The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) today announced the publication of a draft Programmatic Environmental Assessment (PEA) for the Organic Market Development (OMDG) Grants program. The draft PEA analyzes and describes the potential environmental impacts associated with the establishment of the program.
Based on the analysis conducted by USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) under the draft PEA, USDA has preliminarily determined there will not be a significant impact to the human environment. As a result, USDA has not begun preparing an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS).
AMS intends for this PEA to establish a framework that will make any future assessments more efficient by placing project-specific actions that may need more analysis into priority tiers. As decisions on specific applications are made, if additional NEPA analysis is required, the agency will conduct an environmental review to supplement the analysis set forth in this PEA.
AMS is soliciting public comments on this draft PEA from now until December 20, 2023. A Notice of Availability of the draft PEA is available for viewing in the Federal Register. To submit public comments, email OMDG@usda.gov. View the draft PEA and more information about the OMDG on the Organic Market Development Grant webpage.
AMS announced a Request for Applications for OMDG on May 10, 2023, for up $75 million in grant funding. Applications were due August 8, 2023. The OMDG program supports the development of new and expanded organic markets by providing additional resources for businesses transitioning to organic or initiating new organic production and processing capacity through investments in expanded certified organic processing capacity; activities that develop, maintain, or expand commercial organic markets; and organic product developments which create new uses for producers that currently lack markets.
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