What the Government Shutdown Means for Organic
With all National Organic Program (NOP) staff at the US. Department of Agriculture (USDA) now furloughed, the federal backbone of organic oversight is on pause. That pause threatens the day-to-day systems that keep the organic label credible—investigating complaints, accrediting and overseeing certifiers, and maintaining the technology platforms that enable verification and trade.
Impacts on Organic Oversight
Without NOP staff, new complaints aren’t being processed, and active investigations/appeals are stalled. Under normal circumstances, the NOP is tracking suspicious imports at ports of entry and working with Customs and Border Protection to stop fraudulent products from coming into the U.S. The lack of oversight due to the shutdown weakens the deterrent effect that protects honest farmers and brands. Accreditation and oversight of certifiers is also paused.
The Organic Integrity Database (OID) and the import certificate system are essential for verifying certificates, processing changes, and keeping trade moving. So far OID access has continued without interruption during the shutdown (good news), but any outage or degraded function would ripple quickly through certification and commerce. USDA does have a contingency plan that allows for paper import certificates if technology systems go down.
Because certification agencies are private and independent of USDA, they can continue functioning during the shutdown. Certifiers perform a critical role by conducting inspections of organic operations and verifying compliance with organic regulations. If the OID remains operational, certifiers should be able to continue issuing new organic certificates and modifying certificates, as needed.
Impacts on the Fall National Organic Standards Board Meeting
Unfortunately, the Nov 4–6 National Organic Standards Board Meeting in Omaha has been cancelled. It is not yet clear if the National Organic Program will reschedule this meeting once the government shutdown ends. Cancellation of the fall meeting means that important votes on sunset materials and proposals will not take place. The NOP has not yet announced a date or location for the Spring 2026 National Organic Standards Board meeting.
Organic community members were able to file written comments to the NOSB ahead of the Oct. 8 deadline via the federal register. NOC submitted extensive comments on the materials and proposals being considered by the NOSB.
In lieu of the Fall 2025 Pre-NOSB Meeting in Omaha, NOC will instead host an online National Organic Convening on Nov. 3 and Nov. 17 from 1 pm to 4 pm ET:
Join Session I on November 3: to hear from Plains-region grain farmers firsthand and to get a federal policy briefing on how organic is impacted by the government shutdown, USDA staffing cuts, and the stalled Farm Bill, and to learn how the NOSB’s work is moving forward. REGISTER HERE FOR SESSION I
Join session II on November 17: to share your ideas as part of this working dialogue on reducing the burden of organic certification. Pending an end to the shutdown, we hope that Dr. Jenny Tucker from the National Organic Program will join us for a Q&A session with the organic community (to be confirmed). REGISTER HERE FOR SESSION II
For more information, including the full agenda visit our events page.
How other USDA Programs are Impacted
According to the contingency plan filed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, only a handful of agency operations will continue during the shutdown. Many offices—including county USDA service centers—will be closed or running with skeletal staff until Congress passes a funding bill or a stopgap measure.
Members of the organic community who are part of the Transition to Organic Partnership Program and recipients of Organic Market Development grants can continue with work that does not require guidance from the NOP. However, reimbursements could be delayed until the government shutdown is over.
USDA has already lost significant staffing this year—more than 18,000 USDA employees have departed since January, including roughly a third of NOP’s team. Thus far, USDA and the administration have not announced additional staff cuts due to the shutdown. Further reductions in USDA staffing could be devastating to farms and businesses, including organic farmers who depend not only on the enforcement and oversight activities performed by the NOP but also on USDA research, conservation, risk management, organic certification cost share reimbursements, loans, and disaster assistance programs.
What NOC is doing
We’ll continue to provide updates as we learn more, including any changes to OID and import certificate operations, NOSB meeting updates, and grant program reimbursements. NOC is also continuing to make the case to USDA leaders that NOP staff perform essential functions – for this reason, critical NOP staff should be exempted during government shutdowns to prevent disruptions to organic trade.