With Support From Tobacco Company, Others
Sustainable Farming Group Plans to Strengthen Organic Wheat Market in N.C.
PITTSBORO, N.C. — The Carolinas’ leading non-profit support group for organic and sustainable farming is receiving a major contribution from a tobacco company to expand the market for local organic wheat in North Carolina.
Over the next two years, the group plans to work with farmers and local bakeries to create a North Carolina-branded organic bread flour, and to promote the adoption of organic practices through its “Organic Farming Transition Project.”
“We can create a strong and sustained effort to help more farmers in economically distressed communities move into the growing organic market,” said Roland McReynolds, executive director of the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association (CFSA).
CFSA, which celebrates its 30th anniversary in 2009, is a non-profit association of farmers, gardeners and consumers dedicated to ecological farming methods and the development of a healthful, sustainable agriculture.
In creating a local organic wheat market, the organization will conduct a series of field days on diversified production for growers of tobacco and other commodity crops in North Carolina. It will hold a conference on organic grain production, to be developed in conjunction with grain and other grower associations. And it will develop a plan for a cooperatively owned small-scale milling operation tailored to the needs of local bakeries.
“These efforts would be designed to promote the wider adoption of high-value organic bread wheat and other organic production practices,” McReynolds said. Work would focus on impoverished rural communities in the Carolinas.
The Organic Farming Transitioning Project is being funded by Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company, which will contribute more than $80,000, and other sources.
The company, which works with some 50 organic growers in the southeast who supply organically grown and certified tobacco leaf for its products, is a Lifetime Member of CFSA and has supported the group for a number of years.
“Our organic growing program promotes sustainable agriculture practices and that helps advance the interests of small, independent farmers,” said Mike Little, the company’s master blender and senior vice president of operations at its manufacturing plant in Oxford, N.C. Several hundred acres owned by Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company’s growers are used to grow organic vegetables and other organic crops, practices both the company and CFSA are encouraging.
“We see the development of an organic wheat market in the heart of tobacco country as a positive development for growers, consumers and the environment,” Little said, “especially our growers who practice crop rotation and will benefit from another crop.”
CFSA’s McReynolds said that while there is strong market demand for sustainable food in many parts of the Carolinas – the Asheville and Research Triangle metro areas of North Carolina have reputations as sustainable “foodtopias” – the availability of locally and regionally grown sustainable food is highly limited.
“Due to a combination of drought conditions in the major bread grain growing regions of the world and the displacement of bread grain production with corn production for ethanol, 2007-08 produced a deficit wheat crop,” McReynolds said. “Wheat stockpiles have fallen to their lowest levels in 30 years, and stocks in the United States are at their lowest levels since 1948. The price of wheat has soared 130 percent since March 2007. In the Carolinas, where the vast majority of bread wheat is imported from other parts of the United States, the price of wheat is compounded by the increasing cost of fuel over the last few years.”
“To ensure a viable market for Carolina-sourced organic bread flour and other products derived from organic grains,” McReynolds said, “it is critical to increase the supply of Carolina-grown organic grains. A handful of farmers have been growing organic wheat and other grains in the Carolinas for over 25 years, but overall adoption of organic grain production has been exceedingly slow.
“The Project will develop and implement an outreach campaign to tobacco and row crop farmers and Cooperative Extension Service agents in the Coastal Plain, Sandhills and Piedmont regions of the Carolinas to promote diversified organic production, including feed grains, hard wheat and vegetable production,” McReynolds said. Through the Project, CFSA will collaborate with North Carolina State University and the USDA-Agricultural Research Service to develop a series of field days and an organic grains conference tailored to row crop farmers, as well as the crop consultants and Cooperative Extension agents who work with them. These educational forums will provide hands on technical expertise for transitioning to organic production.
Carolina Farm Stewardship Association, based in Pittsboro, N.C., and formed in 1979, is a non-profit membership association of farmers, gardeners and consumers dedicated to ecological farming methods and the development of a healthful, sustainable agriculture.
Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company, founded in 1982, is based in Santa Fe, N.M., and has manufacturing operations in Oxford, N.C. Its line of natural tobacco products includes Natural American Spirit cigarettes and roll-your-own tobacco made with 100 percent certified organic tobacco, as well as cigarettes made with 100 percent additive-free natural tobacco.
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