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What would you ask the Secretary of Agriculture if he offered you 15 minutes of his time? Earlier this week the USDA reached out to Modern Farmer asking if Secretary Tom Vilsack, the only member of President Obama’s cabinet that has lasted through both terms in office, could give us a call. He wanted to plug the $17.6 million in grant money that the USDA recently made available for organic farming research, as well as a few other things he’s been working on to support the local food movement, or what the USDA often refers to as the “farm-identity preserved” market. But we got to chat about a few other things, too, like Vilsack’s recent trip to Cuba and his views on the GMO labeling debate. Modern Farmer: We understand there is a big announcement today that organic farmers are going to be excited about. What’s the cause for all the excitement? Tom Vilsack: We’re making $17.6 million available for research and outreach for the organic industry. Folks have until March 10 this year to apply. TV: [Applicants] can take a look at production methods or the economic benefits of the industry, seed varieties, desirable traits to be enhanced, conservation opportunities. This is a continuation of a list of steps we’ve taken to try to support the organic industry. MF: Is this a new allocation of funds or is it part of the USDA’s annual round of funding allocated for agricultural research? TV: It’s new in the sense that in the 2014 Farm Bill Congress directed us over a five-year period to provide nearly $100 million of resources for the Organic Agriculture Research and Extension Initiative. We had a commitment last year of roughly $20 million. This is $17.6 million, all designed to carry forward that directive from Congress. There is quite a bit of activity going on in this space, from negotiating [organic certification] equivalency agreements to developing insurance policies that will help organic producers who are producing multiple crops with our new Whole-Farm Revenue Policy. MF: Tell us about the Whole-Farm Revenue Policy. How is that different from existing farmer insurance policies available from the USDA? TV: It’s different in the sense that crop insurance is not always available for specialty crop producers. You may be a producer that’s producing five or 10 or 15 different specialty crops, and none of them are large enough by themselves to merit a policy. [Existing programs] didn’t necessarily provide the level of coverage that was necessary, nor did they reflect the value added proposition that organic crops can generate. MF: Is the intent to have a custom-tailored insurance policy for small, diversified farms or certified organic producers of any size, or both? TV: The Whole-Farm Policy gives you an option as a producer to get risk management against your entire operation, rather than breaking it down by commodity. We also created specific risk management tools for organic producers that are based on the contract price that they are able to secure as opposed to the commodity price for the product. If you have organic corn, for example, it may be significantly more valuable based on the contract you have to supply it, than just a basic corn crop. So now you’re able to secure crop insurance protection for the contract price you have. I think [Cuba has] an incredible opportunity in the future to be a major supplier of value-added organic products. MF: We understand that you were in Cuba recently. Did you tour farms? What was your impression of their organic program? TV: I did tour farms both in the countryside, and they also have a significant number of urban farming operations that [I visited]. I think they have an incredible opportunity in the future to be a major supplier of value-added organic products, simply because they have not utilized modern agricultural processes, have not used chemicals and pesticides and so forth that have been used in other parts of the world, including the US. MF: Cuban farmers have a reputation of utilizing organic methods almost exclusively as a result of the trade embargo preventing petrochemical-based inputs from being available. Did your observations there match that reputation? TV: They have this pristine landscape that could potentially be converted to organic production relatively easily, without the necessity of the three-year transition period that we have for so many acres here in the US. We’ve encourage them to consider taking full advantage of that, given the supply concerns that we are beginning to hear and see and experience in the US and around the world in terms of organics. MF: Obviously, without an export market in the US, Cuban farmers have had no reason to be certified organic according to USDA standards. But if the embargo was lifted, what kind of organic exports can you see Cuba providing to the US? TV: First and foremost there has to be a lifting of the embargo. That’s a problem, that’s a barrier to the kind of activity that could take place. They are producers of a number of fruits and vegetables that obviously could be quite popular in the US. They do a lot of citrus; I think I saw the world’s largest avocado [chuckles], it was 3 pounds, massive. There is quite an impressive array of root vegetables, and fairly significant garlic production. I think they just have an unlimited opportunity here. TV: Not so much spark any ideas, but seeing the incorporation of urban farming into a strategy for utilization of land in urban settings [was] quite a bit like the activity we’re seeing in the US. We’re actually putting together—it’s not quite ready for publication—but we are putting together an urban farming toolkit that would essentially provide a step-by-step process if you are interested in establishing an urban farm. TV: I saw one recently in Cleveland that was pretty impressive. We’re working with Baltimore, working in Detroit, working in a number of areas where there have been depressed neighborhoods economically, and seeing this as a way of potentially turning the fortune of folks around a little bit. We’re working with grocery stores like Whole Foods to encourage them to locate in and around these areas, and to utilize locally produced products. I think there is a growing interest in this. Local and regional food systems are one of the fastest-growing aspects of agriculture.
