05
Mar
Bill in Washington State Raises the Importance of Public Support for Transitioning to Organic
(Beyond Pesticides, March 5, 2025) Legislation in the state of Washington (Senate Bill 5474) is moving forward to establish a first-in-the-nation Organic Action Plan to “expand opportunities for organic, regenerative, climate-smart, and sustainable producers.†If passed, this bill would build on California’s trailblazer status as a leader in cultivating the expansion of the organic marketplace. Advocates hope that in developing the Plan, Washington will follow in the footsteps of California and European Union by setting targets for total cropland under certified organic management and bridge the gap between climate, public health, and biodiversity.
As federal funding cutbacks continue to impact farmers’ ability to leverage resources and grants from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), organic and transitional farmers are eager to see states like Washington take responsibility and improve the financial viability of farmers. Mike Stranz, vice president of advocacy at National Farmers Union, spoke to Brownfield Ag News when visiting the Wisconsin Farmers Union town hall meeting on February 21 echoing these concerns, saying, “A lot of conservation and climate initiatives, a lot of local foods initiatives and programs, dollars for those were halted and cut short even as farmers and ranchers were making improvements or holding up their end of the deal.â€
Protecting and strengthening organic standards is a key priority for Beyond Pesticides, and issues before the National Organic Standards Board at the upcoming Spring meeting will be covered on the organization’s Keeping Organic Strong webpage. The public’s voices will be critical to ensure that USDA protects organic amid the wanton firings of federal workers and cuts to federal programs.
Structure of Original Bill
The originally filed legislation, SB 5474, has three core pillars:
- Organic Action Plan: The Washington Department of Agriculture (WDA) will be tasked to develop a written report to submit to the legislature no later than June 1, 2027.
- Microgrant Program: WDA will contract with a relevant nonprofit to administer grants of up to $25,000 for new and beginning farmers, with prioritization listed for Black, Indigenous, and farmers of color, as well as farmers employing regenerative and climate-smart practices, including those that facilitate greenhouse gas reduction, carbon sequestration, soil health, biodiversity, among other criteria.
- Organic Certification Support: Under their authority of managing the state organic certification program, the WDA Director will be empowered to modify certification fees to provide flexibility for struggling farmers, both existing organic certified and those making or intending to begin the transition.
The legislation is based on five key findings:
- Washington state has a diverse agricultural sector, with over 15 million acres producing 300 different crops. Chemical-intensive, industrial agriculture is dominated by monoculture farming that degrades soil, water, and ecosystem health, and inevitably human health. Underscoring the vibrance of the state’s agricultural sector is a helpful tool for advocacy because it establishes a starting point for potential skeptics who may fabricate claims that this bill is anti-farmer.
- Consumer demand for organic in the state has grown steadily year over year, by a factor of 10 to 15 percent annually between 2010 and 2025. Organic skeptics tend to point to misleading or outright false arguments that organic is not viable economically and that consumers are put off by the price. The most recent USDA Census corroborates this argument that, between 2017 and 2022, total organic product sales in the U.S. jumped by 24 percent despite the supply chain disruptions borne from the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Numerous sustainable agriculture practices can improve economic, human, and ecosystem health, including regenerative, climate-smart, and organic. Despite this, nonchemical-intensive forms of agriculture have not had the same political value as their conventional counterparts.
- The price of certification is a “significant expense†and a barrier to transitioning farmers to organic. Identifying the problem establishes a launching point to propose the solution.
- Regulatory and financial obstacles for organic and transitional farmers in the state of Washington need to be removed.
A version of this bill was introduced in the 2024 legislative session with significant support from the organic and regenerative farming sector, led by the Coalition for Organic and Regenerative Agriculture, an initiative of Tilth Alliance (an affiliate of the National Organic Coalition, of which Beyond Pesticides is a member).
Committee Recommendations & Changes
As the bill moves through the committee process, the latest draft, SB 5474-5, removes the provision for the microgrant program. A report submitted by the Senate Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee mentions several other strikes from the original bill, including removing “the requirement that the organic agriculture action plan identify ways to improve partnerships between organic producers and financial institutions.†The new draft also removes “intent language concerning the effects of certain agricultural practices.†According to comments and feedback from legislators on the bill during public hearings on February 3 and February 20, concerns were expressed about the bill, given budget concerns raised about limited funding at the state level.
Because of the limited public support of organic as a social good through grants and tax policy, the cost of organic has largely been out of reach for low- and moderate-income households. As a result, it has long been criticized as elitist and exclusionary to the working class and consumers of color. A similar critique extends to the accessibility of certification for farmers. According to 2017 Agricultural Census data (the last collection to have updated information on racial and ethnic demographics), 92% of organic farm owners identify as White; meanwhile, fewer than 1% of organic farm owners identified as Black or African American, and 0.5% identified as American Indian or Alaska Native. (See National Organic Coalition resources here.)
Advocates argue that rolling back provisions in the bill will undermine the foundational intent “to identify and remove existing regulatory and market barriers that are preventing agricultural producers from integrating organic and regenerative practices and accessing certified organic markets.†However, given that this bill is still in the early stages of the legislative process and the overarching structure appears to remain intact, advocates still see plenty of opportunities to incorporate this microgrant program in a different capacity after/once the legislation is passed and signed into law.
Organic as a Climate, Biodiversity, and Public Health Solution
For regular readers of the Daily News, it will come as no surprise that the benefits of farmland managed with organic standards and criteria are justified by numerous peer-reviewed scientific literature and field tests. The Rodale Institute has conducted the longest-running North American field study comparing organic to chemical-intensive grain-cropping and reported in 2022 impressive productivity and profitability benefits based on four decades of data collection:
- Organic systems achieve 3–6 times the profit of conventional production;
- Yields for the organic approach are competitive with those of conventional systems (after a five-year transition period);
- Organic yields during stressful drought periods are 40% higher than conventional yields;
- Organic systems leach no toxic compounds into nearby waterways (unlike pesticide-intensive conventional farming;
- Organic systems use 45% less energy than conventional; and
- Organic systems emit 40% less carbon into the atmosphere.
German researchers last year found that organic farming provides significant benefits to honeybees, along with the presence of diverse flowering plants in and near monoculture fields, according to an analysis of 16 agricultural landscapes in Lower Saxony and northern Hesse that had different combinations of semi-natural habitat, organic practices, and annual and perennial flower strips. Organic methods of honeybee and biodiversity stewardship have been found to match or outcompete conventional, chemical-intensive practices, according to a study led by Pennsylvania State researchers in 2023. There are also plenty of opportunities to support ecosystem stability while farming organically, as proven in a recent study on bats.
See Why Organic? to learn more about the health, ecological, and environmental justice benefits of organic agriculture. See Beyond Pesticides’ National Forum session, Tackling the Climate Emergency (November 29, Session 3 recording) with a presentation by Rodale Institute’s Andrew Smith, PhD and coauthor of several landmark reports on soil biology and carbon sequestration — including the Farming Systems Trial — 40-Year Report.
Call to Action
Organic integrity is at a crossroads. California is attempting to define sustainable agricultural programs, including regenerative agriculture funding programs, without mentioning organic standards, practices, or criteria. Beyond Pesticides has written extensively about the risks of greenwashing in legislation, despite decades of advocacy to develop an industry that is now valued at roughly $70 billion.
A bill in New York, S1306, would exempt farmland that is in transition to certified organic practices from real property tax for up to a three-year period.
As energy shifts to the state level, advocates continue to diligently review proposed bills in different legislatures. Simultaneously, Beyond Pesticides continues to track the NOSB meetings to ensure that existing organic standards are preserved, offer recommendations to improve trust in the label, and provide the public with how-to guides and sample comments to offer a starting point to engage in the process.
See Keeping Organic Strong to learn more and prepare for the Spring 2025 public comment process. Tell your state legislators and governor to support the transition to organic with state tax policy reform.
All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides.
Source: Washington State Legislature
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