SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) - New Mexico’s program for inspecting and certifying organic farms is struggling financially, leaving the state agriculture department to identify options for saving the program.
The New Mexico Organic Certification Program has operated with a $100,000-a-year deficit since the state cut its funding in 2010 and capped the fees the agency collects from farmers, The Santa Fe New Mexican reported (https://bit.ly/2leqe1r).
The Department of Agriculture has proposed five alternative funding options that all involve raising fees for the state’s 150 organic processors and farmers or cutting the program. An analysis of those options was released last month by the New Mexico Farmers Marketing Association.
The state’s preferred option is to pay for 25 percent of the program out of the department’s budget and increase the organic certification application fee by about $100 a year to cover the balance.
“The organic community is currently working with Legislators on a couple of alternatives for the organic program; including either seeking an appropriation or possible amendments to the organic act,” said a statement from Jeff Witte, director of the agriculture department. “At this time, we have no detail on either approach.”
The organic certification program launched in 1990 with a group of farmers and funding from state lawmakers as the New Mexico Organic Commodity Commission. The commission ran independently for 20 years until the Legislature reduced funding in 2010 to $25,000 a year from $280,000 a year. The Department of Agriculture then took over the program in 2011.
Many farmers say the state certification program is critical to the growing organics industry.
“We desperately want them to stay and think they are an integral part of organic agriculture in the state. Organics are a growing industry and need that support,” said John McMullin, the farm manager at Embudo Valley Organics, which raises turkeys. “My feeling is if we had a better governor and a better Legislature, they would have been fully funding the program.”
New Mexico’s certified organic farms and processors generate $40 million in direct sales each year and employ hundreds of people. The organic market has been growing faster than the overall food market in the last several years, according to a state report.
New Mexico is one of only 16 states that still have a state-funded organic certification program. The other states use third-party certification programs.
New Mexico producers say they want the state to avoid turning to private companies for organic certification, which they say is more costly and would result in them losing the relationships they have built with state inspectors.
“When the state inspector is here, I know his name, shake his hand, work with him every year,” McMullin said. “They are helping me be a better organic farmer.”
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Information from: The Santa Fe New Mexican, https://www.sfnewmexican.com
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