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IN THE KNOW ABOUT THE “O”
Twenty organic farmers – including one major league baseball player – stepped up to the plate for thousands of organic farmers throughout the country when they came to Washington in late November to participate in the Organic Trade Association’s rst Farmers Advisory Council y-in and talk with lawmakers and policy of cials about organic priorities in the 2018 Farm Bill.
The event brought in farmers from states stretching from California to Montana to Georgia, from the Bluegrass farmland of Kentucky to the prairies of Kansas and Colorado. The diverse group included seasoned organic farmers and farmers just transitioning to organic – and one major league baseball player, Jayson Werth, former Washington Nationals star player and owner of an organic farm in Illinois.
“The input of organic farmers in the next Farm Bill is absolutely critical to move organic forward,” said Perry Clutts, co-chairman of the Farmers Advisory Council and organic dairy farmer and owner of Pleasantview Farm in central Ohio.
“Organic agriculture needs more funding for research, robust oversight of organic imports and crop insurance programs that recognize organic prices,” added Doug Crabtree, co-chairman of the advisory council and organic farmer and co-owner of Vilicus Farm in northern Montana.
Thirty congressional of ces visited
The farmers visited the of ces of 30-some lawmakers, meeting
in person with several lawmakers including Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Pat Roberts of Kansas and House Agriculture Committee Ranking Member Collin Peterson of Minnesota. Moving off Capitol Hill for their second day in Washington, the organic advocates met with of cials at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Environmental Protection Agency, and with other farmer and commodity associations.
Tim Raile is a fourth-generation farmer in northwest Kansas and eastern Colorado. Raile and his son are systematically transitioning all of their 8,500 acres to organic, with the plan to have the farm fully organic by 2022. This was Raile’s rst y-in, and he said he felt that it was important to represent his home state of Kansas in the effort to “promote organic’s presence in the new Farm Bill.”
“My main messages were that organic is no longer a niche market, but now mainstream and deserves to have a level playing eld in the new Farm Bill,” said Raile. “Also, that the inclusions that the Organic Trade Association is requesting in the Farm Bill are not just to help organic farmers, but are good for the 82 percent of
the households that buy organic and good for the con dence and
ORGANIC FARMERS TAKE ORGANIC MESSAGES TO CAPITOL HILL
www.ota.com
integrity in the USDA Organic label.”
It was also the rst y-in for Werth, who owns a 500-acre certi ed organic corn, soybean, and wheat farm in central Illinois. It may not be his last. Werth told the Organic Trade Association at its 2017 Annual Policy Conference that he is excited about working to advance organic agriculture.
Stronger voice for organic farmers
The Organic Trade Association established its Farmers Advisory Council in 2013 to create a stronger voice for organic farmers. The council’s member organizations were instrumental in pushing out
a comprehensive farm bill survey conducted by the Organic Trade Association early in 2017 to their membership communities. The survey, which received over 500 responses from certi ed organic producers and handlers across 45 states, has been critical in shaping the policies of the Organic Trade Association in the lead-up to the 2018 Farm Bill.
Based on the survey responses from its members, the Organic Trade Association has identi ed its three top priorities for the 2018 Farm Bill: that it contain policies to promote a healthy organic marketplace, to ensure that organic farmers continue to be successful, and to expand organic production.
The Organic Trade Association’s Farm Bill platform calls for full support and adequate funding for the USDA National Organic Program to keep pace with industry growth, set uniform standards, and carry out compliance and enforcement actions in the U.S. and abroad. It advocates organic-focused research, risk management tools, data collection and direct dialog between industry and USDA that are critical to organic farmers’ success. It calls for improved access to land and capital, investment in distribution systems
and infrastructure, and targeted technical assistance through the utilization of existing USDA conservation, rural development, and other programs to encourage orderly transition to organic.
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