A “binding force” was needed for flax development activities. Traditional support from Iowa State University for new crop development would come from the Agronomy Department, but would not provide business development support. For a specialty crop, such as organic flax, development of the production methods without concurrent development of the market would have been unlikely to yield success. Only a limited market exists for this crop. In addition, the specialty food market has specific grain and food quality standards for flax and other products that must be met for farmers to achieve a profit.

The Working Group was co-facilitated by Iowa State University Value Added Agriculture and Practical Farmers
of Iowa. Members of the Flax Working Group included:

• Organic and conventional crop producers
• A flax oilseed processor, Biowa Nutraceuticals,
• Flax buyers (for food and feed)
• Agronomists
• Faculty working on seed processing
• Extension outreach personnel
• Practical Farmers of Iowa

The Working Group met three times each year, with two winter meetings and a summer field event. Field events featured on-farm research and production and on flax processing.

The Flax Working Group took a comprehensive approach to the investigation and development of organic flax for Midwest production and marketing. The group:

• Contributed to agronomic research for flax, both on-farm and on the research station,
• Helped coordinate flax harvesting and cleaning research,
• Conducted grower surveys and interviews to gain producer input into production and harvesting guidelines,
• Conducted outreach and education with summer field events and articles in the popular press,
• Developed the Flax Production Guide for Iowa (ISU Extension PM 2020), and
• Developed a production and marketing financial budget for use by growers.

In two years, the Working Group leveraged an additional $58,089 for research and development form the ISU Agronomy Department, the ISU Agronomy Endowment Fund and Spectrum/Hain Celestial.

In late 2006, Spectrum Organics was purchased by Hain Celestial, a large organic food company. The company’s interest of the in sourcing local product was less than we had experienced initially with Spectrum Organics.

Both our agronomic research and farmers’ experiences pointed out big challenges for flax production, and particularly for organic flax production in the Midwest. Flax is an extremely non-competitive crop and is challenged to compete with weeds in organic systems in the Midwest. In the typical growing areas, North Dakota and Canada, flax is a full-season crop with different competing, cooler-season weed species. Flax grown in the north often is harvested after a frost, which renders weeds less of a problem in the harvesting process. In Iowa, a lot of foreign plant material that collected in the combine with the flax often resulted in lower product quality. In addition, flax grown farther south has lower amounts of the desirable fatty acids that make flax an attractive dietary supplement.

Most farmers who experimented with flax did not find it as profitable as their other small grain alternatives. The number of farmers growing flax declined in 2006 and 2007, and today there are only a handful of Iowa farmers growing organic flax and selling to Spectrum/Hain Celestial. The group was discontinued in 2007.

A focus on one crop is too narrow to maintain a vibrant working group. Continued funding was not available for such a narrow focus. In addition, the market outlet focused on only one buyer. Other buyers were sought and recruited into the Flax Working Group. Two feed buyers in the Midwest do purchase small amounts of organic flax for their businesses. These feed companies can source cleaned flax from North Dakota at reasonable prices, and are not likely to buy from Midwestern growers.

A crop-based working group with a broader emphasis would likely have more longevity and potential for greater impact over time. A focus on specialty grains or specialty oilseed crops or organic crops would have wider appeal, attract a larger membership, and likely would result in more impact for these industries.