CCOF Blog

Over its 20-year history, California FarmLink has developed its focus around three core elements for farm and ranch success: strong business skills, fair financing, and secure land tenure. We’re quick to add that growers benefit from fair and appropriate financing, with an overarching goal of enabling farmers and ranchers to build wealth through short-term profits or acquisition of assets.

With our eyes on wealth-building, California FarmLink will enable growers to compare financing options at the Growing Opportunity: Farm Finance Expo on Thursday, February 28 in Clovis, California...

The members of the California Organic Products Advisory Committee (COPAC) elected new leadership at their meeting during the annual EcoFarm Conference in Asilomar, California. The committee elected Karen Archipley of Archi’s Acres as chair of the committee and Jeremy Johnson of Traditional Medicinals as vice chair.

COPAC is a 15-member committee that advises the California Secretary of Food and Agriculture on organic agriculture and issues related to organic production. COPAC’s 15 members and 15 alternate members represent organic producers, wholesalers, technical representatives,...

If you take a glance at the “Who We Are” page of the Earl’s Organic Produce website, you’ll see countless references to Earl’s commitment to maintaining partnerships in organic. “Cultivating enduring partnerships,”...

Happy Valley Elementary School in Santa Cruz, California received a grant for the entire school population of 152 K-6 grade students to participate in the planting, care, and eating of an organic salad. Each grade was responsible for growing one part of the salad from seed to harvest: kindergarten students grew carrots, first-grade...

The winter months are when organic producers are busy pouring over seed catalogs, considering planting schedules and reviewing land or sales contracts. While not at the very top of the list of things to do, scheduling annual organic and food safety inspections also deserves attention. CCOF would like to help!

Overlapping regulations and requirements for modern farms have...

The California Farm Bureau Federation, in collaboration with UC Davis, is conducting their third Ag Labor Scarcity survey.

The survey will be open through Tuesday, February 5. It takes about 10 minutes to complete. 

The purpose of the survey is to collect information about how farmers are adapting to reduced farmworker availability, which will be used for a statistical study. The statistical study will be used to inform farmers, leaders, and other interested parties about how these issues are affecting farmers in California.

Your responses will remain anonymous,...

Pueblo Vista Magnet Elementary School 
Napa, California 

The mission of Pueblo Vista Magnet School is to promote environmental literacy through bilingual education. The school community strives to develop biliterate learners whose ability to engage in critical thinking, collaboration, communication, citizenship, character, and...

Join us at the Annual CCOF Foundation Awards Feast to celebrate our 2019 Organic Champion, Farmers Advocating for Organic (FAFO). FAFO is the largest organic-focused and farmer-funded grant program in the United States. The fund is a means for dairy cooperative Organic Valley farmers to support long-term, sustainable solutions to the problems facing organic. One of the biggest threats to the...

The CCOF Fresno-Tulare Chapter is working with Fresno State Jordan College of Agricultural Sciences and Technology and other stakeholders to develop an Organic Production Systems Certificate of Special Study at Fresno State

The proposal to develop this certificate program states:

            Over the past several years there has been considerable interest in expanding our faculty expertise, course                            offerings, research and outreach to include a dedicated focus on providing the knowledge and skills necessary for a                growing workforce in...

Gerald Peters is from and currently resides in Willows, California, where he graduated from Willows High School in 2015. After his graduation, he applied for his current job at Tractor Supply Company.  Peters attended Butte College and then transferred to California State University, Chico in fall 2017 to pursue his bachelor’s degree in crop science. After he completes his...

In late December, 2018, the National Organic Program (NOP) issued a final rule to amend the National List of Allowed and Prohibited Substances. The rule changes the use restrictions for 17 substances allowed for organic production and/or handling, adds 16 new allowed substances, and prohibits rotenone in organic crop production and ivermectin as an allowed parasiticide. The rule also amends the national organic standards to allow the use of parasiticides in fiber bearing animals.

The final rule is comprised of 35 National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) recommendations. NOSB made...

Sierra Torres has a deep desire to return to her community where she knows how to affect the most change. Torres will finish her third and final year at university with a bachelor’s degree in sustainable agriculture in 2019. Over the course of the next year, she will continue to take classes in agriculture education, small farm husbandry,...

In late December, President Donald Trump signed the 2018 Farm Bill into law. Crucially, the farm bill includes provisions to authorize and fund the National Organic Program (NOP), the National Organic Certification Cost Share Program (NOCCSP), and other organic programs.

CCOF and our members worked hard to build support for organic priorities in the farm bill throughout 2018. The...

In December, President Donald Trump signed the 2018 Farm Bill into law after passage earlier in the month by Congress. The new laws contain many wins for organic, including funding for the National Organic Certification Cost Share Program (NOCCSP) and the Organic Agriculture Research and Extension Initiative (OREI). Additionally, the new farm bill legalized the commercial production of hemp,...

The USDA released its final rule for labeling genetically modified (GM) foods in December, two-and-a-half years after Congress passed a federal labeling law.

In a significant win for organic, all certified organic products, including the label categories “100% Organic”, “Organic”, and “Made with Organic” are exempt from the labeling requirement. The exemption does not apply to products with less than 70 percent organically produced ingredients.

Very small food manufacturers, restaurants, and retailers who prepare food on-site are also exempt from the labeling rule. For the...