CCOF Blog

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Written by Jessica González on Monday, May 1, 2023
FFRC members meet with Assemblymember Dawn Addis

Last week, CCOF and Food and Farm Resilience Coalition members met with state legislators to garner additional support for the Climate-resilient Farms, Sustainable Healthy Food Access, and Farmworker Protection Bond Act of 2024, AB 408. This bill, which is authored by Assemblymember Lori Wilson, would place a $3.4 billion bond measure on the…

Written by Kim Hatfield on Monday, April 24, 2023

Increasingly, food safety certifications and plans are required to sell fresh fruits and vegetables, and the costs in time, labor, capital upgrades, and certifications are significant. While the USDA currently offers financial assistance for small growers (with less than $250,000 in annual sales), the Produce Safety Alliance (PSA) has a survey out to determine what barriers keep fruit and vegetable farms and packers from beginning or expanding food safety practices. This information will likely be used to argue for more funding from the USDA for financial support to growers and packers to…

Written by Larissa Hernandez on Monday, April 24, 2023

The CCOF Foundation’s Organic Transition Program (OTP) supports producers transitioning their land into organic production. Producers receive direct financial support of $10,000 for three consecutive years, as well as technical support from CCOF Foundation’s Organic Technical Specialist Brian Coltrin. Along with providing technical assistance, the CCOF Foundation strives…

Written by Jessica González on Monday, April 24, 2023

We know that labor is often the biggest expense on the farm. We are looking to better understand what issues producers are facing with labor. We are offering a $25 stipend to organic producers who participate in our survey. The online survey should take no more than 30 minutes to complete and can be found at https://forms.office.com/r/fV3jYLMaK5.

Esta encuesta también está disponible en español

Please contact Jessica Gonzalez at jgonzalez@ccof.org if you have any questions or concerns.
 

Written by Jane Sooby on Monday, April 17, 2023

Have you considered adding a value-added component to your farm, such as starting an organic seed business or processing a crop you grow into a snack food?

USDA’s Rural Development Program offers support for farmers and ranchers to develop such enterprises. The Value-Added Producer Grant (VAPG) can be used for planning activities or for working capital expenses related to producing and marketing a value-added agricultural product. Examples of planning activities include conducting feasibility studies and developing business plans for processing and marketing the proposed value-…

Written by Kim Hatfield on Monday, April 17, 2023

We hope you have had a chance to review CCOF’s Strengthening Organic Enforcement Overview! If not, please do and reach out to us with questions. There are a host of changes in SOE, and all businesses in the organic supply chain should become familiar with the new regulations. Our certified clients will see calls to action on their compliance documents soon, but there is one area of the rule you can start working on now.  

SOE has increased the number of operations that need to seek certification. Uncertified operations who are buying, selling, or facilitating the sale of organic…

Written by Jane Sooby on Monday, April 3, 2023

The USDA is seeking nominations for individuals to serve on the Advisory Committee on Minority Farmers. All nomination packages received by April 24, 2023, will be considered. Interested candidates may nominate themselves.

This committee recommends solutions to challenges faced by minority farmers and ranchers and is part of USDA’s commitment to advance equity for all, especially for farmers and producers in underserved communities. The committee is administered by USDA’s Office of Partnerships and Public Engagement (OPPE).

The committee was established in the Food…

Written by Guest Blogger on Monday, April 3, 2023

The USDA announced that, beginning in April, it will provide approximately $123 million in additional automatic financial assistance for qualifying farm loan program borrowers who are facing financial risk, as part of the $3.1 billion to help distressed farm loan borrowers that was provided through Section 22006 of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). The announcement builds on financial assistance offered to borrowers through the same program in October 2022.

The IRA directed USDA to expedite assistance to distressed borrowers of direct or guaranteed loans administered by USDA’s…

Written by Shawna Rodgers on Monday, April 3, 2023

The newest CCOF Foundation supporter Anaerobe Systems has partnered with University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC) to launch a research project featuring their organic input, approved by the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA).

Anaerobe Systems is the culmination of 40 years' worth of dedicated science and research, led by company founder Dr. Mike Cox. This partnership between UCSC and Anaerobe Systems will open up new opportunities for research on products aimed at promoting sustainable and organic farming practices to improve soil health, soil quality, and crop…

Written by Jane Sooby on Monday, April 3, 2023

As CCOF celebrates its 50th anniversary, we invite longtime members to pull out those cardboard boxes containing old CCOF photos, magazines, or documents and share them with us. We may use these materials in an archive project highlighting CCOF’s history and the organic community. 

Please note that donated materials may not be returned. If you have important photos or documents, please consider submitting high-resolution copies or scans. 

Materials will be compiled to create a mixed media archive and/or gallery that will be displayed at CCOF’s forthcoming 50th Anniversary…

Written by Shawna Rodgers on Monday, March 27, 2023

RSVP online by April 1, 2023.

New CCOF Foundation partner Ancient Nutrition is hosting an event to celebrate its founders and farmers on their Regenerative Organic Certified (ROC) farm in Summertown, Tennessee. Join us on April 19, 2023, to step into the vision for the future of regenerative agriculture, namely the Regenerative Organic Certification. This will be a chance for us to come…

Written by Shawna Rodgers on Monday, March 27, 2023
Fatima Salazar & Alejandro Salazar

The CCOF Foundation offers direct financial and technical assistance to organic farmers across the United States, regardless of their certifier affiliation.

In 2022, we launched the newest iteration of our Organic Transition program, supporting eight farmers in California transitioning part of their acreage to organic agriculture. In just one year, the…

Written by Peter Nell on Monday, March 27, 2023

Please join CCOF in welcoming Leah Penniman for a reading of her latest book Black Earth Wisdom and a live Q&A. Copies of Black Earth Wisdom can be purchased online or through bookstores internationally. This event will be held on Zoom and is open to all CCOF community members.  

We encourage attendees to review Soul Fire Farm’s Guide to a Successful Collaboration for BIPOC Speakers, White Audiences and Soul Fire Farm’s Safer Space Agreements. 
 
This event is free.

When: March 29, 2023, 3 p.m. Pacific Time (U.S. and Canada)
Topic: Leah Penniman Black…

Written by Laetitia Benador on Monday, March 20, 2023

The UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine and UC Agriculture Natural Resources Cooperative Extension are conducting research on parasite management in organic livestock production. 

Producer input is crucial and highly valued! If you are a producer of cattle, sheep, and/or goats who is certified organic, transitioning to organic, or utilizing organic practices, we want to hear from you.

What dewormer drugs do you use and how effective are they? What integrated parasite management practices do you implement and how effective are they?

Please fill out this survey by April…

Written by Jane Sooby on Monday, March 20, 2023

The National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) has released the agenda for its Spring 2023 meeting and registration is now open to make oral comment during one of two webinars on April 18 and April 20. 

In addition to oral comment, the public may submit written comments on materials up for sunset from the National List of Allowed and Prohibited Substances and other topics on the agenda. Submit comments via regulations.gov. The deadline to register for oral comment and submit written comment is April 5.

The meeting will be held in Atlanta, Georgia, April 25–27. All information…