Faith Grant | Oct. 2nd - 12:00pm
The 2008 Farm Bill has officially expired. Dozens of innovative programs for organic farmers that put healthy, organic food on our tables are in political limbo until Congress returns in November. That’s a long way off for those of us who fought so hard to build the infrastructure of organic. We can’t let the organic gains made get lost in the political shuffle after the election. While some in Washington are saying the impact will be negligible in the near term, organic farmers and members of Congress from agricultural states and districts know better.
The 2008 Farm Bill expired yesterday, Sept. 30. As of today, the U.S. is operating without direction for a modern agricultural system driven by unprecedented consumer demand. With an election coming up, Congress has chosen a sketchy path of neither passing a 2012 Farm Bill, nor extending the 2008 Farm Bill. Thus far, Congress has failed to do their job... worse, they have failed American farmers and we'll be paying for it.
The Capitol has survived Frankenstorm. Sadly, New York City and other parts of the eastern seaboard didn’t fare as well. Flooding, fires, fallen bridges, millions without power--it’s the kind of doomsday backdrop that you expect to see in a Halloween horror flick, not on the front pages of The New York Times.
This week, I discussed the needs / challenges of organic farmers with one of the administrators of the Farm Service Agency (FSA). A paramount need of organic farmers, both big and small, beginning and established, is access to loans to sustain and expand their operations. FSA is the primary government agency tasked with making these loans available to farmers. The challenge is getting an accurate financial picture of an organic farm as the basis to calculate loans. This requires good price data, and that’s harder to compile for organic farms because their operations are typically more diverse. 
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