FY2007 Organic Appropriations Recommendations

Item

FY06 Final

President’s Budget

FY07

OTA’s FY07

Recommendations

Organic Standards

$2.026M

$3.13M

$3.13M

Organic Standards is the line item for administration of the National Organic Program (NOP), including policy guidance, enforcement of the NOP regulations, certifier accreditation and training and the costs of operating the National Organic Standards Board. OTA strongly supports the President’s budget for the National Organic Program.

Organic Price Reporting from the Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS)

0.0

0.0

$1M

OTA recommends $1 million be appropriated to AMS to produce price and sales information for organically produced commodities to give organic farmers a better understanding of the market in which they do business.

Organic Data Collection from the Economic Research Service (ERS)

$500,000

0.0

$750,000

In 2004 and 2005, Congress provided $500,000 to USDA’s Economic Research Service for a series of surveys of organic producers, handlers, and retailers so that a Market Outlook Report can be approximated for organic. Data provided from these surveys will give both organic and non-organic producers information needed for business decisions. OTA recommends $750,000 be appropriated to ERS in order to continue this effort.

Organic Transitions Program (ORG) + (OREI)

$1.9M

0.0

$4M

The Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service (CSREES) administers the Integrated Organic Program (3 million mandatory funding authorized in the 2002 Farm Bill and yearly appropriated funds combined); funding organic research to improve the competitiveness of organic producers and to help processors who have already adopted organic standards to grow and market high quality organic agricultural products. In 2005, 82 grant proposals were submitted with requests totaling $39,127,851.17. Of those requests, 8 projects were funded totaling 4,595,582. OTA fully supports the Integrated Organic Program and understand not all projects can be funded. OTA recommends funding be reinstated for this program and increased to $4M.

Item

FY06 Final

President’s Budget

FY07

OTA’s FY07

Recommendations

Organic Certification Cost Share

N/A

N/A

$1.5M

In the past this program has made direct incentive payments of $500 per farmer to assist with the costs of initial organic certification. Since this program has spent its entire allocation of $5 million, currently there is no direct incentive program available to non-organic farmers considering transition to organic methods. To continue this successful program, OTA recommends an appropriation of $1.5 million as interim funding until the full program can be reauthorized in the 2007 Farm Bill.

Organic Survey from the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS)

0.0

0.0

$1M

The National Organic Program released a complete list of certified organic operations in 2005. OTA recommends $1M be appropriated to NASS to conduct a “mini-census” of certified organic operations.

Fund §7409 of the 2002 Farm Bill, Report on Producers and Handlers of Organic Agricultural Products

N/A

N/A

$100,000

This is an unfunded provision of 2002 Farm Bill. Having this report available would allow USDA to, for  the first time, evaluate and convey the amount and kind of federal resources dedicated to organic research, and promotion.