Explaining the Organic Transition Intiative

By marBleseed staFF

In late August the USDA announced a comprehensive effort aimed at increasing organic and certified organic production. The agency cited the increase in consumer demand for organic products in the face of a 71% decrease in certification applications as a main motivator. In the initial announcement, USDA outlined an approach that spans several agencies and includes the Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS), Risk Management Agency (RMA) and Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) as the primary agencies supporting the Initiative, which will focus on three areas.

As summer turned to fall, we learned more about how each distinct agency within USDA would administer their various components. After years of advocacy for organic and sustainable agriculture, it was exciting to hear that such a broad approach would be utilized to address all the factors that might be contributing to a downturn in applications for certification. One critical area of the broader Organic Transition Initiative is $100 million dollars in direct resources to farmers. At the time of this article, many of the efforts announced this summer are well underway. The RMA is on a ‘road show’, explaining new programs meant to provide farm safety net protections for smaller producers with diverse operations (see page 26 for more info.) In addition, organic advocates have been lobbying for the restoration and increase for the organic cost share program. These funds help farmers offset the cost of certification. Again, for diverse farms with multiple production areas or scopes, organic certification fees without assistance often made no business sense particularly if an aspect of the overall farming business was small, for example egg sales/layers integrated into a primarily vegetable farm. It was exciting to see this program, despite its often-complicated implementation, mentioned as a critical way USDA provides resources to organic farmers. Other direct assistance to farmers will include better connections with NRCS programs. Often both the size of organic operations as well as the potential redundancy in organic systems practices and conservation practices made it difficult to navigate NRCS for both farmers and agency staff. The OTI will support more conservation going to organic farming. The other component that was recently announced is the Transition to Organic Partnership Program or TOPP. USDA, through AMS wants to “ensure that farmers transitioning to organic have the support they need to navigate that transition, including a full supply chain to American consumers who demand organic choices in their supermarkets daily.” (USDA press release 8/22) Plans are underway for the National Organic Program to initiate networks of partners in six regions across the United States. One organization in each region would be tasked with reaching out to partners across their region that provide direct farmer training, education, and outreach activities. The focus of all these educational formats is supporting farmer transition to certified organic. USDA is committing another $100 million dollars to this effort.

Mentoring, now accepted as an incredibly effective method for farmers to learn from each other will be central to these activities in each of the six regions. The mentor relationship truly enables farmers as adult learners to get individualized support specific and relevant to their farm goals and enterprises. Given the three-year transition required to certify, the OTI is also committed to paying mentors to stay with their farmer mentees throughout the transition period and ideally during the first year of certification. Marbleseed, a long-standing farmer education organization with the country’s oldest farmer Mentor Program looks forward to participating in these activities in the Midwest. Expanding the Marbleseed mentor program to create a relationship throughout transition will strengthen the cohort relationships initiated during the one-year mentorship Marbleseed currently offers. The past two years have seen a greater effort to collaborate among farmer educational organizations. The opportunity to coordinate services and not duplicate the efforts of partners is critical in a time of limited resources. USDA’s approach to regional, collaborative teams to provide community building, mentorship training and support, technical assistance, workshops, and field days relevant to transition and organic producers in the areas OTI will focus on creates an exciting opportunity to strengthen all of these efforts. Many organizations focus on beginning farmers and do it incredibly well. Marbleseed has shifted to focus on ‘intermediate’ beginning farmers who have been farming for 3-5 years. Their concerns are often more business and markets related. They have experience and are ready to become the next farmer leaders and mentors. OTI will bring more farmers interested in transitioning to organic who have years of experience and deep knowledge of their land. It will add a nuance to the mentor relationships and subsequent educational program development that has consequences

for access to other areas of the initiative like RMA and NRCS. If they have accessed these programs prior to organic transition, their expectations of support and resources could potentially create more demand and strengthen these programs as well. More experienced transitioning farmers will come with business knowledge as well but may need information on organic markets and trends. However, farmer knowledge in these areas is not enough to meet consumer demand for organic products. Organic supply chains need stronger infrastructure for processing and distribution. Demand for organic ingredients and inputs outpace the supply. These holes in the supply chain create risks to farmers in other areas. This is the third area of focus for the OTI. Less is currently known about how this final $100 million dollars will be deployed. The USDA is seeking stakeholder input and comments through listening sessions and smaller regional meetings at the time this article went to press. The Organic Transition Partnership Program (TOPP) is a collaborative effort involving many partners working together towards a common goal. The TOPP partnership network covers six regions: the Mid-Atlantic/Northeast, Southeast, Midwest, Plains, Northwest, and West/Southwest. Marbleseed and the Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association are two of the Midwest partners via the MOSA cooperative agreement that will be serving transitioning and existing organic farmers in this region.

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