Organic Friends' E‑zine: June 2015

Photo of the Month by Andy Hammermeister
The growing season is underway, as evidenced by this field crew in Nova Scotia working to establish a weed management trial in haskap, a research project of OACC's Director, Andy Hammermeister.

In this issue:

• Practical Resources
• Scientific Results
• Organic in Canada
• News & Articles of Interest

Practical Resources

Horticulture

• Managing Cruciferous and Solanaceous Flea Beetles in Organic Farming Systems
  • eOrganic. 2015

Crop Rotation

• Making the Most of Mixtures: Considerations for Winter Cover Crops in Temperate Climates
  • eOrganic. 2015

Pest Management

• Natural Enemy Field Guide [PDF - 1.3 MB]
  • Great Lakes Vegetable Working Group. 2011
    
• Weeds Your Way: How Upstate New York Organic Farmers Manage Weeds
  • eOrganic. 2015

Livestock

• Research shows organic fermented grape extract works as natural dewormer in lambs
  • Midwest Organic & Sustainable Education Service. 2015

Nutrition, Safety and Health of Organic Foods

• Sustainability and quality of organic food [PDF - 6.1 MB]
  • FiBL. 2015
    

Scientific Results

Soils and Fertility

• Potential traceable markers of organic matter in organic and conventional dairy manure using ultraviolet–visible and solid-state 13 C nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy
  • Organic Agriculture (2015) 5: 113-122
• Soil Organic Matter Functional Group Composition in Relation to Organic Carbon, Nitrogen, and Phosphorus Fractions in Organically Managed Tomato Fields
  • Soil Science Society of America Journal (2015) 79: 772-782

Horticulture

• How to optimize fruit and berry cultivar selection for organic farmers? A comparison of European approaches
  • Organic Eprints. 2015
    

Field Crops

• Nitrogen Competition between Corn and Weeds in Soils under Organic and Conventional Management
  • Weed Science (2015) 63: 461-476
• Organic Transition Effects on Soilborne Diseases of Soybean and Populations of Pseudomonadaceae
  • Agronomy Journal (2015) 107: 1087-1097
• Recurrent Selection and Participatory Plant Breeding for Improvement of Two Organic Open-Pollinated Sweet Corn (Zea mays L.) Populations
  • Sustainability (2015) 7: 5139-5152
• Tillage and Planting Date Effects on Weed Dormancy, Emergence, and Early Growth in Organic Corn
  • Weed Science (2015) 63: 477-490

Pest Management

• Organic fields sustain weed metacommunity dynamics in farmland landscapes
  • Proceedings of the Royal Society B (2015) 282: 1808
    
• The Role of Ground Beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae) in Weed Seed Consumption: A Review
  • Weed Science (2015) 63: 335-376

Livestock

• Carbon footprints of organic dairying in six European countries—real farm data analysis
  • Organic Agriculture (2015) 5: 91-100
• Effect of intrauterine dextrose on reproductive performance of lactating dairy cows diagnosed with purulent vaginal discharge under certified organic management
  • Journal of Dairy Science (2015) 98: 3876-3886
• Farmers taking responsibility for herd health development—stable schools in research and advisory activities as a tool for dairy health and welfare planning in Europe
  • Organic Agriculture (2015) 5: 135-141

Nutrition, Safety and Health of Organic Foods

• Antimicrobial activity of organic honeys against food pathogenic bacterium Clostridium perfringens
  • Organic Agriculture (2015) 5: 153-159
• A Survey of Nitrate and Nitrite Concentrations in Conventional and Organic-Labeled Raw Vegetables at Retail
  • Journal of Food Science (2015) 80: C942-C949

Marketing and Economics

• Financial competitiveness of organic agriculture on a global scale
  • Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. Online, ahead of print
    

Organic in Canada

• $1.2 million from federal government kicks off Prairie wide organic program
  • Organic Alberta. 2015
• COTA announces AMP funding - Canadian organic sector welcomes government support
  • Canada Organic Trade Association. 2015
• Calling all Prairie organic or transitioning field crop producers to complete survey
  • Prairie Organic Grains Initiative. 2015
• Latest proposed answers to questions regarding the National Standards for Organic Agriculture [PDF - 423 kB]. Comment period open to June 22, 2015
  
  • Standards Interpretation Committee. 2015

News & Articles of Interest

• The Organic Effect: What happens when a family that usually doesn’t eat organic food suddenly starts?
  • Coop Änglamark. 2015