From steved@ncatark.uark.edu Fri Jul 28 21:38:52 2000 Date: Fri, 28 Jul 2000 12:12:31 -0600 From: Steve Diver To: SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU Subject: Fertilizers & Pesticides in Organic Farming, State Dept of Agric Greeting SANET, In organic farming the use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides is restricted. On the other hand there is a wide spectrum of natural pest control products and organic fertilizers & amendments which are used as agriculture inputs. One of the problems I see arising in the growing organic industry is that researchers and suppliers are developing some great new products, but there is a *gap* between the availability of these products and limitations on their use by organic farmers due to fertilizer and pesticide registration at the State Departments of Agriculture. For example, a pest control product such as Neem may exist from a supplier in California, but it may not be registered with the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture. Therefore if you are a peach grower in Oklahoma and you found out about a neem product to control a very specific pest, and this Neem Brand is the only organic product that can do the trick, you may be out of luck since this product has not been registered with every single one of the State Departments of Agriculture in each of the 50 United States. Registration fees with each state can cost $100- to $??? each. You can see there is quite a lot of paperwork and time and fees involved for product suppliers to get registered and deal with bureacracy among all these different agencies. For many crops such as fruits and vegetables, the Extension Service publishes insect and disease control guides. These pest control guides provide pesticide recommendations to control each of the pests known to attack the crop, along with rate of application. This is the existing system. The Extension Service puts tremendous time and effort into compiling these guides, and they are made available to farmers as the authoritative reference on what can be used to solve pest problems. On the other hand, say you are an organic farmer and you see the Extension Service guide has little to offer in the way of biorational pesticide choices. So you start looking around and find a Neem product from California is labeled for this pest. You check with your organic certification organization and verify this Neem product is permitted. You also find out the product has an approved OMRI Label, meaning the product has passed inspection from the Organic Materials Research Institute. So you order it by mail and it arrives. Should you be concerned to check with your State Department of Agriculture to find out if this product is *registered* within your state? Or, should you just go ahead and spray it, thinking that if it's sold in the marketplace it is OK to use, especially since it is one of the only biorational pest control products with a label to control this specific pest and because it is permitted within a certified organic program? Similarly, fertilizer regulations appear to have bugs in the system. Fertilizer regulations focus on NPK analysis, which is required on the fertilizer product label. Yet the organic industry is working with microbial inoculants, biostimulants, bio-catalysts, etc. These products are not about NPK, they are geared to enhancing the soil foodwebs and foliar foodwebs, to supply growth promoting rhizobacteria, or some other factor that involves biology rather than NPK. There are instances where biocatalyst suppliers have thrown in a few micronutrients to list them on the label, simply to meet the needs of State Department of Agriculture fertilizer regulations. So on one hand we have an emerging Organics Program underway from the USDA at the national level, but on the other hand there is a gap to Organic Materials use by farmers and regulations by State Departments of Agriculture. What would be helpful to the industry is a report that provides a State-by-State Analysis of Pesticide and Fertilizer Regulations of Organic Farming Inputs Among the State Departments of Agriculture. For example, there is a report underway (not yet published) that looks at state-by-state regulations of on-farm slaughter of poultry, commissioned in support of the emerging pastured poultry industry. On the web, there is also a listing of environmental laws affecting agriculture at the state level. See: Environmental Laws Affecting State Agriculture http://www.nasda-hq.org/nasda/nasda/Foundation/state/states.htm It brings to mind a few questions: *Are you aware of any instances where organic farmers have run into fertilizer or pesticide registration gaps in their state? *Do you know how to find out what is registered and what is not registered, for fertilizers and pesticides, from your State Department of Agriculture? *Would such a report be useful to the industry, and who could fund this activity or accomplish this task through their regular job responsibility? Steve Diver ======================================== Resources: 1. Organic Fertilization Resources 2. Pesticide Registation Databases 3. Pest Control Resources 4. Links to State Departments of Agriculture Web Sites 5. Links to IPM State Coordinators and Web Sites ======================================== 1. Organic Fertilization Resources Sources for Organic Fertilizers and Amendments ATTRA http://www.attra.org/attra-pub/orgfert.html This is the ATTRA resource list on organic fertilizers that provides an extensive listing of dealers and suppliers carrying bulk organic fertilizers, listed state-by-state, organized by category of fertilizer material. OMRI's Brand Name Products List Organic Materials Review Institute http://www.omri.org/brand_list.html OMRI is the Organic Materials Review Institute. It provides a technical review of organic crop production materials (fertilizers and pest controls) supplied by manufacturers. Products that receive an Allowed or Regulated status can state that the product is "OMRI Listed" and may use the OMRI seal on packaging and literature. The Brand Name Products List on OMRI's website includes crop production materials organized alphabetically by Generic Material, Supplier, and Product. CCOF's Organic Practices and List of Materials http://www.ccof.org/section8.htm California Certified Organic Farmers (CCOF) is one of the premier organic certification organizations in the country, with organic farms in its program since 1973. The 1998 CCOF Handbook located on its website contains an informative section on organic farming practices and list of materials that can be used. Use this site primarily as background reading to become familiar with typical categories of fertilizer products and how they fit in a certified organic program. CCOF transferred the official task of evaluating and listing brand name products to OMRI in 1997. Alternative Soil Testing Laboratories Resource List ATTRA http://www.attra.org/attra-pub/soil-lab.html Whereas standard fertilizer recommendations are easy to obtain from land-grant university soil labs, organic farmers may find the advice from crop advisors who specialize in organic fertilizer recommendations to be more helpful. ATTRA's Alternative Soil Testing Laboratories resource list organizes soil labs into two broad categories: (1) those that focus on biological assays including organic matter, humus content, and microbial analysis, and (2) those that focus on mineral analysis and organic (or alternative fertility management) fertilizer recommendations. The resources section contains a collection of books and web links on soil quality, soil health, and on-farm methods of soil and foliar analysis. Commercial Organic Nutrient Recommendations University of Maine Soil Testing Service/Analytical Lab http://anlab.umesci.maine.edu/handout/ organ01.HTM In these handy tables from University of Maine you can quickly see how many pounds of organic fertilizer are needed to meet desired pounds of nutrient element per acre; e.g., 670 lbs fish meal equals 60 N lbs per acre, 890 lbs fish meal equals 80 lbs N per acre, and 1100 lbs fish meal equals 100 N lbs per acre. Nutrient Content of Fertilizer and Organic Materials NC State University Soil Science http://ces.soil.ncsu.edu/soilscience/publications/Soilfacts/ AG-439-18/ http://ces.soil.ncsu.edu/soilscience/publications/Soilfacts/ AG-439-18/ /AG-439-18.pdf Convenient tables with nutrient content of standard commercial fertilizers as well as organic fertilizers and manures. ============================================== 2. Pesticide Registration Databases A few years ago it was impossible for the average person to gain access to pesticide registration databases. They were usually restricted to university pesticide coordinators and State Departments of Agriculture through a fee-based subscription service. Now there are a few states that provide free access to this information. Of particular interest is the new Kelly Registration System and what it offers at the state level. [It also provides access to Federal EPA level, for a fee] Hawaii Pesticide Information Retrieval System http://pestworld.stjohn.hawaii.edu/cfdocs/test/hpirs.htm Oklahoma Department of Agriculture Pesticide Registration, Online Kelly Pesticide Registration Database http://kellysolutions.com/ok/ Please select from the following options Search by Company Name Search by Company ID Search By Product Name Search By Product EPA ID Search By Pest Search By Site Show All RUP Products Show All SLN Products Show All Fertilizer Combinations Search By Formulation Type Search By Active Ingredient Search By Pesticide Type Kelly Registration Systems, General info http://www.kellysolutions.com/ State Departments of Agriculture provide data, which can be used, free of charge, to obtain information on pesticide registrations within the state. This data may be searchable by Product Name, Company, Ingredient, Pest, Site, Formulation or Pesticide Type. Criteria specific to a state (e.g. RUP and Fertilizer-combination in Oklahoma) may be available for searches as well. States online: Idaho, Nebraska (includes Dealers and Applicators), Oklahoma (includes Applicators), Oregon, South Dakota, West Virginia. Kelly Registration Systems, Subscription info to EPA Federal Level http://www.nasda-hq.org/nass/index.html ============================================== 3. Pest Control Resources MeisterPro Reference Guide http://www.meisterpro.com/ *Farm Chemicals Handbook *Insect and Disease Control Guide *Weed Control Guide *Vegetable Insect Management: With Emphasis on the Midwest Biorational Pesticides Biorational pesticides are those that are pest specific and cause the least amount of harm to beneficial organisms or the environment. Examples include microbial insecticides, insecticidal soaps, horticultural oils, insect growth regulators, sorptive dusts like diatomaceous earth, pheromones, and to some extent, botanical plant extracts. Alternatives in Insect Pest Management: Biological & Biorational Approaches. 1991. By Rick Weinzierl and Tess Henn. North Central Regional Extension Publication 401. http://spectre.ag.uiuc.edu/%7Evista/abstracts/aaltinsec.html OMRI's Brand Name Products List Organic Materials Review Institute http://www.omri.org/brand_list.html ============================================= 4. Links to State Departments of Agriculture Web Sites State Departments of Agriculture Web Sites From: Kansas Department of Agriculture http://www.ink.org/public/kda/stateags.html ============================================== 5. Links to IPM State Coordinators and Web Sites IPM State Coordinators and Web Sites http://www.reeusda.gov/agsys/ipm/coordinators.htm ==============================================