Too often in the certification process we don’t get the opportunity to tell you how much all of us at CCOF appreciate your hard work producing organic products. All of us appreciate the work you do and are committed every day to making certification as pleasant as possible. We realize that certification is not an end in itself but a step along the way to your success in the organic marketplace. While we must ensure strict organic standards are maintained, we also feel that we are on this journey with you.
Two new documents have been created to help CCOF clients understand the certification process.
What to Expect After Your Inspection: Clarifies the inspector's role and what clients should expect as potential outcomes following the inspection. This helpful document is provided to all clients by their inspector.
Did you know that in addition to regional staff located throughout California, CCOF has representatives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Ashville, North Carolina (2 representatives!); Bend, Oregon; and State College, Pennsylvania? These CCOF out-ofstate certification employees will be playing a new role in their local regions to learn about organic matters and represent CCOF.
Did you know CCOF’s own farmers’ market best practices guidelines are a great resource for addressing labeling, signage, and other practices at farmers’ markets? Feel free to use it as a reference and share it with market managers, the public, and others. A variety of other helpful fact sheets can be found at www.ccof.org/organic/fact-sheets.
CCOF’s five-person inspection operations team works together to manage CCOF’s 4,000 inspections annually. Inspection supervisors work with inspectors and clients to assign and manage regional inspection operations, ensuring CCOF inspections are performed on time and are cost effective. The inspection operations team works with a group of nearly 65 inspectors to assign inspections, manage the process, and ensure client and organizational needs are met.
As the organic industry grows, so do CCOF’s services in Spanish! We now provide services in Spanish for processor and handler operations. Check out CCOF’s Handler Organic System Plan (OSP) in Spanish, available at www.ccof.org/documents. In addition, see our re-vamped Spanish language resources page, www.ccof.org/espanol, to access a wide variety of forms, flyers, and other helpful documents in Spanish.
¡Con el crecimiento de la comunidad y mercado orgánico, así también crecen los servicios en español de CCOF! Ahora ofrecemos servicios en español para las empresas que son procesadores y manejadores. Nuestro nuevo Plan de Sistema Orgánico (OSP) para Manejadores en español está disponible en www.ccof.org/documents.
We are very pleased to announce that CCOF has significantly upgraded our phone system to better serve you. As a result, all CCOF extensions have changed to four digits. This means that when you call, you will need to listen closely to the new options.
One of the key challenges for organic farmers and processors is ensuring that your practices comply with NOP requirements. CCOF understands this difficulty, and has developed support resources to help your operation at every step of the certification process. From developing your Organic System Plan to maintaining your recordkeeping systems, the CCOF Certification Support Resources page can offer you the help you need! We even have a great additional resources section that can guide you to the outside help your operation may need.
