When it comes to starting an organic farm or looking to transition to more sustainable farming, there are organizations that help farmers to succeed in this process. One of those organizations is Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Service (MOSES), which is a nonprofit based in Spring Valley, WI that promotes organic and sustainable agriculture and offers education, resources, and expertise from experienced farmers.
MOSES started as the Upper Midwest Organic Farming Conference in 1990 for farmers mainly in the upper Midwest. After about 10 years of hosting this conference, the organizers realized they needed a year-round organization to support organic farmers. In 1999 the conference officially became a full-time nonprofit and since then has evolved into many different programs.
Beside still hosting the annual MOSES Organic Farming Conference, it offers Farmer-to-Farmer Mentoring Program, where beginner farmers are matched with experienced farmers in their area, Organic Field Days, where farmers are given the opportunity to see how successful organic farmers manage their operations, and New Organic Stewards program and In Her Boots Project, which both serve as supportive communities for beginning and women farmers. MOSES also recently received funding to hire specialists from underrepresented communities to diversify their staff and provide extra support and resources to farmers from those communities.
Chuck Andreas, an organic specialist at MOSES, says that their conference is where most conventional farmers or farmers who want to start from scratch will come to get their first taste of what organic agriculture is all about. Farmers from all stages of agriculture talk to other farmers and participate in workshops. “It’s all about connecting framers, so they can help each other with whatever learning curve they’re on,” Chuck says.
Chuck says that early mentees often eventually become mentors, because they want to give back to the community that supported them early on. Through their mentorship program, he tries to match farmers who are not too far away from each other, since they have similar experiences with the soil and local markets.
“We also try to have lots of content for experienced and intermediate farmers,” Chuck says. “One of the things about organic farming is that you’re always learning and adapting to change, so it is a life-long learning occupation.
Some of the core sustainable values at MOSES are rooted in soil building and conservation. That is achieved by cover-cropping, using perennial plants, rotating crops, reducing tillage, and caring about the microbial diversity in the biomass. The diversity of crops is also an important aspect of giving back to the soil
Chuck says that there are several major problems they deal with in Wisconsin, and one of those is concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs). There has been a consolidation of the Wisconsin dairy industry in recent years, as dairy farmers have doubled their production, often resulting in excessive amounts of waste that leach into the water and makes it undrinkable. “We recently moved from Green Bay to Western Wisconsin and people told us not to move near a CAFO and if we did, to make sure to test the water if it’s safe to drink,” Chuck says.
Another issue is that farms are getting much bigger all over the country, driving up competition and land prices, that results in young farmers, and particularly farmers of color, being unable to afford to purchase land and get into agriculture. “That’s one of the biggest organizational problems we need to work on,” Chuck says. “It’s a lot harder for young people to sustain themselves from just farming, because you have to own a farm. People who already have this power or generational wealth are making it more difficult.”
Chuck says that the average age of farmers is increasing, and there are predictions that in the next ten to fifteen years there will be a large transfer and redistribution of land. MOSES is actively working on supporting farmers who want their land to stay managed on a smaller scale rather than selling it to the highest bidder, who will likely deplete years of soil building.
Lastly, climate change is an impending catastrophe that farmers are living through right now. “If you aren’t involved in agriculture or you don’t live somewhere where these changes are very drastic, you can think of climate change as something in the future,” Chuck says. “Farmers in the Midwest have dealt with extreme weather conditions for a while now and it’s only getting worse.”
Chuck says that this way of thinking that sees farming only as a business is causing a lot of damage in every aspect of agriculture. It is a combination of policy and market forces that reduces nature to its use for humans and reflects a worldview based on capitalism.
“Organic is not the ultimate solution. It is a solution within an already existing industry to compensate farmers for caring for their soil and having biodiversity on their farms,” Chuck says. “Certification is a market solution, but the problems that we face are huge and having a niche market response is not enough in the long run for the future.”
To learn more about MOSES, their resources for organic farmers, and education on sustainable farming practices, visit https://mosesorganic.org/