The Organic Center awarded nearly $900K in USDA research grants

Organic research and advocacy nonprofit The Organic Center has been awarded almost $900,000 through the USDA’s Organic Agriculture Research and Extension Initiative program. The funds will enable The Organic Center to collaborate in four new important OREI research projects, according to a news release.  

“Our mission is to strengthen and advance organic farming through science-based research, and this unprecedented level of funding from USDA will do much to help us achieve our goal,” Amber Sciligo, director of science programs for The Organic Center, said in the release. “We are extremely honored to be partnering with esteemed research institutions, universities, and non-profits in these projects, and to support the growth, expansion and continued improvement of organic.” 

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The projects recently announced by the USDA will address a host of vital and diverse challenges facing today’s organic agriculture, including:

• How to ensure food safety in organic production systems.

• Exploring organic farming methods that increase resilience to climate change and help fight pests.

• The benefits and challenges of livestock grazing in orchards.

• Ways to expand organic cotton production in the U.S. 

USDA awarded more than $50 million in grants for 24 OREI projects and for eight Organic Transitions Program projects that help existing and transitioning organic livestock and crop producers adopt organic practices, said the release. 

The OREI awards totaled a little over $43 million in funding. OREI helps support wide-ranging research projects that specifically address the most critical issues impacting organic growers, the release said. The 2018 farm bill approved increasing funding for OREI to $50 million per year by 2023, thus establishing permanent funding for the program, according to the release. 

The Organic Center projects include:

• Developing risk-assessment, educational and communication tools to lower food safety barriers for organic specialty crop growers.

• Expanding resilient climate and pest protection systems for diversified organic specialty crop producers.  

• Understanding the influence of orchard grazing on soil health and pest control while mitigating food safety risk.  

• Expanding organic cotton production in the U.S. cotton belt through research and outreach on organic and regenerative practices.  

“The OREI program provides the most important pool of funds to advance our work at The Organic Center,” Sciligo said in the release. “While this pot of funding has seen tremendous growth through the implementation of the last farm bill, future bills need to continue to increase the funding dedicated to organic research. We have come a long way in the past few decades, but with the increased demand for organic in the marketplace and the initiation of several USDA programs aimed at significantly increasing organic transition, the need for current organic research is unprecedented.”