Research priorities and regional imperatives to strengthen organic agriculture in the Southeast

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Abstract Organic agriculture continues to expand rapidly in the United States, yet production in the Southeastern United States (SE) lags behind other regions despite strong consumer demand and favorable market conditions. This forum paper synthesizes findings from a regional expert assessment aimed at identifying key challenges and research priorities for advancing organic agriculture in the SE. An online survey of 33 organic agriculture researchers, Extension specialists, and farmer‐support professionals across nine SE states was used to rank production and non‐production constraints and to develop strategic recommendations. The identified challenges were discussed and verified at a regional symposium. Experts ranked pest management (weeds, diseases, and insects) as the highest production priority (65%, 65%, and 55%, respectively). Additional challenges ranked important by respondents included adapting to climate variability (precipitation) (45%), access to organic seed (45%), maintaining soil fertility (35%), and managing soil health constraints in highly weathered, low‐organic matter soils (32%). Experts consistently ranked access to capital, labor, and land (100%, 83%, and 77%, respectively) as the highest priority non‐production challenges. These were followed by high‐priority challenges of farm infrastructure, managing production and input costs, accessing value‐added organic processing, organic certification costs, and farm business planning (47%, 47%, 47%, and 40%, respectively) as barriers for SE organic production persistence and transition. Collectively, these constraints reflect the interacting biophysical, sociopolitical, and structural challenges shaping organic agriculture in the region. Based on these findings, we outline priority strategies for strengthening SE organic agriculture, including sustained investment in region‐specific research and Extension, expanded collaboration between universities and farmer organizations, targeted pest and soil fertility research, regionally adapted organic crop breeding, tailored certification training, and enhanced organic‐certified postharvest and processing infrastructure. We argue that coordinated, long‐term investments, and participatory research approaches are essential for overcoming persistent barriers, improving farm resilience, and enabling the SE to more fully contribute to national organic production, rural economic development, and agroecological sustainability.