This bill, the Organic Science and Research Investment Act of 2025, directs the Secretary of Agriculture to create a Coordinating and Expanding Organic Research Initiative. The Initiative will coordinate organic agricultural research across four USDA agencies: the Agricultural Research Service (ARS), the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), the Economic Research Service (ERS), and the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS). The Initiative must review past and ongoing research, make strategic plans, conduct surveys, and submit reports with recommendations on research topics such as plant and livestock breeding, pest and weed management, soil health, water management, grazing and manure practices, food safety, remote sensing, product development, and other organic production topics. The Secretary must consider the Initiative's recommendations when preparing USDA budget materials and must include a report describing how recommendations were addressed.
The bill also amends existing grant and data programs. It expands the Organic Research and Extension Initiative (OREI) authorizations and adds priorities including traditional ecological knowledge and climate adaptation. It requires grant rules for use of indigenous traditional ecological knowledge, including project leadership by certain minority-serving institutions, free prior and informed consent of relevant tribes or Native Hawaiian organizations, and attribution. The bill creates a new competitive grant program for research on transitioning nonorganic systems to organic production, authorizes multi-year funding, and encourages partnerships with producers and historically underserved institutions. Finally, it directs ERS to carry out an economic impact analysis of organic farming and certification, submit a plan within one year, and report results within three years of that plan.
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