Ohio Ecological Food & Farm Association Certification Program
26 July 2009
Director’s Report
Staffing
There have been some significant changes in staffing. As you should have seen already in the OEFFA Newsletter, around the 1st of June we welcomed two new members to the Certification Program staff: Michelle Gregg-Skinner and Paul Dutter. Michelle hails from a family of organic farmers (many of you know them), graduated from OSU College of Ag with a degree in Animal Science, has worked on the family farm and the ODA as a meat inspector, and is serving as our Certification Program Assistant, being responsible for keeping all the paperwork moving smoothly. Paul has a long history as an organic livestock producer (beef, dairy, poultry, hogs . . . you name it) and has worked as an inspector and at several organic certification programs in the South. Paul is serving as our Livestock Coordinator. Finally, Lexie Stoia Pierce has been promoted to Certification Program Manager.
OCIA Dissolution
In June we took the final steps to dissolve OCIA Chapter 1. Papers of dissolution were filed with the Secretary of State’s office, and the checking account in the Chapter’s name was transferred to an account set up with OEFFA’s tax id, just like any other OEFFA Chapter account. All mention of OCIA certification has been removed from our forms and from the website.
Applications
Applications have not been received at the pace we expected. Whereas we anticipated 185 new applications, based on growth rates over previous years, we only received 79of these. We have received 467 renewals out of a possible 694 (of which 17 are processors, with renewal dates at different times of the year. Besides the potential 37 processor renewals, there are also the all year greenhouse/maple syrup operations that renew at various times of year, and the potential renewals at the end of July). So far that puts us at 546 received.
To address this shortfall, the Certification staff sent out postcards prior to the final deadline (July 15th) and followed these with phone calls (July 14thand 15th) to all previous clients from whom we did not receive a renewal. In the postcard and calls, we reminded them that we still had not received their renewal, that we were reducing the late fee (imposed after June 15th) to $100, and that we were going to provide a grace period of two weeks (to July 31st) to submit their renewal applications. We asked those who chose not to renew to find out why: have they decided to drop certification, have they gone to another certifiers, etc., and why. One thing we found out is that many have decided to be certified through the Kentucky Department of Agriculture’s Organic Certification program.
May Audit
The first week of May, they USDA NOP Auditors were onsite and in the field (for 3 inspections) with us. We received their report back. We were cleared off all of the non-compliances identified in the May 2007 audit. The also identified five new minor non-compliances. These included the format of our certificates, not having a written process in place for pre-inspection/inspection, etc.. We had thirty days to respond, and that response has already been filed and we anticipate hearing that we have adequately addressed all of these.
Organic Cost-Share Reimbursement
As you know, we worked hard over the last year to establish a better working relationship with the ODA for processing reimbursement requests. Currently, every few weeks the office responsible for the reimbursements at the ODA sends us a spreadsheet with updated information on the progress of those. The most recent report (late June) indicated that about 130 reimbursement requests have been made for certificates issued Oct. 1, 2008 or later. All but about 20 are from OEFFA clients, and most of these have received their checks. [We have issued 309certificates to Ohio clients since Oct. 1, 2008.]
The ODA has requested funds for the cost-share for certificates issued Oct. 1, 2007 to Sept. 30, 2008. I heard from them on July 15ththat they have received word that that money is forthcoming. I am in contact with them to coordinate how we will get informationout to our clients.
Other Staff Activities
To some extent, several of the non-compliances found can be traced back to the lack of comprehensive policies guiding certification procedures and decision-making. For that reason, in the Certification staff has begun serious work on getting policies in place. The staff has made a full list of the existing gaps where guidance is needed, have identified the priorities on it (i.e., dairy herd conversions, definition of major vs. minor non-compliance) and is working to write a set of draft policies. These drafts will then be discussed by the (newly resurrected) Policy Advisory Panel so that recommendations can be made and presented to the Board at our next Board meeting.
Equivalency with Canada
We (and the rest of the U.S. accredited certifiers) are thrilled that the U.S. and Canada have reached an agreement regarding equivalency of our certifications. These means that producers who are certified to the NOP standards do not also have to become certified under the Canada Organic Product Regulation (COPR) standards in order to have their products enter Canada and be represented as “organic.” However, producers intending to export crops to Canada must designate fields free from sodium nitrate. Our inspectors are to verify during inspection whether this input has been used, and a question has been added to the inspection report to address this. We are keeping our eyes open for any official NOP documents needed for export.
Budget Revisions
Because of the very real possibility that our income will be lower than expected, due to fewer-than-expected applications, I have been revising the budget. My revised budget is enclosed.