Rachel Opio nearly missed her chance to be an organic farmer. With a half-acre backyard farm in urban Phoenix, Arizona, she heard again and again that organic certification wouldn’t be realistic for such a small operation. However, Opio, who started farming as a way to cope with the grief of losing her mother, didn’t want to let go of her goal.
“When they told me there wasn’t anyone else certified who has their farm at their house, that it wouldn’t happen, those were fighting words,” she says. “I was like, prove it.”
The certification process turned out to be more complicated than she originally thought, with many forms to fill out along the way. “The biggest challenge was understanding how to navigate what was being asked of me,” she explains. “I struggle with crippling ADHD, so if something’s not clear, I get frustrated, and my brain checks out.” Opio took a long time to even initiate the first step of the process because she was not sure how to begin.
That’s when she found out about the Transition to Organic Partnership Program (TOPP), which is a nationwide initiative to provide mentorship, technical assistance, and wrap-around support to transitioning and existing organic producers. Opio was paired with Sara Dolan, an experienced farmer who operates Blue Sky Organic Farms.
“I would have never been able to start had it not been for TOPP and getting paired with someone who’s already certified,” Opio says. “My mentor was happy to sit down with me and go page by page through my OSP [Organic System Plan]. Without my mentor, I would have never known the first eleven pages of the forms didn’t even pertain to me. I would have been lost and given up had it not been for that technical assistance.”
Through the mentorship program, Opio was able to learn firsthand about the practical points of getting certified organic. “Talk about a wealth of knowledge!” Opio says of Dolan’s farm experience. “She was incredible. She not only helped me with how to navigate the OSP, and things like templates for equipment cleaning logs, but she welcomed me into her own organic certification process. When it was time for her certification renewal, I got to sit there and watch the whole thing. That allowed me to start putting my thoughts together to prepare for my own inspection. It was incredibly helpful.”
TOPP is scheduled to end at the end of 2026, and the CCOF Foundation partners are looking to continue this important work through private, foundation, and corporate partnerships. Continued investment in transition programs is vital for bolstering the success of beginning farmers like Opio, who can put down strong roots thanks to the connections the program forges.
“Farming is a risky and expensive profession,” Opio explains. “We’re not guaranteed to get paid unless we produce, so that can be challenging for farmers to leave and go help someone else on another farm if they’re not getting paid for it. So it was nice for TOPP to offer that incentive for people to provide mentorship, since when the mentors aren’t stressed, they can be more engaged.”
TOPP helped Opio ease other financial stresses as she grew her organic business. “It was through TOPP that I found out about the financial assistance program CCOF was offering. That’s the reason I chose CCOF as my certifier,” she says. “As a small farmer, financial assistance is huge. In fact, I know another farmer who didn’t have that help, and just getting started was very expensive and she couldn’t afford it. TOPP is useful, one hundred percent, and I hope we have more programs like this in the future.”
Opio is now in her fourth year of farming at Little Lighthouse Farm, which she describes as “a Black-female-owned regenerative urban farm offering nutrient-dense produce, pasture-run eggs, and organic seeds to the community.” She’s proud of her operation and her high-quality soil. She loves explaining to customers the benefits of her organic certification. “There’s more traceability and trust this way,” she says. “From seed to sale. I really proved something, not only to myself but to the Department of Agriculture here in Arizona, being as small as I am and being able to accomplish what I did. That’s pretty cool.”
—
