Farm bill contains good provisions for organic producers
Farm bill contains good provisions for organic producers
AMES, Iowa -- The 2008 farm bill has good provisions for organic farmers, says Ellen Huntoon, who works for U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin on the Senate Agriculture Committee.
She was part of a panel that discussed what the farm bill offers organic producers at the recent Iowa Organic Conference in Ames.
The bill contains $22 million in mandatory funding for offsetting the costs of obtaining or maintaining organic certification. Farmers can be reimbursed for up to 75 percent of the cost not to exceed $750 per year.
"We need everyone to participate in this," said Jerry Rosman, director of the Iowa Organic Association.
"We also knew that we needed to include more money for basic research on production and marketing," Huntoon said. "There is $78 million over five years for research on production and marketing practices."
Huntoon said more funds will be available for classical plant breeding, and $5 million in mandatory funding is available for USDA to establish price and yield information for organic crops.
"Basic price and yield information is lacking and hopefully this will level the playing field," Rosman said.
Many of the farm bill's conservation provisions should work well for organic farmers, said Traci Bruckner, assistant director of rural policy at the Center for Rural Affairs.
Positive changes have been made in the Conservation Stewardship Program, which used to be the Conservation Security Program, Bruckner said. The program on working lands is designed to protect and improve natural resources and the environment.
The program, administered through the Natural Resources Conservation Service, will be nationwide. There will be a continuous sign-up. The tiers have been eliminated, and farmers will have to enroll all acres that they operate. Contracts will be for five years, and there is a $40,000 payment limit.
Funds are available to enroll nearly 13 million acres each year. The program sets aside 5 percent of the funding for beginning farmers. A provision gives supplemental payments to farmers willing to adopt resource-conserving crop rotations.
"Organic farmers will benefit enormously because of the resource-conserving crop rotations that they use and also there is an emphasis in the ranking criteria on comprehensive resource and environmental farming systems," Bruckner said.
The farm bill requires USDA to ensure that the program works for and benefits organic farming, Bruckner said. USDA must provide outreach and technical assistance to organic farmers.
"USDA is also required to create a transparent process that allows organic farmers to coordinate the organic certification process with the CSP process," Bruckner said.
The Environmental Quality Incentives Program provides incentives to transition to organic production with special provisions for beginning and socially disadvantaged farmers. Farmers can receive up to $20,000 per year or $80,000 over the life of the farm bill.
The Conservation Reserve Program Transition Incentive provides two years of additional CRP payments to landowners who sell or provide a long-term lease to beginning farmers.
The Business and Industry Loan Program has been modified to provide loans to groups to establish enterprises that process, distribute, aggregate and market locally or regionally produced foods, Huntoon said. At least 5 percent of the funds must be reserved for these types of activities.
The Value-added Product Market Development Program was also modified to provide grants to farmers and cooperatives to facilitate the aggregation and marketing of locally-grown foods. USDA must reserve 10 percent of funds each year for local and regional supply networks.
Huntoon said that $1 million was set aside to buy local fruits and vegetables to provide morning and afternoon snacks for school children.
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