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Eight in Ten U.S. Parents Buy Organic

Wed, 08 May 2013 07:00:18 +0000

Organic Trade Association's (OTA's) newly released 2013 U.S. Families' Organic Attitudes and Beliefs Study, shows that more parents than ever are buying organic. While parents purchasing organics is nothing new, this new report shows that a whopping eight in ten parents are now shopping organically, at least some of the time, making them a key organic shopper demographic.

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Secret Shopper Tips Help Improve Customer Service

Tue, 07 May 2013 11:31:29 +0000

Natural Foods Merchandiser has a cool new blog series called Secret Shopper. Each month, a NFM secret shopper goes incognito into a natural products store with a question and then they see how the store answers. Then NFM offers tips about what happened, which can help you improve your customer service.

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Canada's Organic Market Worth $3.7 Billion

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 14:00:38 +0000

Canada Organic Trade Association (COTA) reports that Canada's organic market grew to $3.7 billion in 2012 (wow), with national sales of certified organic food and non-alcoholic beverages reaching $3 billion.

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Prevent Commingling Problems

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 11:40:47 +0000

Commingling prevention is an important part of your organic business and should be a key part of your organic system plan as well.

If you're a brand new organic certification applicant, failing to control commingling and contamination may cost you your certification. As an already certified organic business, a commingling violation may cost you a fine or may mean that you can't sell some of your products.

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New �Sound and Sensible� Organic Certification Initiative Kicks Off

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 16:00:19 +0000

The new Organic Integrity Quarterly is available now. There's a lot of information packed into the April quarterly, but most significant is the official announcement of the new 'Sound and Sensible' initiative.

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Public Comments on NOP Draft Guidance Needed by June 3, 2013

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 11:30:07 +0000

The National Organic Program (NOP) has draft guidance (pdf) available on:

Classification of Materials (NOP 5033)
Materials for Organic Crop Production (NOP 5034)

The point of the Classification of Materials draft guidance (pdf) is to help material reviewers classify substances more consistently into proper categories. In turn, this will help determine how a substance fits into the National List of Allowed and Prohibited Substances. There are documents available about synthetics or non-synthetics and agricultural or non-agricultural substances used in processed or multi-ingredient organic products.

Materials for Organic Crop Production (pdf) guidance applies to all accredited certifying agents, material evaluation programs, and operations that are certified or exempt from the requirement of certification and aims to provide transparent and clear clarification on natural and synthetic materials that are allowed for organic crop production. You can check out the guidance for decisions on the status of materials such as fertilizers, soil amendments, and pest control materials in organic crop production.

Comments must be submitted on or before June 3, 2013 - if you'd like to comment, head over to Regulations.gov. If you want to review draft guidance first, visit NOP.

Summer is Coming: Get Ready to Sell Organic Berries

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 07:22:40 +0000

Summer is on the way, so if you sell organic berries on your farm or in your grocery store, it's time to start figuring out some creative marketing ideas.

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2013 EWG Shopper's Guide to Pesticides Released

Sun, 28 Apr 2013 18:14:48 +0000

Environmental Working Group (EWG) has just released their 2013 Shopper's Guide to Pesticides in Produce. This is a great document to refer your customers to if you're selling organics. The guide, as always, highlights produce containing the highest and lowest levels of pesticides, known as the "Dirty Dozen" and the "Clean Fifteen."

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Poll Shows Most Americans Think Organic Labels are Marketing Hype

Sun, 28 Apr 2013 15:02:55 +0000

A March Harris Poll shows that a vast amount of Americans, sadly, consider the organic label nothing more than a money-making scheme.

Oddly, the Harris Poll found that concern about the state of the environment is on the rise, but they also found that consumers aren't willing to pay more money in order to create positive change. Most alarming for organic producers and handlers is that most Americans are seriously confused about organics. Some key points from the poll are below:

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Resources for Starting an Organic CSA

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 13:47:56 +0000

Interested in starting an organic Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) business? A CSA can be a lot of work but it can also be profitable and a great way to get support for growing organic.

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