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Written by Jane Sooby on Tuesday, March 26, 2024
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Marketing Survey

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.

Take the survey online. It should take three to five minutes to complete. We have already collected a few dozen responses from our members, and the results are very informative. Our goal is to gather input from 250 organic producers. We will share the…

Written by Cassie Kent on Tuesday, March 26, 2024
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Sheila Wambui

As a child, Shelia Wambui lived in Kenya with her family, where they tended land, grew their own vegetables, and reared hundreds of chickens and a handful of pigs. She believes it is our responsibility to be ethical stewards for the environment and its inhabitants. Sheila values conscious farming practices because of their effect on all ecosystems. She notes that organic farming, by avoiding the use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, reduces harmful exposure to humans and waterways. Sheila envisions an agricultural system that protects the environment, the farmers, and the…

Written by Guest Blogger on Tuesday, March 26, 2024
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Family Farmers

The Organic Farmers Association (OFA) has launched a new Farmer Circles program as part of their racial equity initiatives. 

Farmer Circles are virtual community-building spaces where farmers can come together to share their experiences, voice challenges, and make new connections. The Circles occur every month, and there is no cost to participate. 

OFA’s Farmer Circles recognize the distinct and unique needs, values, and experiences of different farmer identities. The Circles are intended to serve as a landing pad for farmers who are thinking about organic certification,…

Written by Guest Blogger on Tuesday, March 26, 2024
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Urban_Innovation Ag Grant

The USDA is accepting applications for grants to support urban agriculture and innovative production. Applications for USDA’s Urban Agriculture and Innovative Production grants are due April 9, 2024, via grants.gov.

“This grant program has proven very popular and impactful in recent years, and we look forward to partnering with more communities nationwide to strengthen local food systems and increase access to healthy foods,” said Terry Cosby, chief of USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), which leads USDA’s Office of Urban Agriculture and Innovative Production (…

Written by Jessy Beckett Parr on Tuesday, March 26, 2024
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Expo West Speaker Panel

CCOF hosted a panel discussion, “Transition to Organic: How Brands & Organizations Can Support Farmer Success,” at the Natural Products Expo West.

The USDA Under Secretary Jenny Lester Moffitt, together with Daily Harvest CEO Ricky Silver, Ryan Laur from American Farmland Trust, and CCOF’s Jessy Beckett Parr spoke about creative strategies to support successful organic transition efforts through public and private partnerships. 

The USDA, Daily Harvest, American Farmland Trust, and CCOF create programs that support farmers' transition to organic with direct financial…

Written by Cassie Kent on Tuesday, March 19, 2024
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Angie Oliva

Connection is the heartbeat of Angie Oliva’s organic journey. “The food is medicine mantra is very important, along with the revitalization of small farm businesses through America. So, when I look at the needs of our nation, and I notice how we’re connected to food, it’s those things that really drive me to be a part of organic farming”. 

Oliva ‘s first memories are of growing up in a small town in Guanajuato, Mexico, in a rural agrarian village. After finishing her morning chores, she spent her days exploring cornfields, getting lost in the stalks, discovering the diversity of…

Written by Gaea Denker on Tuesday, March 19, 2024
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Nickie Salyer

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.”

Her early exposure to the cycle of crop production guided Nickie into a life of…

Written by Jane Sooby on Tuesday, March 19, 2024
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cow in field

The National Organic Program has released the agenda for the spring National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) Meeting, which will be held April 29 through May 1, 2024, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 

The deadline to register for oral comment and to submit written comment is 11:59 p.m. Eastern on April 3, 2024. More information on registering and submitting comments is below. See the USDA website for information on attending the meeting in person.

The NOSB is a federal advisory board that makes recommendations on organic standards and materials to the USDA secretary. During the…

Written by Jacob Guth on Tuesday, March 19, 2024
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Apples

Need to learn more about GLOBALG.A.P.’s transition to Version 6? Please join us for our monthly Café Hours series with approved GLOBALG.A.P. Trainer Astrid Goplen. 

GLOBALG.A.P. is updating their flagship food safety audit and certification, the Integrated Farm Assurance (IFA) standard, from Version 5.4-1-GFS to Version 6. It is estimated that this change will be mandatory for all audits after July 1, 2024. 

CCOF knows version changes can be stressful, so we want to help producers prepare by hosting a series of three-day formal trainings that result in a certificate; these…

Written by Gaea Denker on Tuesday, March 19, 2024
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CSU Chico Offering Opportunities for Growers Flyer

California State University (CSU) Chico Center for Regenerative Agriculture and Resilient Systems (CRARS) is launching the North Valley Food Hub (NVFH) for Climate-Smart Commodities. It is a five-year project funded by a grant from the USDA Partnership for Climate-Smart Commodities program. CRARS will be working directly with up to 100 growers and land managers in the greater Sacramento Valley to incentivize the adoption of climate-smart agricultural practices (cover cropping, reduced tillage, habitat restoration, etc.) through direct funding, technical assistance in planning and…

Written by Jen Rojas on Wednesday, March 13, 2024
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José Lorenzo Jimenez Palacios

In memory of José Lorenzo Jimenez Palacios 
Engineer Agronomist Specialist in Phytotechnics
25/03/1960   -    14/02/2024

“Nature is inexhaustibly sustainable if we take care of her.”

José was a promoter of coexistence with nature, always recommending organic crop treatment to farmers and fruit growers in the southern region of Sinaloa. From 2000 to 2022, he worked with the company Mazazul Organics S.A. of C.V. Until the day of his death, he worked in recent months with the company Familia Andrade Nava S.P.R. by R.L. 
Rest in peace.
 

Written by Jane Sooby on Wednesday, March 13, 2024
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Field Inspection

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.

All responses are completely confidential. The…

Written by Guest Blogger on Wednesday, March 13, 2024
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wilted crops

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Risk Management Agency (RMA) has published a directory of crop insurance agents that specialize in selling Whole-Farm Revenue Protection. 

This resource—for which CCOF’s colleagues at the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC) have advocated—will be an important tool to help farmers locate crop insurance agents who have experience selling Whole-Farm Revenue Protection and Micro Farm insurance in their state. 

Background

The Whole-Farm Revenue Protection (WFRP) program is a novel crop insurance product that…

Written by Gaea Denker on Wednesday, March 13, 2024
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Andrea Davis-Cetina, Quarter Acre Farm

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. 

After graduating, Andrea moved to Sonoma, California, and started creating edible…

Written by Hanali Lopez-Tapia on Wednesday, March 13, 2024
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Future Organic Farmer, Finley Telvin

Starting the journey into agriculture is no easy feat, and the fear of not knowing enough can be extremely nerve-racking. But for Finley Tevlin, 2023 Future Organic Farmer, this feeling fueled his passion and set him on a quest for knowledge. Tevlin writes, “I have found purpose in farming, and I want to do it for the rest of my life … in a way that supports farmers and ranchers who are growing food in a way that benefits their community and the planet.” Traveling catalyzed his curiosity for organic agriculture. During a cross-country bike trip, he discovered the prevalence of U.S.…