 Shown L to R: Investing in INTEGRITY awardees Lori Kenyon – NOFA-NY, Brian Hulme – NJDA, Connie
Karr – OTCO, Jeffrey Stiles – MOCA, Sam Welsch – OneCert, Inc., and Jake Lewin
– CCOF.
On February 6, the Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS)
National Organic Program (NOP) honored six USDA-accredited organic certifiers
with the first-ever “Investing in INTEGRITY” award at its
annual certifiers’ training in San Antonio, Texas. The inaugural group of awardees
included California Certified Organic Farmers (CCOF), County of Marin Organic
Certified Agriculture (MOCA), New Jersey Department of Agriculture (NJDA),
Northeast Organic Farming Association of New York (NOFA-NY), OneCert, Inc., and
Oregon Tilth Certified Organic (OTCO).
The “Investing in INTEGRITY” award
recognizes these certifiers for regularly providing accurate and comprehensive data on certified operations to the online Organic Integrity
Database (INTEGRITY) throughout the year. USDA’s
list of certified organic operations was originally designed to be updated only
once a year. Now, with INTEGRITY, USDA organic certifiers may report new operations and
changes to existing operations throughout the year using this more
customer-friendly online resource.
About INTEGRITY
First
launched in 2015, the Organic
INTEGRITY Database deters fraud, increases transparency throughout the
supply chain and helps increase the market visibility of organic operations. It is administered by the
NOP and updated by USDA-accredited certifiers. INTEGRITY makes information
about certified organic operations available to the public and ensures
certification data is readily available to NOP, other organic certification
agencies and state and federal agencies.
In the Fall 2017, INTEGRITY launched a new Data Quality Dashboard. The dashboard helps certifiers see what
they are doing well with their data and shows where they could improve. With advancements in technology driving efficiencies and leading efforts to better customer service, INTEGRITY and its Data Quality Dashboard are guiding the organic industry on the path to success through improved data!
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