News Release
Contact: Barbara Haumann
413-774-7511, Ext. 20
For Immediate Release

Foreign Ag Service awards Organic Trade Association $750,000
Monies will be used to analyze trade barriers to U.S. organic products

GREENFIELD, Mass. (Oct. 14, 2008)--The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) has approved $750,000 in Technical Assistance for Specialty Crops (TASC) funding over three years to the Organic Trade Association (OTA), in partnership with Sustainable Strategies, for projects that analyze technical trade barriers for U.S. organic products.

"OTA envisions that this funding will go a long way towards understanding the hurdles that impede the trade of organic products and finding solutions to opening trade options for U.S. organic producers," said David Gagnon, OTA's Chief Operating Officer and OTA leader on U.S. organic export projects.