New Organic Investment Act Offers $2M Grants to Boost Domestic Organic Food Supply Chain

The newly introduced Domestic Organic Investment Act of 2025 aims to tackle a common problem: why does so much of our organic food come from overseas? This legislation establishes the Domestic Organic Investment Program within the USDA, designed specifically to strengthen the U.S. supply chain for certified organic products.

The core of the bill is a competitive grant program running from fiscal years 2026 through 2030. These grants are intended to help U.S.-based organic producers, cooperatives, and Tribal governments modernize their operations, improve tracking systems, and expand capacity for storing, processing, and distributing organic goods. Essentially, it’s a push to build out the infrastructure needed to keep up with domestic demand and compete with imports.

The Investment Breakdown: What Money Is on the Table

This program breaks down into two main funding tracks, each with specific limits and requirements. If you’re an eligible entity—meaning you’re certified organic or in transition, and domestically owned and operated—you can apply for one of these:

1. Capacity Expansion Projects: These are the big-ticket items, covering storage, aggregation, processing, and distribution expansion. The maximum grant here is $2,000,000. The catch? You have to match at least 50 percent of the project cost yourself. For example, to get the full $2 million grant, your total project must cost $4 million, with your organization covering the remaining $2 million.
2. Equipment-Only Projects: For simpler needs, like buying a new piece of processing machinery or specialized equipment, the maximum grant is $100,000. The matching requirement here is much easier, set at 25 percent of the project cost.

This matching fund requirement is a major practical hurdle. While the bill allows the Secretary of Agriculture to waive or lower the match for beginning farmers, ranchers, and veterans, smaller established organic businesses might still struggle to come up with that 50% match for the larger, more transformative projects. If you’re a family farm looking to build a new storage facility, securing millions in matching funds is a huge financial lift.

Who Benefits and Why It Matters to Your Grocery Bill

The main goal here is to reduce bottlenecks and reliance on imported organic products. If successful, this program could mean more stable prices and better availability of domestically sourced organic food at the grocery store. For example, if a regional organic dairy cooperative gets a grant to modernize its processing plant, it can handle more local milk, reducing transportation costs and strengthening the local supply chain.

The USDA will set annual priorities for these grants, specifically looking at areas with trade imbalances and identified supply chain weaknesses. This means if the U.S. is heavily importing organic blueberries, the USDA can prioritize grant applications from domestic organic blueberry processors to try and close that gap.

The Fine Print: Where the Secretary Gets Broad Authority

While the program’s intent is clear, the bill gives the Secretary of Agriculture significant discretion. Beyond the specific goals of modernization and expansion, the program’s purpose includes addressing “other barriers and bottlenecks in the domestic organic supply chain, as determined by the Secretary.”

This kind of language grants a lot of flexibility, which can be both good and bad. It’s good because it allows the program to adapt to unforeseen issues in the organic market. It’s less clear because it concentrates the power to define the program’s focus with the Secretary, potentially leading to funding decisions based on evolving priorities rather than strictly defined metrics. It means the success of this program will hinge heavily on how the USDA decides to implement these broad mandates.