Organic Farming Supports Health, the Environment & Local Economies—Tell Congress to Support Organic!

You probably eat organic because it’s healthier and better for the environment, but there’s another good reason to support organic food and farming: It revitalizes the economies of rural communities where poverty and suicide rates run high.

Organic agriculture is 22 to 35 percent more profitable than industrial farming, but Congress and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) do very little to encourage farmers to transition.

One Farm Bill program gives organic farmers a $750 rebate to offset certification costs, but in 2025, Trump’s USDA withheld those funds.

TAKE ACTION: Tell Congress to Regenerate Health, the Environment, and Rural Communities by Supporting Organic!

Organic agriculture has a wide array of environmental and health benefits. Organic farming enhances soil fertility, boosts yields, and draws down greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. Organic practices make farms more resilient to extreme weather patterns and climate change. By eliminating the use of fossil fuel-based fertilizers and toxic pesticides, organic farms protect the health of farmers, farmworkers, and consumers, as well as the environment.

Organic agriculture creates jobs and raises incomes. One of the best ways for a rural county to jump-start its economy is to become an “organic hotspot.” An organic hotspot is a county within a cluster of counties that all have statistically high numbers of organic farms and businesses.

Organic hotspots tend to form in places where government-sponsored organic certifiers provide outreach services to farmers. The economic impact comes when the organic community hits critical mass, multiplying opportunities to network, share expertise and launch business ventures.

In an organic hotspot, the local food system branches out in every direction connecting farms, restaurants, community gardens, farmers markets, food banks, schools, artisans, processors, entrepreneurs and investors.

When counties become organic hotspots their poverty rates go down and their median annual household incomes go up. On average, the unemployment rate lowers by 0.22 percentage points and the per capita income goes up by $899.

In agricultural hotspots that are not organic, the trend reverses. The unemployment rate rises by 0.06 percentage points and the per capita income falls by $1,076.

The many benefits of organic food and farming have inspired a bicameral group of lawmakers led by Senator Peter Welch (D-Vt.) to rally behind the Opportunities in Organic Act and the Organic Dairy Assistance, Investment, and Reporting Yields Act (O DAIRY) Act, while advocating for increased investments in federal programs that support organic infrastructure.

The Opportunities in Organic Act would mitigate challenges farmers face when transitioning to organic by expanding the existing National Organic Certification Cost-Share Program into a comprehensive Opportunities in Organic Program by:

• Increasing USDA’s technical assistance to farmers adopting organic practices; 
• Raising organic certification cost-share payments and granting USDA the flexibility to exceed cost-share caps;
• Supporting non-governmental organizations to guide farmers as they transition to organic; and
• Helping farmers from socially disadvantaged groups and underserved regions go organic.

The O DAIRY Act is legislation to expand federal support for organic dairy farmers by extending emergency assistance to farmers facing losses and increasing investments in the organic dairy industry.

These initiatives are small but important steps to increasing the amount of organic food grown in the U.S.

Considering how effective organic agriculture is as an environmental, public health, and economic development tool, it’s surprising how little Congress and the USDA do to support it.

In 2018, the last year a proper Farm Bill was passed, of the roughly $21 billion in annual farm spending allocated, organic’s share wasn’t even visible in a pie chart. At just about $180 million, the sliver was too small to see.

Organic got a boost in 2022 when Biden’s USDA made a $300 million investment in a new Organic Transition Initiative, using American Rescue Plan funds. But, since the 2018 Farm Bill expired in 2023, as money for agriculture has been distributed on an ad-hoc basis by Congress and the USDA, organic has been left out.

It will take a lot more than the Opportunities in Organic Act and O DAIRY to make sure organic gets its fair share of Farm Bill programs. But it would be a start.

TAKE ACTION: Tell Congress to Regenerate Health, the Environment, and Rural Communities by Supporting Organic!