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Workshops teach Amish, Mennonite growers ways to improve yields and reduce pesticidesMissouri Amish and Mennonite farmers who sell produce at wholesale fruit and vegetable auctions will have a chance to try new farming techniques learned at University of Missouri Extension workshops. Amish and Mennonite farmers are increasingly filling a demand in Missouri for fresh, locally grown produce, said James Quinn, MU Extension horticulture specialist. Quinn estimates that these farmers account for 10 percent of the state's fresh vegetable production. "Consumers want to know where their produce comes from and retailers in major metro areas have tuned into this trend," he said. "Fresh fruit and vegetable production generally requires greater chemical use than grain crops. But consumers want produce with less pesticide." Amish and Mennonite cultural restrictions on the use of electricity, tractors, phones and other technologies prohibit many modern farming and pest-control methods while limiting access to new information. This has led to increased pesticide use by some of these producers, Quinn said. Last year, Quinn received a two-year U.S. Environmental Protection Agency grant to develop workshops tailored to the needs of Amish and Mennonite farmers. The workshops teach ways to integrate better soil and land practices that can increase profits while reducing the need for many toxic pesticides. "A lot of these growers at the produce auctions don't go to conferences," Quinn said. "So where do they get all the information put together at once? The answer is: They don't. With the grant, we wanted to give them a good basic knowledge that we can build on." Quinn and MU Extension colleagues Jay Chism, agronomy specialist in Lamar, Mo., and Tim Baker, horticulture specialist in Gallatin, Mo., taught the four workshops in February in the communities of Rich Hill, Lamar, Versailles and Jamesport. "We realized that to really do effective programs for the Amish and Mennonite growers, we needed to go to their communities, as opposed to them coming to our events. That takes extra funding," Quinn said. The EPA grant is part of the agency's Strategic Agriculture Initiative, which supports programs that help farmers shift from the use of higher-risk pesticides to a whole-farm approach focused on soil quality, integrated pest management and strategic use of safer pesticides. "The great thing about this program is that it's targeted at the grower level," said Heather Duncan, SAI coordinator for EPA Region 7, which encompasses Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska and Iowa. "It's not just some research that will end up in a black box somewhere. The fact is, this is a population that's not usually served by the federal government." More than 200 growers took part in the Amish and Mennonite workshops, which covered the basics of soil quality, fresh produce storage, integrated pest control, irrigation, greenhouse methods and weed control. Next year's workshops will include more-advanced topics, Quinn said. "We're really just scratching the surface with these communities," Duncan said. As part of the program, growers who attend the workshops will host on-farm demonstrations of best-management practices this summer. Quinn said four or six growers from each community will give tours of their farms.
Date: 6/13/08
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