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CCOF Certification Services is delighted to announce that former employee April Crittenden will return to CCOF as our new director of farm programs certification. Crittenden has a long history with CCOF, having participated in nearly every aspect of the farm and quality departments, from certification specialist to senior quality and compliance supervisor. Crittenden has been committed to organic excellence at CCOF for nearly a decade, and we expect to see our farm program flourish under her leadership. Crittenden can be reached at april@ccof.org, or at (831) 432-2263, extension 6215.

The California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) OIM program is a registration and approval program that requires fertilizers and other soil amendments marketed for use in organic agriculture to be registered with CDFA and reviewed for National Organic Program (NOP) compliance.                                                       

CCOF will now accept organic input materials that have been approved by the CDFA OIM program.                                     

CCOF Certification Services has been working hard throughout 2015 to evolve our systems. We’re excited to announce the planned launch of a variety of internal system improvements and new tools for our clients during 2016. Look for more details about these various improvements in subsequent magazines and newsletters.

Organic agriculture and processing has continued to grow rapidly throughout 2015, resulting in record-breaking numbers of new operations and new requests from certified operations to add additional services, acreages, products, and more. CCOF is excited to be a part of this growth, and has responded to the additional workload by hiring more staff throughout the year.

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.

CCOF is proud to welcome our newest Associate Inspection Supervisor Jamie Carr to the team!

Jamie Carr has worked with CCOF for several years as an organic inspector in the Fresno area. Jamie will be managing a broad swath of operations from Southern California to Sutter and Yuba counties. Jamie brings solid inspection and food systems knowledge as well as familiarity with CCOF inspection systems and inspectors. She holds a B.S. in Plant Science from California State University, Fresno.

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.