Digital Organic Recordkeeping for Growers

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Event Date
September 09, 2018

Join the National Center for Appropriate Technology (NCAT) and the CCOF Foundation for a webinar that explores digital solutions for organic recordkeeping for growers. Our speakers will highlight software strategies that can assist you in keeping records while meeting USDA National Organic Program standards for certified organic crop production on small- to mid-sized farms.

Building off our Organic Recordkeeping 101 webinar for growers on August 21, this recordkeeping webinar will provide an introduction to digital recordkeeping tools for organic crop production. 

Thea Rittenhouse from NCAT will detail the wide variety of digital recordkeeping tools available to organic growers, then highlight digital organic recordkeeping templates available for free download from a variety of agricultural organizations. She will also touch on how online tools, such as Google Forms, can be used to develop unique recordkeeping systems for organic farms. 

For growers who are looking for software that they don’t need to develop themselves, the second half of the webinar will highlight two of the many recordkeeping software programs available for organic crop production. Richard Wilen, organic farmer and founder of COG Pro, will provide a brief introduction to the COG Pro software. Jeff Froikin-Gordon, CEO and co-founder of AgSquared, will give a short overview of the AgSquared software and how it can be used for recordkeeping in organic crop production.

About Our Speakers

Thea Rittenhouse works in Davis, California, as a sustainable agriculture specialist with the National Center for Appropriate Technology (NCAT) working with the ATTRA Sustainable Agriculture Program. She also co-manages a 10-acre organic diversified vegetable and fruit farm in the Capay Valley. Rittenhouse has a Master of Science degree in community development/sustainable agriculture from University of California, Davis. In 2015, she completed the International Organic Inspectors Association training program. Her diverse background enables her to teach workshops for farmers filled with practical tips, problem-solving techniques, and real-life examples.

Richard Wilen, Ph.D. has been involved in organic agriculture since the mid-1970s and has operated his own certified organic farm and nursery in western Oregon for 28 years. Bringing together years of experience in computer programming and practical farming, he developed the COG Pro Notebook in 2010 to lower the barriers to organic certification for farmers challenged by the ever-increasing demands for documentation.   

Jeff Froikin-Gordon, Ph.D. is the CEO and co-founder of AgSquared. For over a decade Froikin-Gordon has assisted farmers in collecting and using data to improve their operations. Froikin-Gordon started his career as a vegetable breeder working with smallholder farmers in West Africa. Through this experience he learned that working closely with farmers is vital to the development of products that most closely meet the farmers' needs. At AgSquared, he involves farmers throughout the software development process to ensure that AgSquared's products help farms be more productive, profitable, and sustainable.

About Our Partners

National Center for Appropriate Technology (NCAT) is a nonprofit organization established in 1976 that has been serving economically disadvantaged people by providing information and technical assistance through appropriate technologies that can help improve their lives. NCAT manages a series of projects on sustainable and renewable energy, sustainable community development, and sustainable agriculture through the ATTRA project.

California FarmLink links independent farmers and ranchers to the land and financing they need for a sustainable future.

USDA RMA: This webinar is funded in partnership by USDA, Risk Management Agency (RMA), under award number RM17RMEPP522C037.