* Unlike the United States, several countries bar organic farming on wildland
* U.S. organic sales saw record rise last year to nearly $62 bn
* Advocates call for tighter rules on organic farmland conversion
By Carey L. Biron
WASHINGTON, July 14 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Helen Atthowe has been farming organically for decades, but when she and her husband bought a new spread in Oregon in 2016, they had to wait several years before they could formally again call themselves organic producers.
The 211-acre (85-hectare) farm had long been cultivated using standard fertilizers, so before the U.S. government would certify Atthowe’s fruits and vegetables through its National Organic Program (NOP), the land had to rest for three years.
Atthowe is now finally applying for certification, but for some, that wait is too onerous – the farmer said she knows of grain producers who wanted to be certified organic more quickly, so they turned to untouched land nearby.
“It (was) easier to destroy that native prairie to bring it into organic production,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation over the phone.
Native ecosystems are integral to organic farming, said Atthowe, explaining that many organic producers rely on “beneficial” local insects to cut down on the need for pesticides.
“It makes no sense to have a loophole that would allow their destruction,” she said.
Now organic farming advocates are looking to close that loophole, with some putting their hope in support from the new Biden administration and others creating their own certification to make up for what they see as failings in current policy.
Organic programs in about a dozen other countries bar the conversion of wildland for organic farming, but it is not specifically outlawed under the U.S. program.
According to Department of Agriculture survey results released in 2019, the most recent available, certified organic farms reported that they were transitioning more than 255,000 additional acres to grow organic produce.
Farms that were not yet certified were doing the same with more than 60,600 acres. The report does not detail what kind of land is being converted.
The issue has been simmering at the margins of farming, conservation and policymaking circles for several years, said Jo Ann Baumgartner, executive director of the Wild Farm Alliance, an advocacy group.
“Ideally growers would just rent or buy some land that was already organic, but since that is in short supply, they will … look for some land that hasn’t ever been farmed before,” she said.
Reports on the issue so far are ad hoc, but Baumgartner said the alliance has received many, pointing to one from an agricultural inspector in Colorado who found a grower had converted 1,000 acres of prairieland.
In an emailed statement, a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), which runs the program, said the regulatory framework for organic production “includes a strong environmental protection mandate.”
That mandate requires farmers to “conserve biodiversity by incorporating practices in their organic system plan that are beneficial to biodiversity on the operation,” the statement said.
