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By Rebecca Champagne, PhD, OFRF Conservation Scientist, Becky Schewe, PhD, NSAC Research & Policy Analyst, and Gordon Merrick, J.D., former OFRF Policy & Programs Director

Introduction to NRCS

The Natural Resources Conservation Service, known as NRCS, was founded in 1933 and is a federal agency within the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). NRCS supports the adoption of conservation practices by providing farmers, ranchers, foresters, and landowners with technical and financial assistance. They work to address resource concerns related to soil, water, plants, animals, air, and energy; help producers and landowners achieve conservation goals; and enhance the long-term sustainability of US agriculture.

NRCS offers free technical assistance to producers, and alongside this, can also determine whether you might be eligible for financial assistance through a number of available conservation programs. Organic and transitioning-to-organic farmers are already required to prioritize soil health, biodiversity, and ecological vitality as part of their Organic System Plan (OSP) for certification, but a significant barrier to developing sustainable practices and infrastructure is resource scarcity. Two NRCS programs in particular can help organic farms achieve these conservation goals – the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) and the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP). The newly launched Regenerative Pilot Program also offers producers a way to prioritize conservation, and is described more below.

This is part one of a two-part blog post series highlighting NRCS conservation programs, the new USDA Regenerative Pilot Program, and how these programs can be utilized by organic producers. Stay tuned for part two!

EQIP helps farmers and ranchers establish new conservation practices on their operations. Through EQIP, they can receive financial assistance to implement a wide variety of practices, including cover cropping, mulching, composting infrastructure, high-tunnel systems, efficient irrigation, and interior fencing for rotational grazing systems. The program is flexible and adapts to different types of farms and conservation goals. Your local NRCS office can help determine whether you qualify for one of these organic-specific funding streams and guide you through the application process. For more of an overview on EQIP and the steps to utilizing the program, check out OFRF’s EQIP toolkit and read about one California farmer’s experience with EQIP. 

CSP is designed for farmers and landowners who are already meeting certain conservation thresholds and are interested in going further. Through CSP, producers can receive annual payments over a five-year contract to maintain their existing practices while adopting additional practices that enhance the operation’s overall ecological sustainability. This might include increasing the diversity or duration of cover crops, implementing more complex crop rotations, expanding riparian buffers, or modifying pasture management to optimize forage quality and soil health. For more of an overview on CSP and the steps to utilizing the program, check out OFRF’s CSP toolkit. 

Farmer Héktor Calderón-Victoria at Three Feathers Farm in Morgan Hill, CA, utilized EQIP for hedgerows and high tunnels. Read “Real Talk on EQIP” to learn more about Héktor and the benefits and lessons they learned working with NRCS. 

A cover crop at Mora Mora Farm in Troutdale, OR helps to minimize soil compaction. Read more about why farmer Catherine Nguyen calls CSP an incredible program in an upcoming “Conservation at Work: Cover Cropping through CSP at Mora Mora Farm” blogpost.

Organic is Regenerative

The term regenerative continues to gain traction in the farming and food industries, and is now the focus of the USDA’s $700 million Regenerative Pilot Program: a new priority program operating within EQIP and CSP announced by Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins in December of 2025. Organic farming shares many of the same goals as regenerative agriculture, but organic is a verifiable legal standard that can be relied upon to create more regenerative farming systems. It has a clear and accepted legal definition that holds farmers, food producers, and the entire supply chain accountable to sustainable practices, letting consumers know what they are supporting with their food purchases. Simply put, organic is the original climate-smart agriculture.

Organic systems rely on practices that work with natural cycles to build healthy soils, biodiversity, retain water, store carbon, and build resiliency. The practices emphasized in the Regenerative Pilot Program include those which organic farmers are already required to use for organic certification, such as crop rotation, keeping the soil covered, nutrient management, and pest management. However, certified organic farms continue to account for only a very small percentage of those receiving financial support through EQIP and CSP, even though they are already succeeding in using regenerative practices. 

In part two of this blog post series, we will explore organic producer participation in EQIP and CSP from 2018 to 2025, the most commonly used conservation practices, and how the USDA can invest more in organic producers and help them be a greater part of these federal programs.

Get Involved

Organic & transitioning-to-organic farmers

We often hear that farmers may be hesitant to reach out to their local NRCS office. It is important to remember that NRCS wants to help all farmers with their conservation and land stewardship goals. We encourage you to stop by your local office and introduce yourself, and talk about the importance of the organic farms in your county and state. Establishing these relationships is an important first step and could open the door for other farmers as well.

We also encourage you to contact your elected officials to discuss the importance of farming in your community and how funding for organic research programs benefits conservation practices in both organic and conventional systems. Not sure how to get started? Check out our free, online Communicating with Legislators email course and learn how to share your story and influence the policies shaping the future of food and farming. 

You can also learn more about NRCS and the agency’s conservation programs on our website – https://ofrf.org/nrcs/. 

NRCS Staff

As important as it is for farmers to contact their local NRCS office, it is equally important for NRCS planners to reach out to organic farmers in their region. Letting farmers know about the technical and financial assistance that is available for them, regardless of what kind of operation they run, will go a long way in getting more farmers in the door. Farming practices that are foundational to organic operations and boost conservation and natural systems can also be utilized on conventional farms, strengthening regional farming as a whole.

“We like to do a lot of dividing and putting farmers in different buckets. But at the end of the day, farmers are farmers. We care about our land, we care about our communities. Maybe the strategies and techniques that organic farmers are using may be different than farmers you’ve worked with in the past, but we’re still farmers at heart. So coming from that place of ‘what are the goals’ and ‘what are the farmers trying to achieve’.” – April Thatcher, April Joy Farm, Ridgefield, WA

We encourage NRCS staff to lean on organic farming organizations for resources and research surrounding organic systems. OFRF’s resources page and Organic Research Hub offer many free resources to help you build knowledge of organic farming. You can further increase your organic literacy by checking out internal agency documents such as Technical Note 12 and the NRCS Organic Farming Handbook.

April Jones Thatcher is a farmer at April Joy Farm in Ridgefield, WA, and serves as President of OFRF’s Board of Directors. Read more about April in “Why I spend My Time With OFRF”.

By Brian Geier, Communications Manager

Organic research is at the core of OFRF’s work toward the widespread adoption of organic farming practices. Organic producers need access to cutting-edge research, extension, and technical service to ensure that organic farming continues to be the leading form of agriculture. That is why OFRF has developed policy priorities that drive our advocacy work. And that is why bolstering and protecting Federal support for organic research programs and the producers they benefit is a part of our day-to-day advocacy.

But last year, as the organic community navigated the policy developments and government shutdowns brought by 2025, it became clear that it was time to bolster networks and relationships, too, so that individuals across the organic sector can connect and work through challenges together.

OFRF has been leading efforts with partner organizations and University personnel to facilitate new networking opportunities for organic researchers, extension agents, and technical service providers at organic-focused conferences, to help us all get and stay connected, updated, and inspired.

What are the Researcher and Extension Regional Meetups (RERM’s)?

OFRF staff, organic researchers, and extension agents at a Researcher and Extension Regional Meetup at Marbleseed’s Organic Farming Conference in La Crosse, Wisconsin, February, 2026. 

These new meetups are dedicated spaces for networking and collaboration between organic researchers, extension specialists, and technical service providers in a multi-state region. Held at agricultural conferences, RERM’s give people a chance to connect, share research updates and priorities for the region, and learn about USDA funding updates and opportunities. They are a new addition to organic conferences, set aside for unique connections amongst researchers and extension. Farmers have also been welcomed at these meetups, giving them an opportunity to learn more about what’s going on in the research world, meet local service providers, and potentially connect with researchers who are looking for on-farm project participants.

What does a RERM look like?

These meetups are structured networking. They include introductions, small group or paired discussions, snacks and refreshments, and are often followed by a social hour for more informal networking. The goals include surfacing differences in local production contexts, identifying transferable ideas, and planting the seeds for collaboration—especially across regions with very different organic market maturity. 

Some samples of the discussion questions we are using include: 

What does organic look like where you work? What organic systems are most established in your region right now? What’s the hardest thing about doing organic research or extension where you work? 

What program, method, or approach has actually worked well for organic producers in your region? What part of that model might still translate to a very different region—and what wouldn’t? What could we actually do together?

So far, OFRF has conducted RERMS at the High Plains Organic Conference in Wyoming, and the Marbleseed Conference in Wisconsin.

How can RERM’s enhance organic conferences?

The first Research and Extension Regional Meetup at the High Plains Organic Conference in Cheyenne, Wyoming, February, 2026.

Researchers moving forward, together:

Organic research is a lot like organic farming: it has added complexities compared to its conventional counterpart. Organic farmers work with and rely on biological systems in ways that agrochemical-focused operations work around, and many farmers must navigate specialized markets built on personal and regional relationships. There is a lot of work going on ‘in the background’. 

Similarly, organic researchers navigate an array of specialized structures from Federal funding programs (some set aside for organic and others open to organic but not built for it), to Universities at various stages of developing organic programs. They are also working with a smaller subset of farmers, processors, and collaborators at other Universities. 

Researchers traveling to attend RERM’s at organic conferences are taking advantage of opportunities to share their research with farmers from nearby states. And having organic specialists from nearby states present to farmers is helping enhance the experience of conference-goers. Dr. Xi Liang from the University of Idaho attended a RERM at the High Plains Organic Conference, and presented her research on the following day. Participants at the Conference noted the benefits with the increase of presentations from researchers from other states. “It’s really great to hear from so many researchers, from out of state, too. That is different than last year, it’s getting better,” said one conference-goer.

For Dr. Liang, spending time with growers had many benefits:

“I really enjoyed the conference, especially growers’ engagement. It was a great opportunity for me to introduce my organic transition project with growers and learn about their feedback, interests, and concerns. The discussion session with growers was very helpful to me to learn about growers’ concerns and needs. I also got to know a few colleagues and may develop collaborations in the future.”

-Dr. Xi Liang, University of Idaho

In farming and in research, the complexities of organic necessitate a strong, active network of participating parts to function at full capacity. Regional meetups for researchers,  extension, and technical service providers are helping to fill that need by bringing specialists together in ways that allow the networks to advance organic research and farming. 

Future RERM’s are in the works! With support from the USDA TOPP program, OFRF is tentatively planning a RERM at the Southern Family Farmers and Food Systems Conference in August, in San Marcos, Texas. And more may be on the horizon. Stay in touch via our monthly newsletter to get the latest updates.

Have you ever seen a “Map of Joy” before? What would you add to it? Along with several other interactive projects, the Map of Joy in the Food System is one of the tools that the UVM Institute for Agroecology employs to help build collaboration and shared vision of a thriving local food system.

Learning from the UVM Institute for Agroecology

Shane Rogers, UVM, IFA

Earlier this year, OFRF staff met with Shane Rogers, of the University of Vermont’s Institute for Agroecology, to learn more about their work. In mid-2025, Food Solutions New England (FSNE) transitioned much of its programming from their longtime home at the University of New Hampshire to a new institutional partnership with the University of Vermont’s Institute for Agroecology (IFA). As they navigate this transition, IFA is continuing FSNE’s communications and narrative strategy work, as well as regional policy efforts like the New England Integrated Policy Program.

Shane is the Outreach and Narrative Lead for IFA. With a background in journalism, he worked at a number of community newspapers after college, and eventually found himself in Washington D.C.. His love for food eventually combined with a desire to work in advocacy and brought him to rural Vermont, where he became involved with statewide and regional food systems organizations. More recently, he has honed in on a focus on narrative strategy, answering the question of what it means to organize a network of communicators to do this work together.

So, What is Narrative Strategy?

Shane describes narrative as a “shared interpretation of how the world works.” In other words, it’s “the guiding ideas behind the communications or the work that you’re putting out there.” Developing a shared narrative takes time, trust, and relationship building within the group or community. But Shane also points out that many folks working in movement-building spaces probably already have a shared narrative, even if we haven’t taken the time to define it or write it down. It’s the messages that resonate with the people you work with. Developing a narrative framework within a collaborative group can take time. But Shane emphasized that moving slowly with collective energy behind you is stronger in the long run than “going it alone” and then trying to convince everyone else that your way is the right way.

Identifying the messaging that makes sense for your community is key to understanding shared narrative, for instance, the environmental benefits of organic farming practices, or the peace of mind that comes from feeding your family organic food.

Once you’ve identified that narrative, using it strategically is the practice of intentionally shaping public understanding. It’s using those stories to communicate and share values, and build culture. Narrative strategy is the way that movements build the overarching stories that influence what people see as normal, acceptable, or possible. First, you identify the core narrative. Then you frame it intentionally for specific audiences.

Shared Vision, Different Vocabulary

Having a shared narrative doesn’t mean that everyone will talk about it in the same way. Shane explained that when a group or organization creates a shared narrative, it’s often in lofty language, almost nonprofit jargon. But each participating organization or group can take that vision and translate it into the language that works for their community or audience. Narrative is also not limited to the words you use. If you think of it as a way to build and shape culture, you can widen the frame to see that narrative includes the space you meet in, the programming you offer, the ways that you engage, and how you show up. These are all ways that you create a story, shift an understanding of what is normal or acceptable, and begin to create culture that is aligned with the values of your shared narrative.

Shane also reiterated that individuals or even individual organizations aren’t the only carriers of the narrative. It’s essential to look at who else is telling a similar story, and to seek out opportunities to lift those voices up.

Along those lines, Shane also pointed out that, as narratives are created within communities, it is critical to ensure that all voices and perspectives are represented. One way to do this is to invite specific groups to be reviewers. Especially if there are essential perspectives you want to include, but who don’t want to be part of the work of crafting the narrative. This can be a way to offer people or groups a seat at the table, while giving them the opportunity to opt out of all the “legwork” involved in identifying the narrative.

How Does a Map of Joy Fit In?

Map of Joy, from IFA

Shane told us the story of working with a community of practice to identify their shared narrative. As part of the process, they realized that joy was something that was often forgotten in their work in the food system. It just “didn’t fit” into the work most of the time, and they wanted to change that. They decided to celebrate joy, and to allow people to define what joy meant to them individually. The result is the Mapping Joy in the Food System project, which Shane pointed out is brilliant in its simplicity. It utilizes a free ArcGIS mapping tool and collects input through a Google Form, which then populates the map. The process allows individuals to define their own joy, sharing a sentence or a short story, and sometimes a photo of a moment or experience of joy in the food system. The map currently includes things like a story of a farm giving someone who was “down on their luck” a job, and who then ended up staying on for 5 years! Other points on the map include the bite of a fresh berry, all the amazing insects, and sharing carrots with neighbors. The project has seen entries come in from all over the world, and IFA now releases a monthly moment of joy to highlight the experience and multiply that joy through sharing it—an example of narrative strategy in action.

To learn more about IFA, their work, and get involved, visit https://www.uvm.edu/instituteforagroecology.

We also strongly recommend joining IFA’s Food System Communicators Community of Practice and reviewing Shane’s guide on helping organizers develop, align, and test shared narratives: Strategic Collective Communications: A Workbook for Building Solidarity and Reshaping Communications.