Virtual Montana Organic Conference

Conference Zoom Link

Montana Organic Conference Zoom Link

Providing adequate nutrition to an organic crop is top of mind for any farmer. In this session, we will discuss tried and true practices for providing ample fertility to field crops. From crop rotation, to cover crops, we’ll even touch on compost. We will also introduce OATS - the Organic Agronomy Training Service - a new program that trains agronomists, advisors, and technical consultants in organic production, so that farmers can access much needed support.

OATS, the Organic Agronomy Training Service, is a collaboratively-managed training program for agricultural professionals working with organic or transitioning farmers in the United States. This hybrid virtual/in-person training will be offered in Montana in 2022.

Session Sponsored by Montana Gluten Free - https://www.montanaglutenfree.com

Nutrient Management CEUs: 1
Professional Development CEUs: 0.5

CCA Credits Available - Contact Gary Iverson for more information. giverson@montanaglutenfree.com

Montana Organic Association 2021 Policy ProposalsNOVEMBER 4, 2021

MOA is a 501 (c) 6 trade association that has a broad ability to voice its opinion on issues, including legislation. Foundational to this work is putting policy proposals before the membership to direct this work. In order to make your voice heard by voting on the proposals, you must be a current MOA member in order to have an electronic email sent to you. All MOA memberships renew on December 1, 2021. Please be sure your membership is active. Renew MOA Membership

If you would like to know more about the issues, policy discussions will take place on Monday, November 29 at 7 pm. Please register for the Montana Organic Conference to gain access to this virtual meeting. The following proposals have been forwarded for MOA membership considerations.

Farming Practices
Hydroponics

1. MOA supports the USDA Organic Production and Food Act provision that requires organic to be a production system that fosters the cycling of resources, promotes ecological balance and conserves biodiversity.
2. MOA supports the USDA Organic Crop Standard that requires that soil fertility and crop nutrients will be managed through tillage and cultivation practices, crop rotations, and cover crops, supplemented with animal and crop waste materials and allowed synthetic materials.
3. MOA opposes certification of hydroponic operations as organic.

Paperpots

4. MOA accepts the current use of paperpots but encourages the expeditious development of (a) non-synthetic alternative(s) to synthetic glue or other disallowed materials.

Biodegradable Mulch

5. MOA supports research that develops readily accessible biodegradable mulch that does not compromise USDA organic certification.

Ammonia Extracts

6. MOA supports the prohibition of ammonia extracts in the USDA Certified Organic Program.

Crop Insurance

7. MOA supports that all farming practices included in Organic System Plans of USDA Certified Organic producers be recognized as ’good farming practices’ by the USDA Risk Management Agency and all crop insurance companies selling federally approved crop and livestock policies.

Fair markets  

8. MOA supports Country of Origin labeling on all agricultural and food products sold in the U.S.
9. MOA supports competitive markets for agriculture and food products through policies that reduce current and future consolidation, limit mergers, redirect food and farmer subsidies toward local producers, and encourage local economic resilience by building regional food systems that support local producers and processors, and distributors and communities.

 Beginning Farmer and Rancher

10. MOA supports including components that include organic production in all technical, financial, and marketing assistance efforts to help existing organic, conventional, beginning, and underserved farmers expand and/or convert to organic production.
11. MOA supports efforts to provide continuing education on the benefits of organic farming systems.

BIPOC Issues

12. MOA supports efforts to recognize and begin to address current and historic institutional conditions and circumstances that have created an agriculture and food system in which there are inequities based on race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religion, and other discriminatory factors.

Environment and Climate

13. MOA supports the rights of farmers and farmworkers to avoid exposure to agricultural chemicals.
14. MOA resolves that organic farming systems are best equipped to build resilience and mitigate the negative impacts of agriculture on the global climate.

Join Jeff Schahczenski, Program Specialist with the National Center for Appropriate Technology (NCAT) and Claire Lafave, Manager of Client Strategy with Native Energy for brief presentations of their work with carbon credits followed by a discussion of the opportunities and limitations for Montana producers. Bring your questions about carbon credits.

Schahczenski: Carbon Credit Schemes: Who Benefits?
Current schemes to pay farmers to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) and sequester soil carbon are varied, confusing and potentially of little benefit to organic farmer and ranchers. These schemes are not carbon markets, but rather offers by private entities usually through intermediaries to provide carbon offsets for their GHG emissions. Organic farmers and ranchers must be willing to make long-term, or even permanent, changes in not only practices but perhaps whole systems of production. These changes also need to be verified that they result in true offsets of GHG emissions and/or increase in soil carbon sequestration. The issues of verifiability, permanence, and additionality are critical to the success of agriculture’s role in being a part of a truly national carbon market and in the ultimate reduction of GHG emissions and increased carbon sequestration. To date, it is not clear nor certain that such efforts will lead to lasting change that can have significant impact on climate disruption.

Dr. Jones will describe organic nutrient management challenges, as well as specific soil fertility research results from Montana and the region.

Nutrient Management CEUs: 1

CCA Credits Available - Contact Gary Iverson for more information. giverson@montanaglutenfree.com

CCA Credits Available - Contact Gary Iverson for more information. giverson@montanaglutenfree.com

Montana endured an extraordinary year of extreme drought, extreme temperatures, grasshoppers, smoke, and fire. Join this session to learn the latest news on grasshoppers from Gary Adams, State Plant Health Director, Montana, USDA - APHIS and the latest news on Montana's Drought Management Plan from Michael Downey, Water Planning Section Supervisor, Montana Department of Natural Resources & Conservation.

Rangeland Grasshopper Presentation.

• Species identification.
• Survey and density assessment methodology.
• Suppression options (including USDA program).
• 2021 actions and 2022 outlook.
• Environmental consideration.

Mixed Signals – Evaluating Drought Conditions in Montana

• Brief summary of the 2021 drought and antecedent conditions leading to it.
• The 2021 drought in context of some other recent droughts.
• Drought indicators used to evaluate conditions in Montana
• Drought Information – Where to find the most accurate and up to date info
• Drought reporting – How you can help
• Updating Montana’s Drought Management Plan.

Integrated Pest Management CEUs: 1

CCA Credits Available: Contact Gary Iverson at giverson@montanaglutenfree.com

Organic growers have contended with weed problems by use of cover crops, tilling, and other management practices . Nonetheless, certain weeds are very difficult to control, be it for an organic farmer or a traditional farmer. Over more decades than I like to admit, our group has finally found out why most plant diseases may attack weeds, but few plant diseases do the job of adequate weed control. We found that plant diseases generally kill at the 20-40% level , leaving the majority of a weed patch for next year. However, weeds have a weakness. We found a way to select for weed pathogens that excrete amino acids and these selected strains have a real damaging effect on the weed population. We first found this out with hound's tongue weed and then shifted to Striga (toothpickproject.org) in Africa. There, we by using this virulence enhancement technology, were able to deliver a registered and commercially available bioherbicide to kill Striga (their worst weed). This bioherbicide, chemical free approach has taken off now to other countries where Striga (witchweed) is also a limiting factor for subsistence farmers. Now with support from a group of organic farmers (OAEC) and the Montana Department of Agriculture SCBG (USDA) and Montana State University (in a grant with 2 years to go), we are in the process of developing bioherbicides for Canada Thistle and Field Bindweed. We have some effective strains of fungi (greenhouse tested) and are proceeding with enhancing their virulence for next year's field season. This work is being done in our lab by Elizabeth D'Imperio and Dr. Suha Elhag (a postdoc from Sudan). We will also present our work on improving the nutritional value of crops grown in Montana and other work that may be of interest to organic farmers.

Integrated Pest Management CEUs: 1
Professional Development CEUs: 0.5

CCA Credits Available - Contact Gary Iverson for more information. giverson@montanaglutenfree.com

What are linkages of agriculture to human and environmental wellbeing? Is organic produce more delicious and nutritious than conventional produce? A multifaceted challenge of the Anthropocene is supporting healthy diets while conserving ecological resources in socially acceptable ways. At present, poor diets are the leading risk factor of the global burden of disease. Concurrently, food production places greater stress on ecosystems than any other human activity while being critically dependent on multiple ecosystem services including water, soil fertility, pollination, and climate regulation. These food system challenges are exacerbated by global change with notable consequences for human and environmental wellbeing. This presentation will outline global trends of food systems transitions and associated implications for sustainability. We will review the evidence of the implications of agricultural practices for planetary health with a focus on organic agriculture. Evidence will further be presented on the relationship of agricultural management, phytochemistry, and sensory profiles of crops.

This session will discuss a USDA Organic Research and Extension Initiative (OREI) Project funded to explore integrated weed management of Canada thistle and field bindweed on organic farms in Montana. Results of one study on control of field bindweed, and an on ongoing project focused primarily on Canada thistle, will be presented. The focus of the session will range from how cropping practices, including integrated crop-livestock systems, affect growth of both creeping perennial weeds. We are hoping to share some preliminary economics of the various managment strategies. The session will conclude with panelists answering questions you have about the project or about anything related to Canada thistle and field bindweed management. We need to hear from you about the project and are hoping that you can attend!

Integrated Pest Management CEUs: 1
Crop Management CEUs: 0.5

CCA Credits Available - Contact Gary Iverson for more information. giverson@montanaglutenfree.com

What it is self-care? *The challenges we face as rural farmers and ranchers *How burnout impacts our lives and work *Touch on depression/anxiety *Strategies to immediately make a difference *Ways to reach out*

Helen has worked for 35 years to connect farming, food systems, land stewardship, and conservation. She currently farms and does no-till soil- and natural enemies habitat- building research on her 211-acre organic farm in Eastern Oregon. For many years, she worked for MSU Extension out of the Missoula office. Reconnect with Helen for this engaging and inspiring session.

Adaptive management that relies on keen observations and adjustments of agricultural practices to spatial and temporal variability is fundamental to farming without synthetic inputs. Bringing science to management under organic constraints where ecologically complex interactions occur has historically been difficult because it required a long history of farmer observations reliant on a trial and error paradigm of discovery. The only effective organic farmer would be one with a long history of trying different practices on the same landscape and observing the response. Perhaps the situation has changed with the massive amount of data (observations) that can be brought to understanding agroecosystems, the ability to efficiently conduct experiments and to rapidly gain insights specific to each field seems to give us an enormous boost to apply a science based adaptive management paradigm. However, from the current vantage point, precision agriculture which applies technology to achieve adaptive management, looks like the logical endpoint of industrial agriculture where knowledgeable humans are taken off the food production assembly line. How do we take advantage of the new ability to gain rapid insights, but not lose the farmer, rural communities and life in the process?

Integrated Pest Management CEUs: 0.5
Crop Management CEUs: 1
CCA Credits Available - Contact Gary Iverson for more information. giverson@montanaglutenfree.com

Every year, Montana's organic community recognizes those individuals for their extraordinary leadership and commitment to organic agriculture and food. Selection of the awardees is made by those previously recognized. Anyone can submit a nomination. Despite the virtual format, this tradition carries on! Join in to see who will be recognized this year with the Lifetime of Service Award and the Leadership in Organics Award.

The “Lifetime of Service” award goes to an organic producer, handler, retailer, researcher, service provider (or other) who has demonstrated a long-term commitment to organic agriculture in Montana.

Previous Recipients of the Lifetime of Service Award

• Robert Boettcher (2005)
• Barry Flamm (2006)
• Bob Quinn (2007)
• David Oien (2008)
• Jim Barngrover (2009)
• Laughing Water (2010)
• Steve and Cindy Baril (2011)
• Russ Salisbury & Elsie Tuss (2012)
• Judy Owsowitz (2013)
• Becky Weed (2014)
• Wes Henthorne(2015)
• Ric and Dawn Blair (2016)
• Randy Hinebauch (2017)
• Jane Kile (post-humous, 2018)
• Dr. Jim Sims (post-humous, 2018)
• Melvyn and Susan Brown (2019)
• Ernie Harvey (2020).

A “Leadership in Organics” award goes to an organic producer, handler, retailer, researcher, service provider (or other) who demonstrates an on-going commitment to advancing the adoption, practice, and success of organic agriculture in Montana.

Previous  Recipients of the Leadership in Organics Award

• Margaret Scoles (2005)
• Jon Tester (2006)
• Jonda Crosby (2007)
• Mikel & Nancy Lund (2008)
• Jon & Amy Kvaalen (2009)
• Andre’ Giles (2010)
• Nancy Matheson (2011)
• Dave & Dee Turner (2012)
• Jeff Schahczenski (2013)
• Daryl and Linda Lassila (2014)
• Ole Norgaard (2015)
• Connie Poten and Andy Sponseller (2016)
• Kristina “Kiki” Hubbard (2017)
• Matt and Sonja Johnson (2018)
• Bruce Maxwall (2019)
• Ty O'Connor (2020).

Requires separate Zoom registration.
Contact Jamie: jamieryanlockman@gmail.com for meeting link.