Organic Farming Research Foundation How OFRF and SARE Can Nurture and Grow Organic Agriculture Toget

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Organic Farming Research Foundation How OFRF
and SARECan Nurture and GrowOrganic Agriculture
Together
by Jonathon Landeck, Deputy Executive Director


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OFRFs Mission and Values

• OFRF Mission Foster the widespread improvement
  and adoption of organic farming systems)
  
• New focus on systems rather than
  practices. Need to cultivate alternatives to an
  input-substitution paradigm
  
• National Organic Research Agenda
• Organic Farmer First to promote and highlight
  organic producer knowledge in research,
  education, and policy advocacy
  
• Working Assumption That alleviating production
  constraints would give rise to widespread
  adoption.
  
• Need to analyze best approaches to spur
  adoption. Is this a role for SARE?

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OFRFs Structure Scope

• National organization
• Grants advocacy
• (more for organic RE)
• Majority of board is organic farmers
• 260 RE grants made

OFRF Grantmaking Region Grants West
52 51 Northcentral 13 14 No
rtheast 15 18 South 11 5 OF
RF data is from 2006 Grants avg grant size
Farmers (15) 5,181 Researchers
(67) 6,525 Non-profits (18) 5,284
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OFRF Grantmaking Typology
Crop Grants Vegetables 47
47 Grains 12 17 Apples 10
9 Fruit (other) 10 7 Tomatoes 5
4 Livestock 4 6 Herbs 4
4 Grapes 3 2 Strawberries
2 2 Citrus 1
1 Mushrooms 1 0.4
Topic Grants Insects 23
19 Weeds 13 13 Disease 13 13
Educational 12 9 Systems 12
12 Fertility 8 8 Breeding 6
9 Cover crops 5 7 Food quality
4 6 Livestock 2 2 Econom
ics 1 1
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OFRF RE Directives

• Organic producers should set the research
  education agenda
  
• 2. Fund research that has practical applicability
  to large numbers of organic farmers
  
• Address nexus of research issues associated with
  organic farming the environment
  
• 4. Leverage partnerships with producer
  organizations, commodity commissions, corporations

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Funding Profiles (SARE, IOP, OFRF)

• OTHER KEY COMPARATIVE ELEMENTS (Producer Grants)
  SARE vs OFRF
  
• SARE will fund demonstration projects. OFRF does
  not.
  
• SARE requires producers to partner w/technical
  consultant. OFRF does not.
  
• SARE has a larger pool of funds to draw from
  than OFRF.
  

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Questions to Consider

• How can SARE better use information generated
  from OFRF-funded research to spur adoption?
  
• 2. How can SARE leverage OFRF grantmaking to
  augment the impact of SARE funding?
  
• 3. How can SARE contribute to the development of
  a Social and Economic Organic Research Agenda?

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Thank You !Jonathon Landeck jonathon_at_ofrf.org
831-426-6606