ABERDEEN GROUP

ANNIES, INC

ANNIES, INC

CAL-ORGANIC FARMS

CCOF ORGANIC CERTIFIER

CENTER FOR INTEGRATED AG SYSTE

CHANTERELLE CATERING

CHARLIE’S PRODUCE

CLIF BAR & COMPANY

CLOVER STORNETTA FARMS

CORVUS BLUE

DPI SPECIALTY FOODS

DRAKE UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF LAW

DRISCOLL’S STRAWBERRY ASSOCIATES

EARTHBOUND FARM

FARM AID

FOOD DEMOCRACY NOW

FOOD TRADE SUSTAINABILITY LEADERSHIP

FRIENDS OF THE EARTH

GENERAL MILLS

GLOBAL ID GROUP

INSTITUTE FOR FOOD & AG STANDANDS

KING CORN & THE GREENING OF SOUTHY

KROGER

LUNDBERG FAMILY FARMS

MARRONE BIO INNOVATIONS

MARY’S GONE CRACKERS

MCKNIGHT FOUNDATION

MERRILL ASSOCIATES

MONTEREY AG RESOURCES

NATIONAL WILDLIFE FOUNDATION

NATURE’S PATH FOODS INC.

NCAT/ATTRA

NCSU DEPT OF HORTICULTURAL SCIENCE

DELICIOUS LIVING

NATURAL FOODS MERCHANDISER

NEW SEASONS MARKET

NEWMAN’S OWN

NON-GMO PROJECT

OCEAN BEACH PEOPLE’S ORGANIC FOOD CO-OP

OFRF

OREGON TILTH

ORGANIC MATERIALS REVIEW INSTITUTE

ORGANIC NATION.TV

ORGANIC TRADE ASSOCIATION

ORGANIC PARTNERS INTERNATIONAL, LLC

ORGANIC PROCESSING MAGAZINE

ORGANICALLY GROWN COMPANY

PCC NATURAL MARKETS

PEOPLE’S GROCERY

PRAIRIE ROAD ORGANIC FARM

QAI/ NSF

SAKURA RIDGE FARM AND LODGE

SCHOOL BIOMOLECULAR & PHYSICAL SCIENCE -QUEENSLAND

SEATTLE TIMES

SHEPPARD MULLIN, RICHTER AND HAMPTON LLC

SHORE BANK PACIFIC

SMALL PLANET FOODS

SMUCKER QUALITY BEVERAGE

SOUTH DAKOTA STATE UNIVERSITY

STAHLBUSH ISLAND FARMS

STRAUS FAMILY CREAMERY

THE FOOD TRUST

THE GLOVER PARK GROUP

THE ORGANIC & NON-GMO REPORT

THE ORGANIC CENTER

TROUT LAKE FARM

U.S. COMMERCIAL SERVICE, USDOC

WA STATE DEPT OF AGRICULTURE

WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY

WHITEWAVE FOODS

NUTRITION BUSINESS JOURNAL

FUNCTIONAL INGREDIENTS

ALBERT’S ORGANIC

UNFI

CASCADIAN FARMS

SILK

Dear Organic Colleague:

“This is our time,” is a refrain heard often in the organic community today. Organic producers along with our industry and non-profit colleagues are poised to take advantage of a number of opportunities that we only dreamed about a decade ago. To do so, we will have to surmount some entrenched, long standing opposition to organic agriculture. The good news is we know what we’re up against, and we now have concrete evidence of what happens when we work together: the organic wins included in the Farm Act of 2008 clearly represent our most visible success to date. In addition, reports from the countryside suggest that regional alliances are allowing new farmers to succeed with CSAs; urban activists are reaching out to rural producers to build school lunch programs; and communities of all shapes and sizes are starting to embrace organic products. Is there any better evidence that change is at hand than the first appointments to leadership positions at the USDA? The time to build on our collaborative experiences and share our strength is now.

We need to identify new resources of information, grow our networks, and replicate our successes. We need round-table conversations and provocative panels that offer tangible solutions to difficult problems. We need a retreat environment that allows opposing points of view to be thoroughly discussed. At a minimum, we must build mutual respect for positions taken and make a commitment to keep the conversation going. As we talk, listen and learn, we are sure we’ll arrive at a point where we can “shake hands” with an eye on the big organic picture.

We offer the 2009 Organic Summit as one such critical stop on our path to success. This year’s Organic Summit is again co-hosted by the Organic Farming Research Foundation and New Hope Natural Media. Together we have put together a dynamic program touching on the hot topics of today and those issues that will impact organic over the coming years. We have again found a remarkable location to hold the conference in a retreat environment - one where networking and/or small private conversations can be hosted in a community of mutual respect and appreciation and where something new always happens - like this year’s first-ever Organic Film Trailer Competition.

This is the third Organic Summit produced in partnership between NHNM and OFRF and the eighth overall including the leadership conferences at the Claremont Resort in the 90s. We believe this will be the best one yet. We’ll provide you with an inside look at the Obama USDA — or maybe your interests run more towards synthetic biology and “illegal” fertilizer? We have brought-back our “round table discussions” to take advantage of late breaking topics of interest and/or to provide background information on some of the more difficult challenges organic agriculture and industry face.

OFRF is a partner in all aspects of content and tone of the Organic Summit, and is a financial beneficiary of the conference. We invite you to participate in this event and encourage you to register as soon as possible so that we can begin the conversation prior to meeting in Stevenson, Washington June 3-5th, 2009. You can register by going to www.theorganicsummit.com or by calling 866-458-4935.

If you are considering attending but still have questions or want additional details on the prospective panelists, please do not hesitate to contact us. Please extend this invitation to those you feel should be part of these conversations. Thank you in advance for your consideration of our invitation to the

Organic Summit.

Kind regards,

Jylle Lardaro

Director- Organic Industry

The Organic Summit

jylle.lardaro@penton.com

Bob Scowcroft

Executive Director

Organic Farming Research Foundation

bob@ofrf.org

If you prefer the serious stuff, check out the Nanotechnology, GMO, and Synthetic Biology session, at this year’s Organic Summit, June 3-5, 2009 in Stevenson, WA.

This morning, Lisa Hamilton offers an eloquent perspective on this in a post on Chews Wise. Lisa who has recently authored a new book, “Deeply Rooted - Unconventional Farmers in the Age of Agribusiness“, will be speaking at this year’s Organic Summit in the opening plenary, “What’s so Radical about Organic Now?”

The impetus for NOAP is the need to have shared vision, set objectives, and benchmarks for measuring organic agriculture’s social and environmental benefits, and to develop strategy for the growth of US organic food and agriculture for the next decade and beyond. Many countries have developed an organic action plan - including the EU - providing a framework for the development of a US NOAP.

The items being discussed and developed are outlined in the, Towards a National Organic Action Plan discussion paper. This docegation and extrapolation of the discussions from the dialogue meetings that occurred throughout ument is the aggrthe USA over the past five years and involved stakeholders from all aspects of the organic community (farmers, policy makers, state and federal ag, manufacturers, trade associations, consumers, etc.)

Over the course of these dialogue meetings key objectives emerged consistently and independently. These key objectives are:

- To ensure organic integrity and continued organic quality improvements

- To ensure a fair marketplace for US family farms and workers

- To ensure access to healthy organic food for the entire range of US income levels

- To maximize organic production potential to ensure an increasing US-produced share of the US organic marketplace and ensure that each state maximizes its potential to meet in-state organic demand

- To move US organic food and agricultural policy from its focus on the marketplace to encompass the significant goals associated with the public good, including social , health and environmental benefits

NOAP is a work-in-progress and towards that progress the NOAP Summit is two days of process and collaboration. And when I say collaboration, I mean drink your coffee and pay attention because there is no hanging out in the corners (or heading out in the hall to take a phone call). By signing-on for this Summit 150+ people have made a commitment to actively participate in the dialogue and refinement of the key objectives.

Day 1 begins with an explanation of the process and then we split-off into our respective key objective groups (mine was MARKETPLACE) where we are given a list of twenty+ initiatives (pp 32-33 of the draft) that we will need to refine, debate, and assess for SMART-ness ). And this is no small order, anytime you have knowledgeable, passionate people you have “lively” debate/ The upside is you walk away with a comprehensive list of action items related to your objective. After refining our 20+ initiatives, our breakout group voted on the ten we felt most relevant, impactful, and important to our key objective. After our vote, the entire 150+ group got together to go through the top ten SMART results from each group. Certain SMART results emerged from the independent discussions of the groups. In broad strokes they were:

Growth – of organic agriculture to meet demand with a regional food system infrastructure

Financial capital - for research, for farmers, and for investment in land for organic agriculture, and for product/crop development

Communication - on the human health benefits, and soil, water and air benefits of organic agriculture to consumers and government and funders

Transition support- labeling and incentives for those in the transition-to-organic process

Transparency – from USDA, and on materials and processes used

Farmers – one-stop resource for farmers to get the information they need on certification, transition, research, marketing, etc,

Accountability – put the onus on those corrupting seed and water

Access to organic food – for all aspects of society and through institutions such as hospitals, and schools

More to come on day 2…

Mark has spent more than two years fighting on behalf of organic research in the 2008 Farm Bill. And thank goodness for that. The 2008 Farm Bill represented the largest gains for organic research and education ever.

It’s a catch-22. We need the funding from the Farm Bill to advance organic agriculture and industry and we need organic agriculture and industry to justify the allotments in the farm bill. Organic research and education impacts everything from pricing and premiums to peer-reviewed science on organic crops.

Mark helped launch OFRF in 1990 and has been toiling in the fields both as a tomato farmer and a senior policy analyst. But there is no rest for the weary, even thought the 2008 Farm Bill resulted in a revised Farm Bill that provides a five-fold increase from the 2002 Farm Bill it still represents only 1% of the USDA’s research budget. And then there’s all the work that needs to be done to “translate” and implement the provisions…

We are seeking independent works whose primary focus is related to organic food and agriculture. Special consideration will be given to those films addressing session topics of the Organic Summit and/or the purpose and mission of OFRF as listed below.

The Organic Farming Research Foundation’s purpose is to foster the improvement and widespread adoption of organic farming systems. OFRF’s mission is to sponsor research related to organic farming, to disseminate research results to organic farmers and to growers interested in adopting organic production systems; and to educate the public and decision-makers about organic farming issues.

The Organic Film Trailer Competition is for trailers of work-in-progress films that will finish at any length. Finished films that have premiered are not eligible. The Organic Film Trailer Competition is looking to identify promising productions and help support the most relevant upcoming films addressing topics related to organic agriculture and industry. Narrative, animation, and documentary projects are welcome; films can be in development, production, or post-production, but should not have premiered.

TO ENTER:

 Your trailer should be up to 3-5 minutes (maximum) in length and submitted on DVD.

 Please include with your DVD:

1. Film title

2. A 100-word synopsis of your film (i.e., Where are you in the filmmaking process? When do you expect to finish?)

3. What is your total budget? What percentage of funds have you raised? From where?

4. Your name, address, phone number, and email

The Organic Summit Advisory Board and Curt Ellis will review the films, and up to) ten finalists will be notified that their film has been selected to show at the Organic Summit (June 3-5, 2009).

Deadline for submission is March 30th. Please send your DVD submission along with the information requested to:

Jylle Lardaro, Director-Organic Industry

New Hope Natural Media

1401 Pearl Street

Boulder, CO 80302

The Organic Summit is a forum for in-depth discussion and learning for leaders in the organic industry. New Hope Natural Media and the Organic Farming Research Foundation (OFRF) have partnered to facilitate these discussions. Participants in the Organic Summit are leaders in the organic industry representing all stakeholder groups. From family farmers to large scale manufacturers, co-ops to big box, NGOs to academics, the Organic Summit provides a singular opportunity for these groups to come together and have equal voice in roundtable and networking sessions. Past conferences have attracted leaders in the slow money conversation, national media representatives and innovative government stewards of our land and legacy.

# # #

The recent article, Food industry urges Congress to reform food safety rules got me thinking about what food safety means to consumers, and how the USDA organic label might just be a de facto food safety label.

Food safety has different meanings depending on whether you view it from a food industry perspective or as someone shopping-the-aisles. From an industry perspective, food safety indicates the absence of conditions that cause food borne illness, and that food manufacturers and processors are maintaining practices to ensure food is safe. When it comes to consumers, food safety takes on additional concerns of allergens, pesticides, genetically-modified organisms (GMOs) and cloning.

USDA certified organic products take some of consumer’s safety concerns off the table.

According to the USDA National Organic Standards Board (NOSB), “the primary goal of organic agriculture is to optimize the health and productivity of interdependent communities of soil life, plants, animals and people.”

USDA certified organic products:

• Come from animals that are given no antibiotics or growth hormones

• Are produced without using conventional pesticides

• Are produced without fertilizers

• Are produced without synthetic ingredients or sewage sludge

• Prohibit the use of bioengineering (GMOs, Cloning) or ionizing radiation

Additionally:

• Are produced by farmers who emphasize the use of renewable resources and the conservation of soil and water to enhance environmental quality for future generations.

• Before a product can be labeled ‘organic,’ a Government-approved certifier inspects the farm where the food is grown to make sure the farmer is following all the rules necessary to meet USDA organic standards.

I’d go so far as to assert that even though it’s not perfect, USDA certified organic also indicates that your food has been grown and/or processed with attention to the health and welfare of those that would consume it.

Maybe today’s snowfall in Boulder is inspiring holiday giddiness. In any case, I give you, “the Twelve days of Organic”… (you know the tune):

On the 1st day of organic, organic gave to me, increased soil fertility

On the 2nd day of organic, organic gave to me, many crops rotating

and increased soil fertility.

On the 3rd day of organic, organic gave to me, sweeter strawberries

many crops rotating

and increased soil fertility.

On the 4th day of organic, organic gave to me, nutrient-dense foods

sweeter strawberries

many crops rotating

and increased soil fertility.

On the 5th day of organic, organic gave to me, sewage sludge-free oranges!

nutrient-dense foods

sweeter strawberries

many crops rotating

and increased soil fertility.

On the 6th day of organic, organic gave to me, higher corn yields

sewage sludge-free oranges!

nutrient-dense foods

sweeter strawberries

two crops rotating

and increased soil fertility.

On the 7th day of organic, organic gave to me, Resveratrol and antioxidant-high wine

higher corn yields

sewage sludge-free oranges!

nutrient-dense foods

sweeter strawberries

many crops rotating

and increased soil fertility.

On the 8th day of organic, organic gave to me, antibiotic-free cows

Resveratrol and antioxidant-high wine

higher corn yields

sewage sludge-free oranges!

nutrient-dense foods

sweeter strawberries

many crops rotating

and increased soil fertility.

On the 9th day of organic, organic gave to me, thriving family farms

antibiotic-free cows

Resveratrol and antioxidant-high wine

higher corn yields

five sewage sludge-free oranges!

nutrient-dense foods

sweeter strawberries

many crops rotating

and increased soil fertility.

On the 10th day of organic, organic gave to me, a National Organic Standard

thriving family farms

antibiotic-free cows

Resveratrol and antioxidant-high wine

higher corn yields

five sewage sludge-free oranges!

nutrient-dense foods

sweeter strawberries

many crops rotating

and increased soil fertility.

On the 11th day of organic, organic gave to me, a healthy choice for children

a National Organic Standard

thriving family farms

antibiotic-free cows

Resveratrol and antioxidant-high wine

higher corn yields

five sewage sludge-free oranges!

nutrient-dense foods

sweeter strawberries

many crops rotating

and increased soil fertility.

On the 12th day of organic, organic gave to me, a great organic community

(OFRF, OTA, NOFA, OMRI, Organic Center, NOP,

Rodale Institute, Georgia Organics, CCOF, IFOAM,

MOSES, Organic Exchange)

a healthy choice for children

National Organic Standard

thriving family farms

antibiotic-free cows

Resveratrol and antioxidant-high wine

higher corn yields

sewage sludge-free oranges!

nutrient-dense foods

sweeter strawberries

many crops rotating

and increased soil fertility!

Happy Holidays and Joy to the (Organic) World!