USDA Announces New Program to Help Organic Dairy Producers

USDA has responded to calls from the National Organic Coalition and other advocates to address the organic dairy crisis, which has been caused by severe drought conditions, supply chain backlogs, and a surge in organic feed prices. 

In December, at NOC’s urging, Congress directed USDA to report back within 30 days on available sources of USDA funding to address the organic dairy crisis. 

On January 23, 2023, USDA announced the Organic Dairy Marketing Assistance Program. This program will be administered by USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) and it is intended to help smaller organic dairy farms that have faced a unique set of challenges and higher costs over the past several years that have been compounded by the ongoing pandemic and drought conditions across the country. FSA plans to provide payments to cover a portion of their estimated marketing costs for 2023.  Up to $100 million has been allocated for the program. 

The program is still in development and additional details will be announced via www.farmers.gov later this year.

NOC is awaiting these additional details to determine how ‘marketing costs’ will be defined and what level of assistance will be provided to organic dairy operations that are struggling to stay in business. Organic dairy producers will likely need additional assistance beyond what is provided through this program. NOC is continuing to advocate for organic dairy producers to ensure that assistance is adequate for the scale of challenges producers are facing.