The federal Transition to Organic Partnership Program, created to help farms shift from conventional to certified organic production, is ending early, and Hawaii producers are now racing the clock. With an accelerated September cutoff, farmers and mentors say they are scrambling to complete mentorships and paperwork, worried that a sudden loss of support could stall their path to higher prices and new wholesale markets just as interest in organic food is finally taking off.
Christian Zuckerman, TOPP’s Hawaii coordinator and vice president of the Hawaiʻi Farmers Union, told local reporters that the five-year initiative, which began under the Biden administration and was originally expected to run through 2027, must now wrap up by September. As reported by Maui Now, the program’s original goal of helping about 75 farmers has already been scaled back to the mid 50s.
The timing is especially jarring because USDA rolled out a $300 million Organic Transition Initiative in 2022, with up to $100 million set aside specifically for TOPP to fund regional mentorships and technical assistance for producers in transition. According to a USDA press release, the broader initiative was designed to build regional networks that offer paid mentoring, workshops, and market-development support for farms trying to go organic.
In Hawaiʻi, the Hawaiʻi Farmers Union United launched the local TOPP effort in 2023 and serves as the regional partner. The group is working with collaborators including California Certified Organic Farmers and the University of Hawaiʻi to provide mentorship and outreach. The union’s announcement lays out contact information and program goals for producers who want to transition to organic certification, including how to connect with the local TOPP team.
Farm-Level Fallout on Maui
For smaller, diversified farms, hands-on mentorship is often the difference between “maybe someday” and actually getting certified. ‘Okoʻa Farms, one of about 43 operations enrolled across Hawaiʻi, including six on Maui, told reporters the program has helped the 46-acre farm switch to approved inputs and set up the detailed record-keeping systems that certification requires. The farm grows nearly 100 crops, keeps about 800 chickens for eggs, and employs roughly 26 people, which leaves little spare capacity for navigating federal paperwork on its own.
The same farm also told reporters it has lost more than $10 million in crops to invasive deer over the past decade, a staggering hit that highlights just how thin margins can be for local producers trying to scale into wholesale markets, as reported by Maui Now. For growers in that position, losing structured mentorship and technical help partway through the transition could mean putting organic ambitions on hold.
Demand Climbs While Transitions Shrink
Consumer interest is not the problem. The Organic Trade Association reports that U.S. organic sales reached $71.6 billion in 2024, a 5.2 percent increase from the previous year. Shoppers are buying more organic produce, dairy, and packaged foods, and retailers are hungry for reliable supply.
Yet on the ground, the acreage committed to organic and the number of operations in transition have actually been slipping. Data and analyses from the USDA Economic Research Service show that organic acreage and the pool of farms moving toward certification have contracted in recent years. TOPP was created specifically to push back against those trends by reducing the financial and logistical hurdles that discourage farmers from taking the leap.
What Happens Next for Growers
With the federal timeline suddenly shortened, local coordinators say they are looking for alternative grants and private donors to keep at least some level of support in place, while urging farmers already in the pipeline to move through certification steps as quickly as they reasonably can. The Hawaiʻi Farmers Union TOPP announcement continues to offer contact details for producers, and the national TOPP site still maintains resources and an “Apply Now” portal for mentorship and technical assistance.
Farmers and mentors say the compressed schedule will be a real test of whether targeted technical help can turn strong consumer demand into more locally grown, certified organic supply, or whether Hawaiʻi producers will be left chasing a missed opportunity. For now, many growers who were finally catching up on paperwork and inspections say they intend to push ahead and finish certification. What keeps them up at night is a different question entirely: whether the support they need to maintain that hard-won status will be around long after the program signs off.
