Minutes Full Committee- May 2007

May 24th 2007
Full Committee
Announcements (3 min) - None
Approval of minutes - Yeah

Discussion about COSA plans for our incoming Chair -
Please contact Kim (kimleval@qwest.com) if you are interested in being chair.

Status of Farm Bill
Please see COSA Policy and Outreach Subcommittee Minutes

Announcements for events
- None

Status of Speakers for Roundtable
Please contact the speaker that you previously contacted.
Invited Speakers:
Confirmed to attend:

• Duane Hovorka, National Wildlife Federation;
• Jason Hill, U of MN – with Tilman group;
• Susan Andrews (already going to the meeting), NRCS/Soil quality;
• Jerry Glover (already going to be at meeting), Greenlands/Bluewaters/Land Institute;
• Rob Mitchell (already going to be at meetings), USDA/ARS/Switchgrass in Midwest/10 different plots of switchgrass/agronomist;
• Kelly King, Pacific Biodiesel, Inc/Sustainable Biodiesel Alliance

Review of Roundtable
a. Questions for speakers – what do we have so far?
3 Questions so far - Caron will send out an email inquiring about additional questions
Patrick Carr of A-8 may have some suggestions
b. Breakout format review

Fundraising update for Roundtable Speaker Travel
5. Sponsorship of A-8 – Pat Carr would like to know what would we like A-8 to do in their co-sponsorship of our biofuels roundtable?

Sub-Committee reports (5-10 min)
Outreach Chair - Caron Gala
Systems Research & Participatory research Combined - Michelle Wander and Stefan Seiter
Plant and animal breeding - Julie Dawson and Kim Leval

New website, blog and other improvements in outreach and communication
- See the letter to the editor in Crops and Soils Magazine!

Discuss Tri-Societies Structure and COSA
How would Division status combined with Committee status?

• It would be useful for COSA to keep Committee status so that non-members can be part of COSA
• Tri-societies platforms are not reflecting COSA interests. Sustainable and Organic Agriculture need more exposure to leadership in the Tri-Society Structure.
• Alex Avery Piece pointed out the information gap, along with some provisions of the farm bill priority platforms.
• Do we have access to the minutes from the Executive committees and the Society Presidents?
• Some influencial supporters of COSA (Tom Sims, John Duran, Jim Coors, etc.)
• What is COSA's strenghts in the Tri-Society Structure?

Action Items!!!
Review of decisionmakers and how decisions are made within the Tri Societies
· Executive Committee (all presidents)
· Society Presidents
· Society Boards
- Caron email questions to COSA, poster, talk to Ian.

- Kim resend invite letter to everyone.

- Everyone! Use fundraising letter to contact at least 2 people!

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Policy and Outreach Committee: June 2007 Call

Discussion:

1. Touching base with the USDA Administration

• Dr. Gail Buchanan and Dr. Colleen Heffernan were briefed about Organics


• Ferd Hoefner (Policy Director for the Sustainable Agriculture Coalition) & Brise Tencer (Washington Representative for the Union of Concerned Scientists Food & Environment Program) talked with Buchanan/Heffernan.


• The Government Accounting Office has been asked by Senator Harkin's staff to perform a study that evaluates spending on classical plant and animal breeding in the U.S.


• Economic Reserach Service (USDA/ERS) defined the mechanisms for policy makers on the conservation of Plant Genetic Resources.

2. IFAFS (Sec. 401) in the New Farmbill

• Monies "Transferred" to National Research Iniative - with 30% of NRI being "IFAFS" like.
• Any increases in NRI come from the IFAFS program and it was/is mandated to be "integrated".


• Options for Action: Letter to Key administrators about the importance of integrated programs.
• Question: Does COSA have the authority under the tri-societies to do something like that or does it need to go through Karl?

3. Integrated Programs (Section 406) in new Farm Bill

4. Sustainable Ag and Organic Research Platform (SAC).

USDA research programs have not kept pace with the growth of organic agriculture in the marketplace. Although organic currently represents about 3 percent of total U.S. food retail market, the share of USDA research targeted to organic agriculture and marketing only
represents 0.6% annually. A coordinated strategy for scaling-up organic agricultural research,
outreach and development should provide a mixture of funding methods and programs to
gradually achieve an overall “fair share” spending total of approximately $120 million/year.
This should include $15 million mandatory funding for the Organic Agriculture Research and
Extension Initiative competitive grant program that funds research and extension projects to meet the production, marketing and policy needs of the growing organic industry. Classical plant and animal breeding should be listed as one of the priorities for competitive research grants under the National Research Initiative, as public resources for classical plant and animal breeding have dwindled, causing limited access to germplasm and the diversity of seed variety and animal reed development that organic and sustainable farmers depend upon. Adequate funding should be allocated to expand the Organic Production and Marketing Data Initiative which requires USDA to collect and publish segregated organic data to meet the needs of organic producers, processors, and consumers.

Other programs to keep an eye on.

- Integrated Organic Programs

- Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE)

- Agricultural Systems

- ATTRA

Action Items

- COSA letter for sign-on for Farm Bill Research platform? - Article in CSA News that would motivate a larger audience? Identify leaders to join in our efforts?
- Talking points and call in from Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (Senate) - Check out the SAC weekly updates!

Call in Asks:

1. National Organic Certification Cost-Share ($5 Million/yr. mandatory funding.)
2. Organic Conversion Stewardship Incentives ($50 Million/yr. mandatory funding, equal
split for financial and technical assistance.)
3. Fair Share for Organic Research (at least $15 Million/yr. mandatory funding for Organic
Research and Extension grants; amend the National Research Initiative to include
classical plant and animal breeding; adequate funding for organic data collection.)
4. Crop Insurance Equity for Organic (remove 5% surcharge and allow for organic price
payouts).
5. Conservation Security Program (full mandatory funding and integrated application for
organic producers.)