Welcome

Welcome to the homepage of Kentucky State University's Organic Agriculture Working Group. The group brings together KSU researchers, teachers, and extension staff whose work relates to organic agriculture. We are a diverse group, with a broad range of ideas and expertise. By working together, we try to approach problems holistically, according to the ideals of organic agriculture. Mission The KSU Organic Working Group seeks to develop, evaluate, and demonstrate socially, economically, and environmentally sustainable agricultural systems compatible with National Organic Program standards and suitable for adoption by Kentucky’s small farmers and gardeners.	"These questions are complex [...] For their solution they manifestly require every aid that a wide knowledge of science can give." --Sir Albert Howard, Father of Organic Agriculture, 19241
Why Organic? A rapidly growing niche market offers premium prices for environmentally-friendly products. In 2002 the USDA adopted national organic standards, establishing a definition of the word "organic" for use in marketing agricultural products in the United States. The standards require practices intended to "foster cycling of resources, promote ecological balance, and conserve biodiversity" (see sidebar). They prohibit most synthetic products, including chemical fertilizers, synthetic pesticides, and genetically modified organisms. The standards are built on a philosophy of creating agricultural ecosystems that mimic natural ones. Organic farmers strive to use few off-farm inputs. On average, organic farms consume less energy than conventional farms, reducing resource consumption and pollution.2 The US organic food market has grown by about 20% per year for the past 15 years, from approximately $1 billion in 1990, to $15 billion in 2005.3 Organic farmers have enjoyed substantial price premiums during this period of growth: For example, between 2000 and 2004 organic broccoli and carrots fetched about twice the price of their conventional counterparts.4	Ecosystem: A system formed by the interaction of living things with each other and with their environment. Biodiversity: The variability among living things in an ecosystem. Resource cycling: The movement of materials within an ecosystem, instead of in and out of it. Ecological Balance: A state of dynamic equilibrium in which species composition and material concentration in an ecosystem remains relatively stable.
Why Kentucky? A state of small farmers seeks high value alternatives to tobacco, the traditional backbone of the rural economy. Kentucky is a state of small, limited resource farms.  More than 75% of the commonwealth's 86,000 farms are smaller than 180 acres, and 80% have an annual income under $20,000.5 Supply-managed tobacco production was long the backbone of Kentucky's unique small farm economy. In the 1990s, the return from 5 acres of tobacco was about the same as from 100 acres of corn, or 50 acres of double-crop wheat and soybean.6 All tobacco price supports and marketing quotas were eliminated before the 2005 crop year, resulting in lower, less predictable tobacco prices. Most of the farms that once grew tobacco are getting out of the business. The loss of tobacco as a stable source of income leaves Kentucky's small farmers looking for other high-value crops to replace it. Returns from organic horticulture production can be as high, or higher than returns from tobacco. Organic production could allow Kentucky's small farmers to stay in business.	"An organic farm, properly speaking, is not one that uses certain methods and substances and avoids others; it is a farm whose structure is formed in imitation of the structure of a natural system that has the integrity, the independence and the benign dependence of an organism." --Wendell Berry, Farmer and Author, Henry County, Kentucky, 19827
Why KSU? A historically black land grant university continues a tradition of service to the under-served. Kentucky State University is a historically black land grant university with a simple motto: "Enter to learn. Go out to serve." Building on its history of service to the under-served, the university's Land Grant Program, directed by Dr. Harold Benson, has tried to cater to small farmers, minority farmers, and other producers who might not otherwise be supported by a land grant university. Organic farmers fit this description: In 2003 the proportion of the nation's cropland dedicated to organic production was three times the proportion of the land grant university research acreage dedicated to organic research.8,9	"'Take care of the waste on the farm and turn it into useful channels' should be the slogan of every farmer." --George Washington Carver, Inventor and Educator, Birmingham, Alabama, 1936

Sources

1. Albert Howard, 1924. Crop Production in India: A Critical Survey of its Problems. Oxford University Press.

2. Tommy Delgaard, Michael Kelm, Michael Wachendorf, Friedhelm Taube, and Randy Delgaard. 2003. Energy balance comparison of organic and conventional farming. In Organic Agriculture: Sustainability, Markets, and Policies. CABI Publishing, OECD.

3. Organic Trade Association. 2005. The Organic Industry Flyer. Organic Trade Association, Greenfield MA.

4. Lydia Oberholtzer, Carolyn Dimitri, and Catherine Greene. 2005. Price Premiums Hold on as US Organic Produce Market Expands. USDA, Economic Research Service.

5. USDA-NASS. 2004. Kentucky State and County Data. 2002 Census of Agriculture.

6. Will Snell and Steven Goetz. 1997. Overview of Kentucky's Tobacco Economy. University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service Bulletin.

7. Wendell Berry. 1982. The Gift of Good Land: Further Essays Cultural and Agricultural. North Point Press, New York, NY.

8. Jane Sooby. 2003. State of the States: Organic Farming Systems Research at Land Grant Institutions. 2nd Edition. Organic Farming Research Foundation.

9. USDA-ERS. 2005. Organic Production, 1999-2003.

-TOP-