USDA Gains Organic Ground

摘要

Programs are underway that contribute to the continual expansion of organic growing and marketing. SOME folks say that change happens slowly in large institutions, but over the past eight years USDA has steadily improved its investment in resources that are serving the needs of the organic industry. In 1997, when the Organic Farming Research Foundation published the report titled "Searching for the O Word," they found only 34 projects, or less than one-tenth of 1%, of USDAs research portfolio dedicated to research that explicitly focused on organic systems. Today, USDA's Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service (CSREES), Agricultural Research Service (ARS), Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS), and Economic Research Service (ERS)have programs underway that are contributing to the continual expansion of organic farming and marketing both in the U.S. and abroad.