Greetings!

I wanted to provide an update about my trip to Washington DC with Organic Farmers Association- with an emphasis on the updates that I received on ODMAP.

The trip itself went extremely well. There were over 20 organic producers from all over the country that produced all different types of organic products. The group in its entirety had meetings with over 50 members of Congress on top of meetings with officials from the NOP, USDA and Ag Committee staffers. Although other participants in advocated for different areas on interest surrounding organic agriculture, I specifically spoke to organic dairy policies. I was fortunate to be one of the busiest folks on the trip in regards to the amount of meetings that I was able to set up and attend. I met with staffers from the offices Rep. Carbajal, Rep. Huffman, Rep. Duarte, Rep. Newhouse and Sen. Bookers offices. I also attended group meetings with the House Ag Committee Chair Staff, House Ag Ranking Member Staff and was extremely fortunate enough to land a 45 minute personal meeting with Senate Ag Committee Chair Staff where we solely talked about organic dairy policy. I was also extremely fortunate to have Western United’s lobbyist, Charlie Garrison with me the entre day on Tuesday to chauffeur me around and also provided insight and talking points to all that I met with.

ODMAP: We had a group meeting with FSA and quite frankly ran out of time and was unable to dive into much depth about where FSA is at with ODMAP. Ed Maltby, Executive Director of NODPA and I were able to get a few answers out of Doug Kilgore (FSA's dairy and specialty crops specialist) while we were clearing the room. Doug expects that if a producer maxes out the program at 5 million lbs. of production that they can expect a payment of approximately $40,000. He also expects that payment to be made available at some point between May and July due to it working its way through the beauracratic system. Doug sent me an email after our meeting and told me to reach out to him if I had any further questions about any FSA programs that regard to dairy. I sent him back follow up ODMAP questions and haven’t heard a response from him yet.

Best to all,

Zach

Sonoma & Marin County Producers Join us this Thursday

THANK YOU

Cotati Large Animal Hospital

and

Sonoma Marin Veterinary Service

for generously providing lunch

OOL and SOE Rulings

Click here to find out more about the updates and reminders pertaining to your NOP Organic Certification

FSA Programs Available

USDA offers a variety of programs to help farmers, ranchers, communities, and businesses that have been hard hit by natural disaster events. Below you’ll find available FSA programs; visit farmers.gov for additional USDA programs that can help agricultural producers recover.

Dates and location announced for our

2023 Conference and Trade Show!!

Group Rate Rooms Now Available - Please mention WODPA 2023 to receive your group discount.