The Organic Trade Association (OTA) is a longstanding advocate for increasing federal funding for organic transition to increase organic acreage and production and to strengthen the domestic supply chain. Thanks to OTA’s advocacy on Capitol Hill, along with our organic partners, we helped the growing organic industry secure the largest single investment in organic in August 2022 when the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced a landmark investment of $300 million through its Organic Transition Initiative (OTI). With numerous barriers to entry for farmers to transition to organic certification, OTA applauded the commitment to improving access and opportunities for American producers.
OTA’s connection to and commitment to improving access and education for organic transition is directly connected to OTI through the launch of the Transition to Organic Partnership Program (TOPP). As a part of its multi-agency investment in organic, the USDA announced six organizations around the United States as Regional Centers for the Transition to Organic Partnership Program (TOPP). Within the next year, two additional National TOPP projects were announced, including OTA’s National TOPP project and the Organic Farmers Association’s National TOPP project. All eight TOPP projects collaborate with each other to support growth of the sector through education and networking.
The OTA community is playing an active role in these transformative activities, with five of the six Regional Centers being OTA members, and dozens more acting as partners within each of the six Regions.
Strengthening connections from your local community on up
Specifically, the six Regional Centers collaborate with their designated partners in their regions to best support producers, focusing their activities through technical assistance, mentorship, community building, and workforce training and development.
Each Regional Center has established dozens of partnerships with non-profit organizations, local universities and extension centers, certifying bodies, and non-governmental organizations in their regions to meet the direct needs of farmers in their local communities over the last two years. The work of the Regional Leads and their partners have strengthened connections within states and regions for networking and relationship building – all around an industry-wide commitment to organic practices while elevating the values of the organic movement collectively.
Alongside the six Regional Centers, two national-level TOPP agreements supplement and collaborate with the regional work. Organic Farmers Association was named a National Lead in 2023, collaborating with its core partners in developing a content hub of organic research resources, facilitating on-farm learning trials, offering direct farmer support, expanding farmer education through a national network, and elevating diversity, equity, and inclusion education for the industry and partners. OTA was named as the National Lead for one of these agreements in June 2023. OTA's National TOPP project provides nationally-focused market development support for transitioning producers and handlers technical assistance and engages organic buyers and handlers along with our partners at Rodale Institute and Organic Agronomy Training Services (OATS), reflecting a sincere commitment to growing the domestic supply chain and organic sector.
There have been innumerable collaborations between TOPP partners around the country since the program launched, and its impact is only beginning to be felt. This critical and landmark investment in organic production through TOPP touches Americans from the highest levels of the federal government to farmers and organic businesses in your local community.
OTA’s resounding commitment to and advocacy for further investment in organic transition will continue. Just as OTA applauded the commitment to improving access and opportunities for American producers in 2022, we encourage our members, stakeholders, and partners across the industry to support and engage in this work.
To learn more about OTA’s project, check out https://OTA.com/TOPP. To learn about the six Regional Centers (and soon to include the 2 national projects), go to https://organictransition.org.