www.ofa.org.au

Chemicals in our Food, Environment and Bodies
This edition features the issue of chemicals in our food, environment and our bodies. The data presented here and in previous issues of Organic Update raises serious questions about the way our regulatory authorities assess the safety of chemicals especially the pesticides and herbicides use in food production.

Of particular concern is the data showing that up to 40 pesticides are found in most water sources and fish in the USA and three studies showing a link between low levels of pesticide exposure and developmental problems in children. One study establishes a link between exposure to household pesticides and leukemia. Another study links agricultural chemicals and altered breast development in young girls. The third study shows a link between low level exposure to pesticides and neurobehavioral deficits in children.

Best Regards
Andre Leu
Chair

Best practice organic agriculture is an example of an industry that can help to lower greenhouse gases while positively contributing to the economy with jobs, products and services.

Published peer review scientific studies in North America and Europe show that best practice organic agriculture, not only emits less greenhouse gases than conventional agriculture, the carbon sequestration from increasing soil organic matter leads to a net reduction in greenhouse gases. Further studies show that organic farming systems are more resilient to the predicted weather extremes. These organic agricultural systems are examples of how we can start to reverse climate change and have excellent production and economic results.

The Conference will feature keynote speakers who will show how best practice organic systems reduce green house gases and can reverse some of the causes of climate change. It will focus on two main areas:

1. Organic Soil Carbon
How to sequester greenhouse gases to increase humus and other soil organic compounds, soil health, organic soil nutrition, water retention, disease suppression and the quality and quantity of farm yields.
2. Efficient and low input farming systems
How to reduce greenhouse gas outputs through efficient and low input farming systems. This is a critical section as these systems and techniques will also result in substantial savings in farmers’ production costs.
3. Surviving Climate Change
Research showing how organic farming systems are more resilient to the predicted weather extremes will help producers plan, implement and adapt so they can continue to produce quality produce.

Best Practice Soil Health Workshops
A significant feature will be workshops on Day 2 facilitated by experts in organic and biodynamic farming systems on the best methods to increase soil organic matter to achieve better soil structure, steady nutrient release, better water retention, superior soil drainage, aeration and reverse soil loss.

These soils have high levels of beneficial micro organisms that suppress diseases. ‘unlock’ the insoluble forms of phosphorous, nitrogen and other nutrients making them available to crop on an ongoing basis.

This conference will help farmers and gardeners reduce their production costs, increase their profitability and yields as well as ensure a positive contribution to one of the worlds major problems. The conference will be essential to consumers, farmers, researchers, scientists and policy makers concerned about climate change.

Early Bird Registration
Registration Fees - Early Bird and discounts for OFA members

1. Full Conference Fee $400
2. OFA members $350
3. Early Bird $300 – before May 30 2006
4. Early Bird OFA Members $250 – before May 30 2006

For More Information Contact: Mary Hackett, Smeaton Hackett Events
PO Box 498 Frenchs Forest NSW 1640
Ph: 02 9319 1228 Fx: 02 9453 3499 Mob: 0414 306 689
mary@shevents.com.au Web www.ofa.org.au

Call for Papers
The conference organising committee is looking for papers in three areas

1. Organic Soil Carbon
The papers should look at how to sequester greenhouse gases to increase humus and other soil organic compounds, soil health, organic soil nutrition, water retention, disease suppression and the quality and quantity of farm yields
2. Efficient and low input farming systems
The papers should look at how to reduce greenhouse gas outputs and generate cost savings to farmers through efficient and low input farming systems.
3. Surviving Climate Change
The papers should present research showing how organic farming systems are more resilient to the predicted weather extremes.

Please submit summaries: ‘Organics - Solutions to Climate Change’ chair@ofa.com.au

Household Chemicals Double Child Leukemia Risk
A study published the journal Occupational and Environmental Medicine showed that children frequently exposed to insecticides used in the house, garden and in head lice shampoos run double the risk of developing childhood leukemia.

The latest study by Inserm, France’s national institute for medical research, showed that the risk of developing acute leukemia was almost twice as likely in children whose mothers said that they had used insecticides in the home while pregnant and long after the birth.

Link between Environmental Estrogens and Diabetes
Spanish researchers have published a study showing a link between environmental estrogens and insulin resistance. Experiments on laboratory mice showed that the effect was visible after 2 days of treatment and starting at doses as low as 10 µg/kg/day. After 4 days of treatment the mice developed chronic hyperinsulinemia, and their glucose and insulin tolerance tests were altered.

The study published in the scientific journal Environmental Health Perspectives concluded ‘either abnormal levels of endogenous estrogens or environmental estrogen exposure enhances the risk of developing type 2 diabetes mellitus, hypertension, and dyslipidemia'. Many of our common agricultural and household chemicals have been shown to act as environmental estrogens causing endocrine (hormone) disruptions.

Altered Breast Development in Young Girls from an Agricultural Environment
Around the world researchers have noted that girls are developing breasts at a younger age. This is particularly noticeable in specific regions and scientists have postulated that it is due to increasing exposure to chemicals that act as environmental estrogens.

A scientific study published in Environmental Health Perspectives show a relationship between exposure to agricultural chemicals and altered breast development in young girls. The researchers observed that girls from the areas using modern agricultural practices displayed a poorly defined relationship between breast size and mammary gland development, whereas girls from areas not exposed to the chemicals showed a robust positive relationship between breast size and mammary size. Mammary tissue was absent in 18.5% of the girls living in agricultural areas, although palpable breast adipose tissue was present.

Neurobehavioral Deficits in Children from Agricultural Communities
A Study recently published in the journal Neurotoxicology shows differences in neurobehavioral performance between young children from agricultural communities and those from nonagricultural communities.

The researchers used a range of behavioral tests to measure the children's cognitive and neurobehavioral function. Eleven of the measures showed no significant deficit between the two groups. However, the agricultural children did perform significantly worse on two tests: finger tapping (which measures response speed) and a test for visual memory. The results are consistent with effects seen in previous research on adults with documented low-level exposure to pesticides.

Aspartame linked to Cancers
Aspartame, a widely used artificial sweetener, causes a range on cancers according to a long term study conducted by European researchers. The scientists from the Cesare Maltoni Cancer Research Center and the European Ramazzini Foundation of Oncology and Environmental Sciences found that rats fed aspartame had an increased incidence of malignant tumors, lymphomas, leukemias, transitional cell carcinomas of the renal pelvis and ureter and their precursors (dysplasias) and an increased incidence of malignant schwannomas of peripheral nerves.

They concluded ‘The results of this mega-experiment indicate that APM [aspartame] is a multipotential carcinogenic agent, even at a daily dose of 20 mg/kg body weight, much less than the current acceptable daily intake. On the basis of these results, a reevaluation of the present guidelines on the use and consumption of APM  is urgent and cannot be delayed.’ Source: Environmental Health Perspectives

EPA Board Says Teflon Chemical a Likely Carcinogen
A group of scientific advisers to the Environmental Protection Agency voted to recommend that perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), a chemical used in the manufacture of Teflon and other nonstick products should be considered a likely carcinogen.

Among the many studies considered by the scientists was one linking PFOA to mammary tumors in laboratory rats. It was considered significant by the panel because it was peer-reviewed within the EPA and included in the original risk assessment submitted by the agency for review. A 2005 review sponsored by the DuPont and 3M Co. challenging the earlier study's conclusion was rejected by the panel of scientists. "We do not feel that it rose to the same level of scrutiny as the other information we were considering," said Deborah Cory-Slechta, chair of the PFOA risk assessment review panel.

Agent Orange Compensation
A South Korean court has ordered Dow Chemical and Monsanto to compensate thousands of South Korean Vietnam War veterans and their families for damage causes by Agent Orange. This is the  first ruling against the companies that manufacture the herbicides, having won similar cases in the USA, UK and Australia. They will have to pay $A82 million in compensation.

The court ruled that the dioxins in the herbicides triggered 11 medical conditions, including cancers such as lymphoma. It stated that there "is an epidemiological correlation between the defoliant and the diseases" that the war veterans were suffering. Source: ABC News Thursday, January 26, 2006.

Pesticides Found in most Streams in the USA
Most of the rivers, streams freshwater fish in the USA are contaminated with pesticides linked to cancer, birth defects, hormone disruption and neurological disorders.

A study released by the U.S. Geological Survey found that 40 pesticides had a widespread presence in streams and sediments in both urban and agricultural areas, at concentrations that could affect aquatic life or fish-eating wildlife. The pesticides showed up more than 90 percent of the time in the fish tissue found in agricultural, urban and mixed land-use areas.

In each of the streams the USGS studied, at least one pesticide was detected. In about 19 of every 20 streams with agricultural, urban or mixed land-use watersheds, pesticide compounds were found at nearly all times of the year. The most frequent occurrence was in shallow groundwater beneath agricultural and urban areas, where more than half the wells contained one or more pesticide compounds.

Three herbicides used mainly on farms: atrazine, metolachlor and cyanazine were most frequently detected in agricultural streams. Simazine, prometon and tebuthiuron were the three herbicides frequently found in urban streams. Source: Associated Press March 06, 2006

More Evidence Linking Atrazine to the Decline of Amphibians
A study published in the scientific journal Environmental Health Perspectives adds to the mounting evidence linking the commonly used herbicide, Atrazine, to the decline of amphibians.

Researchers from Penn State University and University of Kentucky in the USA have found that salamanders exposed to ≥ 4 ppb of atrazine had significantly lower survival than did control animals. The greatest change in survival occurred at low exposure concentrations. These nonlinear, long-term, post exposure effects of atrazine have similarities to effects of early development exposure to other endocrine disruptors. Together with evidence of low levels of atrazine impairing amphibian gonadal development, the results raises concerns about the role of atrazine in amphibian declines and the impact of xenobiotics on environmental health.

Dr Theo Colborn - Current Pesticide Risk Assessment Strategies are Inadequate
Dr Theo Colborn, the author of the ground breaking book Our Stolen Future, has published an article in Environmental Health Perspectives showing how the current pesticide risk assessment strategies are inadequate for establishing the safety of pesticides. She challenges the protective value of current assessment models in light of the vast numbers of pesticides on the market and the vast number of possible target tissues and end points that often differ depending upon the timing of the exposure. Using the insecticide chlorpyrifos as a model, she reinforces the need for a new approach to determine the safety of all pesticide classes. She shows that a new regulatory approach is needed to protect human health because of the uncertainty that will continue to exist about the safety of pesticides.

New Agricultural Chemical Control Areas in Victoria
Victoria proclaimed an Extended Mallee Agricultural Chemical Control Area in February 2006. Agricultural Chemical Control Areas (ACCA) were established in Victoria in 1996 to protect herbicide sensitive and high value crops. Restrictions apply to the types of herbicides, their method of application and the periods in which the chemicals can be used.

Ester formulations of 2,4-D, 2,4-DB or MCPA are prohibited because of the well documented evidence that they can vaporise forming a plume that can travel over a hundred kilometres, damaging crops. A range of other herbicides are prohibited by aerial spraying or mister application. The details can be found on the Vic DPI website www.dpi.vic.gov.au

Peter Andrews is coming to EcoV
Peter Andrews will explain his controversial land management ideas directly to farmers at EcoV in Bendigo in May. Mr Andrews shot to national prominence when he was profiled on Australian Story on ABC TV in June last year for his ability to take degraded and salt ravaged land and turn it into fertile drought resistant pasture. His methods are described as "simple, cheap and effective". They involve slowing down the flow of water across a property by re-establishing more natural watercourses through ponding and vegetation.

EcoV director, Brian Abbott says "Peter Andrews epitomises what EcoV is all about – challenging conventional farming with ideas that will ensure a more environmentally sustainable future." EcoV will be Victoria’s largest Organics and Sustainability show and will be held at the Bendigo Exhibition Centre 5 – 7 May this year. It will be the first time that sustainable farming has been a focus of a major eco show.

The Organic Federation of Australia (OFA), the National Association of Sustainable Agriculture (NASAA) and Australian Certified Organic (ACO) are Gold Sponsors of EcoV. Contact: Brian Abbott, Director EcoV 0404 06 1404, (03) 9889 5631

The 2^nd OPAQ Queensland Organic Conference - Back to Basics     Beerwah Queensland September 1&2 2006
The Organic Producers Association of Queensland Inc (OPAQ) is organising a 2 day conference at Beerwah, 40 minutes north of Brisbane, Queensland. The 2003 Inaugural Queensland Organics Conference in Cairns FNQ was a resounding success, bringing together over 300 stakeholders including, producers, scientists, researchers, certifiers, suppliers and government representatives, including many from overseas.

The conference will involve a speakers program on September 1 followed by farm tours on September 2. It has been organised to give the Queensland and Northern NSW organic sectors the information and skills needed to prosper in the current economic environment.

The sessions and speakers have been selected to explain the various techniques being used to get the best results in organic production management with emphasis on soil health pest control, weed control, water management, marketing systems as well as nutrition and health. Contact Keith Morris kmo91141@bigpond.net.au Ph 0500581469

This years highly successful Organic Expo will be held in conjunction with the Third OFA National Organic Conference.
The 2006 Show will feature:
* Celebrity endorsement & appearances
* Key industry speakers & involvement
* Premier Location @ Sydney Exhibition Centre
* Creative Layout & Exciting Interest Features
* Organic Café
* Highly successful and proven show
Phone - 02 9451 4747 Email - exhibitors@organicexpo.com.au www.organicexpo.com.au

IFOAM to Develop a Definition of Organic Agriculture.
IFOAM invites its membership to submit their definition and the definition in use by their member organizations to describe Organic Agriculture to develop a Definition of Organic Agriculture. They will combine these definitions, identify keywords, and give them to a Task Force, appointed by the IFOAM World Board, who will then submit a first draft. They envision two rounds of comments. The World Board will approve the definition and submit the Definition of Organic Agriculture to the General Assembly 2008 for ratification. For more details on this process please see http://www.ifoam.org/organic_facts/definition_organic_agriculture.html.

ORGANIC GRAIN PRODUCTION: IS IT FOR YOU? ONE DAY INTERACTIVE WORKSHOPS
• requirements to convert to an organic farming system
• introduction to the economics of organic grain growing and marketplace dynamics for organic grain
Presented by organic industry expert TIM MARSHALL and colleagues including certified organic growers and millers.
KEITH Wednesday 29 March, PIRSA Office Cnr Anzac & Tolmer Rd, 8.00am to 4.00pm
CLARE Thursday 30 March, Clare Town Hall 8.00am to 4.00pm
TAILEM BEND Wednesday 5 April, Riverside Hotel, 8.00am to 4.00pm
COST $280 + GST ($308), $98 + GST ($107.80) WITH FARMBIS SUBSIDY
Enquiries: Ph/Fax 61 8 83391250, PO Box 207 Stirling South Australia 5152 ABN 117 972 979 www.tmorganics.com

Permaculture Courses
Ecovillage & Sustainable Communities course, March 6-15 This course is also foundation training for the APT Diploma of Permaculture
Djanbung Gardens Permaculture Education& ERDA Institute Trust
PO Box 379 Nimbin NSW 2480 Australia www.permaculture.com.au
Contact: Robyn Francis PH 02-6689 1755 Mob 0429 147 138 robyn@permaculture.com.au

Biodynamic Agriculture Australia Workshop Program 2006
Clifton SE Qld 27/28 April Introduction to Biodynamics – cropping and grazing
Paris Creek SA 11/12 May Biodynamics for Dairy, cropping and viticulture
Mt Gambier SA 15/16 May Introduction to biodynamics
Albany WA 29/30 May Introduction to biodynamics
Cowaramup WA 1, 2 June Biodynamics for viticulture and horticulture
Perth WA 5th June Introduction to biodynamics -Not FarmBi$
Beerwah QLD 22/23 June Biodynamics for horticulture
Mt Barker SA Spring Biodynamics for viticulture and horticulture
Mansfield Vic 30 Sept A MALT farm project – Introduction to biodynamics
Theodore, Qld 10/11 October Antipodean Astro Calendar and biodynamics

EcoV 5 – 7 May 2006 Bendigo
EcoV – The Global Organics & Sustainability Show has launched a major competition for schools. The EcoV Greenplanet Organic Vegie Challenge is very simple. Schools, both primary and secondary, just have to produce up to five kilograms of five types of organic vegetables by Friday 5 May 2006 – the opening day of EcoV.
The Organic Federation of Australia (OFA), the National Association of Sustainable Agriculture Australia (NASAA,) and Australian Certified Organic (ACO) are Gold Sponsors of EcoV.
Exhibitor Packs are available on the web site www.ecov.net.au Brian Abbott (03) 9889 5631, 0404 06 1404, ecov@ecov.net.au

Enviro 06 Conference Melbourne May 9 - 11 2006
Enviro 06 will consist of 24 one-day streams in three areas, energy, waste and water. Organic farming will feature in recycled organic stream. For more information: Quitz Event Management 02 9410 1302, quitz@bigpond.com or www.enviroaust.net

The Growing Potential for Organic Produce
Wednesday 17th May 2006, 7.30pm to 9.30pm
The Seminar Room, Cardinia Cultural Centre, Lakeside Boulevard, Pakenham 3810
Contact: Barrie Pickersgill, Agribusiness Officer Cardinia Shire Council and City of Casey
Ph: (03) 5945 0404 or (03) 9705 5393 b.pickersgill@cardinia.vic.gov.au

Grow Organic 2006
Bairnsdale, Victoria - 20th and 21st May
Specialist organic speakers "From paddock to plate"
Also, organic product stalls, work-shops, on site accommodation and exquisite organic catering.
Enquiries & bookings: Organic Agriculture Association Inc. 03 5152 2276 or 03 5157 1586 <

Eursafe 2006 - Ethics and the Politics of Food
21st to the 24th of June 2006 in Oslo, Norway http://eursafe2006.etikkom.no/

Organic Expo: organics for everyone, Sydney July 21-23
The 2006 Show will feature:
* Celebrity endorsement & appearances
* Key industry speakers & involvement
* Premier Location @ Sydney Exhibition Centre
* Creative Layout & Exciting Interest Features
* Organic Café
* Highly successful and proven show
Phone - 02 9451 4747 Email - exhibitors@organicexpo.com.au www.organicexpo.com.au

The Third OFA National Organic Conference July 22-3 2006
Darling Harbour Sydney Saturday 22nd and Sunday 23rd July 2006 in conjunction with the Organic Expo.
www.ofa.org.au

1st IFOAM International Conference on Animals in Organic Production,
23-25 August 2006 in Minneapolis USA. For more information www.ifoam.org

The 2^nd OPAQ Queensland Organic Conference
Beerwah Queensland September 1&2 2006
Contact Keith Morris kmo91141@bigpond.net.au Ph 0500581469