We have sent out crop and livestock renewal packets. They were due back March 15 for produce growers and April 1 for crop and livestock operations. We had a booth at the Marbleseed (formerly MOSES) Organic Farming Conference at the end of February. Now everyone is back here working on final reviews to get 2022 finished up.
We are looking for another organic certification specialist/inspector. Interested? Information about the job is posted on the Job Openings page of our website.
This week, the NOP presented a training video on the Strengthening Organic Enforcement (SOE), which is a big rule change that will go into effect in 2024. It will require all brokers to be certified as well as several other parties who are now exempt. Audits will be more important, so expect the inspectors this year to be spending more time reviewing harvest and sales records. Remember, after April 5, 2023, certified organic dairies can no longer purchase or sell as organic dairy animals that were transitioned. Livestock Lists will have to be updated this year to clearly identify all animals on each farm that were transitioned. They can still be used for organic milk production on your own farm, but cannot be sold as organic animals to another organic farm.
Minnesota Crop Improvement Association welcomes Lauren Martin to our staff!
Lauren joined the Organic Services department on January 3 as a full-time Organic Certification Specialist/Inspector. Previously, she had worked for MCIA as a contract inspector. Lauren has performed more than 700 inspections of organic row crop, flower, fruit, produce, and livestock operations as well as organic processors and handlers.
She is a graduate of Winona State University where she earned a BS degree in biology with an emphasis in environmental science and a minor in geoscience and course work focusing on agroecology.
Lauren has a farming background and currently lives on a small hobby farm in southwest Wisconsin. There, she grows flowers, herbs, and vegetables, and raises hogs and chickens, along with a couple of horses.
Minnesota Crop Improvement Association is seeking qualified candidates for the position of Organic Certification Specialist/Inspector.
Duties of an organic certification specialist/inspector include collecting and distributing certification information, creating records, reviewing applications, conducting on-site inspections, performing final reviews, and writing certification decision letters.
MCIA’s office is located on the Saint Paul campus of the University of Minnesota Twin Cities.
This full-time position offers a competitive salary and full benefits. For more information, including how to apply, visit our Job Openings page.
We have personnel changes to announce: Maddie Barkholtz left us in October to concentrate on finishing her graduate school program. I am very happy to announce that Lauren Martin started working for us full time earlier this month. Many of you already know Lauren as an MCIA contract inspector.
At the end of the year we had so much left to do! We are a bit behind on issuing certificates. If you need a certificate or Letter of Good Standing, please let us know. New 2023 planners have been mailed to clients, along with revised copies of the regulations. There have been very important changes to the “Origin of Livestock” section. We have included additional information with the planner and regs.
Robert and Greta Miernau farm, Caledonia, Minnesota. Photo by Diane Collins.
This year marks the twentieth year that MCIA has provided organic certification services. In 2002, federal regulations, called the National Organic Program (NOP), were implemented that defined the “rules” of organic production and processing. MCIA was among the first group of organizations to apply to become an Accredited Certification Agency (ACA). The National Organic Program is part of the USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service, but the USDA does not itself provide certification service. It accredits organizations, like MCIA, to provide this service. As MCIA inspects or audits each of its clients every year, the NOP similarly audits MCIA and the other ACAs every two and a half years.
The idea of MCIA becoming an ACA was first raised by a few seed grower members and local coffee companies. They thought organic inspection and certification would be a good fit, citing MCIA’s history as an independent, third-party inspection service in the seed industry. They also noted MCIA’s experience and understanding of standards and rules related to state and federal seed regulations. In 2001, the MCIA Board of Directors approved the proposal to add the service.
MCIA applied to the NOP and was provisionally accepted into the program after NOP auditors approved our application and followed our inspectors on the first on-site inspections. We were officially accredited as an ACA on April 29, 2002. MCIA began providing organic services that year to five Minnesota-based clients: Falk’s Seed, Hanson Seed, Café Imports, Morningstar Coffee, and Alakef Coffee.
In 2003, Albert Lea Seed House, Capistran Seed and Sawvell’s Seed were certified, and we added the first crop producers: Jim Remmele, Roger Keskey, Calvin Brower, Christopher Thooft, Chris Byron, and Jonathan Olson. In 2009, we added our first livestock client, Wes Benjamin, after the NOP approved MCIA to add that certification scope. The NOP recognizes four scopes: crop production, wild crop harvesting, livestock production, and processing/handling. MCIA has provided certification under all four scopes.
MCIA’s organic business has grown steadily, by about 10 percent per year. From those first 5 clients in Minnesota, we grew to 100 in 2012. At the start of 2022, we had 582 clients in ten states. The program continues to grow, currently MCIA certifies 467 crop operations, 117 livestock operations, 1 wild crop harvester, and 127 handlers. We focus on businesses in Minnesota and surrounding states where we have closer contact with our inspectors and where we have expertise with the types of crops being grown.
In the early days, most inspections and certifications were done by MCIA staff: field supervisors Brenda Rogers, Ben Lang, Jim Boots, and Neil Wiese. In 2007, as the number of organic clients grew, MCIA hired the first full-time, dedicated-organic staff member, Anne Costello. Following her departure, in 2008, MCIA hired Michelle Menken.
Michelle now manages an Organic Services department of five organic specialists/inspectors, Wendy Paulsen, Diane Collins, Tyler Tisdale, Maddie Barkholz, and Shauna Ilse, as well as Rose-Marie Odell, the department’s administrative assistant. When needed, MCIA field supervisors Seth Dagoberg and Dan Krenz also provide inspection assistance. MCIA also contracts with independent organic inspectors to complete inspections in an efficient and timely manner.
The addition of the organic program has indeed proven to be a good fit for MCIA. The organic program is an example of MCIA’s willingness and ability to adapt and offer services needed by today’s agricultural producers and consumers.
With two decades of experience behind us, MCIA stands ready to meet a future that promises continued and growing demand for certified organic food production.
To learn more about MCIA Organic Services, click here.
As fall approaches, we are wrapping up the last crop and livestock inspections. There are about thirty files left to send out to inspectors, and we hope to get those out in the next two weeks. Handler files will be going out to inspectors soon so they can start scheduling fall handler inspections.
We have also been busy working through final reviews and certificates—over one hundred issued so far. If you have received a bill for the inspection, please pay that as soon as possible. We do start final reviews on those who have paid first.
Let us know if you need a certificate or Letter of Good Standing to make a sale. Remember, if you have a 2021 certificate, it is still valid, and you can make sales using that certificate until you get the 2022 certificate. Certificates are valid until they are surrendered, suspended, or revoked. If you or your buyer have questions about this, contact the office.
Our new staff members, Maddie Barkholtz and Shauna Ilse, have been busy training and we have had them out on some inspections and to an Organic Expo, where we met many MCIA clients. We still have to collect more samples and complete more unannounced inspections, so I plan to get Maddie and Shauna out to more farms and businesses this fall.
Shauna Ilse joined MCIA on August 1, filling the organic specialist/inspector position formerly held by Cherry Flowers, who recently retired.
While serving in the U.S. Army, Shauna developed an interest in food and agriculture. She pursued that field of study at Washington State University, where she earned a B.A. in agriculture and food sciences, majoring in organic and sustainable agriculture. As a student, she worked at the university’s 10-acre organic farm and, in her senior year, interned as a farm assistant at a small, nearby organic farm.
Since last June, Shauna had been working as garden assistant at Grow-to-Share Community Garden in River Falls, Wisconsin.
To learn more about MCIA Organic Services, click here.
WASHINGTON, Aug. 22, 2022 — Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced details of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) $300 million investment, including with American Rescue Plan funds, in a new Organic Transition Initiative that is intended to help build new and better markets and streams of income for farmers and producers.
According to the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service, the number of non-certified organic farms actively transitioning to organic production dropped by nearly 71 percent since 2008. Through the comprehensive support provided by this initiative, USDA hopes to reverse this trend, opening opportunities for new and beginning farmers and expanding direct consumer access to organic foods through increased production.
The initiative will deliver wrap-around technical assistance, including farmer-to-farmer mentoring; provide direct support through conservation financial assistance and additional crop insurance assistance, and support market development projects in targeted markets.
“Farmers face challenging technical, cultural, and market shifts while transitioning to organic production, and even during the first years after successful organic certification,” said Vilsack. “Through this multi-phased, multi-agency initiative, we are expanding USDA’s support of organic farmers to help them with every step of their transition as they work to become certified and secure markets for their products.”
USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS), Risk Management Agency (RMA) and Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) are the primary agencies supporting the Initiative, which will focus on three areas.
Transition to Organic Partnership Program
Through this initiative, USDA aims to ensure that farmers transitioning to organic have the support they need to navigate that transition, including a full supply chain to U.S. consumers who demand organic choices in their supermarkets daily. AMS will build partnership networks in six regions across the United States with trusted local organizations serving direct farmer training, education, and outreach activities. The organizations will connect transitioning farmers with mentors, building paid mentoring networks to share practical insights and advice. Each regional team will also provide community building, including train-the-mentor support; as well as technical assistance, workshops, and field days covering topics including organic production practices, certification, conservation planning, business development (including navigating the supply chain), regulations, and marketing to help transitioning and recently transitioned producers overcome technical, cultural, and financial shifts during and immediately following certification. USDA will provide up to $100 million for this program.
Direct Farmer Assistance
NRCS will develop a new Organic Management conservation practice standard and offer financial and technical assistance to producers who implement the practice. Payments will be modeled on those already available to producers meeting the existing nutrient and pest management conservation practice standards. USDA will provide $75 million for this effort. This will include an increase in organic expertise throughout its regions, creating organic experts at each of its regional technology support centers. These experts will train staff who provide direct services to USDA customers. These services include hosting hands-on organic training for state and field NRCS staff and fielding organic-related staff questions.
USDA will provide $25 million to RMA for the new Transitional and Organic Grower Assistance Program (TOGA) which will support transitioning and certain certified organic producers’ participation in crop insurance, including coverage of a portion of their insurance premium.
Organic Pinpointed Market Development Support
Stakeholders have shared that specific organic markets have market development risks due to inadequate organic processing capacity and infrastructure, a lack of certainty about market access, and insufficient supply of certain organic ingredients. This AMS initiative will focus on key organic markets where the need for domestic supply is high, or where additional processing and distribution capacity is needed for more robust organic supply chains. Examples of markets seeking support include organic grain and feed; legumes and other edible rotational crops; and livestock and dairy. USDA will invest up to $100 million to help improve organic supply chains in pinpointed markets. The Department will seek stakeholder input on these pinpointed initiatives beginning in September, resulting in an announcement of specific policy initiatives later this year.
All crop and livestock applications are now due. Applications that we receive in June are late and a $100 late fee will be charged. The late fee will increase to $200 onJuly 1, so please get your applications in now. If we do not receive your application by July 1, we will start suspension proceedings. If you do not plan to apply, please contact the office and let us know. You will have to surrender your certification or we will have to suspend you for not reapplying.
We have been busy this past month reviewing files and getting them out to inspectors. Inspection season for crops and livestock has started. If you have an inspection date scheduled, please try to keep it. However, Covid is still around, so if you are sick, please contact the inspector to reschedule. We usually send at least two files to the inspector so they can do more than one inspection in a day and save on travel and mileage costs. If you cancel, the inspector will have to reschedule, and you may have to bear the entire cost of the trip.
We send out Initial Review Letters when we get your applications. Please review your letter to check if we need additional information. Some of the information may be needed before we can send your file to an inspector.
Organic Certification Specialist/Inspector Karen Gjelhaug is leaving us at the end of June to attend business school. We wish her well! We have hired Maddie Barkholtz, a graduate of the University of Minnesota’s animal science program, to fill the position. Maddie is also pursuing a master’s degree in public health with a focus on regenerative agriculture. She will be working in MCIA’s St. Paul office. In addition, MCIA’s new District 3 field supervisor, Keith Marti, will be taking the basic organic crop inspector training. Maddie and Keith may be visiting your farms with a trained inspector.
HEADS UP: The Origin of Livestock rule will be effective April 5, 2023. This means organic dairy animals that were transitioned will not be able to be sold as organic animals for slaughter or to another dairy farm after that date.
Minnesota Crop Improvement Association is seeking qualified candidates for the position of Organic Certification Specialist/Inspector. Duties of an organic certification specialist/inspector include collecting and distributing certification information, creating records, reviewing applications, conducting on-site inspections, performing final reviews, and writing certification decision letters.
MCIA’s office is located on the Saint Paul campus of the University of Minnesota Twin Cities. Hybrid or remote work arrangements are possible for employees living within our inspection area.
This full-time position offers a competitive salary and full benefits. For more information, including how to apply, visit our Job Openings page.
