CCOF

^{Figure 1 from left to right: CCOF Board Member Steven Cardoza, CCOF Senior Policy Manager Addison Peterson, and Assemblymember Damon Connolly}

^{Phil LaRocca is the founder of LaRocca Vineyards. He serves as chairman of the CCOF Board and has been an organic farmer for over 50 years.}

“I have a firm belief about organic,” Phil says. “As a kid, I spent every weekend at my grandfather’s ranch in the Santa Clara Valley.” The whole family worked on the farm, picking cherries and helping with the harvest. Apricot season, when Phil was out of school, was his favorite. “I got the farming bug in me. I loved being out there with the trees.”

^{Ted Vivatson is the founder of Eel River Brewing, America’s first certified organic brewery. He serves on the CCOF Board.}

Ted Vivatson’s love for quality beer evolved as organically as the company he created. A native of Danville, California, Ted spent a couple of years developing his palate for unique brews while serving his country in Germany in the early 70s.

The state of California joins in the national celebration of Agriculture Day each year with a gathering of farmers, ranchers, public agencies, state legislators, and agricultural organizations at the state capitol. This year’s Ag Day was on Tuesday, March 19; the theme was Next-Gen Tools, Talent & Tech. 

CCOF is gathering input from our members on their marketing practices, challenges, and needs through an online survey. The information collected through the survey will be used to develop tools and resources to help your organic business succeed. These marketing tools will be available at no cost to all CCOF members in fall 2024.

Nickie Salyer is the Organic and Quality Systems Manager at Lundberg Family Farms. She serves on the CCOF Board.

Nickie Salyer grew up surrounded by agriculture. The year she was born, her father and grandfather started a hybrid sunflower seed company that filled her childhood with manufacturing and crop production. “I saw how sunflower seeds are produced, cleaned, and packaged—all those good things,” Nickie recalls. “My family would give me a dollar an hour if I swept the warehouse.”

CCOF is gathering input from our members on their marketing practices, challenges, and needs so that we can develop tools and resources to help your organic business succeed. These marketing tools will be available at no cost to all CCOF members in fall 2024.

Please take the survey online. It should take three minutes or less to complete. The survey is intended primarily for small to midsize organic farmers, ranchers, dairy producers, and “multi” operations, and we also invite organic processor/handlers to take the survey.

^{Andrea Davis-Cetina is the founder of Quarter Acre Farm. She serves on the CCOF Board.}

Andrea grew up in Maryland, surrounded by disappearing farmland, where the fields and barns of her childhood showed her the importance of sustainability and community. While attending Hampshire College (where her studies focused on local food systems), she began working on the college farm and fell in love with agriculture. Andrea spent her summers apprenticing on farm operations up and down the East Coast. 

CCOF has received a grant to launch an organic market development campaign, and one part of the project is to develop marketing tools for small and underserved organic farmers (which includes beginning farmers and military veterans as well as historically excluded groups). 

CCOF is soliciting assistance in conducting Spanish language outreach to our certified organic producers to gather their responses to a survey on marketing practices and needs.

We are seeking bids for the following three outreach activities:

^{Photo by Friedrich Haag via  Wikicommons}

The Department of Pesticide Regulation shared this about the award: Gina Bella Colfer, a pest control advisor (PCA) with more than 30 years of experience in organic agriculture, primarily on California's Central Coast, will be honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award for her work developing and implementing safer, more sustainable integrated pest management (IPM) practices in agriculture.