Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
leadership within it. The entrance of these kinds of organizations into
extension activities marks a prominent, novel development in American
agriculture, and distinguishes the agroecological partnership model from
traditional extension.
Commodity-specific organizations can be highly influential among
their growers, many of whom look to them for information about prac-
tices and regulations. Federal and state commodity organizations are
semi-public corporate groups financed by a mandatory tax imposed by a
majority vote of the growers of a specific geographic area. All but a few
have the primary purpose of promoting the marketing of a particular
agricultural product through promotion, advertising and the imposition
of quality standards. Most are also authorized to fund production
research, although usually only a tiny fraction of organizational budgets
are devoted to this. I use “commodity organization” as a general term
for commodity-specific orders, councils, and commissions.
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Not all commodity organizations are equally interested in partner-
ships. Perennial crop commodity organizations manifest a belief that it is
in their best interest to provide leadership on pest-management issues,
while organizations representing growers of federally subsidized crops
(e.g., corn, cotton, peanuts) have generally adopted a passive stances or
in some cases, actively resisted agroecological initiatives.
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Perennial crop
commodity organizations have invested significantly more resources in
helping growers find alternatives and negotiating with environmental
regulatory agencies. They are motivated by their concerns about environ-
mental regulations and in some cases, the desire to represent themselves
and their growers as environmentally responsible. Much of the responsi-
bility for coordinating partnership activities falls on the desk of the
commodity board's research director. They generally express enthusiasm
for this new role, but it entails a considerable amount of extra work.
Research directors often play crucial roles within their respective
commodity. They broker knowledge and financial resources between
regulatory staff, researchers, and commodity growers.
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The Almond Board of California has dedicated more effort to environ-
mental issues than any other non-winegrape commodity organization.
The ABC is the only commodity board to create an environmental
committee. In the words of Ray Eck, an early organic BIOS grower
active on this committee, “the consciousness is that the industry has to
