Resources

End of the Internet?
The nation's largest telephone and cable companies are crafting an alarming set of strategies that would transform the free, open and nondiscriminatory Internet of today to a privately run and branded service that would charge a fee for virtually everything we do online.
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060213/chester

John Ikerd's Sustainable Capitalism Seminar
A seminar by John Ikerd, Professor Emeritus of Agricultural Economics, University of MO, on topics featured in his recent book "Sustainable Capitalism", is available at http://www.media.cce.cornell.edu/hosts/agfoodcommunity/fap/IkerdLecture10.26.05.wmv

Business Alternatives for Poultry Producers
The Minnesota Department of Agriculture has published a new resource for farmers who are thinking about starting or modifying a poultry operation.
Poultry Your Way is a free, 124-page book that provides an overview of poultry production systems for meat and eggs, including Industrial Confinement; Traditional Confinement and Semi-Confinement; Day-Range Pasture; Pasture with Daily Move Pens; and Organic management. The guide also explores breed selection, marketing, and processing alternatives. Print copies can be ordered by calling the Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems at 608-262-5200. The book is also available online at www.cias.wisc.edu/pdf/poultryway.pdf.

New Guide to Northwest Farm Resources Available
The 2006 Farming Sourcebook for the Pacific Northwest is now available. The goal of the sourcebook is to provide a one-stop guide to the most current tools, resources, and information available with respect to certified and sustainable agricultural production. It includes sections on marketing, certification and labeling, management practices, water quality, soil health, pest management, seeds and starts, farm energy, and more. See: http://media.sijournal.com/documents/FarmingSourcebook_2006.pdf, (PDF / 3.6MB)

FDA Releases Food CGMP Modernization Report
On November 2, 2005, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a report, authored by its Food Current Good Manufacturing Practice (CGMP) Modernization Working Group, entitled "Food CGMP Modernization - A Focus on Food Safety." Of primary significance, the report contains recommendations to revise the food CGMP regulations to include new requirements for training, allergen controls, Listeria monocytogenes control, written sanitation procedures, and maintenance and inspection of records. In addition, the working group recommended that FDA consider applying food CGMPs to establishments engaged in the harvesting, storage, or distribution of raw agricultural commodities.
The report also advised FDA to seek comments on the scope of requirements for training programs, allergen controls, raw fruits and vegetables, written sanitation procedures for HACCP and CGMP programs, and the use of time-temperature relationships to control microbial growth. The attached memorandum summarizes the report and evaluates each recommendation.

IFOAM In Action Newsletter #89, January 2006 [pdf format]

Centre for Indian Knowledge Systems
CIKS is a non-governmental organization based in Chennai - India, working in the areas of Organic Farming and Sustainable Agriculture. They offer a variety of educational materials that are widely regarded as extremely useful resources for the agricultural community.
Click here to view their catalogue. You can order online via their website, www.ciks.org/publications

2003 Certifier's Guide to the USDA National Organic Program

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NOSB Recommendations for Accredited Certifying Agent Compliance Procedures for Minor Noncompliances - Please NOTE: These are recommendations ONLY. This has not been adopted or re-issued as NOP guidance. [pdf] [Word document]

Measuring Effluent: Clarification of Chlorine Contact with Organic Food

About ISO
The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is a non-governmental organization established in 1947. As it is defined in their web page, ISO is a worldwide federation of national standards bodies from some 130 countries, one from each country. Its mission is to promote the development of standardization and related activities in the world with a view to facilitating the international exchange of goods and services, and to developing cooperation in the spheres of intellectual, scientific, technological and economic activity.

There are a number of ISO guides, which concern the organic industry, from accreditation, certification and inspection. The NOP refers to ISO Guide 61: General Requirements for Assessment and Accreditation of Certification/Registration bodies, in the context of the USDA's accreditation activities. The ISO Guide 65: General Requirements for bodies operating product certification systems, is a broad based criterion that addresses policy for any type of certification system. This guide so far is the most influential for organic certification. Recently, ISO guide 17020 was mentioned as a criterion for Inspection/verification organizations. Its relevance to IOIA is yet to be determined.

Prior to December of 2000, the USDA was accrediting US certification agencies to ISO 65. The NOP is now accrediting certification agencies operating in the USA and foreign certification agencies selling products in the USA according to 7CFR Part 205 and ISO guide 65.

In order to secure equivalency with the rest of the world, the US government will have to establish agreements with others such as Japan and the EU. In Canada, ISO 65 accreditation is required for all certification agencies. The EU has been operating within these guides for quite some time.

Knowledge of the components included in the ISO Guide 65 is gaining importance for organic inspectors who are now subject to the areas in the Guide addressing field inspections, conflict of interest, and reporting. It is informative regarding the structure of policy and its relationship with standards and procedures. Listing any ISO training in the membership directory and resumes may be beneficial to our future employment opportunities. Finally, many clients and consumers have questions regarding the type of oversight governing the industry, which we can answer, based on our understanding of ISO.

IOIA trainings cover all aspects of ISO as they relate to organic inspectors. This is accomplished by stimulating debates on issues of conflict of interest, consulting vs. inspecting, inspecting vs. auditing, and including speakers from governmental, accreditation and foreign certification agencies. More in depth training on ISO and quality systems auditing can be obtained from the American Society for Quality (ASQ).

The North American Branch of ISO is handled by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) which can be reached on the web at www.ansi.org. There are links there to ISO, which can be reached at www.iso.ch/. In the USDA, ISO guide 65 accreditation is handled by the Agriculture Marketing Service Meat Inspection Division, 202-720-1124.

Sample Forms
These forms, which were originally created under a 1998 USDA-FSMIP funded project of the IOIA and OCC, have been revised by Jim Riddle and Joyce Ford with funds provided by John Deere's Go Organic project. The forms are available to certifying agents to adopt, modify, or use to upgrade existing forms. If the certifying agent offers additional certification services for use of the certifying agent's logo or other label claim, and additional information is needed to assess compliance, it is recommended that additional questions be added as addenda or as separate forms, rather than by integrating them into these forms.

Please be aware that the questionnaires are designed to be accompanied by field history sheets and field or farm maps. A field history sheet template is provided. Since the template is designed to capture information for crop years 1999-2002, you will need to revise the field history sheet on a yearly basis. The text boxes will expand as content is added. If some tables do not contain enough rows, rows can be added under the table feature of MS Word.

The Handling template is provided in an attempt to help bring consistency and simplicity to the complex task of certifying organic handling operations. In constructing the Handling Plan template, every effort has been made to address all handling and labeling requirements of the NOP Rule. The Template can also be used as a worksheet for processors, consultants, and educators to help prepare processing operations for organic certification. You will find that the forms contain numerous checkboxes. These are included so that applicants can avoid writing narrative descriptions of their practices. Of course, if a practice used by a handler is not included, then space is provided to enter applicable information. In some areas, there are questions about use of prohibited materials. While most operators would answer "no" to these questions, the questions are provided as a means of documenting that prohibited materials are not being used. Please note that the "Organic Product Profile" on page 10 is a fundamental document. An OPP needs to be completed for each product requested for certification. Without completed OPP's, the rest of the form doesn't function properly. As with the previously released Organic Farm Plan, each section shows the applicable rule citation numbers and includes a summary of the rule requirements. This adds to the length of the form, but serves a valuable educational function, helping applicants understand why the requested information is needed.

If you find any errors in the forms, or if you have any comments about them, please contact Jim Riddle.

Organic Farm Plan Questionnaire	Organic Farm Certification Update Questionnaire
Organic Handling Plan Template	Field History Sheet

There are also Spanish language versions of 2 of these forms and a Spanish language version of the IOIA Checklist - click here for links

Most Common Mistakes
Made by certified crop operators and/or certification applicants*
Compiled by Jim Riddle

Certifier relations:

Getting a product or practice approved by a certifier, but not getting the approval in writing, and then misunderstanding the "approval".

Failure to submit requested documentation to the certifier (such as prior land use forms, non-GMO letters, adjoining land use forms, water test results, etc.)

Not understanding and/or not complying with certification requirements (minor non-compliances) from the previous year.

Failure to complete required paperwork on time, or at all.

Not registering with the state organic program, if applicable.

Use of non-approved substances (incl. treated seeds), due to negligence and/or not understanding the requirements.

Use of non-approved substances, due to trusting an input supplier who gave assurances that the material was "approved" for organic farming.

Failure to inquire about the GMO status of inputs, especially inoculants and Bt products.

Not having documentation of non-GMO status of inputs, including seeds, inoculants, and Bt products.

The farmer does not correctly calculate the amount of time from the last date of prohibited inputs used - and the required 36 months have not passed. The farmer then wrongly thinks that the present year's crop will be saleable as certified organic, when it is not certifiable.

Documentation of approved inputs:

Failure to obtain adequate documentation for purchase of approved inputs.

Failure to document attempts to source organic seeds.

Lack of adequate detail or clarity on field maps and/or use of inaccurate maps.

Field maps which do not show acres, field numbers, and/or adjoining land uses.

Not keeping field activity records up to date.

Failure to keep seed and input labels and receipts in an organized and accessible manner.

Failing to keep records for contracted services, such as planting, spraying, harvesting, and/or trucking.

Failure to keep bin records up to date.

Not recording field numbers on harvest and/or storage records.

Not using lot numbers or not using a consistent lot numbering system.

Not providing adequate documentation to buyers when organic products are sold.

Not keeping records of steps taken to inspect and clean transport units.

Not maintaining adequate records for operations with both organic and conventional production.

Failure to follow the operation's organic plan.

Filing "renewal" farm plans with entries marked "No Change", when there have been significant changes, such as new leased or purchased fields, discontinued leases, sub-divided fields, new crops, new inputs, changes to field numbers, changes to lot numbering system, etc.

Commingling and contamination:

Failure to properly clean harvesting equipment and/or storage units, resulting in commingling or contamination of organic crop.

Failure to segregate crops harvested from buffer zones.

Lack of cleaning logs for spray equipment that is also used for prohibited inputs.

Work area contamination for post harvest handling (e.g. washing vegetables, cutting vegetables, packing
vegetables, etc.)

Mislabeling or mishandling of crop by mistake by workers who are not fully informed of organic certification requirements.

Misapplication of prohibited materials by workers who are not fully informed of organic certification requirements.

No GMO drift management plan - not knowing where the nearest GMO fields are located.

Failure to inform highway departments and/or other authorities that land adjacent to organic fields should not be sprayed (or sign no-spray agreements when these are available).

Failure to post no-spray signs when and where these would add protection.

*Based on information provided by members of the Independent Organic Inspectors Association and the OTA's [now defunct] Organic Certifiers Council. Compiled January 18, 2002, by James A. Riddle, Organic Independents, Winona, MN, USA.