On July 29, 2016 President Obama signed GMO labeling legislation into law. The law, which passed the House and Senate by large bipartisan majorities earlier this summer, creates federal mandatory GMO labeling.
This summer, Organic Trade Association members banded together to defend the process by which organic regulations are created and implemented against an outside attack from Congress and the powerful livestock industry.
Dairy policy is complicated. Highly complex, distinct, and regional policies for producers and processors, arcane and intensely bureaucratic processes—this defines the Federal Milk Marketing Order (FMMO) system.
Election years are strange beasts across the country. Must-See TV is interspersed with political ads, pollsters call during the dinner hour, and folks around the country opine on how things should happen in the Nation’s Capital. Here in Washington, the impacts of an election year are a little different. We don’t get nearly as many political ads or pollster calls (perhaps someday the District of Columbia will get full representation…), and opining on policy is our sport of choice year-round.
Research—on–farm and at land-grant universities—could help solve some of the most pressing production-related issues that keep existing organic farmers from expanding and optimizing production, and pose a barrier for conventional farmers looking to convert their acreage to organic production. For this, the GRO Organic check-off proposal now before USDA could play a key role in funding research vital to addressing those issues.
A significant limit to the continued growth and sustainability of the U.S. organic industry is a gap in domestic supply of organic ingredients and raw products. The growth of organic acreage in the U.S. has never kept pace with demand for organic products and increasing amounts of imports continue to fill the gap.
Bob Quinn has been an organic wheat farmer in Montana for 30 years. Through the years, he’s spoken at countless meetings and workshops, written articles, given interviews on organic, and he says never in his three decades of practicing—and advocating—organic has he received as many questions about transitioning to organic agriculture as he has in the past six months.
Designed to convene organic farmers from across the nation and across sectors, OTA’s Farmers Advisory Council (FAC) provides a forum for elevating the issues facing the farmers who create the foundation of the entire organic industry. This is no easy task, as the organic farming industry encompasses widely different geographic regions, crops, and political districts. However, when farmers come together, share their ideas, and advise OTA on its policy agenda, the results at a national level can be swift and profound, as illustrated by recently announced significant policy reforms in Risk Management Agency’s (RMA) crop insurance available to organic farmers.
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