Sponsors
The bill opens an alternative testing‑based pathway to organic certification—potentially expanding market access and consumer confidence—while shifting costs, administrative requirements, and access challenges onto small or rural producers and creating short‑term regulatory uncertainty.
Farmers, wild‑crop harvesters, and other producers can use testing to certify soils or growing media free of prohibited substances so non‑livestock crops and wild harvests can qualify for organic production without a 3‑year land history, expanding access to organic markets.
Consumers (and the public) may have greater confidence in organic labeling because the Secretary must develop verification guidelines to ensure testing accuracy and reliability.
Small and rural producers may face new testing costs, administrative burdens, and limited access to certified labs, which could make certification unaffordable or difficult and disadvantage low‑resource farms.
Rulemaking to establish approved verification methods could create delays and uncertainty, producing compliance gaps and transitional confusion for producers and certifying agents.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Creates a testing-based option to verify soil or growing media are free of prohibited substances before planting and directs USDA to issue verification guidelines.
Introduced February 5, 2026 by Daniel Milton Newhouse · Last progress February 5, 2026
Creates a testing-based path to show soil or other growing media are free of prohibited substances before planting so crops (but not livestock) can qualify as organic even without the usual three-year chemical-free history. Requires the Secretary of Agriculture to issue an advanced notice of proposed rulemaking within 60 days and to develop verification guidelines and criteria for approved testing or other Secretary‑certified methods. The same testing option is extended to management of wild crops as an alternative to the plain three-year history requirement.