ST. CLOUD, Minn. -- Organic farmers are certified as organic, but it isn't one size fits all.
A decade go, there were some 30 certifying agencies for farmers to choose from, but today, that's increased to about 90. Surprisingly, many of those agencies turn to the same number of certifiers.
In Minnesota, members of a panel of inspectors at the Minnesota Organic Conference say they figure that the Organic Crop Improvement Association probably is No. 1, with about 200 farms, followed by Global Organic Alliance, Midwest Organic Services Association and Farm Verified Organic.
The inspectors described a system of pre-arranged inspection appointments and few surprise inspections without complaints. They described ways producers could prepare for inspections, by keeping good records.
Joe Klein, a former dairy farmer and now a full-time MOSA inspector from Dickeyville, Wis., says the job isn't straightforward. He was one of a four-member panel that offered a window into the challenges inspectors face.
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Klein says he once dealt with an Amish client who didn't seem willing to show up for inspections. The farmer eventually admitted that the reason he was avoiding the inspector was that he couldn't read or write. When Klein suggested that the farmer engage the farmer's children to help him complete the paperwork, the farmer admitted the children couldn't read either.
"I know I'm not supposed to help (them) comply, but these are people, and I'm a Christian," Klein says. "You hate to say, 'Kick them out.'"
Brenda Rogers, an inspector for the Minnesota Crop Improvement Association from Vergas, Minn., says it is surprising how many adults are illiterate, but that some still can be good farmers. She says that, in some cases, farmers can be set up with a calendar and can mark their various agricultural practices with sticker symbols.
On the road again
On other matters, the inspectors talked how they manage a work load.
With today's travel expenses, the inspection routes are becoming more carefully by mileage and region.
Klein says he thinks it's a good idea to rotate inspectors so the client doesn't have the same inspector year after year.
"Most agencies follow the three-year (maximum) rule," he says, but there are no hard-and-fast rules.
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Jeremy Dobson of St. Paul, who once was in freelance certification full time, now does financial advising as his main occupation, but he still does the certification work on the side. In the past, he would certify up to 250 farms in a summer and 100 processors in the wintertime.
He says full-time inspectors put on about 40,000 miles a year. Today, he says he certifies 120 to 150 farms, even though it's part time.
Rogers says she spends a lot of time on certified seed inspections, walks fields and does audits for Bt corn refuges and other matters related to genetically modified organisms. She says 20 percent to 25 percent of the inspections over Bt refuges are not in compliance.
As for the GMO-free standards, there are no legal standards for rejection.
"The market determines what's allowable," she says. "If you're going to Europe (with products), you'd better be under 1 percent."
In response to an audience question, Rogers says no one is willing to "tackle the question" of what's "safe" in GMOs because "USDA says they're safe."
And while most are in corn and soybeans, she says there's "a lot more coming down the pipe."
