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Incentivizing organic farming

A former USDA official says the upcoming farm bill needs to provide incentives to help conventional farmers who want to shift to organic farming. Jim Riddle is a past chairman of the USDA National Organic Standards Board.

“That allows a conventional farmer just to make a choice based on economics and provides technical assistance so they have people they can go to but also a financial safety net so they’re not risking the farm by going organic,” says Riddle.

He tells Brownfield there are additional rules and regulations for farmers shifting to organic operations before they can be certified as organic.

“You’re signing up to be regulated at a level that a lot of farmers haven’t been in the past but it needs to pencil out,” says Riddle.

Riddle says the certification is necessary for the industry to maintain its relationship with consumers.

“There have been ideas floated like we need to weaken the standards to make it easier to get into organic, and that would kill the market. The consumers demand rigorous standards and that’s what it’s all based on” says Riddle.

Brownfield spoke with Riddle at the Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association’s Conference in Dayton Ohio.

Audio: Jim Riddle, Organic Farmer, Former Chair, USDA National Organic Standards Board

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