Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey says modifications to three USDA conservation programs will help organic farmers get established. A member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, Casey said with demand on the rise for organic food, “we must do all we can to help American farmers and ranchers meet this demand.”
Casey’s “homegrown organic” legislation would instruct USDA to create bundles of practices in the Conservation Stewardship Program that are aimed at farmers making the three-year transition to organic from conventional agriculture. The CSP offers a comparatively small payment per acre for adoption and maintenance of land stewardship practices, which could be a financial support to growers during the transition.
The Casey bill also would eliminate a payment limit on cost-share payments through the Environmental Quality Incentive Program for organic farms, and would modify a Conservation Reserve incentive for retired or retiring farmers to sell their land to buyers who are interested in becoming organic producers. The Casey change would make the incentive — two additional annual payments from USDA — available to all landowners, not just retiring farmers.
A House version of the “homegrown organic” bill was introduced in August by Rep. Ann Kuster of New Hampshire.