Mark Winne has 45 years of experience in the food movement, starting in 1971 as a college student when he successfully raised $300 to start a local breakfast program for low-income children. Since that success, he has overseen the Hartford Food System, co-founded the Community Food Security Coalition, serves as a Senior Advisor at the Johns Hopkins Center for Livable Future, and is a popular speaker and author of several books.

In an introductory letter to GRAIN BY GRAIN: A Quest to Revive American Wheat, Rural Jobs, and Healthy Food, Jaime Jennings writes, “You hold in your hands the story of an unsung hero. Bob Quinn is a straight-shooting, small-town farmer who turned his family farm into an organic multimillion dollar heirloom grain company.”

President and Founder of Organic Trade Association member Kamut International, Quinn, who co-authored the book with Liz Carlisle, shares his practical wisdom from a lifetime of farming--and scientific discovery.

Whether you are an organic fruit or vegetable farmer, a livestock producer, a dairyman, an organic food or fiber processor or a distributor or retailer, stalled organic standards development, rooting out fraud in the organic industry, and conducting rulemaking on the tools available to certified organic operations were the key regulatory themes for the organic sector in 2018.

This past fall, the Organic Trade Association partnered with key retailers in Asia to promote U.S. organic products in supermarkets visited by thousands of consumers. Working with Bio c’Bon in Japan and City Super in Hong Kong, the Organic Trade Association funded in-store promotions that included cooking classes, in store demo experts, and digital media content.

Setting the stage for 2018 , USDA announced its “Principles for Organic:” 1) Protect the integrity of the USDA Organic seal; 2) Deliver efficient and effective oversight of organic production practices, to ensure organic products meet consistent standards. These principles largely translate to where the lion’s share of USDA’s time and resources are being directed--increased oversight and enforcement to curb fraudulent organic imports.

2018 was a relatively quiet year for manufacturers of organic food, fiber and other non-food categories with the exception of a historical change to the allowance of natural flavors used in organic products, a mile marker precedent set by the Federal Trade Commission and a handful of amendments made to the National List of Allowed and Prohibited Substances.

Food fraud, or the act of defrauding buyers of food or ingredients for economic gain, has plagued the food industry throughout history. Although it is not known conclusively how widespread food fraud is in the United States or worldwide, it is now estimated to be a $50 billion industry for the total food market --about the same size as the entire 2017 U.S. organic market.

World pesticide use has reached nearly 6 billion pounds per year, with the United States alone accounting for over 20% of that use. The Environmental Protection Agency has registered and approved almost 1,400 pesticides with over 900 active ingredients for use in the U.S. The majority are used on conventional farms in the form of synthetic herbicides, insecticides, fungicides, and fumigants.

2018 was a significant year for organic livestock producers. Although two landmark practices standards were withdrawn, NOP conducted a broad range of National List revisions to expand the options for health care treatments for organic livestock.