Organic Trade Week and Repping Georgia on The Hill

By Lauren Cox, Lydia Hsu, and Michael Wall

Lauren Cox is Georgia Organics’ Director of Farmer Services, Lydia Hsu is a Farmer Services Coordinator, and Michael Wall is Director of Farmer Advocacy

Last month from May 14 - May 16, 2024, organic interest groups from across the US converged on Washington, DC for the Organic Trade Association’s Organic Trade Week to talk policy, climate change, nutrition, and creating a pipeline for young farmers within the organic movement.

Georgia Organics’ Director of Advocacy, Michael Wall, along with Director of Farmer Services, Lauren Cox, and Farmer Services Coordinator (and lead on all things GO Organic!), Lydia Hsu, attended the event and debriefed the Georgia Organics staff upon their return. Here are some highlights from their visit to DC.

Event Organization

The first two days of the conference included attendee-wide sessions along with smaller “breakouts” for grain, dairy, poultry, ingredients (for value-added products like box cereal for example), oil seeds, pulses, produce, and export opportunities. Not many farmers were present at the event though there were a handful of larger farm businesses in attendance, including Earthbound Organics and a large Certified Organic dairy producer from the Midwest. Value-added companies like Annie’s and Once Upon a Farm were in the crowd along with small to midsized nonprofits, like Georgia Organics, and interest groups nationwide that serve certified organic farmers directly. A handful of other attendees included research-based institutions along with organic certifiers and state partners of the USDA’s Transition to Organic Partnership Program (TOPP). Georgia Organics is part of the Southeastern TOPP group and connected with some of these partners in 2023 when Atlanta hosted the National Organic Standards Board’s (NOSB) annual meeting.

Advocacy Day on the Hill

The last day of the conference was spent out and about, speaking with members of Congress and their staff about the Farm Bill, organic growth in Georgia, and the needs of small- to mid-scale growers of all stripes in the state.

What were your main takeaways from the conference?

Lydia: I walked away with three overarching themes in my head: consumer education, regenerative versus organic labeling, and then specifically, a lot of dairy and poultry concerns about the avian flu spreading and what that means for organic producers.

Lauren: My main takeaways from the conference were that we needed more farmers in the room and that national policy ultimately trickles down to both farmers and Georgia Organics. Policy is not just some amorphous thing but rather explicit language that affects resources that directly support (or hinder) the local, organic movement. Policy and what is talked about and decided on in these rooms and conversations affect the work we do at Georgia Organics in getting resources and support to our farmers.

Michael: I appreciated the national and international network that comes together when the Organic Trade Association (OTA) hosts this annual event. Even if our farmers’ sizes and markets are vastly different, we have a lot more in common that you’d think, especially when it comes to consumer education on organic and other sustainable ag practices, and agriculture’s importance in addressing the world’s climate crisis.

Who attended the conference? Who was in the room?

Lydia: From the beginning, when folks were asked to raise their hand and say who they were, you could see that a lot of the people in the audience were representatives of finished goods and products. There were some retailers, and then only a handful of farmers, probably 10 or less. It was interesting to be in that space because a lot of our work at Georgia Organics is so farmer-focused compared to the other side of the organic industry. I wasn't necessarily surprised, but it was intriguing to see the corporate-ness of organics and see a big company like General Mills and learn that they bought Annie's and Cascadian Farms. A Pilgrim's Pride representative was at my table. All in all, there were many groups with vested interest in the organic industry represented there.

Lauren: It was interesting to go from two days of absorbing information and observing/inferring relationships of the folks in the room who have clearly attended the conference before, some year over year, to then going to Capitol Hill and paying our GA representatives a visit. It was cool to see the larger geography of the national and international movement in one room together, discussing the organic movement at large and then finally, to be able to talk about specific Farm Bill policy that affects our farmers with Georgia representatives for the last day of the conference.

One of my main observations was that “organics” (as in “Certified Organic”) is a predominantly white space. It was pretty marked to me. I think there's a lot of work that can be done to be inclusive and expand the organic community, both at Georgia Organics and at the national and international level. I know Black and brown farmers are farming organically. They’ve just been left out of the conversation and the certification structure has barriers to participation and a history of exclusion that the USDA needs to address.

Kaia Shivers the Black Farmers Index reminded conference attendees about the policing nature of the certification process and how it’s important to acknowledge this process affects diverse communities differently. Cultural sensitivity to this issue and the nuances around it would go a long way in calling folks into the conversation.

It was also clear to me that there’s an opportunity (and a need) for more grassroots, farmer-centric organizations to be in spaces like that. Maybe next year we could organize a group to attend.

Michael: This event space is frequently filled with reps from some of the largest food corporations on the planet, most of whom have acquired or launched organic brands as the organic marketplace continues its explosive growth. Rooms like that are populated with people who are primarily (but not solely) focused on profit, and also people who are driven by their passion for certified organic agriculture and organic farmers. Believe it or not, this forms a values-driven community and movement that is familiar to anyone who has been involved in Georgia Organics and our work. As Lauren said, the folk there are mostly white and not representative of organic farmers, at least as far as Georgia’s certified organic farms go. I also know that staff members at OTA have been trying very hard to make Organic Trade Week more diverse, and I’ve seen some good progress in that regard over the years.

Were there topics covered in the conference that you can bring back home to your work at Georgia Organics?

Lydia (on consumer marketing and certification enforcement for integrity):

I was able to draw comparisons with what people were talking about to our own work because these big companies have the same concerns as small, certified organic farmers have about consumer education and marketing here in Georgia. For them, there was more emphasis on the product side while for Georgia Organics, we’re more focused on how to help farmers educate their consumers at the farmers' market. There was this similar thread of discussion, like the inundation of consumer-facing labels and the kind of confusion that exists (in the market). Organics is one of only a few labels that has third-party enforcement and is legally defined by US law.

Another thing that can and does affect organic farmers in Georgia is a new USDA organic regulation, the Strengthening Organic Enforcement rule, referred to as SOE. This was the first major change and update to organic regulations since the Organic Food Productions Act in 1990. This SOE rule creates stricter regulations for farmers importing ingredients or products, and there’s a lot more checkpoints for fraud than there were previously. The pros of this rule include strengthening the integrity of the organic label since there will be fewer products that are non-certified coming in and being labeled fraudulently as organic. The rule began to be enforced in March 2024 and within two months, 20 non-compliances were filed to certifiers. A lot of action and movement has already happened with this enforcement, and it increases the understanding of supply chain nuances because now companies have the regulatory excuse backed by the USDA to investigate where suppliers and vendors are getting their products and ingredients.

One of the panelists at the conference noted that organic certifiers within different US regions were already in conversation with each other because of TOPP and the inherent nature of partnership in that program. Because these certifiers are already working with each other, they are better able to effectively implement the SOE rule. The timing on this is fortuitous since TOPP is happening in conjunction with the start of this rule’s enforcement.

A consequence of the SOE rule is that this increased regulation will fall harder on smaller farms. One solution to this foreseeable problem is to have inspectors and certification specialists go through retraining to know how to implement this rule through a risk-based approach that’s appropriate for the farm operation. A risk-based approach would mean that a farm that moves $20,000 a year in organic product is assessed with a proportionate amount of risk and therefore scrutiny versus a farm that moves $2 million worth of organic product in a year. I’ve been hearing this conversation with farmers in Georgia and there’s a large concern that too many small-scale farmers are being put under the microscope for fraud, when it’s the larger multinational corporations that should be put under more scrutiny.

Lauren (on market opportunities specifically for larger organic farmers):

The grain, oil seeds, and pulses breakout session was super interesting. The three presenters talked about corn, sunflower seeds (for sunflower oil), and peas, as in pea protein. The conversation addressed national and international trade issues, but I could 100% tie it back to some of our larger organic farmers doing work here in Georgia, especially in the Southeastern part of the state.

First, I learned that most organic sunflower seed oil comes from Ukraine. As the war goes on, there’s a continued strain on the US market.

I also learned that organic corn supplies in the US are pretty stable. In fact, the US may be self-reliant on organic corn in the near future, whereas the pea protein market is being flooded by China who is buying uncertified product from South America and then certifying it in China before shipping it into the US. This ties into the USDA’s integrity process on imports and exports and a need for further funding going towards enforcement.

This ties into possibilities for the future of larger scale organic farming in Georgia because ultimately, the larger an organic farm gets, the more they’ll have to reach markets where national and international competition is taking place.

Right now, and since its formation in 2019, the farmer-owned cooperative, Georgia Organic Peanut Association (GOPA), has continued to develop crop rotations that serve their larger format farmers, striking a balance between maintaining principles outlined and necessary for organic certification and the necessary efficiency and culture of larger scale row cropping in Georgia. One challenge has been to identify a range of additional crops to grow within their rotation while they’re not growing organic peanuts. I don’t know... what if Georgia peanut farmers grew organic sunflower seeds as a seed source for organic oil while they weren’t growing peanuts?

The other question that came to mind was is there a way to organize ourselves so that Georgia farmers grow organic peas as part of feed for organic livestock? What if we’re able to address the certified organic animal feed issue in Georgia (the one where anyone who wants certified organic animal feed has to import it across state lines) by working with a company that makes animal feed with inputs coming directly from within Georgia? Could pea protein be the answer? It’s something that while sitting there, listening to the speakers, I thought about.

Michael (on avian flu and food safety and market trends):

I found the conversations on organic research and food safety to be particularly interesting and relevant for Georgia farmers, and not just organic farmers. Highly pathogenic avian influenza is a huge deal, and I know it is the biggest fear for hundreds of poultry farmers in Georgia, and a huge concern for our friends at the Georgia Department of Agriculture. It is terrifying to think about what would happen to farmers and the state economy if that virus ever touched down in Georgia (knock on wood). Hearing how other states and what other poultry operations dealt with wasn’t necessarily encouraging, but I do believe it is better to be forewarned and forearmed when facing something so potentially devastating.

The other topic that I’ve brought back for Georgia Organics staff, board, and farmers, is that consumer patterns show that organic consumption and purchasing is not slowing down any time soon. The evidence and market data show that consumer consumption of organic produce, crops, and products continues to grow, and the USDA’s Certified Organic seal is the most trusted label of all in the consumer food products space. That’s important intel for all growers, whether they are already certified organic, or thinking about organic certification.

Where there any other themes or topics covered at the conference that Georgia farmers would be interested in?

Lydia (on ‘regenerative’ vs. ‘organic’):

Speaking specifically about the regenerative versus organic label – the conversation around “regenerative being beyond organic,” meaning regenerative practices being superior to what Organic requires was an interesting one. There was the acknowledgment that “regenerative” could also mean “just beyond conventional” as well. This might apply to farmers who are transitioning from conventional to organic. The question that was asked to the group was is “regenerative” the label for that transition period? And who is defining the label?

It was brought up that there is a risk that corporations will co-opt the term; they co-opted “sustainable”, and because the cost is less to be regenerative than Organic, they could use it to greenwash their sustainability measures.

On the flip side, during the poultry-specific breakout session, the farmers on the panel talked about unifying their efforts, and a question was posed, “How much money has been spent to educate consumers in splintered methods.” If we see regenerative as a threat, then that's only detrimental to organics. For example, part of the regenerative label is taking soil and biodiversity measurements, which isn't necessarily required by organics. Soil tests are recommended in organics, but not required. The bigger question then is…how does the industry need to evolve with the other labels to get more and more on the right track? The “regenerative” angle can challenge organics to have those values.

Thursday, May 16th, Capitol Hill Visits

The bookend to the Organic Trade Week Conference was a day spent visiting Georgia representatives on Capitol Hill.

While Michael and Lauren did not end up meeting any Georgia representatives directly, they were able to share the priorities of Georgia Organics’ Farmer Members with their assistants, who often filter constituent requests and priorities up to their official representatives.

Meetings took place at the offices of:

Rep. Drew Ferguson (R-GA03)
Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA)
Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA)
Rep. Sanford Bishop (D-GA02)
Rep. Austin Scott (R-GA08)

Read our blog on the farm bill

Diving Into Questions from Georgia Organics Staff

Alexis Chase (Executive Director): Why were there so few farmers?

Lydia: I think my understanding was that the conference was marketed towards industry folks and corporations that have a relationship to the Political Action Committee (PAC) for “Organics.” I think because poultry and dairy farmers need to get their products processed, that’s why we saw those types of farmers at the conference.

Lauren: I think what was interesting is that once you get to that scale (national and international), you really are aware of advocacy and politics to a degree that smaller farmers are not. When you’re that big, you must educate yourself on stuff that affects your business directly and perhaps to a larger degree than a smaller farmer. Of the farmers that were there, I thought, “Wow, you’re like a straight up businessperson but also a dairy farmer. You know your processors and how their business works, you know your sales outlets and how much it costs you to produce and can get into the nitty gritty on the business side of things.”

Alexis Chase (Executive Director): So, it seems like what we often hear from farmers and other people is that production facilities are a barrier. For example, people can grow food but then how do you take it all the way home to get it to market if there’s no processing infrastructure, but like you said, organic systems must be completely segregated. How do they wash and pack? How do they hold things in cold storage? How do we help farmers with these packaging facility issues, especially if they don’t have the funding or capacity? It sounds like this is going to continue being an issue for farmers that we work with, right?

Lydia: I want to clarify that a handler can be both organic and non-organic, there just needs to be an audit of a record keeping system in place. The handler must have a thorough cleaning process between handling non-organic products and organic products for them to be certified. This is usually the barrier - having the handler hold certification - and being willing to go through the process and submit paperwork to achieve certification. Most of the time these handlers work with their organic products first.

Suzanne Girdner (Director of Programs): I know Michael has more to add to this conversation (he was out of the office the day of this briefing) but I think it’s worth it to have a blog post or some other form of communication around your experience at this conference. It’s helpful to illuminate these takeaways, bringing advocacy that can be so abstract to consumers and farmers into understandable conversations.

Lauren: Agreed, Suzanne. When I was farming, I really didn’t pay attention to the Farm Bill to be honest. I was running a business where the margins are small. You’ve got a CSA, you’re grinding, and I really didn’t have any connection to advocacy whatsoever, so I think you’re right. And honestly, I still didn’t until this conference. I think more farmers should have the opportunity to attend!

Meg Darnell (Farmer Services Coordinator): When we put together that RMI grant webinar I felt like the information we were going through was super helpful and that non-profits are the perfect fit for helping farmers to get grants and coordinate what could be many moving pieces. It’s a very important piece to this supply chain puzzle.