Rep. Hanna Announces PATH To Organic Farming Transition Program

Rep. Mike Hanna (D-Clinton), Majority Chair of the House Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee, this week announced the introduction of Pennsylvania's new "PATH to Organic" farming transitions program.

 

The initiative has two main purposes: first, to provide an incentive for farmers to make the three-year transition to certified organic production practices; and second, to evaluate organic production practices as tools in improving soil health, protecting water quality and sequestering atmospheric carbon on a pilot basis outside of the traditional research environment.

 

The program will be limited to owner-operated farms. Of the $500,000 appropriated, $100,000 will be set aside to provide technical assistance to farmers in transition to organic agriculture. The rest of the funding will be provided to participating farmers.

 

The program will reimburse producers for their transition costs and losses such as a temporary drop in yields, which will allow them to convert thousands of acres from conventional to organic farming. The assistance will be available both to producers who are somewhere in the three-year transition process required by the National Organic Program and to producers who have not yet begun that process.

 

Farmers selected to participate will receive a payment per acre per year for a period of up to four years equal to the amount bid in their proposals, provided that no participant will receive more than $7,500 in a single year or $30,000 total. Participating farmers will be eligible for technical assistance from transition specialists, who may be farmers already certified under the National Organic Program, or qualified experts from nonprofit associations, consultants, university or land grant personnel.

 

Participating farmers will have a periodic assessment of their soil carbon levels, which may assist in the sale of carbon credits to any of several carbon-offset aggregators doing business on the Chicago Climate Exchange.

 

Request-for-proposal documents are expected to be available by March 30 on the Department of Agriculture's website.