November 20, 2025
This week USDA-NIFA announced seven new research project awards through the Organic Transitions Program (ORG), totaling over $6 million to support a better understanding of the processes of organic transition and the best ways to support farmers who are in that process.
Photo of electric weed control equipment from https://theweedzapper.oldschoolmanufacturing.com/electric-weed-control-organic-farms/
The ORG program funds research and extension work that help those farmers stay competitive during the transition process, while also strengthening our understanding of the ecological benefits related to organic production. This program prioritizes the development of educational tools for farmers, technical service providers, and extension to support a farm during the sometimes tumultuous transition process.
The awards announced are going to Land Grant Universities across the country, and taken together, these projects are tackling some of the most pressing challenges facing organic and transitioning farms.
- Oregon State University: Empowering Organic Farmers: Integrating Electric Weed Control In Vegetable Farming
- Pennsylvania State University: Leveraging Organic Management Practices to Accelerate Microbially Mediated Weed Seed Mortality
- University of Arkansas: De-bugging Synthetic Methionine from Organic Poultry Diets: Exploiting the Potential of Insect Meals as a Source of Methionine
- University of Maryland: Ecological Niches of Pathogenic Listeria and Campylobacter in Integrated Crop-Livestock Farms and Strategies to Limit Their Transmission
- University of Minnesota: Evaluation of the Potential for Polled Genetics for Transitioning Organic Dairy Farms
- University of Missouri: Harnessing Biochar-Biologicals-Compost Interactions to Maximize Productivity and Profitability of Small- and Medium-size Transitioning Vegetable Production Systems
- University of Wisconsin: Assessment of Organic Manure Separation Systems to Improve Nutrient Use Efficiency and Environmental Outcomes of Organic Livestock Systems
The projects represent a continued step towards supporting practical, farmer-focused science that will help more producers transition successfully to organic systems, maintain profitability, and meet growing consumer demand for organic food.
They also highlight the continued importance of programs like ORG and the Organic Research and Extension Initiative in driving innovation across the organic sector and beyond. We are looking forward to the release of the FY26 OREI and ORG Notice of Funding Opportunities (NOFOs).