Organic Farmers Fly-In Washington, DC

As a member of Organic Trade Association (OTA), Tim was asked to participate in the OTA's first Farmers Advisory Council fly-in and to talk with lawmakers about the 2018 farm bill and see how organic production is going to be part of it.  The two day event in Washington DC was held on Nov 29-30, 2017.  The agenda of the fly-in was to try to bring change to three areas of priorities for organic farmers which include:

• Healthy Markets

  • NATIONAL ORGANIC PROGRAM (NOP) AND TRADE OVERSIGHT
    • Modernize and improve international organic trade tracking systems and data collection.
    • Ensure effective oversight, robust investigations and enforcement across the entire organic supply chain
  • EXPORT PROMOTION
    • Increase funding for MAP and the Foreign Market Development Program (FMDP) 
  • INDUSTRY DRIVEN STANDARDS
    • Congress should avoid adjudicating specific standards and allow the standards to continue to be driven by the organic industry

• Successful Organic Farmers

  • RESEARCH
    • Robust and stable funding for federal research on organic production methods and organic ingredients, pest control, and weed management. 
  • RISK MANAGEMENT
    • Congress should direct the Risk Management Agency (RMA) to prioritize development of additional price elections for crop insurance.
  • ORGANIC DATA INITIATIVE
    • Congress should maintain the same level of program funding in the 2018 farm bill as was in the 2014 farm bill.

• Expanding the Production Base

  • RURAL DEVELOPMENT
    • Congress should encourage organic's eligibility within the rural development programs
  • CREDIT
    • Congress should include organic's eligibility in, valuation of local and regional crops, and Definition of qualified beginning farmer and rancher rural business development grants.

• • CONSERVATION PROGRAMS
    • Congress should maintain and support EQIP OI and CSP
  • CERTIFICATION COST SHARE

To read more about the fly-in click here.