“A bill to amend the Agricultural Marketing Act of 1946 to establish the Domestic Organic Investment Program, and for other purposes.”
No CRS summary available for this bill.
This section establishes the Domestic Organic Investment Program within Subtitle A of the Agricultural Marketing Act of 1946 to increase domestic capacity in the certified organic product supply chain (i.e., for storage, processing, aggregation, distribution, manufacturing modernization, regulatory compliance, and market development to reduce reliance on organic imports). The program provides competitive grants through the Secretary of Agriculture (acting through the Agricultural Marketing Service Administrator) to eligible entities—including certified or transitioning organic producers, handlers, cooperatives, tribal governments, or other designated entities operating in a state, the District of Columbia, U.S. territory or possession, or Indian tribe jurisdiction (as defined in 25 U.S.C. 5304)—with priorities for trade imbalances, National Organic Standards Board recommendations, and supply chain bottlenecks; applications use a simplified process for equipment-only projects. Eligible projects are (1) certified organic product storage (including cold storage), aggregation, processing, and distribution capacity expansions or (2) equipment-only projects. Grants have terms of up to three years, maximum amounts of $2 million for projects under (1) and $100,000 for projects under (2), and require non-Federal matching funds of at least 50% for projects under (1) and 25% for projects under (2), which the Secretary may waive or reduce for beginning farmers or ranchers and veterans.