CCOF has improved our available sample forms with new online Google templates, found at www.ccof.org/documents. You can also make maintaining documentation easier for yourself by using alternative documentation tools. Recently the National Organic Program (NOP), as part of their Sound and Sensible Certification initiative, has encouraged certifiers and inspectors to recognize alternative documentation, aside from logs or receipts.
CCOF is encouraging our certified members to be creative and find systems that work for you. Alternative and potentially acceptable documentation can include:
- Photos or videos you take of receipts, seed bags, farm or processing activities, etc. Some operations record these in a calendar or email them to themselves for later retrieval.
- Physical notes on a barn door, wood post, or anything else, even hash or chalk marks, etc.
- Old seed bags, packets, labels, etc. instead of letters from seed companies
- Drawings or sketches
- Illustrations of procedures