win a small victory in the struggle to develop a more sustainable food system. It’s also an example of how knowing the problem isn’t good enough; one also has to have an alternative in mind.

The concerned consumer
JoAnne Rohricht is the type of consumer that is all too rare these days: she makes the connection between how food is grown, the ecological health of the land and the economic vibrancy of local communities. Rohricht knows that it’s key not only to know how that food is produced, but who is producing it. That’s why she joined a Community Supported Agriculture farm a few years ago and agreed to have her house be a drop-off site for the weekly deliveries.

"I thought, this is such a small effort as an individual," says Rohricht in her soft North Carolina drawl. "What more can I do?"

The problem
She thinks a lot about that question. So it’s no surprise it popped into Rohricht’s head one day about two years ago while poking around in the meat department of Speedy Market, which is just a few blocks up the street from her. Rohricht had been reading and hearing about the negative impact large factory livestock farms have on the environment. And she noticed that the market was carrying pork produced by Premium Standard Farms, a mega-hog company in Missouri with an abysmal environmental record. That troubled her, and she found the owners of the store, Tom Spreigl and Tim Faacks, very approachable. But Rohricht knew it would do little good to discuss the issue unless she could offer alternatives.

The opportunity
Then, about a year later, Rohricht noticed that the store was offering free-range turkey. By that time she was buying her meat through the Whole Farm Co-op, which is a group of more than 35 small farmers in central Minnesota that produce meat and other products using sustainable methods. The co-op was delivering its products once a month to the neighborhood. She thanked Spreigl for carrying the free-range turkey and asked him if he would be interested in expanding his line of natural meats.

The grocer agreed to meet with Tim King, a Long Prairie farmer who helped found Whole Farm Co-op. Spreigl says he was open to such a meeting because the free-range turkey had sold well and people in the neighborhood were already buying Whole Farm products.

Rohricht and King met with the two store owners, showed off Whole Farm Co-op’s products and got them to stock the meats on a trial basis.

"I went into the meeting without high expectations, but gosh, a week later they ordered five hundred to six hundred dollars worth of meat, which is a lot for us," says King.

That was July 1999. Speedy Market now carries Whole Farm Co-op meats, eggs, honey and maple syrup. Dawn Nye, the co-op’s sales/marketing coordinator, says Speedy bought $237 worth of food in September. That’s not going to make IBP shake in it’s slaughterhouse boots anytime soon, but it’s a way of reaching consumers who normally may not have access to local, sustainably raised food. Plus, 70 cents out of every dollar Speedy paid for the beef and pork went straight to the farmers themselves. That’s significant when you consider that in the conventional marketing, processing and distribution system, the farmers’ share of the retail food dollar is more like 20 cents.

That’s it. No fancy sales pitch. No dot com come-on. No giant dancing wieners handing out free samples. Just a quiet agreement to give a product a try and a promise on the part of the farmer to supply it on a consistent basis.

The partnership
What clinched the deal? It was a three-way partnership not often seen in today’s system of mega supermarkets, anonymous producers and consumers who take what they’re given.

Spreigl says he is often approached by shoppers who want something different. He tries to accommodate, but is not always successful. In the case of Rohricht, however, she was able to provide a source, even setting up a meeting with someone who was not only selling the stuff, but producing it. She was also able to prove that others in the community would buy the product.

King says these kinds of connections between consumers and their neighborhood retail outlets are key to family farmers trying to direct market.

"We don’t have a sales staff, so we rely on community leaders like JoAnne," says King. "It might not have worked if I would have gone in by myself."

That’s because the key to making inroads with retailers is to approach them as a customer and a salesperson. Having Rohricht approach the owners of Speedy Market provided the "customer" side of the equation. And it turns out that struck quite a cord with the owners, who pride themselves on responding to community needs. Speedy Market has more to choose from than the typical convenience store. It’s a full line grocery that’s big enough to cater to the 800 to 1,000 people who pass through the door every day, but small enough so that the owners can carry shoppers’ groceries to their cars.

Spreigl concedes that supporting sustainable agriculture is not his main incentive for stocking pasture-raised pork and free-range eggs. Indeed, the selection of conventionally produced meats dwarfs the small Whole Farm Co-op freezer. But Spreigl and Faacks know if they are to carve out a niche as a local grocer, they need to respond to local needs. That’s something they might not have been able to do five years ago, when Speedy Market was part of a chain of convenience stores. When the corporation operating the Speedy Market chain decided to get out of the business in the mid-1990s, the two (they had long worked for the chain) bought the store, and became the final decision-makers.

"You have to start out from the business angle, but when you know your customers like we do it is going to get your attention when they ask for something like this," says Spreigl. "We have a very, very strong customer base. You can’t ask for a better form of support."

Sidebar:

Sustainable catering
Matt Russell, a community organizer for the National Catholic Rural Life Conference, offers these tips on supporting local, sustainable food systems when planning meals for a conference or meeting:

• Serve the food buffet style—there’s less waste.
• Consider meat dishes that incorporate the whole animal or at least larger portions.
• Don’t assume just any chef can prepare local, whole foods.
• Draw on the wisdom of older residents and people from different ethnic groups as resources on creative uses for seasonal, local food.
• Identify local sources of food by checking out farmers’ markets, organizations that support sustainable ag or groups that advocate food security.

Sidebar:
How to Break through the retail barrier

If you’re a store customer
* Look for an "opening." Any steps a retailer is taking toward providing food that is a little off the industrial beaten path can serve as a wedge for stocking other products. For JoAnne Rohricht, it was the time Speedy Market was selling free-range turkey.

"Commend them for that, and say, ‘By the way, here’s something else you can try,’ " she says.

* If you don’t have an alternative in mind, complaining does little good. You may have to do some research first.

* Find others in your community who share your desire for food raised locally by family farmers. More requests for such food translates into actual sales for the retailer.

* Once the product is in the store, make that fact widely known. Soon after Whole Farm’s products made an appearance in Speedy Market, Rohricht wrote a letter to the local community newspaper. The letter thanked the store owners for carrying the food and explained how it differed from the other products in the store. She also explained exactly where the products could be found in the store.

If you’re a farmer
* Understand the retailer’s limitations. The product has to be available consistently, and it has to be of the best quality. For Speedy Market, one of the biggest barriers is limited shelf and freezer space.

* Have product with you when visiting the store. The retailer wants to see how it looks, and what kind of packaging it has. Some farmers even prepare a sample for tasting.

* Have a price in mind. Retailers are impressed if you know your cost of production, plus what you need to get paid on top of that to make a fair profit. And don’t use the price of conventional food as your guide. Whole Farm’s eggs are much pricier than the factory eggs carried by Speedy, but they are selling so well that Speedy orders them twice a month.

* Take a customer with you. That helps put a face on the argument that there is demand for these kinds of foods.

Sidebar:
Good news on Main Street

When the Root River Market opens in the tiny southeast Minnesota community of Houston this fall, it will mark more than the start of a new business on main street. It is the culmination of more than a year of work on the part of local citizens who were unwilling to believe their farm town was too small to support a grocery store.

The full line grocery is opening in a 7,200 square feet building that’s been empty since the town’s only grocery store closed two years ago this October. After that store left town, the town of Houston purchased the building and tried to attract larger grocery chains to the area. But bigger food retailers didn’t want to mess with a customer base of around 3,500 people. Houston itself has about 1,000 residents and the surrounding countryside adds a few thousand more. It was beginning to look like a town that once sported as many as five grocery stores at mid-century was never going to have a full service food retailer again.

But during the spring of 1999, a group of concerned citizens started a series of round-table discussions about alternative ways of bringing a grocery store to the community. When it became obvious that outside business interests weren’t interested in servicing the community, it was decided that a "cooperative" owned by residents of the community was the best way to reestablish a grocery outlet in the community, says Doris Henderson, a local dairy farmer who participated in those discussions and who now serves as chair of the eight-member Root River Market board of directors.

Eventually, 350 members of the community—farmers, town residents and rural, non-farm citizens—paid $100 each for the store’s start-up. Root River has received $135,000 in individual loans and cooperative loans, and $225,000 in commercial loans. The board of directors has also hired a manager, Tony Denstad, who has experience running a grocery store in Caledonia.

Like many modern grocery stores, it will have a delicatessen and a pharmacy (the latter service hasn’t been available in the community for more than 25 years). It will also stock mainstream items supplied by regional distributors. But in the end, the store will be what Henderson calls a "crossover store." Because it is locally owned and operated, it will be open to offering food raised right in the community. That’s important to Henderson, who has been farming in the area for more than three decades.

"Since the store is owned by the consumers, we will have more of a say in what it carries."

Henderson and others involved in Root River Market are excited about the possibilities such an option holds for supporting the local farm economy. In recent years, several area farms have begun producing and selling direct to consumers pasture raised meats and chemical-free vegetables.

There is one caveat to the store’s openness to trying local products: it has to sell. Like any retail outlet, Root River has loans to make good on and overhead to cover (it’s renting the building from the town). Henderson says local residents will need to be to educated about the importance of supporting the local food system past the back door of the grocery store. That’s a big job, but Henderson and the other owners of Root River Market never let a tough challenge keep them down.

"All the naysayers just made me want to make this work even more," she says. "Once I got started I just didn’t want to quit."

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Feeding the world isn’t a noble cause—it’s a marketing gimmick

By Dana Jackson

"We must feed the world." This familiar expression has often been used by United States Department of Agriculture officials, county extension agents, faculty of agricultural colleges, and even farmers, to give a noble purpose to their work. It has implied that without a large supply of cheap grains produced by American farmers, the world will go hungry. It has justified the focus on increasing crop yields and improving efficiency through large-scale operations at the expense of the environment, independent, family-sized farms and healthy rural communities.

Even worse, the expression is a sham. We don’t feed the world; we sell commodities to those in the world who can afford to buy them. The hungry in developing countries aren’t buying hams from Minnesota or even our corn and soybeans; most of those crops are exported for use as animal feed. Danish hams aren’t found on the table of hungry Africans or Asians either. No one can deny that the world must be fed, but the system dominated by the likes of Archer Daniels Midland—"supermarket to the world"—won’t do it.

We must feed the region. Think what it would mean if farmers and other people in the agricultural sector found a noble mission in that expression, instead of "We must feed the world." I believe that the only long-term, sustainable way to feed the world is for farmers in each region to produce as much of the food needed in that area as possible, using practices that do not degrade the land, and receiving a fair share of the money people pay for their food. I’m not suggesting total cessation of imports and exports. But people should buy a larger percentage of their food from family farmers near them.

In the last few years, many independent, family-sized farmers in the U.S. have come to realize that to make a decent living on the land, they need to quit selling commodities to this global grocery store and begin growing food to sell closer to home. They’ve succeeded in cutting production costs by substituting animal manure and nitrogen-fixing legumes for commercial fertilizer. Through crop rotations they’ve reduced pest control costs. Still, it’s been very hard to make a profit in a market that rewards bigness and industrialization while punishing small, stewardship-minded farming operations. So farmers have diversified, adding livestock or specialty crops to farming systems. Then they have looked for opportunities to sell directly to individuals, restaurants and grocers in order to capture more of the consumer dollar.

Land Stewardship Project began working with farmers in the 1980s to develop farming practices that were better for the land and more profitable for the farmer. We realized in the mid-90s that even the best stewards of the land were not going to survive economically unless they received better prices. As farmers began to focus their energies on direct marketing, LSP and similar organizations realized that we too must focus on marketing if we were to keep sustainable farmers on the land.

As all this was happening, we found ourselves using the word "food" more. "Linking Food, Land and People" is the title of LSP’s long-range plan approved in 1999, and one of the four priorities it outlines is the implementation of a sustainable food system in the Upper Midwest that benefits farmers, consumers and the land.

Both farmers and consumers on LSP’s Board of Directors urged the staff to shift some of our focus from sustainable farming practices to the marketing of healthful food harvested on sustainable farms. The board membership committee encouraged staff to emphasize the connection between good food and good farming as a way to address LSP’s mission and increase our membership.

Every year since 1994, LSP and the Minnesota Food Association have jointly published a directory of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farms in the Twin Cities area. For the last three years, we have co-sponsored a community farm festival in the spring to help farmers meet prospective shareholders. In the past, the southeast LSP office and the Sustainable Farming Association (SFA) chapter of that area have published a list of local producers selling directly to customers. In western Minnesota, LSP and the Western SFA chapter secured a grant from the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program of the USDA, which also developed a marketing focus, to pioneer Prairiefare.com, a Web site for farmers from the area marketing meat and produce directly to consumers. They also revived the Montevideo Farmers’ Market.

Many LSP members and potential members are more interested in eating food free of pesticide residues or sub-therapeutic doses of antibiotics than they are in getting a red tag special at the supermarket. LSP provides information on the sources of such food through the Stewardship Food Network. We are also helping promote the products of regional farmers under the Midwest Food Alliance label.

Efforts like this won’t feed the bank accounts of Cargill and ConAgra. But they will feed people—one region at a time.

Dana Jackson is LSP’s Associate Director

COMMENTARY

My Dad

Editor’s Note: Land Stewardship Project member Dave Serfling’s father Everett passed away last December. Dave wrote this essay for his father’s memorial service. Dave farms with his wife Diane near Preston, in southeast Minnesota.

I am here today to bury my father’s body. But his spirit lives on in heaven with Jesus and here on earth with his children. He is being honored today as a war hero, but I also like to think of him as a peace hero. After being in a POW camp for several months and losing 20 pounds, Dad had an opportunity to go work on a German farm. There he formed a lifelong friendship with the farm family whose own husband was a Russian POW at the time. They fed him and treated him well. Dad made it back to Germany five more times in his life to visit that farm family. After the war Dad had no interest in hunting. He said he had gotten so tired of carrying a gun every day during the war. And yet whenever the Legion called him to march in a parade or serve at a funeral, Dad responded because he said it was his duty.

Dad had a great life. He saw much of the world from Alaska to the Panama Canal. He came back from Australia and said if he was 20 again and just starting out, he would go there to farm with their 10-month grazing seasons and no walls needed on their barns to keep out the cold. He thought it would be farming heaven.

Dad knew how to have fun. From shaking dice to dancing, from canoeing to bus trips, from playing cards to enjoying a beer, he laughed loud and often. An avid sports fan, our family vacations consisted of a trip to a Twins game, maybe even in "The middle of the week."

Dad’s work ethic was legendary in our family. He started farming on his own from scratch and not only provided for his family, but gave his sons the opportunity to farm. I feel very fortunate that Dad and I had 19 years of farming together. It wasn’t always smooth sailing, but we depended on each other. We had fun farming together. Over the years his advice changed from "Get the work done on time and watch your money" to "make sure you take time for your church and your family." I look forward to the day when Dad and I can work together again, side by side doing God’s work in some heavenly field.

COMMENTARY

Myth Buster Box
An ongoing series on ag myths & ways of deflating them

Myth: Farming without chemicals puts a farm at higher risk of crop failure.
Fact: Once established, a chemical-free, or organic, cropping system can yield just as well as its chemical-intensive counterparts, and is often more resilient in the face of unpredictable weather. One of the most concrete examples of the resiliency of organic systems is the Rodale Institute’s Farming Systems Trial, which for almost two decades has been comparing organic and chemical agriculture on a research farm in Pennsylvania.

The trial has shown that the soil under the organic system has a better water infiltration rate and suffers less erosion. As a result, during dry weather, the organic systems produce better yields.

For example, in 1995, which was a drought year in Pennsylvania, the organic legume-based system produced 148 bushels of corn per acre, compared to 115 bushels for its chemical counterpart. Rodale recently reported similar yield discrepancies during 1999, when Pennsylvania was declared a disaster area by the USDA because of dry weather. That year, the Institute’s organic soybeans yielded 30 bushels per acre, almost twice the chemically-raised beans.

For more information on the Rodale Institute’s Farming Systems Trial, check out http://www.rodaleinstitute.org/science/home.html, or call 610-683-1437. Also, the next time you’re at the library, check out the Nov. 19, 1998, issue of the respected scientific journal Nature (vol. 396). Articles on pages 211 and 262 describe Rodale’s crops research and what it means in the struggle to develop a more sustainable agriculture.

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Farm Beginnings goes west

The popular Farm Beginnings program has expanded into western Minnesota.

Since it was launched three years ago by the Land Stewardship Project in southeast Minnesota, the Farm Beginnings program has been helping people who are looking for sustainable and innovative farming options that don’t require huge outlays of capital. Of the more than 40 people who have graduated from the program, over half have become involved in farming.

"Most people are pessimistic about the future for family farms," says Amy Bacigalupo, who coordinates the western Minnesota Farm Beginnings Program. "But this program is proving that an environmentally and economically sound future for family farms and rural communities is possible."

The program offers training through a series of sessions that will be held between November and February. Topics to be covered include: Goal Setting; Planning for the Whole Farm; Creative Financing; How to Get Started; Innovative Marketing; and Social, Environmental and Financial Monitoring.

But Farm Beginnings is more than a series of training sessions, says Bacigalupo. The foundation of the program is a mentorship component that links established farmers with course participants. This farmer-to-farmer networking has proven immensely successful in southeast Minnesota, where Farm Beginnings participants have drawn on the expertise and experience of farmers who are doing everything from management intensive rotational grazing to commercial vegetable production. Participants interact with the established farmers through field days as well as one-on-one farm visits and informal meetings.

The western Minnesota Farm Beginnings program has been developed by a local steering committee consisting of farmers, farm financial advisers and members of both the Land Stewardship Project and the Sustainable Farming Association. Steering committee member and Milan farmer Don Struxness said Farm Beginnings has the potential to launch a whole new generation of farmers in the region.

"We need to make it possible for young people—men, women and families— to be involved in farming," he says. "It’s imperative for our rural communities and even for the well-being of our state and nation to encourage and support farming methods that are good for the environment as well as people friendly."

At this writing, the southeast Minnesota Farm Beginnings class was full for 2000-2001. But there was still room in the western Minnesota class. The fee for the program is $175, which includes course materials, speakers, conferences/field day fees, refreshments and a one year complimentary LSP membership. For more information, contact Bacigalupo at 320-269-2105 or amyb@landstewardshipproject.org

Bacigalupo returns to LSP

Amy Bacigalupo has joined the Land Stewardship Project’s western Minnesota office as an organizer for the newly expanded Farm Beginnings program. Bacigalupo, along with her husband Paul Wymar, served as an LSP intern in 1996 and 1997. Since then she has worked in a rural community in Paraguay as a Peace Corps volunteer. Bacigalupo recently completed her Masters of Science in Forestry with a minor in Sustainable Agriculture at the University of Minnesota.

The LSP scoop

"The Next Wave of Farmers," a story about the Farm Beginnings program, was broadcast on Minnesota Public Radio Oct. 9. To see the script, or listen to the broadcast, log onto www.landstewardshipproject.org and click on the LSP in the News section. You can then link directly to this or any number of other news stories about the Land Stewardship Project’s programs or activities.

And if you see any news item that mention LSP and its work, please forward them to: Brian DeVore, LSP, 2200 4th Street, White Bear Lake, MN 55110; bdevore@landstewardshipproject.org

Lawsuit against MPCA heard

A lawsuit filed by a group of Fillmore County residents against the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) was heard in District Court in Preston on Sept. 25. The citizens, several of whom are Land Stewardship Project members, are asking the court to overturn the MPCA’s decision not to do an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on a controversial 500 cow dairy and 7.2 million gallon lagoon. Reiland Dairy Farms wants to build the lagoon in Forestville Township, just outside of Spring Valley (see July/August 2000 LSL).

The MPCA’s decision not to do an EIS was especially controversial in light of the numerous experts who are calling for the study. Among those calling for an EIS were the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and the state’s leading karst expert, Calvin Alexander of the University of Minnesota. Karst geography is made up of limestone formations characterized by sinkholes, ravines and underground streams, and is recognized throughout the world as a hazardous area for storing toxic materials.

"We wouldn’t have taken this to court if it wasn’t clear that the MPCA had failed to follow its own rules," says Jan Poldervaard, an LSP member and one of the citizens who is party to the suit. "But it’s sad that this is what it takes to get the MPCA to protect the rural environment."

To see documents and other articles related to the Reiland Dairy proposal, go to the Press Releases section.

An exciting new initiative for promoting food produced by local farmers using sustainable methods took a giant step this fall when the Midwest Food Alliance launched a one-year test market in Minnesota.

A joint effort of the Land Stewardship Project, Cooperative Development Services and the Organic Alliance, the Midwest Food Alliance label was kicked-off during a "Natural Harvest Weekend" in mid-October at Kowalski’s Markets in St. Paul and Coborn’s stores in St. Cloud.

This fall, apples are being featured under the labeling program. It is hoped that more products will be added to the label once the certification, processing and distribution system is expanded.

Jim Ennis, Project Director for the Midwest Food Alliance, says such a label will make it possible for conscientious consumers to support the kind of farming they favor.

"Research has shown that consumers want to support environmentally-friendly growing practices and local farmers, but they can’t always recognize those products in their supermarket," he says. "Our program will help them make that connection."

In order to receive Midwest Food Alliance (MWFA) approval, farms must undergo a rigorous third-party inspection process. Ray Kirsch, an LSP staffer who is the Alliance’s Farm Coordinator, worked with LSP farmer-members and others to develop a set of certification guidelines. The MWFA standards are based on what farmers are doing to: conserve and protect natural resources; reduce or eliminate pesticides; eliminate hormones and antibiotic use in animals; and provide safe and fair working conditions for employees.

The Midwest Food Alliance is hoping to duplicate the success of a program initiated in the Pacific Northwest by the Oregon-based Food Alliance. The Food Alliance launched its program in March 1998 with only a handful of farmers and retail partners. Today, 40 Food Alliance farmers offer 200 varieties of fruits and vegetables in more than 500 retail outlets.

This July, the Food Alliance and the Midwest Food Alliance agreed to work together to promote regionally produced foods. As the Midwestern program is developed and expands, they plan to join forces on a national campaign.

Dennis Courtier, who owns an orchard near Lake City, Minn., has received Midwest Food Alliance certification for his apples. He says the interest generated by the MWFA label will have a positive impact on other efforts to promote the consumption of local, sustainable food.

"This program will get people thinking about where their food comes from and how they can make a difference by buying food that has been raised in an environmentally-friendly way."

On Saturdays from now until December, promotions of the new label will be held at the Kowalski’s stores between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. LSP members have volunteered to help hand out samples and talk about the importance of supporting local, sustainable food systems.

For more information on the Midwest Food Alliance, contact Jim Ennis at 651-265-3684, or Ray Kirsch at 651-653-0618. You can also learn more about the program by checking out the Food & Farm Connections section.

SIDEBAR

Where to find it

Locations of stores carrying Midwest Food Alliance products:

Kowalski’s Markets
o White Bear Lake, 4391 S. Lake
o St. Paul, 1261 Grand Ave.
o Woodbury, 8505 Valley Creek Rd.
o Inver Grove Heights, 7850 Cahill Ave.
Coborn’s stores
o Sauk Rapids, 110 1st St.
o St. Cloud, 327 5th Ave. S.
o St. Cloud, 2118 8th St. N.
o Sartell, 707 1st Ave. N.

Policy—Called up to the big leagues

By Brad DeVries

Just like Major League baseball players, good policy ideas seldom stride into the glare of stadium lights in their rookie season. A young pitcher will have gone through a rigorous apprenticeship of farm team road trips; for a grassroots agriculture policy idea, it’s a similar long journey through countless discussions among allies, hundreds of hours of listening to farmers and others, and dozens of meetings with elected officials. Sometimes it can be difficult to put your whole heart into some of the "minor league" meetings, but that dedication proves its worth when the call comes to take your idea into the national limelight. This fall, one of our biggest and best ideas got the call to the Big Leagues. Our ideas on stewardship incentives for farmers make up the heart of the Conservation Security Act, which at this writing was slated to be introduced into Congress in late October by Minnesota Representative David Minge and Iowa Senator Tom Harkin.

"Not only does this bill represent the next generation of conservation programs, but it’s the very first one that puts sustainable ag front and center, and offers the top benefits to exactly the sorts of farmers we work with every day," says Ferd Hoefner, Washington Representative for the Sustainable Agriculture Coalition.

Indeed, the central provisions of the bill include items we have backed for years. Farmers who are currently doing a good job, and thus producing real environmental benefits, would be eligible for payments. The Act also recognizes the importance of good stewardship on working land; any land affected by the Conservation Security Act would be open to sustainable economic use. But good policy like this doesn’t happen overnight.

Supporting farmers who make stewardship of the land a central goal of their operations has been a longtime pursuit of the sustainable ag movement. Whether under the name "green payments" or other titles, we have spent more than a decade promoting the idea of stewardship incentives in farmer meetings, position statements and face-to-face talks with legislators.

In early 1999, the Land Stewardship Project took the initiative to bring a dozen farmers from Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois and Nebraska to Washington, D.C., to hammer out a policy proposal to present to members of the U.S. House and Senate, and to officials at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. They ended up producing the "Farming Results Index," (FRI) a cohesive outline of a program that would dramatically alter federal farm policy to support farmers whose farming practices show measurable environmental, economic, and social benefits in the communities around them. Well received in D.C, the FRI became the centerpiece of discussions on stewardship incentives within the Midwest Sustainable Agriculture Working Group, the National Campaign for Sustainable Agriculture, and other farming groups.

Along the way, the idea and its advocates caught the attention of several important policy-makers. When Senator Harkin decided to move ahead with his proposal for a Conservation Security Act, he and his staff knew right where they would find the expertise they needed to flesh out the proposal. SAC’s Hoefner played a central role in helping conceptualize the bill. He also coordinated input from key sustainable ag and farm groups.

The Conservation Security Act would establish three tiers of practices, with higher levels of payments for increased attention to conservation goals; at any level, farms would have to be in compliance with existing highly erodible land and wetland conservation requirements. Tier One participants would agree to address priority resource concerns on all or part of their operations with a variety of conservation practices. Tier Two would require more attention to the stewardship needs of the whole farm, and employ practices like resource conserving crop rotations that may be more difficult to establish. Tier Three farms would fully embrace the concept of whole farm resource management and conservation.

Farmers would sign a contract that includes their conservation security plans for five years in Tier One, and five or 10 years in Tiers Two and Three. These contracts would outline the stewardship measures a farmer will be using, as well as the compensation he or she will receive. The Act will allow sustainable economic use of any land enrolled in the program and will, to the extent possible, include quantifiable conservation goals.

While shaping our ideas into legislative language that will be introduced in the Senate is quite gratifying, it’s hardly time to congratulate ourselves on victory. Just like a ballplayer called up to "The Show," the work gets even harder when we are playing on a national policy stage. It’s time to redouble our efforts in those farmer meetings and talks with legislators. After all, now our idea is playing in the Big Leagues.

Brad DeVries is a Land Stewardship Project staff member based in Washington, D.C.

To learn more about the Conservation Security Act, contact Mark Schultz, LSP’s Policy Director, by calling 612-722-6377.

Policy—Farmers vote to end pork checkoff

By Mike McMahon

It’s been a long time in the making, but in August and September hog farmers finally cast their ballots to end the mandatory pork checkoff. The ballots will not be counted until November 29 (10 weeks after the last votes were cast). The results will be announced in December.

But just the fact that this referendum was held at all is a major victory for the Land Stewardship Project and other member-organizations of the Campaign for Family Farms.
The mandatory pork checkoff is a tax that is paid by hog farmers every time they sell a hog. Nearly a million dollars a week is collected through the checkoff and almost all of it goes to the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC).

The NPPC is supposed to use the funds for pork promotion and research. However, increasingly the funds have been used to promote the industrialization of the pork industry. The NPPC, along with state affiliates such as the Minnesota Pork Producers Association, have become a powerful force that lobbies to weaken environmental and corporate farm laws.

Over the past several years it has become clear that the NPPC has forgotten that its mission is to work for the benefit of independent producers who founded the organization. Hog farmer members of LSP and the Campaign for Family Farms were tired of their money going to fund an organization that was working against them and rural communities across the country. We knew if we were going to be effective at building a system of livestock agriculture that benefits family farms, rural communities and the environment, we had to diminish the NPPC’s power.

Ending the mandatory pork checkoff through a referendum of hog farmers provided us with an excellent opportunity to challenge the NPPC. It gave us a platform to address critical issues in the hog industry and expose the NPPC as an ally of agribusiness corporations. And through this referendum campaign, we were able to communicate and work with thousands of hog farmers across the country who we previously had not been in contact with.

After collecting the signatures of nearly 20 percent of the nation’s hog farmers—more than enough to mandate a referendum according to the law—and battling both the NPPC and the USDA, LSP and the Campaign finally got the government to set a date for the vote.

Farmer meetings were held throughout the Midwest to plan how to get enough hog producers to vote to end the checkoff. This was not an easy task. The NPPC had $4 million dollars to spend on the referendum (40 times more money than the Campaign for Family Farms) and far more staff working on the vote.

But what we have always had, and the NPPC cannot match, is our members—and LSP members produced. They made calls to hog farmers, delivered and put up yard signs, wrote letters to the editor, contacted their local media about covering the issue, tracked voting in their counties, and did whatever else needed to get done to win this vote.

The NPPC tried everything to stop this vote, including getting its allies in Congress to authorize an investigation into how the decision to hold the referendum was made. They were hoping the investigation would cast doubt on how the signatures were collected and whether Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman has the authority to call for a vote. U.S. Representative Gil Gutknecht was the only member of the Minnesota Congressional delegation to sign a letter requesting the investigation.

The investigation, which was conducted by the General Accounting Office (GAO), backfired on the NPPC and its allies. The GAO found that USDA grossly mishandled the petition process, that Glickman did indeed have the authority to call for a vote, and that checkoff funds (not taxpayer dollars) must be used to pay for the checkoff referendum. In other words, we were right and the NPPC was wrong.

To everyone who helped during the two and a half years of the mandatory pork checkoff referendum campaign, we thank you. You should be proud of what you have accomplished.

Remember, the most important goal of the referendum was to diminish the power of the NPPC. To a large degree we’ve already accomplished that without winning the vote.

Nearly 100 hog farmers who worked on the checkoff have become new members of LSP, and several hundred more of them have made phone calls to USDA or their congressional representatives about the checkoff.

Hog farmers who were involved with the checkoff referendum continue to work with LSP and join the organization. In the next two years, we are planning to involve 500 to 1,000 of these farmers in at least one LSP event which may include a field day, seminar, meeting, rally or direct action. They are ready to take action on other issues they are concerned about, including concentration in agriculture and environmental problems created by factory farms.

That’s why, no matter what happens in December, we can already count the mandatory pork checkoff referendum campaign as a victory for LSP, family farms, rural communities and the environment.

Mike McMahon is an LSP Policy Program organizer. He can be reached at 612-722-6377.

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Host your own Local Foods Dinner
Promote Local Food & LSP at the same time

We are looking for 10 Land Stewardship Project members to host Local Foods Dinners between now and next June. In promoting these dinners, we have two goals in mind: 1) to educate and engage people in the issues of food and land stewardship, and 2) to expand our membership base by introducing new people to LSP’s work.

Purchasing food grown by sustainable farmers in your area for events or for your own private consumption is an important way to support the health of rural communities and local ecosystems. Inviting people to a meal is also a great way to get them involved.

There are many variations to the general theme of a local foods dinner. The dinner can be big, small or in-between; formal or informal. It can be held in your home, at your church, on your farm, in a local community center, inside or outside. We expect each dinner will be unique but here are a few ideas to get you started thinking:

•Invite 10 of your closest friends to an intimate dinner in your home or 20 of your neighbors to a backyard barbecue.
•Get your church to hold a local foods potluck for the whole congregation.
•Hold a local foods festival on your farm and invite your direct-marketing customers or CSA members.
•Include local food and information about LSP in an event you are already planning.

If you think good food and lively conversation for a good cause sound fun, give me a call at 651-653-0618 or e-mail me at cathye@landstewardshipproject.org. We’ll send you a "Local Foods Dinner" guide and do whatever we can to help with planning and promoting the event.

LSP Membership Coordinator Cathy Eberhart wrote about the difficulties of "stewardship shopping" in the December 1999 issue of the Land Stewardship Letter.

Ways for LSP members to get more involved

Computer donations
If you upgrade your computer in the near future and need a new home for your old computer, consider donating it to LSP. We can use Pentium I 200 Mhz or faster. Call Cathy or Margie at 651-653-0618 for more details.

Grocery store food demos
The Midwest Food Alliance (formerly "Food Choices") has launched its eco-label in grocery stores in the St. Paul and St. Cloud areas. This project, which is a cooperative effort of the Land Stewardship Project, Cooperative Development Services and the Organic Alliance will be test marketing sustainably raised food in Kowalski’s Markets in St. Paul and Coborn’s in the St. Cloud area. The kick-off was Oct. 14 with store promotions continuing through Dec. 2. We need your help to make these promotions possible. We are looking for volunteers to spend part of a Saturday in one of these grocery stores demonstrating products. Call Cathy or Ray at 651-653-0618 if you are interested in volunteering. Your time will make all the difference in the success of this program.

Local foods recipes
We are looking for great recipes that include locally grown, sustainably-raised foods to feature on our Web page in the Food & Farm Connections section. Please submit them to Margie by e-mail at cathye@landstewardshipproject.org or by regular mail at 2200 4th Street, White Bear Lake, MN 55110.

LSP gallery seeks artists
Our soon to be revealed new Web page will include a "gallery" of artists, poets, writers, photographers, etc., whose work gives us inspiration about our connection with the land. Please contact Margie at cathye@landstewardshipproject.org or 651-653-0618 if you’d like your work to be considered or if you know of an artist who we should contact.

Workplace giving
The Land Stewardship Project is a proud member of the.Minnesota Environmental Fund (www.mnenvirofund.org). You can support LSP in your workplace by giving through the Fund. If your employer does not provide this opportunity, ask the person in charge of workplace giving in your office to include it. For more information, contact Katie at LSP’s Twin Cities office by calling 651-653-0618 or e-mailing kperson@landstewardshipproject.org

Thank you LSP members—The McKnight Match was a success

By Katie Person Zerebeski

We are happy to announce that the McKnight Match was a tremendous success. Not only did we meet the goal of raising $75,000, we exceeded it! In fact, we actually raised $87,000—a first in the Land Stewardship Project’s history of major donor fund-raising.

This success, in turn, led to another great opportunity. One of our members used a generous donation to match some of the money we raised above the original McKnight grant. In all, LSP will receive $167,000 as a result of the McKnight Match.

Inspiring gifts
The success of the McKnight Match belongs to you, our members. It is because of your generous spirit that $87,000 was raised in gifts over $200.

As the gifts toward the Match came in, we found ourselves inspired by your commitment and passion. One woman wrote that she was giving to the McKnight Match, "not because I’m rolling in money but because I believe deep in my heart and soul that LSP is doing essential work in trying to change the way business is done. We need to support sustainable farmers and provide healthy options for both them and consumers."

Another member sent a letter with his gift commenting that, "farmers are giving up, quitting, or on a destruction path of expansion that will ultimately fail because the connection to the land and the animals is lost... however, there are still organizations like yours out there, and people who do care. And as long as there are it gives hope to all the farmers and rural people who believe in the ideas that Land Stewardship represents."

These statements exemplify your belief in the need to protect our land, to see sustainable family farms thrive, to make our rural communities strong and vital, to have healthy food choices available to all, and to have all this be a part of our children’s future.

Thank you for your generosity and commitment to the work LSP does to encourage responsible stewardship of our land and communities. Without you, our dedicated members, our important work would not be possible.

How did the match work?
Some may be curious about the background of this matching opportunity. The Match is the result of a grant we received from the McKnight Foundation. McKnight challenged LSP to raise $75,000 which they would match dollar- for-dollar. The purpose of this grant was to encourage LSP to diversify our funding base by increasing support from individuals. The McKnight Foundation felt that we were moving positively toward strengthening the future of the Land Stewardship Project when we created our 1999-2004 Long Range Plan. In the Long Range Plan, we set ambitious goals for increasing our membership and the amount of support we receive from individuals. In order to encourage these goals, the McKnight Foundation awarded us the matching grant.

The criteria for the match were set in order to encourage new and increased gifts of $200 or more. In order for a gift to be matched, an individual needed to either give a gift of $200 or more for the first time or, if they already had given $200 or more to LSP, they needed to increase the amount of their largest gift. McKnight was willing to match all new gifts of $200 or more and the difference between a previous gift and the increased gift for people giving $200 or more.

Meeting the McKnight Match signifies an important step for LSP. By increasing our donor support we broaden our funding base and strengthen our organization. Strong financial support from our members allows us to develop programs that may not otherwise be funded by foundation or government grants and to expand successful programs.

Next steps
We must now continue our efforts to diversify funding and increase membership gifts. The Match showed just how committed LSP members are. We urge you to continue to give above the membership level. Of course, all gifts are important and appreciated.

We also promise to look for opportunities to make the most of your support. While we hope to secure future grants that match your gift dollars, consider how you can present a challenge or match with a gift of your own. You may choose to give LSP 50 cents for every dollar raised, up to a set goal, or you may choose to give a gift and challenge others to match it. This is a great way to support LSP and encourage others to do so as well.

We celebrate the success of the McKnight Match. Once again, THANK YOU to all who helped us reach this important goal.

Katie Person Zerebeski is LSP’s Development Associate. She can be reached at 651-653-0618 or kperson@landstewardshipproject.org

The Minnesota Environmental Action Network is a free grassroots conservation network that will alert you via e-mail about important Minnesota environmental issues and connect you to key government offices. The Land Stewardship Project is part of this network and can make use of it for our own action alerts.

Once you sign up you will receive no more than 12 e-mails annually about crucial environmental decisions being made in Minnesota.

To sign up, go to LSP’s homepage. If you are outside Minnesota, you can sign up with your own state network by going to www.voteenvironment.org and going to the state resources section.

•NOV. 10-11 — National Catholic Rural Life Conference Jubilee for the Agricultural World National Meeting, (featuring a workshop led by LSP Executive Director George Boody), Bloomington, Minn.; Contact: 515-270-2634
•NOV. 10-12 — Tri-State Fall Harvest Retreat for Women in Sustainable Agriculture, Good Earth Village, Spring Valley, Minn.; Contact: Stacey Brown, 712-243-3264; neha_stacey@hotmail.com
•NOV. 14 — First class for Western Minnesota Farm Beginnings program, Montevideo, Minn.; Contact: Amy Bacigalupo, LSP, 320-269-2105;.amyb@landstewardshipproject.org
•NOV. 17-18 — Midwest Sustainable Agriculture Working Group meeting, Eagle Bluff Environmental Learning Center, Lanesboro, Minn.; Contact: Dana Jackson, LSP, 651-653-0618, or March Schultz, LSP, 612-722-6377.
•NOV. 18 — In-store demonstrations of Midwest Food Alliance products, volunteers needed; Contact: Ray or Cathy at LSP’s Twin Cities office for more information, 651-653-0618.
•NOV. 30-DEC. 1 — Food & the Soul: Relationship & Renewal, College of St. Catherine, St. Paul, Minn.; Contact: 651-690-8830; www.stkate.edu/wisdomways
•DEC. 2 — In-store demonstrations of Midwest Food Alliance products, volunteers needed; Contact: Ray or Cathy at LSP’s Twin Cities office for more information, 651-653-0618
•DEC. 4-6 — Managing the Organic Beef/Dairy Herd, Minneapolis, Minn.; Contact: 1-800-355-5313; info@acresusa.com
•DEC. 6 — Monthly Land Stewardship Project Brown Bag Discussion, noon, LSP office, Lewiston, Minn.; Contact: 507-523-3366.
•DEC. 7-9 — Acres USA Conference, Minneapolis, Minn.; Contact: 1-800-355-5313; www.acresusa.com
•DEC. 15 — Deadline to Apply for Sustainable Ag Grants from the Minnesota Department of Agriculture; Contact: Wayne Monsen, 651-282-2261; Wayne.Monsen@state.mn.us.; www.mda.state.mn.us
•WINTER — Sustainable Farming Systems Programs in the Sand Creek Watershed, south of Minneapolis, Minn.; Contact: Caroline van Schaik, LSP, 651-653-0618; caroline@landstewardshipproject.org
•JAN. 3 — Monthly Land Stewardship Project Brown Bag Discussion Series, noon, LSP office, Lewiston, Minn.; Contact: 507-523-3366
•JAN. 12-13 — Holistic Management course, Lanesboro, Minn.; Contact: Karen Stettler, LSP, 507-523-3366; stettler@landstewardshipproject.org
•JAN. 16 — LSP’s Dana Jackson will speak on sustainable agriculture at winter meeting of American Association of University Women, St. Paul, Minn.
•JAN. 18-20 — Wisconsin School for Beginning Market Gardeners, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Contact: 608-265-3704; jhendric@facstaff.wisc.edu
•JAN. 19-21 — Southern Sustainable Agriculture Working Group 10th Annual Conference & Trade Show, Chattanooga, Tenn.; Contact: 225-654-2017; tonihawk@tlxnet.net
•JAN. 27 — Local Food Systems Conference, Iowa City, Iowa; Contact: 515-232-5649 or 515-495-6367.
•JAN. 31-FEB.1 — Minnesota Grazing Conference, Morton; Contact: 507-237-5162.
•FEB. 1 — Governing GMOs: Developing Policy in the Face of Scientific & Public Debate, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Contact: 888-671-6214; www.conferences.umn.edu/mn/policy/
•FEB. 1-3 — Upper Midwest Regional Fruit & Vegetable Growers Conference & Trade Show, St. Cloud, Minn.; Contact: 763-434-0400
•FEB. 2 — Application Deadline for grant proposals to the USDA’s Sustainable Agriculture Research & Education program (north central region); Contact: 402-472-7081; www.sare.org/ncrsare
•FEB. 2-4 — Northern Plains Sustainable Agriculture Society’s Winter Conference, Aberdeen, S. Dak.; Contact: 701-883-4304; www.npsas.org
•FEB. 8-9 — Minnesota Organic Conference, St. Cloud; Contact: 507-237-5162
•FEB. 24 — Sustainable Farming Association of Minnesota’s 10th Annual Conference, St. John’s University, St. Cloud, Minn.; Contact: 320-598-3010 or 218-445-5475; deebilek@wcta.net

Check the Calendar for the latest on upcoming LSP events.

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