Organic Certification Cost Share and Other 2008 Farm Bill Programs
By Harriet Behar

This article was first printed in the November/December 2008 issue of the Organic Broadcaster, published by the Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Service.

The 2008 farm bill had many provisions for organic farmers, with a variety of new programs as well as continued funding for existing programs. At the time of the writing of this article, many of these funds were not yet available. Several programs are so new that the rules for their implementation have not yet been written.

Organic Certification Cost Share
The National Organic Program has allocated each state a specific amount of dollars to provide organic producers a reimbursement of a portion of the cost of organic certification for crop year 2008. By the time you read this, the exact details should be available through your State Department of Agriculture concerning who will be eligible, including the time period when you spent your certification dollars that can be reimbursed as well as the amount of money you might be able to receive. These certification cost share dollars were allocated for 2008 and for the next 5 years as well, provided that congress continues to appropriate the money each year. The 2008 money has been appropriated. The maximum a producer can receive will be 3/4 of the cost of their certification, or $750 dollars, whichever is less. Each state may view costs differently with some allowing reimbursement only for direct certification and inspection costs and others including user fees as well. Your State Department of Agriculture should be able to provide you details of their specific disbursement program as well as their application and any necessary supporting documents, (such as certification invoices or current organic certificates), in the next few months.

Natural Resource Conservation Service Environmental Quality Incentive Program (EQIP)
The Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) will be managing a few new programs of interest to organic and transitioning farmers. The first is a per acre payment for land that is converting to organic from conventional farming. The exact dollars per acre and rules for this are not yet out from the NRCS, but there is a limitation of $20,000 per year per farmer and of $80,000 per farmer over the 5 year period of this farm bill. In addition, there is funding for "technical assistance", where the cost of consultants and other learning opportunities would be reimbursed, helping the farmer who is transitioning land to learn organic system practices and become a successful organic farmer. As all organic farmers know, organic is based in management and not just substituting approved inputs for nonapproved inputs. At this time, it is unclear how best to provide this technical assistance. The rules for this technical assistance are expected either late in 2008 or early 2009.

There is also a program for encouraging native pollinators, which will be useful to organic farmers who wish to plant or enhance beneficial insect habitat. Again, the rules for this program are still in development as of the writing of this article. In addition, there is an alternative and renewable energy program under NRCS EQIP, encouraging farm-based energy systems, with the exact implementation rules not yet available to the public.

Organic farmers should contact their county NRCS offices and express interest in the various EQIP programs listed above. Encourage your local group to include these programs in their list of programs they will fund in 2009, even though the exact rules of the programs are not yet clear. Otherwise, they may not allow payments for these programs until 2010 or beyond.

Organic Research
Organic research dollars have also been increased, giving organic farmers the opportunity to work with various non-profit as well as state and University programs to either begin or expand their organic research. These institutions want to know the needs of the organic farmer, so they can access these funds for research. Give some thought to things you wish would be researched to help improve your farming operation, and work with your local land grant university or with nonprofits such as the Organic Farming Research Foundation (see the MOSES Organic Resource Directory for contact info). Examples could be organic management of Canadian Thistle or methods of fly control for organic cattle operations.

Data Collection and Crop Insurance
Expanded organic data collection as well as improved crop insurance programs serving organic farmers were also part of the farm bill. As you can see, the USDA is very busy with a variety of new programs, and hopefully, they can release the program guidelines so farmers can access these funds for crop year 2009.

Harriet Behar is the MOSES Outreach Specialist. She was an organic inspector and inspector trainer for many years and has an organic bedding plant and vegetable operation with her husband in Southwest WI.