Fall 2022 ORGANIC REPORT 20 Data & Insights Advancing Organic in Climate-Smart Agriculture Programs By Laura Holm, International and Government Affairs Associate ON FEBRUARY 7, 2022, U.S. Department of Agriculture announced the availability of $1 billion in grants for Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities through the Commodity Credit Corporation. The purpose of the new program is to support the production and marketing of “climate-smart commodities,” produced using USDA-defined climate-smart practices, through 30 to 50 pilot projects over the next five years. Organic Trade Association applied for the first pool of funding, designated for projects ranging from $5 million to $100 million. USDA had requested public feedback on how to structure the pilot program through a Request for Information in September 2021. In response, OTA urged USDA to (1) recognize organic agriculture as a key part of the solution to tackle climate change; (2) integrate organic into climate-smart agriculture programs; (3) increase technical assistance and knowledge of organic farming systems; (4) promote organic through market and infrastructure development; (5) employ life-cycle analysis in Climate-Smart programs; and (6) recognize and reward organic farmers as early adopters of climate-smart practices. After reviewing public comments, USDA published a Notice of Funding Opportunity calling for partnerships across the supply chain to propose pilot projects. The projects must provide voluntary incentives to farmers and landowners to (1) implement climate‐smart production practices, activities, and systems on working lands; (2) measure, monitor, and verify the carbon and greenhouse gas; (GHG) benefits associated with those practices; and (3) develop markets and promote the resulting climate‐ smart commodities. Upon publication of the notice, OTA recognized that the opportunity could support the collection of primary data on the soil impact of organic systems, which could plug into existing USDA verification tools such as the COMET-Farm modeling tool and enable it to begin accurately measuring GHG outcomes of organic farms. Key Goals Reward organic and transitioning producers for being early adopters of the climate-smart practices. Communicate and educate the public on the climatesmart benefits of organic production and organic food, fiber, and other products. Strengthen organic data collection particularly around soil health and climate-smart practices, and create an easy-touse soil health measuring tool for organic and transitioning farms. Laura Holm “ OTA, in collaboration with The Organic Center, worked on a proposal to build a pilot program entitled Advancing Climate Outcomes and Expanding Markets Through Soil Testing and Verification in Organic Systems. Leading up to the submission of the project, OTA collected input on the pilot from OTA members, including those who serve on OTA’s Climate Change Task Force.
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