The National Young Farmers Coalition released a new guide for farmers, designed to demystify and encourage organic certification for beginning farmers.
The Vegetable Grower’s Guide to Organic Certification is meant for vegetable farmers who embrace the
philosophy of organic agriculture, but aren’t yet certified. It addresses
some of the challenges to certification and helps farmers explore the decision
for their own farms.
Organic certification is a valuable
tool that farmers can use to communicate growing practices and
philosophies. Beginning farmers face a large number of challenges as they
begin their operations, from barriers to land access to regulatory
obstacles. Certification can help ease that transition by boosting
marketing and helping to connect with larger potential customer bases.
“There are many paths to success in
farming and many ways to communicate the value of your product and production
methods,” says Emily Oakley, author of the new report, “but by skipping USDA
certification some farmers may be missing a valuable marketing
opportunity. This guide is intended to help you understand the advantages
of certifying your farm and the steps to making it happen.”
The guide includes:
- A detailed history of organic certification, and how we
got to where we are today
- An overview of certification
- A step-by-step guide with practical tools and examples
- An appendix, including further reading and sources for
seeds and materials
No comments:
Post a Comment