Structural Challenges in U.S. Organic Agriculture and Interdisciplinary Strategies for Risk Mitigation

• Renata Ferreira Torezani

  Environmental Law Specialist, Torezani Law, Phoenix, Arizona, USA

  Author

This study examines the persistent structural challenges affecting organic agriculture in the United States and proposes an interdisciplinary approach that integrates legal and technical perspectives to enhance the sector’s resilience. The analysis focuses on regulatory weaknesses, inconsistencies in federal agro-environmental policies, and the lack of specialized capacity to ensure compliance with frameworks such as the Organic Food Production Act (OFPA), the National Organic Program (NOP), and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) guidelines.

Through a comprehensive review of federal directives and regional case studies, five critical areas of vulnerability were identified: inconsistent enforcement, gaps in oversight of organic practices, deficiencies in technical-legal support for producers, weak inter-agency coordination, and socio-economic risks stemming from regulatory non-compliance. Each topic is examined through structured sub-sections that suggest practical risk-mitigation strategies while emphasizing the importance of specialized expertise at the intersection of environmental science and law.

The study concludes that integrating environmental and legal knowledge on a national scale can bridge regulatory gaps and improve the sustainable performance of the U.S. organic sector. It recommends the development of policies and capacity-building initiatives that strengthen this interdisciplinary framework, contributing to a broader national impact on agroecological sustainability.

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