Thinking of enrolling your farm or ranch in USDA’s dynamic 
Like many others invested in organic agriculture, the decision at last week’s National Organic Standards Board meeting to phase out an antibiotic used in certified apple and pear production may have left you wondering, why was it allowed to begin with? The straightforward answer is that, throughout its history, organic certification has allowed a very small number of materials, even pesticides, that we more often associate with conventional agriculture.
Last week, the California Department of Pesticide Regulation released a 
Organic family farmers are facing real hardship due to Congress’ ongoing failure to get its act together. Case in point: When it finally passed the 2013 federal budget in January, Congress stripped funding from a host of essential programs which support small- and medium-sized organic farms. Among the abandoned programs were the $5.5 million which had funded the National Organic Certification Cost Share Program (NOCCSP) each year since 2009. 
The near stranglehold which agribusiness holds over policymaking in Washington, DC was painfully evident in the six month spending measure Congress approved last week. Buried deep in the last minute compromise were two legislative riders hand crafted by the agricultural biotechnology and concentrated animal feedlot operation (CAFO) lobbyists. The first rider guts judicial review of the process for approving genetically modified seeds while the second rolls back USDA’s already weak regulations protecting the contract rights of poultry and beef producers. 
Has it really come to this? A trade-off between feeding or fueling our world? Apparently so.
USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack said in a recent speech that rural America is “becoming less and less relevant” in agricultural politics. While we agree that the USDA and farm legislators need a more “proactive message, not a reactive message,” as Vilsak pointed out, the reason we don’t have farm legislation for the upcoming 5 years is because it is precisely farm-state, rural legislators who are standing in the way. 
Thank you for your generosity:
Organic Farming Research Foundation
Mailing address: P.O. Box 440, Santa Cruz, CA 95061 | Physical address: 303 Potrero Street, Suite 29-203, Santa Cruz, CA 95060
© 2013 Organic Farming Research Foundation. All rights reserved.