Healthy soil and sustainable growing

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Compost powers USDA’s organic People’s Garden (despite Chemical Ag’s
concerns)
http://www.rodaleinstitute.org/files/Usda_compost_pdf%204-7b.pdf

WASHINGTON, D.C. – About the time that Chemical Ag spokespeople were
chiding Michelle Obama for promoting home-grown organic food with her White
House garden, compost from the Rodale Institute farm was landing on a new
organic garden right in front of U.S. Department of Agriculture
headquarters.

Since he jackhammered an asphalt walkway just off the National Mall in
Washington, D.C., in front the USDA’s Whitten building, USDA Secretary
Tom Vilsack has taken a personal interest in developing the new People’s
Garden.

Delivering the compost was Jeff Moyer, farm director for Rodale Institute,
Kutztown, PA. “Compost is a big part of what makes organic farming work
so well,” he said. “We’re happy to donate a truckload of high-quality
compost to biologically jump-start this welcome change in the USDA’s
front lawn. The Secretary wanted the garden to be certified organic, so all
the inputs—including compost—need to conform to the National Organic
Program standards.” Moyer chairs the USDA’s National Organic Standards
Board, which provides input from the organic sector to the department’s
organic program.

Despite some reported resistance from within the USDA to give organics such
a high profile, Rodale Institute is confident that Secretary Vilsack is
making a wise choice in demonstrating new options for American agriculture.
Organic farming is an integrated systems-approach to sustainable
agriculture that Moyer and thousands of other farmers have been improving
for decades. The Institute is the birthplace of the organic movement in
America, and its researchers have documented that organic farming
techniques offer the best solution to global warming and famine.

“Our 60 years of research show that organic farming is the single most
significant and immediate step we can take to curtail the potentially
devastating effects of global warming,” said Institute CEO Dr. Timothy
LaSalle. “Organic farming delivers other environmental services, improves
human health and builds biodiversity above and below the soil line to
produce more nutrition per acre. Building soil organic matter saves soil,
improves water quality and is the building block for greater nutritional
density.”

Barbara Robinson, acting director of the National Organic Program, and
others ready with garden tools when the compost arrived in Washington,
remarked at how many earthworms they saw. “The micro-organisms they
couldn’t see are just as important in starting to restore the packed
subsoil,” explained Jake Blehm, the Institute’s director of operations,
who helped with the delivery. “Compost is a package of biological
benefits with stable nutrients, active soil microbes and rich humic
compounds that will really bring this soil around.”

Board members of the Organic Trade Association (OTA) stopped by during the
historic delivery, and even took turns shoveling the rich organic matter.
“The OTA is thrilled to see the wonderful visibility of the People’s
Garden on the National Mall,” said Christine Bushway, the association’s
executive director. “This will be an icon of what the USDA represents for
millions of visitors to our nation’s capital. Children and families can
see what growing produce looks like, and the project will encourage them to
go forward with their own organic gardens.”

By starting out with certified-organic growing media, the central island of
large containers can show off organic crops yet this growing season. The
garden beds will start their three-year transition period with a cover-crop
of field peas, a legume crop, to build soil and naturally fix nitrogen with
the help of beneficial soil bacteria. Other elements include pollinator
crops and a “Three Sisters” traditional complementary mix of corn,
climbing beans and winter squash.

Vilsack has kept ultimate responsibility for the project in his office,
giving the small space a big symbolic role in showing how organic
agriculture can benefit the nation. Produce will be donated locally.
Maintaining the garden will be USDA staff members who volunteer, backed up
by the department’s commercial landscape maintenance firm.

This second federal garden gives organics a higher profile that seems to
trouble some business and government officials who are not accustomed to
sharing the official agricultural spotlight. “It’s time to shift the
dollars we invest in agriculture from subsidizing commodities to
incentivizing carbon-sequestering farming that includes using more cover
crops, complex crop rotations and compost,” said LaSalle. “Organic
agriculture is here to stay, and organic practices can work for any farmer
or rancher who wants to invest in soil health and a systems approach to
managing land, crops and livestock.”