You’ve heard organic is better for the land/environment; you’ve heard there is a premium on organic products; you’ve decided organic is the way you want to go. 

But what needs to be done before you send in an application? Following are a few things to consider when pursuing organic certification:

• Visit the NOP website to view the regulations.
  
• Alternately, request a hard copy of the requirements;
  
• Visit the ATTRA website for checklists which may help;
  
• Contact neighbors, friends, anyone else you know is certified organic;
  
• Although certifiers in the United States certify to the USDA National Organic Program, they are not all run the same
  
• Fee structures differ
  
• Deadlines, paperwork, etc may differ
  
• Talk to people currently certified; they can give opinions about the integrity, commitment and service certain certifiers hold to.
  
• Contact the certifier – ask for a quote of what your certification costs would be. Remember – fee structures differ so the process to deliver a quote may also differ;
  
• Ask for all costs: Inspection; Basic Certification; Additional charges for support, label review, subcontractors being certified on your behalf, percent of sales, etc. 

Once you've done the preliminary work and are ready to get certified, follow our five easy steps to certification.

One of the first things you'll learn when going through the organic certification process is that your certifier, at times, doesn't appear to be a lot of help.

Certifiers are bound to regulations as well, and one of these is that we are not allowed to consult. We can (and will) let you know what you are doing wrong, but can't tell you how to do it right.

This is frustrating not just to clients and new applicants, but to ICS staff as well. Therefore, we have included several links on our resources page to places you can go to get answers.

Whether it’s your first organic inspection, or your fifth, what you need to have available on the day of the inspection – and what this inspection will entail – can still be confusing.

The most important part of organic certification, and what the inspection is meant to prove, is that your product can be tracked from field or point of purchase to the consumer to be free of chemicals and contamination from non-organic products.

All those in organic production know first-hand that this tracking requires a great deal of paperwork and a good organizational system in place.

To help you get through this inspection, ICS has developed a few tips. Some of these may not be relevant to your operation.