SCOAR Update - August 31, 2001

• The National Organic Standards Board currently has five openings; one of which is for a scientist, another is for a farmer.   The NOSB is a 15-member board responsible for proposing to the secretary a national list of approved and prohibited substances.  The positions begin in January 2002.  For more information please see the announcement at: http://www.ams.usda.gov/nop/nop2000/federal%20registers/frnomin0701.pdf

• A national stakeholder workshop for Animal Agriculture will be held jointly by the Cooperative State research, Education, and Extension Service (CSREES) and the Agricultural research Service of the USDA on November 28-30, 2001.  For more information, please contact Ms. Amy Odegaard at 301-504-4735.

• An organic research group in California’s central coast called the Monterey Bay Region Organic Researchers has recently been formed.   They meet monthly to discuss project updates, collaborative efforts, and emerging research needs.  If you a professional scientist interested in attending these meetings, please contact Carol Shennan at cshennan@cats.ucsc.edu.

• The International Horticultural Symposium is hosting the Sustainability of Horticultural systems in the 21^st Century from August 12- 16, 2002.  For more information, please visit www.ihc2002.org.

• The American Phytopathological Society (APS) has a new on-line journal called Plant Health Progress (PHP).  This journal is a general journal on plant health for the user community and extension.  They may be starting a section on organic production.  The website for the journal is http://www.planthealthprogress.org/.

• Last year Washington State University developed an organic program.   Currently the state legislative body is pushing for $500,000 in funding.  There is also a proposal for $1 million in federal congressional funding.   Also, the Washington State University Vancouver Research and Extension Group recently gained certification for 2.1 acres for organic crop research.   The land was certified by the WSDA Organic Food Program and will be used for vegetable research experiments including variety trials (edamame, dry bean, onion, and carrot) and organic pest management.  Funding from Organic Farming Research Foundation provided the basis for converting this land to organic.

• The federal agency Appropriate Technology Transfer to Rural Areas (ATTRA) is producing a series of technical guides on organic production issues. The first release in the "Organic Matters" series is "Pursuing conservation tillage systems for organic crop production," written by program specialist George Kuepper. "Considerations in organic hog production" by Lance Gegner and "Considerations in organic apple production" by Guy Ames are the next guides in the series. OFRF provided start-up funding for this series, with the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service and the Kerr Center for Sustainable Agriculture also contributing. ATTRA describes the series as "created to speed the flow of technical information on current topics to organic farmers, researchers, and others involved in organic production." The guides are available at the ATTRA website at http://www.attra.org/attra-pub/organicmatters/ or may be ordered free of charge from ATTRA by calling 800-346-9140.

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