Clif Bar and Pipeline Foods are stepping up to spearhead a much-needed program to train agricultural professionals working with organic or transitioning farmers. The project, supported by the Organic Trade Association’s industry-invested organic research, promotion and education GRO programming, is called the Organic Agronomy Training Series (OATS), will launch this spring in the Midwest.

Clif Bar has provided a cornerstone donation of $50,000 for the project, while Pipeline Foods has spearheaded a broad coalition to implement the project.

In 2018, Organic Grain Collaboration Grain member and organic food company Annie’s unveiled two new products featuring ingredients from rotational crops used in organic grain production. Its “Limited Edition” line features graham crackers made from hard red winter wheat and oats, and macaroni and cheese made with durum wheat and golden peas, and reflects a partnership with two organic farmers in Montana.

Since 2005, organic dairy cooperative Organic Valley has had in place a successful forward contract strategy for its members converting a dairy herd to organic.

The United States is one of the world’s largest producers and exporters of conventionally grown grains. America’s farmers grow and ship out to foreign destinations vast amounts of cereal grains and grain legumes. But the production of organic grains in this country has been slow to take off, even as demand for organic grains has grown to unprecedented levels.

Whether you are an organic fruit or vegetable farmer, a livestock producer, a dairyman, an organic food or fiber processor or a distributor or retailer, stalled organic standards development, rooting out fraud in the organic industry, and conducting rulemaking on the tools available to certified organic operations were the key regulatory themes for the organic sector in 2018.

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. 

The Organic Trade Association received funding to conduct a GBI (Global Based Initiative) this summer to determine which types of social media campaigns are most effective for closing sales of U.S. agricultural exports in our top export markets and create a process for evaluating these campaigns in line with U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) performance measures.

Since the inception of the Organic Foods Production Act, certified organic wool must originate from a sheep that was managed organically from its last third of gestation, and never received treatments of antibiotics or synthetic parasiticides throughout its entire life. However, the regulatory requirement for parasiticides recently underwent a seemingly minor yet significant adjustment to accommodate sick animals in emergency treatment situations.

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.

Setting the stage for 2018 , USDA announced its “Principles for Organic:” 1) Protect the integrity of the USDA Organic seal; 2) Deliver efficient and effective oversight of organic production practices, to ensure organic products meet consistent standards. These principles largely translate to where the lion’s share of USDA’s time and resources are being directed--increased oversight and enforcement to curb fraudulent organic imports.