Fracking on Organic Farms

Thanks to advocacy by PCC and others in the National Organic Coalition (NOC), the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) is asking the U.S. Department of Agriculture to add concerns about fracking impacts on farms to its work agenda.

A growing number of farmers are raising concerns about acreage destroyed by oil and gas companies laying pipelines in rights of way. They say bulldozers scrape off the topsoil and push it aside, but once pipes are laid, companies don’t restore the land as promised. Uneven land with compacted clay has rendered many acres unfit for growing crops and there are concerns about using so-called “produced” water from hydraulic fracking to irrigate food crops, including organic food crops.

PCC Community Markets, the Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association, and NOC will continue working to protect farmland and farmers being threatened and to preserve the integrity of organic.

Read our collective letter to Undersecretary Ibach and National Organic Program Deputy Administrator Jenny Tucker asking them to put our concerns on the NOSB agenda.

Related reading

Support of Federal Funding for Climate and Agriculture

PCC joined over 400 businesses and organizations in a letter to congress, urging a robust investment from potential infrastructure funding towards making agriculture more resilient and equitable, and achieving the goal of negative emissions.

Fall 2020 Comments to NOSB

PCC submitted written comments and provided oral testimony for the virtual fall 2020 meeting of the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB), the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) advisory committee to the National Organic Program (NOP).

Support for Agricultural Resilience Act

PCC issued a statement of support for the Agricultural Resilience Act (ARA) introduced by Congresswoman Chellie Pingree of Maine. The ARA would set goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the agricultural sector, while protecting and supporting rural communities and farmers.