New Brunswick Announces Organic Funding Program

On June 22nd, Ronald Ouellette, New Brunswick Minister of Agriculture and Aquaculture, announced $ 106,000 in funding for the support of the province’s organic agriculture sector.

"This new program will help support established operations involved in organic production and value-added activities," Ouellette said. "It will also facilitate the transition of new entrants into organic production, as well as increase the capacity of the organic certification system in the province."

The study has already include a series of one-on-one interviews and open roundtables in each Maritime Province, to ensure full industry input.

The program had identified four areas for targeted assistance: 1) Organic Training and Advisory Assistance 2) Soil Improvement 3) Support for Strategic On-Farm Infrastructure to Address On-Farm Food Safety Issues and Organic Certification Requirements and 4) Support to the NB Organic Industry for Activities that Relate to National Issues and Certification.

The program will be retroactive to April 1, 2007, and continues until March 31, 2008. Funding for subsequent years is not guaranteed; however, ACORN and New Brunswick organic industry representatives will lobby to continue the initiative.
For more information, see www.gnb.ca/0027/0017-1-e.asp

Census reports higher than average organic farm numbers for Atlantic Canada

In May, Stats Canada released the 2006 Agriculture Census. Not surprising, the census found there was an overall decline of 7.1% in the number of farms in Canada since 2001 (that’s about 17,550 farms) and a loss of 19,140 farm operators. However, the land base for agriculture was about the same as 2001 and the average farm size increased almost 8% to 728 acres (bigger farms = less farmers).

According to the census surveys, 15,511 farms reported growing organic products, which is 6.8% of all farms in Canada. This number represents a 60% increase from the 2001 census and includes certified organic, transitional, and uncertified products (plus more than one category could be selected, so there’s overlap in these numbers). Here’s what was reported in Atlantic Canada:

• Nova Scotia reported 359 farms with some organic production (9.5% of the province’s total farms); 17 % of this was certified, about 4% in transition, and 81 % uncertified.
• Newfoundland & Labrador reported 52 farms with some organic production, or 9.3% of all provincial farms; 7.7% of these farms were certified, about 2% in transition, and 94% uncertified.
• New Brunswick reported 239 farms with some organic production, which is 8.6% of all provincial farms; 17.6% of this figure was certified, less than 1% in transition, and 82% uncertified.
• In PEI, 80 farms reported some organic production, which is 4.7% of all farms in the province; 38.8% of these farms produced certified organic products, 13.8 % were in transition and 61.3% were uncertified.

Vegetables, fruits and greenhouse items were the most common organic products produced in Atlantic Canada, except for PEI, where field crops and hay were produced by almost 50% of organic farms.

There’s been some discussion about the high number of uncertified organic products, with several theories, but what it does mean is that hundreds of farmers in Atlantic Canada are interested in organic approaches, significantly more than the national average. For this, ACORN deserves credit for promoting organic practices and providing significant training and education - and hopefully, when the new organic regulation is implemented, many of these producers will consider becoming certified so they can continue to call their products “organic”.

Organic Research Priorities Established for Atlantic Canada

On June 12, Beth McMahon from ACORN attended and presented at the Atlantic Organic Research Priorities workshop at the Nappan Experimental Farm, representing the interests of the organic sector to the dozens of researchers present.

The workshop was held to provide direction to identify an organic research strategy for the Atlantic Provinces with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. Reports were given by the four provincial extension specialists and several researchers involved in organic issues. During the afternoon, a panel discussion resulted in several research priorities:
- An integrated approach to livestock and cropping systems
- Crop rotation and the need to derive farm income from rotational crops
- Insect, disease and weed control
- Nutrient management, especially nitrogen
- The links between organic production and food quality and safety
- A valuation of ecological goods and services

These priorities were further recommended to use market information as a means to define research scope and potential for the region, as well as using integrated research approaches to provide a complete picture. Developing tools for transitional producers, both for production and business/risk management was also prioritized.

Of particular note, was the consensus that the Nappan Experiemental Farm should pursue organic certification to become a dedicated research facility; however this should be in addition to on-farm research and other government research sites (ie. Kentville and Bouctouche).