TELL CONGRESS THAT REDUCING ORGANIC CERTIFICATION COST SHARE FUNDING IS UNACCEPTABLE
The organic certification cost-share program helps organic farms stay in business and is especially important for small and mid-size farms. If the USDA wants organic farms and our regional economies to survive and thrive, they should be making it easier to get certification cost share and increase support during the pandemic. Instead they have just reduced funds for organic certification cost share.
Email your Senators and your Representative TODAY to urge Congress to reinstate full cost share funding!
Email your Representative and Senators using the contact form on his or her website. Find your Representative here: https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative
Then send the National Organic Coalition a quick email to let us know about your outreach: Abby@NationalOrganicCoalition.org
SAMPLE EMAIL FOR YOUR SENATORS & REPRESENTATIVE
Dear Senator/Representative xxx,
I am writing as a constituent and to express my outrage that USDA’s Farm Service Agency has chosen to reduce support for the organic certification cost share program in the midst of a pandemic. The organic certification cost share program provides organic farmers and handling operations with modest reimbursement of up to $750 to cover a portion of their annual certification fees. This decision was announced via an August 10 Federal Register notice that stated FSA is “revising the reimbursement amount to 50 percent of the certified organic operation’s eligible expenses, up to a maximum of $500 per scope.”
This unilateral action by USDA is unwarranted and completely unacceptable and disregards the Congressional funding directives in the 2018 Farm Bill. The 2018 Farm Bill clearly set reimbursement rates at 75 percent of the certified organic operation’s eligible expenses, up to a maximum of $750 per scope.
In addition, the FSA has done a huge disservice to the organic community in this time of crisis by delaying the release of funds by many months while organic operations struggle to stay in business as they weather a pandemic and loss of markets. Organic, direct market, and diversified operations have largely been excluded from existing USDA pandemic relief programs, including the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program, while the top 1 percent of recipients got more than 20 percent of the money, totaling $1.2 billion.
If the USDA wants organic farms and our regional economies to survive and thrive, they should be helping organic operations during the pandemic. Producers and other organic operations need this support now more than ever because they are faced with loss of markets due to covid-19 and increasing costs as they modify their operations to keep workers and customers safe and implement new sanitation and staffing procedures.
I urge you to communicate with FSA to ensure that the full organic certification cost share reimbursement is reinstated. In addition, given USDA’s delay in announcing the funding availability, I urge you to extend the deadlines for state agencies to apply to administer the program, and for organic operations to apply for the assistance.
Sincerely,
Your name and organization (if applicable)
Your town and state (to demonstrate that you are a constituent)
Background Information:
USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) announced on August 10 that they will be reducing reimbursement rates for the organic certification cost share program, which provides reimbursements to organic farms and handling operations. The August 10 Federal Register notice stated that FSA is “revising the reimbursement amount to 50 percent of the certified organic operation’s eligible expenses, up to a maximum of $500 per scope.” The 2018 Farm Bill clearly set reimbursement rates at 75 percent of the certified organic operation’s eligible expenses, up to a maximum of $750 per scope.
This action by USDA is unwarranted and completely unacceptable. The 2018 Farm Bill provided new funding for the program and also directed USDA to use the program’s carryover balances from previous years to fund the program for fiscal years 2019 through 2023. Given these sources of funding, there should be plenty of funds available for the program’s operation in fiscal year 2020. Either USDA’s accounting for this program is flawed or the agency has decided to disregard the Congressional funding directives in the 2018 Farm Bill. In addition, the FSA has done a huge disservice to the organic community in this time of crisis by delaying the release of funds by many months while organic operations struggle to stay in business as they weather a pandemic and loss of markets. Organic, direct market, and diversified operations have largely been excluded from existing USDA pandemic relief programs, including the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program, while the top 1 percent of recipients got more than 20 percent of the money, totaling $1.2 billion.
NOC is urging organic operations to apply for certification cost-share assistance as soon as they are able to do so with their state agency or local FSA office: https://www.fsa.usda.gov/programs-and-services/occsp/index
Operations have until October 31, 2020 to apply for funding. FSA has stated that “if additional funding is authorized at a later time, FSA may provide additional assistance to certified operations that have applied” for the organic certification cost share program.
Read the full press release here.