Streamlining Organic Certification:
The Common Organic System Plan (OSP)
The National Organic Program (NOP) has posted a Common Organic System Plan (OSP) for organic farms, businesses and certifiers. An OSP is central to the organic certification process, because it describes how a farm or business follows the USDA organic rules. The plan includes information on production practices, processing and how organic products are protected as they travel along supply chains.
The organic sector currently faces challenges with different OSP templates, varying formats and outdated forms. To address this problem, the new Common OSP provides a set of OSP templates that comply with the USDA organic regulations.
The Common OSP is designed to both streamline and strengthen organic certification across the sector. It provides standard content and clear expectations for documenting how an operation complies with the USDA organic regulations. The NOP encourages certifiers to adopt and use the Common OSP to improve consistency, support efficient oversight and help the organic sector meet the needs of a growing and increasingly complex marketplace.
Consistent with the public-private partnership structure of organic certification, many groups were involved in this project. The NOP thanks the following organizations who led the development of the Common OSP: Quick Organics, Wolf & Associates and the Accredited Certifiers Association. We also thank the many reviewers who provided feedback, including members of the Organic Farmers Association, National Organic Coalition, Western Organic Dairy Producers Alliance and Northeast Organic Dairy Producers Alliance. NOP will work with key stakeholders to keep the OSP up to date over time.
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