One of the top priorities on the road to revitalizing family farming in America is redirecting our vast system of agricultural research and extension. The twin traps of ecological degradation and overproduced/underpriced commodities are not inevitable, and they can be overcome. Such a transformation will require the combination of many factors, including the deliberate application of scientific resources.

In 1997, the Organic Farming Research Foundation documented the almost total lack of federal research support for organic agriculture. At that time we found that organic systems research received only one-tenth of one percent of the USDA research expenditures. Things have improved slightly since then, but research directed towards ecologically-based farming systems still gets far less than it should.

Organic agriculture has already proven to be economically and agronomically viable at every scale of production, with competitive yields. We know that growers would prefer to farm profitably without toxic consequences. Are they getting any help from our public institutions to reach that goal? Are the government research labs and University departments developing and distributing knowledge about organic agriculture? With a few notable exceptions, they are only just beginning to address this need.

Some parts of the agricultural research system have made a notable effort to develop "softer" chemical technologies and gene-splicing schemes to breed pesticides into plants. But almost all of this research takes place within the context of chemical-dependent systems, maintaining the chemical treadmill and ignoring the possibility of a fundamentally different approach to profitable farming. Research stations and crop-breeding programs geared to the different assumptions of organic management are almost non-existent.

There are a few hopeful signs. A small but growing number of scientists and administrators are taking organic farming seriously and starting to study successful organic operators. In 2000, Congress passed the first explicit appropriations for organic research grants.

Despite the historic lack of scientific and educational support, thousands of organic farmers continue to build an alternative pattern of successful farm management. The organic marketplace continues to grow and thrive, attracting new producers and spurring on-farm innovations. We can only imagine what the redirected efforts of our nation's awesome system of agricultural science could accomplish.

Mark Lipson is the Policy Program Director for the Organic Farming Research Foundation, in Santa Cruz California. He is also a working partner in Molino Creek Farm, a multi-family organic vegetable operation. He currently serves on the USDA Advisory Committee on Agricultural Biotechnology.

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