For Release: October 26, 1998

Contact: Kenneth Ayars 222-2781

PROVIDENCE - Koichi Sato of the Shimane Prefectural Government, Japan Department of Agriculture is visiting Rhode Island this week to meet with the agricultural staff of the Department of Environmental Management to discuss the state's certified organic farm produce program. DEM agriculture staff have also arranged for him to visit farms throughout the state, and to visit with members of the organic farming industry and an organic produce retailer.

Mr. Sato specifically chose to visit Rhode Island because DEM's system of inspection and organic certification has a fine reputation and he believes it to be a model program. Rhode Island is one of only three states he is visiting: the others are California and Florida. According to Kenneth Ayars, Chief of DEM's Division of Agriculture and Resource Marketing, Mr. Sato is particularly interested in the consistency of Rhode Island's certification procedures and the consumer confidence in the products which such consistency brings forth. He hopes to apply some of this to organic certification in Japan, where standards currently are inconsistent, Ayars said.

Rhode Island certified organic crops are grown in accordance with natural organic culture practice standards, adopted annually by DEM. The standards require soil building and pest control methods that avoid the use of synthetic materials. To be certified, a farmer must submit an application and soil test results to DEM's Division of Agriculture and Resource Marketing. After the farm is inspected, its management practices are evaluated by the Rhode Island Organic Certification Committee, a group comprised of three division personnel and two organic farmers. DEM has been certifying organic farms since 1990. Currently, there are 30 such farms in Rhode Island.

DEM agriculture plant industry staff met with Mr. Sato Monday morning to discuss the state's program, then took him on a field tour to meet with management from Bread & Circus Supermarket Company who sell Rhode Island-grown organic produce, and then to meet Steve Ramos of Steve's Organic Produce, in Bristol.

Tuesday, DEM has arranged visits to several traditional and organic Rhode Island farms: Wrights Dairy Farm in North Smithfield, Jaswell's Farm in Smithfield, Earth Care Farm in Charlestown, and Sakonnet Vineyards in Little Compton.

Wednesday morning Mr. Sato will meet with Mike Hutchison, president of the Rhode Island Chapter of the Northeast Organic Farming Association and farm manager of Casey Farm in Saunderstown. The visits were arranged by Dennis Martin and Dan Lawton, who administer the organic farm program for DEM's agriculture division.