Steven Holt: “Our colleagues may recall that Mr. DeFazio and I and others offered essentially this amendment in fiscal year 2007 and…”

“Our colleagues may recall that Mr. DeFazio and I and others offered essentially this amendment in fiscal year 2007 and it passed, demonstrating the strong bipartisan support in this House for an increase in funding in this program. The $5 million funding level, however, although it was preserved until now, has been completely eliminated by this continuing resolution. In other words, both sides of this aisle have felt that this is worthwhile spending. Despite the worst economic downturn we've experienced since the Depression, the market for organic consumer products grew more than 5 percent in the past year, well several times the growth of conventional food sales, and growth in organic nonfood items was even more pronounced, increasing more than 9 percent as compared to 1 percent in conventional nonfood items. Now, my friend who just spoke in opposition to the legislation, Mr. Kingston, said, well, it's a booming industry, why do we need to do this? Well, transition from nonorganic farming to organic farming is a big step, especially for a small farm, and although there are more than 13,000 certified organic producers in the United States, that's not enough. We still need to help farmers make the transition to organic farming, and this program does more than help them make transition. It helps build an understanding of best practice. The organic transition program is a highly competitive grants program. It's been extremely important to the organic farming community.”