Micheal Clements, NAFB News Service

The Organic Trade Association and the National Organic Coalition recently sent industry recommendations to President-elect Joe Biden’s transition team. In a letter to the transition team, the groups say, “here are several overarching issues that need to be addressed early in your Administration to put organic agriculture back on safe footing after the challenges of the past four years.” Those issues include implementation of the Obama-Biden Organic Animal Welfare Rule. The groups also call for the finalization of Organic Origin of Livestock Regulations, and finalization of the Strengthening Organic Enforcement Rule. Other priorities for the organic industry include restoring the Organic Certification Cost Share Program to the full Reimbursement Rates Mandated by the 2018 Farm Bill, and embracing organic agriculture as a key climate change solution. Additionally, the groups say, “We encourage your Administration to engage the U.S. food and agriculture sector in a dialogue about how we can best use the lessons learned from the pandemic to build our food system back, better than it was before.”