Farm Verified Organic (FVO) was conceived in 1979, the collaborative effort of a group of North Dakota growers, including Fred Kirschenmann, (who still maintains a leadership position with FVO), Michael Marcolla of the Mercantile Food Company, and Loek uit het Broek, who was a European authority on organic agriculture and certification at the time.

FVO's first certifications were issued in 1980.

The early FVO was housed and supported during its infancy on the premises of Mercantile Food in Connecticut. The founders recognized this as a potential conflict of interest. Therefore FVO's Certification Committee, as the certification decision makers for the FVO Program, has always had the sole authority for certification decisions.
Additionally, the FVO program was a precursor to today's accreditation programs. Having pioneered the services of an Independent Evaluation Panel. FVO is now under the annual scrutiny of this panel that is comprised of other certifiers, consumers, and organic community experts from the U.S. and Europe. These folks had the job of overseeing the FVO Program; making sure that the independence of the Certification Committee was maintained; and that FVO was operating according to its own policies and procedures. This panel issued regular reports, which were available to the public upon request. FVO was also evaluated by the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM), which also issued public reports.

From the period of its inception, FVO operated according to the Basic Standards of IFOAM and the (then) OFPANA guidelines. A formal Policy Handbook for operating the Program was published in 1989. FVO specific standards were published in 1996.

In the late 80's and early 90's, FVO went through a series of well-planned, deliberate growth phases, under the guidance of its founders and Board of Directors. These steps were taken slowly and consciously, in order to assure the stability of FVO as an organization.

In 1989, FVO opened a Technical Office in North Dakota, to handle the technical and inspection operations in North America, as well as the work of the Certification Committee. FVO became independently incorporated in 1990, and an independent Board of Directors assumed control of the Company's operations. In 1991, FVO closed its Connecticut office, and its international headquarters were established in North Dakota. In early 1994, FVO's Board voted to diversify its stock and employees became owners in the company.

In mid 1998, FVO re-incorporated in the state of North Dakota as International Certification Services, Inc. (ICS), and is registered as doing business as Farm Verified Organic. Nothing about the FVO program has changed and Farm Verified Organic remains ICS' flagship certification program. The establishment of this new company allowed ICS to offer new certification services.

Maintaining its commitment to oversight, in 1995 FVO became the first US Program to be accredited by IFOAM's Accreditation Program. FVO is registered in each US state in which FVO operates that requires registration of organic certification agencies. ICS became an accreditation agency for USDA to administer the National Organic Program in 2002. ICS also received accreditation from Quebec in 2001, is currently ISO 65 accredited and anticipates gaining Canadian Organic Regime accreditation in 2008.

In 2000, ICS established a separate, non-profit foundation, FARRMS -- the Foundation for Agricultural and Rural Resources Management and Sustainability. The main goals of the Foundation are education, development and research. Its mission is to serve the region, the state and the world in discovering, exploring and implementing practices and methods which further the sustainability of farms and rural communities.

FARRMS' initial "wish list" includes: an education program regarding organic agriculture and other sustainable farming methods with seminars and classes to be offered; a public interpretive center and demonstration plots; an educational facility in the classroom for in-person seminars; state-of-the-art Internet Technology and video conferencing capabilities that allows linkage with the global community; and a rural resources research, information, and demonstration center exploring the possibilities of alternative, rural, energy-efficient resources (wind, solar, etc.) and education and research on rural resources as well as community outreach.

ICS has plans for continued growth and diversification of services; and these plans required sufficient space to house the company's new growth. After many years of working with Medina's City Council and the County Development Corporation, a new office was built on the southern edge of Medina. ICS and FARRMS moved into the new facility in the spring of 2003.

With the new building in place, ICS proceeded with its plans of continued growth. They increased the services of the FVO program to help meet the needs of the growing organic industry, and in 2005 established a working relationship with Food Alliance. 2005 is also the year in which ICS took steps to acquire e-Cert, a database that will help revolutionize the certification industry.

ICS has remained true to the organic vision in its FVO organic program and will continue to expand its high quality certification services to the wider sustainable agriculture movement in the years to come.