Evan Vitale Consulting: Consulting service to help with organic certification

Monday, December 1, 2014

Consulting service to help with organic certification – Redwood Times

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Karen Lee-Thomas at her desk with all the source material that was required at the IOIA organic certification inspector’s intensive she attended.

REDWAY &GT;&GT; Karyn Lee-Thomas, owner of Signature Coffee in Redway, recently attended a IOIA (International Organic Inspectors Association) professional training for organic inspectors. The four-and-a-half-day intensive course involved rules, regulations, protocols and a great deal of course material about international, national and state organic certification. IOIA is an educational nonprofit based in Broadus, Montana, whose mission is to provide training for inspectors and global training for the organic sector through international training partnerships and alliances. The training Lee-Thomas attended was in Cherry Valley in Southern California.

Lee-Thomas can become a crop certifier and work with certifying agencies such as California Certified Organic Farmers (CCOF). She said the three areas of organic certification are crops, production and livestock. Lee-Thomas already knew about the production side from the organic certification process of Signature Coffee. Now she has learned about crop certification as well.

To be certified organic, farmers need to have an organic system plan, and a lot of details and record keeping are required, Lee-Thomas explained. An inspector makes sure the farmer is compliant with their plan and complying with all the rules to be certified organic.

Inspectors also look at the production process including inputs, the seeds and fertilizers used, the cultivation practices, water sources, possible contaminants and buffer zones.

Lee-Thomas said she intends to put Signature Coffee on the market in January, but does not plan to become an organic inspector right away. First she wants to provide consulting services to help cannabis farmers in Humboldt prepare to have the USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) organic label. She can help people prepare for the legalization of cannabis since there are some requirements that can take several years to achieve, depending on past practices.

“Now is the time for people to start setting up their systems,” Lee-Thomas said.

Before she got into the organic and fair trade coffee business, Lee-Thomas was a systems analyst in computer science, so she can help people set up their systems to be able to be compliant when the time of cannabis legalization comes. Farmers can set up their organic certification system on computer, and she can help Luddites with manual files.

Lee-Thomas said there are collectives and cooperatives that have particular guidelines for their suppliers and she can guide them in how to adhere to the national standards as well.

“I would like to see Humboldt be known, not only for our brand, but as the first organic source that’s out there,” she said.

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