USDA Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) National Program

Pinpointed Organic Market Development Listening Session

Chat Record

Tuesday, November 15, 2022

3:00- 4:00 pm edt

Participant Name Message

Harry E Bennett Harry E Bennett, Central Plains Organic Farmers Association

Edward Reznciek Ed Reznicek, Central Plains Organic Farmers

Laetitia Benador Laetitia Benador, California Certified Organic Farmers

Steve Etka Steve Etka, National Organic Coalition

Mark Lipson Mark Lipson, Molino Creek Farm

Diana Underwood, PCO (she/her) Diana Underwood, Pennsylvania Certified Organic (PCO)

Dan Langager Dan Langager, Northwest Horticultural Council (NHC)

Chris Schreiner Chris Schreiner, Oregon Tilth

Laura White Laura White, Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission, Odanah, WI.

Sarah Carden Hi Everyone! Sarah Carden, Farm Action

Mark King Hello! I’m Mark King, the Organic Program Manager for Upward Farms.

Edward Maltby NODPA Ed Maltby, NODPA

Abbey Edel - Mercaris Abbey Edel, Mercaris

Mike Dill Hello from Oregon. Mike Dill, Organically Grown Company.

John Krankota John Krankota - Torrey Advisory Group

Laura Holm Laura Holm, Organic Trade Association

Kyla Smith, PCO Kyla Smith (PCO) here. Happy Tuesday afternoon y’all!

Amy Bruch Hi Everyone - Amy Bruch, Cyclone Farms Inc

Scott Rice Greetings, Scott Rice, WA State Dept. of Agriculture Organic Program

Nora Carlton Nora Carlton, MCCO

Darby Aherin Darby Aherin, Mercaris

Megan DeBates Megan DeBates, OTA

 Chelsey Lenczyk Hello, Chelsey Lenczyk from Bejo Seeds USA & Canada

Lily Hawkins Lily Hawkins, OFA

George Szczepanski George Szczepanski from IFPA... hello from Delaware!

Allison Johnson, NRDC (she/her) Allison Johnson, Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC)

Kate Mendenhall Kate Mendenhall, OFA Greetings!

Matthew Dillon - Farmer Focus Matthew Dillon, Farmer Focus

Liana Hoodes Hello - Liana Hoodes, NOFA-NY

Christine Best Christine Best Boots on The Ground North Carolina

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Sara Hernandez Good afternoon, Sara Hernandez, USDA AMS Livestock and Poultry Program, Meat and Poultry Processing 

Technical Assistance Program (more info: www.ams.usda.gov/mppta)

Underwood Co Darin Konrad, Underwood Fruit & Warehouse. Washington St

Johanna Phillips Johanna Phillips, Ecocert (USA and NICS)

Julia Barton, OEFFA, she/her Hi all! Julia Barton, Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association (OEFFA)

Nicholas Rossi, NSAC Nick Rossi, NSAC

Jessica Parr Jessy Beckett Parr, CCOF

Brooke Gentile Brooke Gentile - Organic Association of Kentucky (OAK)

Tara Froemming Tara Froemming, Healthy Food Ingredients

Amy Wong Amy Wong, Oregon Organic Coalition

Nicole Dehne Nicole Dehne, Vermont Organic Farmers LLC

Kellee James Kellee James, Mercaris

Ryan Burnette Ryan Burnette ky dept of agriculture

Melinda Bratsch-Horsager Melinda Bratsch-Horsager, Washington Department of Agriculture & Olykraut, SPC

Tom Chapman Tom Chapman, OTA

Elizabeth Figueredo Liz Figueredo, QAI

Mark King Debi Zvi, Upward Farms.

Heather Spalding - MOFGA Heather Spalding, Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association

Abby Youngblood, NOC (She/her) Abby Youngblood, National Organic Coalition

Naery Kim Naery Kim at Perfect Snacks

Wilken Louie Wiken Louie / CA Association of Food Banks

Christina Fanta Chris Fanta, Where Food Comes From Organic

AJ McCardell AJ McCardell, NSF/QAI

Aimee Simpson Aimee Simpson, PCC Community Markets

Greg Schreiner Greg Schreiner with Silver Reef Organic Farms

DANIELLE Treadwell Danielle Treadwell, University of Florida

Oren Holle Oren Holle, OFARM , Pres

Keegan Athey Keegan Athey, Certified Naturally Grown & CSU Organic Ag. Research Station

Paul Adkins Paul Adkins, Hummingbird Wholesale based in Eugene, OR

Melissa Weyland Allison Walent MW TOPP Program Lead Coordinator

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Lily Hawkins Will a recording or transcript of this listening session be available for folks who were unable to attend?

Jennifer Tucker https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/USDAAMS/bulletins/335f328

Brian Baker Brian Baker, Belcairn Concerns, Eugene, OR

Jennifer Tucker 1. Organic Grain and Feed

Rebecca Claypool to Lily 

Hawkins(Direct Message):

The session is not being recorded, so only the slides and chat will be posted to the AMS website.

Lily Hawkins to Rebecca 

Claypool(Direct Message):

Ok, thanks!

Kellee James We ask for consideration of Economic Impacts of a Successful Organic Transition Effort: that if successful, 

supply increases can cause significant fall in prices if demand does not keep pace. This has been 

documented in other agricultural markets, for example the World Bank’s direct support of increased coffee 

acreage, one of the key factors in the fall of world coffee market prices. Furthermore, given crop rotation 

practices of organic grain operations, new markets need to be developed for common rotational crops, not 

just cash crops such as organic corn and soybeans.

Kellee James Apologies, this is Kellee James, Mercaris

Steve Etka On-farm, or near farm, organic grain storage facilities so that organic grain farmers can sell when the price 

is advantageous. There should be an organic grain storage facility at every grain elevator. Also, there needs 

to be storage for each different organic crop, corn, soybeans, wheat, etc. Organic grain cleaning facilities 

should be more readily available to organic grain farmers as well, ideally self-cleaning facilities that farmers 

could use to get a higher price for their grain.

Chris Schreiner, Oregon Tilth To best understand where to invest in more infrastructure, it would be helpful to map existing 

infrastructure across the organic sector to identify gaps (both geographic and type of infrastructure)

Edward Maltby NODPA Regional grain storage and treatment plus investment in appropriate equipment to transition out of 

organic dairy

Lily Hawkins Alfalfa growers need pellet mills to make their product more transportable. This would better support 

forage farmers as well as organic dairy farmers.

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Lily Hawkins Grain farmers need grain cleaning infrastructure, and grants for on-farm infrastructure like grain bins.

Ryan Dennett Reports have shown that Maine needs processing and transportation support to build organic grain/feed 

production. This would build dairy resilience in the region, where grain is more expensive to procure.

Sarah Carden, Farm Action To help increase domestic production, we need to help more farmers transition to organic. There is a 

significant cash-flow hurdle that farmers must overcome during the three year transition. This could look 

like improved credit terms or grant programs that specifically target transitioning producers during that 

three year window.

Brian Baker Infrastructure and investments that prevent "adventitious presence" of non-organic / genetically modified 

corn and soybeans.

Kyla Smith, PCO soybeans for poultry feed, agreed on comments on grain elevators, storage

Kellee James Chris, we have a map of organic grain handling facilities, which can be filiered by location, transport 

options, processing capacity, etc. Happy to make it available to anyone interested

Greg Schreiner At this time we need a National Data Base of Organic Bushels harvested along with a National Data Base of 

Organic Buyers, also by Region. This would help existing and Transitional farmers in have a better idea of 

pricing and who they could sell to. I think at this time it is Grain Brokers making calls to Organic producers 

to see if they have any crops to sell.

Keegan Athey Yes, please make organic grain handling map available. Thanks!

Steve Etka This topic overlaps with the dairy topic too, but small regional pelletizing operations for organic alfalfa 

would help to lower the cost of transporting alfalfa hay.

Allison Johnson, NRDC (she/her) I agree with Steve Etka's note about local infrastructure above. In addition, USDA could use these funds to 

support organic animal operations in close proximity to grain production, to reduce transportation costs 

and help grain producers capture more of the crop value while also making feed more affordable.

Christine Best Mapping areas where there is a disparity between what is grown and needed and increase growth in those 

areas to limit need for long transport and transmission of invasive weeds.

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Kate Mendenhall An organic processing facility map with indication of scale, marketing restrictions (USDA, state-inspected), 

and whether they are taking on new clients would be very helpful for farmers to know if they expand their 

production, will they be able to process it. This is especially important for all types of livestock-processing, 

but could also be advantageous to vegetable processing and other value-added processing.

Kellee James We also favor a data driven approach to understanding where investments could be made, with 

Supply/Use estimates based on livestock and human consumption, to balance growth of supply (acreage) 

with demand centers.

Harry E Bennett Supporting development of farmer owned and controlled cooperatives to enable organic grain farmers of 

different scale access to good organic markets. Attention needs to be paid to the size of the cooperatives 

so that they do not become too large and lose close relationships with members.

Greg Schreiner Also, we are growing Organic crops in Regions, We need to keep manure needs and areas in mind also. If 

we had more research into Organic Manure sources we could grow Organic production outside of manure 

sources

Lily Hawkins Incentives could encourage existing conventional processing facilities to install upgrades and become 

licensed to process certified organic products.

Edward Reznciek A priority for funding should be developing more, and strengthening existing, farmer grain marketing 

cooperatives. We also need development of cooperatives in the value added processing sector. Farmers 

need more information on navigating the organic supply chain. Co-ops are a good structure for this type of 

education. Finally, we should think more in terms of a "supply web" as opposed to a supply chain. Chains 

break down at the weakest link; webs provide alternative routes to bypass broken strands. Greater 

emphasis should be put on developments regional markets, processing facilities and supply webs.

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Amy Bruch There has been devastating impacts to organic producers when "outside" handlers of organic grains have 

gone bankrupt (i.e. issuing clawback letters for organic producers to repay money received for grain 

deliveries or not getting paid for grain deliveries at all). There have been many recently. I would 

encourage the grants to be geared to support vertical integration (cleaning capabilities) for current organic 

producers to increase efficiency in the organic commodity supply chain versus adding in additional steps 

between the producer and the end user.

Matthew Dillon - Farmer Focus Consideration should be given to infrastructure in respect to rail lines and mill mapping

Britt Lundgren Here in the Northeast organic producers are particularly vulnerable to swings in the price of feed due to 

trade volatility, as most organic producers are not growing their own feed. We urge that some of these 

resources be dedicated both to help growers transition to organic food and feed grade grains in the 

Northeast, coupled with market investment to facilitate drying, storage, and transport to market. 

Investment in growers in this region without parallel processing capacity development is not as likely to 

succeed as there is not sufficient infrastructure for processing organic grains in this region. Aroostook 

County Maine is a good example of a region that would benefit from this kind of combined investment, as 

well as NY, PA and VT.

Oren Holle Soybean processing could be well served by additional regional facilities located closer to soybean 

producers and in most cases also being closer to meal markets. Startups could be assisted by funding in 

the $200,00 range and exiting faculties might be served by $100,000 for faciilty expansions or upgrades. 

Those levels would still require significant investments by the entities and the support would be make 

entry level or improvement level investments.

Kate Mendenhall Support for farmer-owned co-ops to share processing resources and support collective marketing so that 

farmers can hold on to a larger percentage of the product value.

Amy Wong Seconding Brian Baker’s comment about “adventitious presence,” and expanding it to canola.

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Kellee James One idea to facilitate ceative supply chain solutions based on Relationships: USDA funds could be used to 

convene events (conferences, summits) that connect growers, processors/handlers, and buyers/end users 

with the explicit goal of facilitating multi-year, multi-crop purchasing agreements. Event organizers should 

also have the capacity to bring in experts that educate on how to structure contracts that account for price 

risk, weather risk, quality risk and other key factors that mitigate marketplace risk.

Jennifer Tucker 2. Legumes and Other Rotational Crops

Christine Best Sources of organic ingredients for compost/manure so that the high cost of OMRI certified products is not 

out of reach cost wise.

Steve Etka Missing topic: Organic meat and poultry processing. Very little done for organic in the recent 

announcement of meat/poultry processing grants

Mike Dill Missing area- FRESH PRODUCE. The fresh organic produce sector has been seeing flat and declining sales, 

in terms of volume, over the past year or more. Sales (in dollars) are up as prices have increased, but 

volume has decreased. We support efforts to convert more acreage and growers to organic but fear that 

transitioning more fresh produce growers to organic, especially in regions where strong markets already 

exist, could create a scenario where growers will not have outlets for their products.

Jennifer Tucker 2. Legumes and Other Rotational Crops

Keegan Athey Yes! Agree with Mike Dill. What about produce?

Kellee James Apologies, meant the above comment for Section #2: One idea to facilitate ceative supply chain solutions 

based on Relationships: USDA funds could be used to convene events (conferences, summits) that connect 

growers, processors/handlers, and buyers/end users with the explicit goal of facilitating multi-year, multicrop purchasing agreements. Event organizers should also have the capacity to bring in experts that 

educate on how to structure contracts that account for price risk, weather risk, quality risk and other key 

factors that mitigate marketplace risk.

George Szczepanski Agreeing with previous commenters on fresh produce as a missing area.

Brian Baker Another missing area is organic seed.

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Allison Johnson, NRDC (she/her) There is currently significant interest and investment in plant-based foods produced with conventional 

ingredients, in the name of climate progress. USDA should connect market development for organic 

legumes with the growing interest in climate-friendly eating and plant-based foods.

Steve Etka Examples of rotational crops for which markets needs to be expanded include buckwheat, oats, food grade 

sorghum, some of the ancient grains, culturally relevant grains, pulse crops, etc. if folks could make 

connections with buyers for these crops, it would give them more security to add crops to their rotations, 

which would have soil health and pest management benefits. How could this program be used to facilitate 

those marketing connections?

Keegan Athey Definitely organic seed! Organic certification is a huge barrier for new seed companies and wholesale 

producers

Kellee James Agree with Allison! Plant-based foods are an opportunity to expand demand (and support prices)

Brian Baker Markets for low-value rotation crops are a barrier to their adoption. In areas where rents are high, there is 

a high opportunity cost for farmers to plant cover crops.

Greg Schreiner Again, as an Organic Farmer, the rotation years and rotation grain produced, the gross dollars are 

significantly less per acre. So, again, helping the organic farmer with markets, facility locations, marketing 

ideas, etc would help. 1,000,000 investment

Julia Barton, OEFFA, she/her A strong crop rotation is foundational to an organic growing system. We need help in market development 

for organic rotational crops such as small grains (oat, spelt, barley, wheat, buckwheat, grain sorghum), 

sunflowers, dry beans, and others, in addition to specialty corn products (white corn, blue corn, etc.) If 

smaller, regional mills could have multiple storage bins (similar to the previous section's ideas) which could 

be used to aggregate organic rotational food crops, markets and value added processing (presses, flour 

mills, rolling, groat making, chips, tortillas, etc.) could better be developed to serve organic growers 

seeking to have robust rotations, and there for more resilient organic systems.

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Allison Johnson, NRDC (she/her) Missing topic: Regional approach to market development. Specifically, many producers in the South do not 

pursue organic certification because of limited market opportunities. A portion of these market 

development funds be used to support diverse, regional approaches to market development.

Mark King Missing Area-Fresh Produce: Agree with Mr. Dill’s comments regarding inclusion of such. Produce has long 

been the gateway to organic product purchase, especially for new to the category consumers. And given 

the potential risk and challenges for organic produce production, the inclusion of urban, climate smart and 

controlled environment ag should be considered.

Kate Mendenhall Research support to identify market development opportunities for a large diversity of rotational crops, 

educational resources to encourage increased consumption of these rotational crops. Also- incentives for 

government and institutional purchasing of organic rotational crops- especially for vulnerable consumer 

audiences like schools and hospitals. Processing, storage, and technical assistance is needed to make this 

a reality as well.

Amy Bruch Agree with Brian Baker regarding markets for low-value rotation crops are a barrier. organic rotational 

crops are important to find markets as well developing markets for transitional rotational crops

Kyla Smith, PCO I think investments in production / knowledge gaps for producers that may not know how to grow a 

particular crop to add into their rotations or need info on equipment modification or sharing even

Julia Barton, OEFFA, she/her Agreed regarding missing topic of produce processing. Regional flash freezing, canning, drying 

opportunities abound.

Chris Schreiner, Oregon Tilth I agree with Kellee James suggestion of funding to connect different buyers interested in purchases at 

similar scale / volume across a multi-year crop rotation implemented by farmers with organic acreage at 

matching scale. Finding reliable markets across multi-year rotations to effectively manage pests / weeds is 

essential to organic farmer success

Kim Huseman Support for feeding program research at the university level with alterative feed inputs for both ruminant 

and monogastric livestock to better understand digestibility, etc.

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Greg Schreiner Continue to look and follow the Carbon Markets for Organic Farmers to get paid for Cover Crops. Once the 

dust settles and we have a clear path on how all of this is going to work I would like the USDA to consider 

being the leader in helping existing and Transitional Organic farmers with info or payment opportunities. 

500,000

Amy Bruch *crop insurance (outside of this listening session) as well as market outlets need to be developed to 

support organic rotational crops

Abbey Edel - Mercaris This goes along with what Kate said, but undertake a study that highlights areas where demand exceeds US 

supply: for various certified organic crops, to give guidance to OTI TOPP participants on categories of 

producers to focus efforts towards. This should be completed at as local of a level as possible and take into 

account regional processing capacities.

Julia Barton, OEFFA, she/her Agreed with Kyla regarding the educational component that accompanies the rotational crops. We need 

both the education and the infrastructure to market the rotational crops. Ed's comments regarding 

Cooperative marketing present promising opportunities in that regard!

Steve Etka I agree with Brian Baker that organic seed is a missing topic

Edward Reznciek Forage legumes and minor grains such as oats and barley, along with others, have great use on-farm as 

feed. One of the biggest systemic holes in both organic and conventional farms is that livestock of all kinds 

have been largely removed from grain and forage farms into confinement facilities. USDA needs to provide 

long term support to helping agriculture move livestock out of confinement and back to grain and forage 

farms. This will entail greatly expanding the entry of new, beginning farmers into agriculture. Agriculture 

generally, as well as individual farms, need more people to provide the management and labor for more 

highly diversified farms.

Greg Schreiner I agree, crop insurance for rotational crops would be huge

Mark King Ditto regarding inclusion of organic seed

Harry E Bennett Rotations are the basis of organic farming and must be a part of the equation, prices for the "popular" 

grains and crops must remain robust to help fund the rotation crops that are vital to soil health but have 

relatively low yields or market prices.

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Johanna Phillips Compiling market demands/ needs and finding a way to connect needs with producers would support 

targeted production. This is similar to other comments, but identifying marketplace needs and connecting 

growers with buyers (and expectations for product quality, type, and features) would lessen risk.

Christine Best Planning guides on how to maximize crop rotation and connections with buyers to help alleviate 

overproduction in regional areas.

Oren Holle Rotational crops, often a minor crop in volume, typically has marketing challenges. Cooperative 

development can serve to aggregate these smaller volumes of production into available markets with 

cooperative marketing agreements. Support for development of these existing cooperative initiatives as 

well as development of new regional entities would be an excellent place for part of these resources.

Allison Johnson, NRDC (she/her) Echoing comments that seed is a missing topic as well. Seed treatments are a major undertracked use of 

dangerous pesticides.

Melissa Weyland To attract farmers and land owners in particular to transition, we need more regionally focused 

market/marketing development. Market opportunities drive decisions on the farm.

Jennifer Tucker 3. Organic Ingredients

Brian Baker Every item on §606 should be commercially available in an organic form.

Julia Barton, OEFFA, she/her #2- Agreed with Amy Bruch that crop insurance for rotational crops is a huge barrier to their production.

Jennifer Tucker 3. Organic Ingredients

Brian Baker Some items on §605 can also be made from organic agricultural ingredients, e.g. natural flavors

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Steve Etka Organic ingredient market challenges. Some examples: Rice Brown Flour (Short Grain) is not broadly 

available, and buyers have been struggling to source it. Middle/Long grain rice flour seems to be much 

more available. White Corn is being treated almost as a specialty, like blue corn. Many farmers do not 

want to plant it before a commitment that it can get sold. Organic Raspberry. Currently most organic 

raspberries are grown in Europe and Chile and suppliers have struggled to get the required demand of 

raspberry into US. Can this program be used to help expand domestic organic raspberry production? 

Organic pectin, which is tied to the citrus greening problems facing organic citrus, since citrus is a source 

for organic pectin. Sausage casings, which is tied to the conversation about expanding organic meat 

processing capacity.

	

Kate Mendenhall Farmer-owned cooperatives is key here to capitalize on storage, aggregating, processing, and 

transportation logistics. More access to food-grade testing labs would also be helpful (example- mycotoxin 

testing for food-grade wheat)

Greg Schreiner Organic Ingredients are vital to the food supply. Sourcing of these ingredients is a struggle for most 

companies. Again, a data base of growers with a data base of customers.

Brian Baker Major import crops that can be grown in a temperate / Mediterranean climate, e.g. olives and olive oil.

Kyla Smith, PCO An NOSB research priority topic is “Evaluation of the essentiality of 205.605(a), 205.605(b), and 205.606 

substances and the suitability of organic alternatives in applicable food formulations via laboratory testing, 

sensory evaluation, and/or market analysis.” - This was intended to focus in at Food Science programs as 

universities to perhaps incorporate this type of learning, evaluation and research into those programs that 

appears to be a big gap

Julia Barton, OEFFA, she/her Agreed on the missing topic of organic meat processing. #3-This topic is closely related, as Steve Etka 

notes, to organic casings for sausage, and other missed opportunities for value-added offal. It will also 

have impacts for bull calves and dairy steers in #4.

Steve Etka I agree with Brian Baker that sec, 606 shows us a list of which organic ingredients are in demand, but not 

available organically.

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Kate Mendenhall Education for state value-added extension agents to understand what is required for certified-organic 

processors. Also- training and support for certified organic processors for how to seek organic ingredients 

and better support and encoruageement from their certifiers to do so--to better support producers' ability 

to certify organic products as organic after processing (i.e. organic spices for organic sausage at processing 

facilities)

Christine Best Organic ingredients that are also a specialty crop that can be contracted to a regional cooperative would 

provide opportunities to the small farm units Sec 606 Agree with Kate and Brian.

Brian Baker Edible oils that are currently used in "made with" organic product because the price point for organic oils 

are too high, e.g. safflower and canola oils.

Mike Dill Consideration- GROWING the market is necessary, but how can we also PROTECT the [produce] market 

from potential catastrophe? Major domestic growing regions are experiencing extreme drought, water 

shortages, labor issues, etc. Many crops are grown in specific regions (i.e., apples in Washington state, 

salad greens in California & Arizona, etc.). Much of the country is reliant on a handful of regions for its 

produce production. We need support for developing/shifting/expanding growing regions to take the 

pressure off states/regions that are experiencing water shortages or increased natural disasters. We 

should be proactively preparing for what will happen to the food supply chain when/if California, Arizona, 

and other states can no longer produce crops at their current level or at the levels needed to support a 

growing population. In OR potato growers are having their water allotments greatly restricted. The region 

is growing only half of what it has historically grown and many farmers are quitting.

Allison Johnson, NRDC (she/her) Another overarching comment: USDA should be proactively connecting other funding opportunities (e.g., 

regional business centers, meat processing, regional food systems, land access) with these market 

development goals, to maximize participation of organic producers across USDA initiatives.

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Johanna Phillips To Greg's point- the OIDB is a great resource, but often not reflective of what is actually available, and 

manufacturer specifications for ingredients could be important. Industry groups, retailer outreach, and 

incentives to grow market utilization of organic ingredients. Incentivizing increased use of organic 

ingredients would possibly increase demand.

Kate Mendenhall Changes to expand state-inspected meat to be match USDA inspected livestock slaughter and processing 

facilities to expand meat ingredients across state lines. This would make investments in infrastructure like 

processing facilities more worthwhile and support market expansion.

DanielleTreadwell It would be helpful to know which ingredients have the most significant premiums (due to limited supply, 

supply chain interruptions, reliance on imports, etc.) and focus the efforts on those ingredients to reduce 

cost to processors. That would require a survey.

Jennifer Tucker 4. Ensure Market for Organic Dairy

Brian Baker #3 Mike Dill raises a good point. For some produce, there are seasonal gaps in market windows.

Jennifer Tucker 4. Ensure Market for Organic Dairy

Steve Etka 1) Great caution should be taken to NOT incentivize more organic production in markets experiencing over 

supply, such as organic dairy. This would not only set up these transitioning farmers for failure, but would 

also undercut existing organic dairy farmers, who are struggling with pay prices below cost of production. 

2) The Market Development grants should be used to help existing organic dairy farmers, and to expand 

and diversify those markets. How can these grants be used to help expand and diversify processing 

infrastructure for dairy in areas, such as the Northeast? Are there opportunities to use grants to help dairy 

farmers put in their own on-farm bottling facilities to allow them to market directly to consumers?

Kate Mendenhall The USDA-Northeast Regional Task force (Dec 2021) offered a list of necessary infrastructure investment to 

strengthen and sustain regional dairy- these should be entered into this review and can be extrapolated 

across the nation.

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Kate Mendenhall Organic dairy farmers need diversified processing facilities that can package milk for use in institutional 

markets like schools and hospitals. Revision to AMS requirements for Regional Dairy Innovation Centers 

would make grants more useful for farmers to fully implement necessary on-farm infrastructure needs, 

modernize existing facilities for a changing market, and fully-utilize the support from the Regional Dairy 

Innovation Centers.

Kate Mendenhall Solar panels on farm roofs could help offset energy costs and allow farmers to put more disposable income 

into on-farm infrastructure needs. Also- infrastructure for water conservation is essential for dairy farmers.

Steve Etka Also, the regional Dairy Business Innovation Centers are helpful in providing small grants to dairy farmers, 

but the DBIC limitations on grants for anything perceived as being “construction” has limited the benefits. 

Can the OTI market development grants be used in ways that complement the DBIC grants?

Allison Johnson, NRDC (she/her) Milk remains a school meal staple, and USDA should use the market development program to increase 

public procurement of organic milk.

Oren Holle #2 More local or regional investments would have the greatest impact and would serve to counter the 

continuing consolidation by some of the major companies attempting to dominate the organic market in all 

sectors. These investments could be smaller grants which would serve more producers in local or regional 

supply chain units. Again, cooperative initiatives would service a larger number of producers and provide 

benefits to more smaller family size operations.

Nicole Dehne Current DBIC funding does not cover construction costs. This is problematic for producers that want to ship 

milk to cheese makers but need to switch from fermented feed to dry hay for cheese quality, for example. 

Having a funding source that allowed producers to fund construction projects that address new market 

opportunities like the example above would be critical.

Johanna Phillips This applies to all questions: https://www.usda.gov/media/blog/2011/09/21/industry-insight-checkoffprograms-empower-business Checkoff programs support market 

development/ demand.

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 Kate Mendenhall Organic Dairy currently cannot expand without 1. support for expansion of MORE BUYERS and more 

regional buyers in particular, 2. investment into processing facilitites that open organic dairy into new 

markets like school milk. Support for organic milk for schools from USDA.

Mike Dill General- provide grants to institutional purchasing (hospitals, nursing homes, hotels, schools/universities) 

to cover the cost difference between organic and conventional. Current institutional contracts are largely 

focused on purchasing through major distributors and are based off [lowest] price. It would be great if 

contracts could be structured to encourage more diverse participation- local, direct and organic.

 Kate Mendenhall MORE ENFORCEMENT OF THE PASTURE RULE and strong enforcement of Origin of Livestock to ensure 

equitable marketplace for real organic farmers.

Britt Lundgren The report from the Northeast Organic Task force submitted to the Secretary in December 2021 outlined a 

number of areas where investments could enable organic dairy to be distributed to institutional markets. 

Some examples are: 1. support for processing organic dairy in bulk formats (bag in a box milk, yogurt in 

tubs or bags) could facilitate use of organic dairy in schools and other institutional cafeterias. 2. USDA could 

also pilot a reimbursement program for schools to purchase local/regional organic dairy, and 3. expand 

budget allocation under TEFAP for purchase of local/regional organic dairy products.

 Chris Schreiner, Oregon Tilth Agree with comments about food service / institutional buyers (schools, health care) as potential market 

expansion for organic. Price constraints are a limitation. An organization called the NW Food Buyers 

Association as well as Healthcare Without Harm’s Healthy Food in Healthcare program have both produced 

some good reports on attempts to access these types of buyers / markets, including barriers and possible 

solutions to overcome them

Steve Etka Could the SNAP healthy fluid milk incentive program be expanded to include incentives for organic milk?

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Amy Bruch 3. market outlets for ingredients need to provide backups for producers that grow very specialized 

products i.e. if organic white or organic blue corn is impacted by weather (i.e. hail) then crop insurance 

adjustors use Conventional FEED Grade standards to adjust for the quality impact - which is devastating for 

producers. This leads to more risks for growers of specialty products (corn in this case). If a grower has 

specialty corn that doesn't meet contract specs (due to weather) then it's a double problem as there is no 

outlet (many feed grade markets do not want white or blue corn as it will discolor the egg yolks) and 

producers do not get crop insurance payouts either (as organic speciality corn quality is not recognized - ie. 

adjusted on number 2 conventional feed grade standards).

Greg Schreiner More inspectors needed for enforcement of Origin of Livestock audit

Edward Maltby NODPA Organic milk production is more expensive in the northeast. To be sustainable farmers need to be paid for 

their costs of production. To achieve this there needs to be an investmenty in regional and size-specific 

organic milk infrastructure and marketing channells. Organic milk that is produced, processed and 

marketed in the northeast, taking full advantage of the large and discriminating consumer base and would 

have a large impact. Local milk would guarantee an adequate return to northeast organic dairies while 

providing environmental and economic benefits to the region, rather than exporting them to Colorado. 

CThe start up costs for a northeast organic milk for a consumer-facing regional brand and entrance into the 

institutional market is high. This unique brand would be owned and controlled by producers. It would have 

short supply lines to both processing and distribution. It will guarantee consumers will pay for what they 

get, instead of the marketing exaggerations used by brands owned by multinationals.th

Edward Reznciek Livestock production generally needs to be more regionalized. There is little organic dairy production in 

the central plains region, for example. More regionalized livestock production would create more regional 

markets for minor grain crops and forages and would help reduce transportation costs and could create 

more regional processing and distribution opportunities. We need to do more to create intermediate 

models for livestock production and processing. Organized cooperatively these intermediate models could 

be scaled up.

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Edward Maltby NODPA The business plan shows that it will cost $2.3 million.

Melissa Weyland Organic dairy market opportunities would best be suited focused on safeguarding our EXISTING organic 

supply as the market struggles. One strategy would be to assist existing organic dairy farmers in obtaining 

more land that to transition to crops - allowing them to diversify income, grow their farm and support 

previously mentioned efforts of this program (such as growing grains/feed).

 Harry E Bennett The supply could be managed better if the organic dairy world were not dominated by the large organic 

dairy operations that count cows in the hundreds and even thousands. A return of dairy to organic 

standards that require pasture access and sound manure handling on more diversified organic farms with a 

larger farmer component with smaller herds would ease some of the over supply problems and help return 

organic integrity to the organic dairy industry.

Jennifer Tucker 5. Fiber

Allison Johnson, NRDC (she/her) #4, agree with Britt - California has done some promising work with bulk organic milk dispensers in schools

 Jennifer Tucker 5. Fiber

Steve Etka Missing topic: Concentration of organic distributors and difficulty of smaller farms and process to get 

access to markets because of bias of large distributors for larger suppliers. Can this program be used to 

help expand distiribution channels regionally?

Britt Lundgren Topic 4 cont'd. Food banks would like to be able to offer shelf stable fluid organic milk. Investment in UHT 

processing for organic milk in the Northeast coupled with incentive payments to support Food Banks in 

procuring regional shelf stable organic dairy could open up new demand for organic dairy in this region.

 Kate Mendenhall Support for organic wool processing by supporting farmer-owned cooperatives. Babies love organic wool. 

Same with farmer-owned cotton processing facilities so that U.S. farmers capture more of the dollar and 

can afford to grow it domestically.

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 Brian Baker The main barrier to the production of organic cotton in the San Joaquin Valley is the lack of effective tools 

to desiccate and defoliate plants prior to harvest. A reliable method for harvest preparation will require 

investment in new technologies that use physical, mechanical, and biologically based methods that do not 

rely on synthetic chemicals.

 Mike Dill General comment- Distributors would love to expand their reach but many rural areas and farther-away 

communities are cost-prohibitive to service (fuel, driver hours, etc.). Funding to offset the losses that result 

while expanding service areas would be helpful during the time it takes to build a program and increase 

customer base in a new region.

Kate Mendenhall Topics 1, 2, 3, 4, 5: Organic farmers across the board, from vegetable growers, to grain producers, to 

livestock and dairy farmers would all benefit from investments in processing facilities, water infrastructure, 

and better access to storage and processing facilities, funding for farmer coops, and funding to study where 

the bottlenecks are in moving organic products to market.

 Brian Baker Dedicated gins are needed to prevent "adventitious presence" of cotton grown with "excluded methods". 

Excluded methods are used with almost 100% of the US cotton crop. It is seen as practically no risk and 

cotton producers have no incentive to take the risk to transition.

 Kyla Smith, PCO 3. smaller processors are challenged with small quantity orders of a particular ingredient and larger 

distributors are unwilling to do business with them

Danielle Treadwell In the SE conventional producers don't grow cotton unless they can get .85/lb. Increasing availability of 

processing infrastructure, and educating the industry on market options for cotton, hemp and other plant 

fibers would help facilitate transition to organic and keep these farmers in business.

Elizabeth Tigan Regional organic production facilities for Wool Scouring in the all sheep raising areas. Regional organic 

production facilities for decortication of hemp for processing into fiber. More training for farmers in cotton 

growing regions to help encourage organic production. Support for non-GMO cotton breeding. Support for 

smaller scale spinners to take on organic production runs.

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Johanna Phillips Relevant to all questions: State market development programs (commerce development) can be really 

effective resources, which can be targeted regionally by markets (Strong regions/ states in each category, 

or where production AND demand can be increased reasonably for each category). States under the TOPP 

initiative that are targeted for increased production- likely lack production due to lower demand regionally 

or limited market access. These agencies can bridge relationships and support solutions for market 

challenges, like in the case of school lunch programs, too.

 Steve Etka #4- Since $25 million of this program will be focused on product procurement, some of that should be used 

for organic milk procurement

Johanna Phillips Expressing support for Elizabeth Tigan's comment

Jessica Parr 5. Cotton. Marketing campaign targeting US brands for US grown organic cotton. Current organic cotton 

grower cooperatives in the US (TX) have not yet sold 2021 harvest- not to mention 2022. US organic cotton 

cost of production far outstrips international production costs. Part of it is scale, but much of it is the lower 

cost of labor in India and Turkey. How can we incentivize US brands to pay more for US grown organic 

cotton? Also- several cotton gins in TX that are currently certified for organic handling are considering 

dropping the certificate b/c of the low volume and paperwork burden. Significantly more delicate 

community development work needs to be done across the cotton supply chain. CCOF is working with 

partners through TOPP to address the transition area- but we'll need the market access piece crystal clear 

before supporting additional transition.

 Chris Schreiner, Oregon Tilth Hemp could be a promising organic fiber crop because of the lack of EPA-approved pest control inputs for 

this crop, it’s almost by default managed organically. However, a cautionary tale from OR was severe overplanting that flooded the market and a total lack of sufficient storage and post-harvest handling 

infrastructure. Hemp grown for fiber (as opposed to Hemp for CBD) also requires different varieties and 

specialized harvest equipment and post-harvest processing equipment

Brian Baker Hemp definitely has an advantage as a fiber crop over cotton or flax / linen, but I know growers who are 

sitting on unsold inventory. The bottleneck appears to be processing.

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Edward Reznciek Expanding production, processing and use for organic hemp may make the most sense in terms of a crop 

better adapted to a changing climate. What are the lessons learned so far regarding fiber hemp production 

and marketing that might be useful in charting a course for the future? Would greater cooperative 

organization of hemp production, processing and marketing improve the prospects of this crop?

 Harry E Bennett Organic hemp production for fiber needs the investment in processing equipment to make it a viable crop 

for organic farmers. This would be a good fit for an organic hemp growers cooperative that could take on 

the task of owning and operating hemp fiber processing equipment for the members.

Brian Baker What Chris Schreiner said! :)

 Edward Maltby NODPA #4 Agree with Steve Etka - investment could kick start instituitional sales

Kellee James Common concern across 1-5. Facilities and processing capacity are owned by entities (whether individual 

businesses or coops). A challenge will be to disburse funds in a way that does not warp the ecosystem of 

small and large organic businesses (whether farms for buyers/processors), and create anti-competitive 

results

Danielle Treadwell Yes to organic hemp fiber cooperative!

Mike Dill General comment- would love to see a stronger effort by USDA to join businesses in promoting the 

benefits of organic- good for business, good for planet, good for people/animals.

 Kate Mendenhall #4- yes for support of organic milk procurement. Organic dairy is really important and needs support right 

now- and that is the milk all kids should be drinking in schools.

Christine Best Regional processing facilities seems to be a key factor and for the small farms to be able to have a 

collective in order to compete with larger growers.

 Steve Etka Broadly, one of the big challenges facing farmers who want to do on-farm processing for direct consumer 

sales is food safety regulation. Who can this program help farmers face those challenges?

 Allison Johnson, NRDC (she/her) Overall comment, similar to others above: USDA should focus a portion of these resources on recruiting 

existing processing facilities to establish processes for handling organic and become certified organic.

 Allison Johnson, NRDC (she/her) Thank you Jenny!!

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Laetitia Benador, CCOF, she/hers Thank you for this well-facilitated session!

Mike Dill Love these sessions. Keep 'em coming

Kellee James Thank you!

Chris Schreiner, Oregon Tilth Thank you!

Josie Quevedo Thank you!

Mike Dill Thank you!

Oren Holle Generally, the various topics have comments about regional cooperative development. Support of 

cooperative development is an important basic ingredient. We do better together.

Steve Etka Thanks!

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