Tilth's Washington Organic Week

Tilth’s Washington Organic Week. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Line On Agriculture.

Organics have been getting a lot of attention lately and not all of it has been good news. Not that it has been bad news. Amy Besunder, Executive Director of Tilth Producers of Washington says their group works with organic producers all across the state and the region.

BESUNDER: Tilth Producers of Washington promotes ecologically sound, economically viable and socially equitable farming practices to improve the health of our communities and the natural environment. We’ve been around since 1974. We like to say we’ve been growing organic farmers since then. We produce a quarterly journal of organic and sustainable agriculture. We have a directory which serves as a guide to organic and sustainable growers in Washington State.

They also have the largest annual conference in the state as well as the Tilth Intern Placement Service for organic farmers needing extra help. In addition they have something called WOW going on this week.

BESUNDER: We host the annual Washington Organic Week campaign to educate consumers about the benefits of local organic and sustainable agriculture. We helped establish the state organic standards and we’re very active in the development of national and organic farming standards and policies and we maintain a watch on state and national governments to inform members on pending or enacted legislation that will affect organic farming standards.

Besunder says they are not alone here in the northwest at their jobs.

BESUNDER: Oregon Tilth, California Tilth. We are connected to many partners across the country on a state wide level are doing similar work to what we’re doing or in some states such as Oregon they may be currently doing the certification as well. We don’t do that in Washington State, we have a state agency that does organic certification but we all work together, network amongst our members to identify issues that are arising or solutions that can be shared throughout the organic community.

As mentioned Tilth is a member driven organization.

BESUNDER: We have over 600 members who are growers, ranchers, people who are directly connected to the good food movement. Additionally we have consumers who volunteer, concerned consumers who volunteer for the organization and help us with outreach, with education. We have 10 farm walks annually and next year we are actually raising that to 12 farm walks annually throughout the state and we’re always looking for people to participate in farm walks and those reach so many communities.

That’s today’s Line On Agriculture. I’m Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.