For well over a decade, organic dairy farmers have been waiting for consistent rules for transitioning dairy livestock to organic.
The organic regulations allow conventional dairy animals to be transitioned into organic production after being raised organically for one year prior to milk being sold as organic. This was meant to be a one-time allowance so that dairy farms had the opportunity to convert their farm to organic without having to purchase an entirely new herd.
Approximately once every five years, Congress drafts legislation to reauthorize federal feeding programs that serve children. Commonly referred to as the Child Nutrition Act, the legislation authorizes and funds the national school breakfast and lunch program, after school snacks, the summer feeding program and meals served in daycare centers.
Organic is an entirely unique public-private partnership, a voluntary program overseen by third-party private certifiers with the added force of government oversight that has created the most rigorous and transparent set of food standards in the world. Organic farmers and businesses are one of the few industries that want the government to ensure that standards and regulations governing them are robust and stringent. But what happens when the government fails to uphold its end of the bargain?
Planting trees in the Peruvian Amazon, working with dairy farms to improve soil health, transforming farmland to regenerative agriculture, installing new solar panels, designing fully recyclable or compostable food packaging, reducing food waste. Ambitious, diversified, visionary projects underway by organic companies, with one common goal – to fight against climate change.
Organic food and agriculture have the potential to change the world. All too often, though, the participants in this sector fragment and expend energy criticizing each other as falling short of their own ideals. However, when we come together and rally around our common vision, we can achieve remarkable results.
We sat down with Organic Trade Association Board members and asked them to share which of our Bold Steps plans they were most excited about and why. Here is an overview of the Organic Trade Association's big, bold plans for the future.
Over the past three years, the Organic Trade Association and its members have been heavily engaged in shaping and advancing key priorities for the organic sector in the new farm bill. It started with a survey sent out in fall 2016 to certified organic operations around the country asking for feedback on what the challenges and needs were for organic. The survey results helped inform our farm bill policy priorities.
Organic is one of many drivers influencing consumer behavior now and moving forward. The advantage organic has over other influencers is that it has ties to several areas including sustainability, health, motivation and behavioral drivers. These alliances serve to strengthen its position as a leading lady who does best when flanked by her best friends.
The House and Senate are currently conducting conference committee negotiations where they will have to work out the vast differences between their two different versions of the farm bill. They have until September 30 to report a final farm bill, vote on it and pass it in the House and Senate, and then send to the President for signature before the current farm bill expires.
Megan DeBates