Richard G. Lugar, United States Senator for Richard G. Lugar, United States Senator for Indiana
Richard G. Lugar, United States Senator for Indiana
Home > Senator Lugar's Farm Bill > Agriculture: A Glossary of Terms, Programs, and Laws

Agriculture: A Glossary of Terms, Programs, and Laws

  O

OAQ — Overall allotment quantity.
OBPA — Office of Budget and Program Analysis. www.usda.gov/agency/obpa/Home-Page/obpa.html.
Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) — The U.S. Department of Labor agency responsible for administering the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 (P.L. 91-596; 29 U.S.C. 651 et seq.). According to OSHA, farming is the nation's most hazardous occupation. The intrinsically seasonal nature of many segments of agriculture not only causes the size of this workforce to vary temporally and often geographically via migrant work groups, but usually also has major effects on the nature and intensity of the work itself. OSHA has issued safety standards relating to agricultural operations. www.osha-slc.gov/SLTC/agriculturaloperations/index.html.
Ocean freight differential (under P.L. 480) — The difference between the cost of P.L. 480 shipments that are required to be carried on U.S. flag vessels compared to the cost that would have been incurred had they been carried on lower cost foreign bottoms or vessels. The U.S. government pays this difference either by paying the total freight, if the sale is made under Title II of P.L. 480, or by reimbursing the recipient country or private grain company (whichever pays the shipping) if the sale is made under Title I of P.L. 480.
Ocean ranching — A type of aquaculture, used mainly in culturing Pacific salmon, wherein juvenile fish are hatched and reared, released to mature in the open ocean, and caught when they return as adults to spawn.
OECD — Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. www.oecd.org.
Off-farm (non-farm) income — That portion of farm household income obtained off the farm, including nonfarm wages and salaries, pensions, and interest income earned by farm families. On average for all farms in the United States, off-farm income accounts for over 90% of farm operator household income.
Offal — Generally, the viscera (organs) and trimmings of butchered animals. Usually, edible offal are referred to as variety meats or organ meats. Inedible offal and many of the other inedible animal byproducts from livestock processing are rendered into tallow, lard, grease, protein meal, bone meal, feather meal, and blood meal. The broader term, animal byproducts, includes offal as well as such other items as blood, hide, bones, horns, hooves.
Offer versus serve — This term refers to an option under which children are allowed, under school-sponsored meal programs, to refuse up to two items offered as part of a federally subsidized meal, without the meal service provider losing its federal subsidy for the meal.
Office International des Epizooties (OIE) — The intergovernmental organization created by the International Agreement of January 25, 1924, initially signed by 28 countries, and as of May 2002, counting 164 member countries. The OIE provides an international clearinghouse for the reporting of animal diseases worldwide; provides technical expertise to help with their control; collects, analyzes, and disseminates veterinary scientific information; and develops scientific-based standards for protecting against and eradicating animal diseases which are recognized by the World Trade Organization in international trade negotiations and disputes. www.oie.int.
Office of Migrant Education (OME) — An Office of the U.S. Department of Education that works to improve teaching and learning for migratory children. Programs and projects administered by OME are designed to enable children whose families migrate to find work in agricultural, fishing, and timber industries to meet the same academic content and student performance standards that are expected of all children. www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/oese/ome/index.html.
Office of Risk Management — See Risk Management Agency. www.act.fcic.usda.gov.
Office of the Chief Economist (OCE) — The Office of the Chief Economist advises the Secretary of Agriculture on the economic implications of policies and programs affecting the U.S. food and fiber system and rural areas. The Chief Economist coordinates, reviews, and approves the USDA's commodity and farm sector forecasts. In addition, the Chief Economist oversees the activities of the World Agricultural Outlook Board, the Coordinator of Agricultural Labor Affairs, the Office of Risk Assessment & Cost-Benefit Analysis, the Global Change Program Office, the Director of Sustainable Development, and the Office of Energy Policy and New Uses. www.usda.gov/oce.
Offset — Liquidating a purchase of futures contracts through the sale of an equal number of contracts of the same delivery month, or liquidating a short sale of futures through the purchase of an equal number of contracts of the same delivery month. In other words, selling if one has bought, or buying if one has sold, a futures or option contract.
Offsetting compliance — A requirement that a farmer owning multiple farms who wishes to participate in a crop program must comply with the program's provisions on all farms under the farmer's ownership in order to be eligible for program benefits. This provision did not apply to production flexibility contracts enacted under the 1996 farm bill (P.L. 104-127), or to direct and counter-cyclical program payments under the 2002 farm bill (P.L. 101-171, Sec. 1101-1108).
OGC — Office of General Counsel.
OIE — Organization of International Epizootics, the international veterinary and animal disease control organization. www.oie.int/eng/en_index.htm.
OIG — Office of Inspector General. www.usda.gov/oig.
Oilseeds — Vegetable oils, in contrast to mineral oils, are produced from oilseeds. In the United States, the largest oilseed crop is soybeans. "Other oilseeds" are defined for purposes of federal support to include sunflower seed, rapeseed, canola, safflower, flaxseed, mustard seed, or another oilseed if so designated by the Secretary of Agriculture. Soybeans and these other oilseeds are eligible for Direct and Counter-cyclical Program (DCP) payments, and for marketing assistance loans and loan deficiency payments(LDPs). Peanuts are another major oilseed crop for which federal support is provided under rules that match soybeans. Additional U.S. oilseed crops include castor beans, sesame, and crambe. Oilseeds are used for the production of cooking oils, protein meals for livestock, and industrial uses. In tropical regions of the world, palm nuts provide vegetable oil. The different crops produce oils with different chemical and nutritional characteristics, making some more valuable than others.
OL — Farm operating loans.
Omnibus Consolidated and Emergency Appropriations Act, FY1999 — P.L. 105-277, among its numerous provisions that include the regular annual appropriations for most USDA programs, provided $5.9 billion in emergency spending for USDA programs to shore up farm income and to compensate farmers for natural disasters. More than one-half of this amount ($3.1 billion) was in the form of direct market loss payments to grain, cotton, and dairy farmers for income assistance. Most of the balance was for disaster payments made to farmers who experienced large crop losses in either 1998 or in 3 of the 5 years between 1994 through 1998.
Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988 — P.L. 100-418 provided the President with negotiating authority for the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) Uruguay Round, U.S.-Canada Free Trade Agreement, and the North American Free Trade Agreement, and specified U.S. negotiating objectives regarding agriculture. The law revised statutory procedures for dealing with unfair trade practices and import damage to U.S. industries. It gave USDA discretionary authority to trigger marketing loans for wheat, feed grains, and soybeans, if it is determined that unfair trade practices exist.
Onion market loss assistance — Assistance provided to onion producers in Orange County, New York, that suffered losses to onion crops during one or more of the 1996 through 2000 drop years. The 2002 farm bill (P.L. 107-171, Title X, Subtitle A, Section 10106) provided $10 million of Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) funds for this purpose.
Open position — Ownership of a fixed-price forward contract, especially a futures contract.
Option premium, futures — The amount an option buyer pays the option writer for an option contract.
Option writer, futures — A person who sells an option contract, receives the premium, and bears the obligation to buy or sell the asset at the strike price.
Optional flex acreage — Under the planting flexibility provision of the Agricultural Act of 1949, as amended by the 1990 farm bill, producers could choose to plant up to 25% of the crop acreage base in other Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC)-specified crops (except fruits and vegetables) without a reduction in crop acreage bases on the farm, but receive no deficiency payments on this acreage. The Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1990 further amended the 1949 Act to make a 15% reduction in payment acreage mandatory. The remaining 10% was optional flex acreage. Optional flex acreage was eligible for deficiency payments when planted to the program crop. The 1996 farm bill (P.L. 104-127) expanded planting flexibility to all of the base acres, and this policy was continued by the 2002 farm bill (P.L. 101-171, Sec. 1106).
Options contract — An option contract gives the buyer the right, but not the obligation, to buy (call option) or sell (put option) a futures contract at a specific price within a specified period of time, regardless of the market price of that commodity.
Options contracts, futures — A contract traded on a commodity exchange that gives the buyer the right without obligation to buy or sell a futures contract over a specified time period. The 1996 farm bill (P.L. 104-127) required USDA to conduct research through pilot programs to determine if futures and options contracts could provide producers with reasonable protection from the financial risks of fluctuations in price, yield, and income inherent in the production and marketing of agricultural commodities.
ORACBA — Office of Risk Assessment and Cost Benefit Analysis, USDA. www.usda.gov/agency/oce/oracba.
Oral toxicity — Ability of a chemical to cause injury when ingested by mouth.
Orderly marketing — Coordination of the total supply of a commodity in order to achieve sellers' joint market objectives. This is an activity carried out by some marketing order programs.
Organic farming — An approach to farming based on biological methods that avoid the use of synthetic crop or livestock production inputs and on a broadly defined philosophy of farming that puts value on ecological harmony, resource efficiency, and non-intensive animal husbandry practices. USDA launched the National Organic Program (NOP) in October 2002. Farmers who wish to label their products as organically produced must have their operations certified by private or state certification organizations as following the standards set in the regulations (7 CFR 205).
Organic foods — Food products produced by organic farming practices and handled or processed under organic handling and manufacturing processes as defined in federal regulations under the National Organic Program (7 CFR 205).
Organic — Chemically, a compound or molecule containing carbon bound to hydrogen. Organic compounds make up all living matter. The term organic frequently is used to distinguish natural products or processes from man-made synthetic ones. Thus natural fertilizers include manures or rock phosphate, as opposed to fertilizers synthesized from chemical feedstocks. Likewise, organic farming and organic foods refer to the growing of food crops without the use of synthetic chemical pesticides or fertilizers; pests are controlled by cultivation techniques and the use of pesticides derived from natural sources (e.g., rotenone and pyrethrins, both from plants) and the use of natural fertilizers (e.g., manure and compost).
Organization for Economic Development and Cooperation (OECD) — An international organization established by the United States, Canada and certain Western European countries in 1960. The OECD studies and discusses trade and related matters. Its current 30 members include the United States, Canada, the 15 countries of the European Union, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and Turkey. More recent members include Mexico, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and South Korea, among others. www.oecd.org/home.
Organoleptic — Relating to the senses (taste, color, odor, feel). Traditional USDA meat and poultry inspection techniques are considered organoleptic because inspectors perform a variety of such procedures (involving visually examining, feeling, and smelling animal parts) to detect signs of disease or contamination. These inspection techniques alone are not adequate to detect invisible foodborne pathogens that now are the leading causes of food poisoning.
Organophosphates — Insecticides that contain phosphorus, carbon, and hydrogen. They are cholinesterase inhibitors; some are highly acutely toxic, but they usually are not persistent in the environment. Parathion is an example of an organophosphate.
Orthophotography — Aerial photographs that more precisely show the features of the landscape, including those that might be important for agriculture such as slope or size of gullies, because they are corrected for distortion caused by tilt, curvature, and ground relief.
OSHA — Occupational Safety and Health Administration. www.osha.gov.
OTA — Organic Trade Association. http://www.ota.com/index.html.
Other oilseed — The 2002 farm bill (P.L. 101-171, Sec. 1001) defines "other oilseed" as sunflower seed, rapeseed, canola, safflower, flaxseed, mustard seed, or another oilseed if so designated by the Secretary of Agriculture. Previous laws referred to these as minor oilseeds because of their comparatively small production compared to soybeans. These other oilseeds are eligible for Direct and Counter-cyclical Program payments and marketing assistance loans and loan deficiency payments (LDPs).
Outlays — Spending made to pay a federal obligation. This differs from budget authority in that it reflects money the federal government actually spends, not the amount that has been appropriated by Congress. Outlays may pay for obligations incurred in previous fiscal years or in the current year; therefore, they flow in part from unexpended balances of prior-year budget authority and in part from budget authority provided for the current year. For most categories of spending, outlays are recorded when payments are made or when cash is disbursed from the Treasury. However, outlays for direct and guaranteed loans reflect estimated subsidy costs instead of cash transactions. USDA operates many such loan programs for farmers, for rural areas, and to promote agricultural exports.
Outreach and Assistance for Socially Disadvantaged Farmers and Ranchers — Program operated by the Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service (CSREES) of the USDA that provides grants to eligible organizations assist socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers to own and operate farms and ranches and to participate in agriculture programs. Supports a wide range of outreach and assistance activities, including farm management, marketing, application, and bidding procedures to members of a socially disadvantaged group, generally defined as persons whose race, ethnicity, or gender has subjected them to prejudice. See Socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers.
Overall allotment quantity (OAQ) — Under the marketing allotment provisions of the sugar program authorized by the 2002 farm bill (P.L. 107-171, Sec. 1403), the OAQ is the amount of domestically-produced sugar that processors of sugar cane and refiners of sugar beets can sell into the U.S. market during a fiscal year. The 2002 farm bill requires USDA to set the OAQ using the following formula: (estimated sugar consumption + reasonable carryover or ending stocks) minus (1,532,000 short tons + carry-in or beginning stocks). What USDA decides is a reasonable carryover stock level is closely watched by the sugar industry because of its influence on prices. Sugar production in excess of the OAQ (sometimes referred to as "blocked stocks") cannot be marketed.
Ozone (O3) — A highly reactive molecule composed of three oxygen atoms. Environmentally, ozone is important in two completely separate contexts: 1) as a naturally occurring screen in the outer atmosphere (i.e., stratospheric ozone) that partially blocks the bombardment of earth by of harmful radiation, and 2) as a component of polluting smog formed from emissions resulting from human activities (i.e., urban smog). In the stratosphere 7 to 10 miles above the Earth, naturally occurring ozone acts to shield the Earth from harmful radiation. In the 1970s and 1980s, it was discovered that emissions of certain chemicals catalyze destruction of stratospheric ozone, allowing more radiation to reach the Earth's surface. The U.S. is a signatory to the 1987 Montreal Protocol on Ozone Depleting Substances, which bans or limits uses of chemicals whose emissions deplete stratospheric ozone. Among the chemicals being phased out as ozone depleters are chlorofluorocarbons used in refrigeration and air conditioning and methyl bromide, a pesticide. In the lower atmosphere (troposphere), ozone is a major air pollutant that contributes to smog, adversely affects human health, and is toxic to some plants, damaging forests and crops. Tropospheric ozone forms from reactions between nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds in the presence of sunlight. The precursor pollutants are emitted by combustion sources such as motor vehicles and utilities, use of solvents, and petrochemical facilities. Tropospheric ozone is regulated under a National Ambient Air Quality Standard.