Bill is opportunity to advocate for organic

The “farm bill” is a massive piece of legislation that Congress passes roughly every five years. It covers the broad range of programs run by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, including commodity-support programs, agricultural-conservation programs, trade and international food aid, domestic nutrition assistance (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program), farm credit programs, rural development, agricultural research and extension, forestry, horticulture, crop insurance and a variety of other policies. The current farm bill became law in late 2018 and expires in late September 2023.

But even when Congress is not actively writing a new farm bill, there is still work to be done. In between periods of congressional debate on the text of the bill, advocates work to make sure that the USDA is implementing the programs created by the farm bill. For example, the 2018 farm bill instructed the USDA to establish new regulations to increase the department’s capacity to detect and prevent fraud in organic supply chains. The USDA is still working on finalizing these new rules, three years after the farm bill became law, and Organic Farmers Association (OFA) and other advocates have been pushing the department to finish a strong rule as soon as possible.

Other important topics for organic farmers in the farm bill include funding for organic-focused research, as well as for the Organic Certification Cost Share Program. The farm bill can create opportunities for harmful changes, too, such as past attempts to change the requirements for who can serve on the National Organic Standards Board.

Organic-farmer priorities

OFA is starting a process to set our priorities for the 2023 farm bill to make sure that the needs of organic farmers are a part of this omnibus bill’s development. Even though Congress won’t pass new legislation until 2023, the debate over what should be in that bill has already begun and will pick up steam in 2022.

To get ready, we are going to be reaching out to organic farmers and farm organizations around the country to get your input on what priorities we need to advocate for in the next farm bill.

On March 2, OFA will be co-hosting a national organic farmers’ meeting, focused on generating national organic-farmer priorities for the farm bill with the Organic Trade Association (OTA).

This past fall, the Organic Trade Association held three meetings with organic stakeholders in partnership with Dr. Kathleen Merrigan from the Swette Center for Sustainable Food Systems at Arizona State University.

One meeting was for organic certifiers, one was for national advocacy groups, and one meeting was open to all.

Together, OFA and OTA will co-host the national farmer meeting on March 2 (virtually). The Organic Farmers Association will bring a grassroots effort to the national organic-farmer meeting, and we invite state and regional groups to engage your organic-farmer members in a state-level conversation to identify their farm bill priorities. Organic-farm organizations that hold stakeholder meetings with their farmers and individual organic farmers will be invited to the March meeting to discuss organic-farmer priorities. Organic farmers may also participate in the national organic-farmer meeting.

How to participate

Organic farmers may participate by doing one or all of the following:

• Contact your state or regional organic-farm organization and find out when they are holding their stakeholder farm bill meeting and participate with your regional peers in this discussion.

• Submit your farm bill priorities via the meeting’s online survey.

• Attend the March 2 national organic-farmer meeting.

Patty Lovera is a policy director for the Organic Farmers Association, making sure that the policy priorities of certified organic farmers are represented in Washington. This is an updated excerpt from the Organic Voice, published with permission of OFA.