Certification

Introduction

Congratulations! Five modules down and one to go.

If you've made it this far, you're obviously serious about transitioning your farm to certified organic production. So far in this course, we've talked about the basic principles of organic farming systems, soil biology, crop rotations and pest management. We've outlined organic livestock management requirements and discussed some of the many marketing strategies open to organic producers.

If you've been completing sections of your electronic Organic System Plan

(e-OSP) along with each module, you've made significant progress toward formulating the management steps and assembling the information you'll need to get certified.  

In this module, we'll discuss certification in more detail—from choosing a certifying agent to filling out the forms to having your farm inspected. We'll review organic regulations concerning materials and inputs, describe recordkeeping systems to facilitate the certification process and underline the importance of maintaining organic integrity from planting to post-harvest handling. We'll also talk briefly about certified organic processing rules.

At the end of this module, we'll invite you to complete the final sections of your e-OSP. Remember that you can make changes to sections you filled out earlier and print or download your work at any time. If you're planning on doing any value-added processing of farm products for the organic market, you may want to complete the electronic Organic Handling Plan as well.

This module will take approximately two hours to complete.