The Organic Trade Association is advocating for more federal support of organic production as a means to mitigate climate change.
Public and private efforts with that agenda need stronger federal support, according to the organization, which has published a white paper on organic agriculture and climate change. The report is available on the association’s website at OTA.com/climate.
“Organic agriculture presents a growing opportunity to mitigate climate change while creating economic, environmental and health benefits for all food system participants,” accordin to a summary of the document. “Organic agriculture mitigates climate change by reducing direct and indirect sources of greenhouse gas emissions, and acting as a carbon sink via soil carbon sequestration.”
The group said it has advocated multiple policy recommendations:
- Any policy on climate change in food and agriculture should advance organic as a climate change solution;
- Policies should reward the outcomes of good agricultural practices and enable a system of continuous improvement;
- Policies should include provisions for advancing soil health and carbon sequestration;
- Climate policies should minimize the use and eliminate the dependency on fossil-fuel based inputs, especially of synthetic nitrogen fertilizers;
- Policies should provide resources to mitigate impacts of climate change and also help the agricultural sector adapt to a changing climate;
- Public and private sector programs should give market-based incentives or financial payments that encourage conservation practices or ecosystem services;
- Policies that increase greenhouse gas emissions or rollback progress in decarbonizing the economy and reducing emissions should be opposed;
- Climate policies should foster diversity and provide incentives for increasing diversity in cropping systems; and
- Policies should address the environmental and economic inequities caused by climate change and include ways to support disadvantaged communities in adapting to climate change.
During a media briefing on Sept. 30, Laura Batcha, CEO and executive director of the Organic Trade Association, said the group’s board of directors put forward the principles to evaluate public policy brought forward to mitigate and address the climate crisis.
“We’re poised and ready to participate in that conversation,” she said.
