Additional Farm Standards

In our Cooperative, each “pool” of production, like the egg farmers or dairy farmers, may develop standards and policies that go above and beyond the USDA National Organic Standards or other legal requirements. These CROPP-specific standards and policies clarify requirements for materials allowed on our member farms, help assure high product quality standards are being met and assure our animal husbandry goals are being met. All members that join the Cooperative sign a membership agreement and pledge to abide by our additional Cooperative standards. In addition to our third party certifier, we also have trained staff members who conduct farm audits on specific standards to assure compliance.

Pasture policy
Access to outdoors
Farm materials
Antibiotics
Replacement animals

Pasture Policy

Pasture is a foundation principle in organic livestock production. Our members adopted our first pasture standard in 1995, and we have advocated for the inclusion of strong and specific pasturing requirements in the USDA National Organic Program. To enforce our pasture policy we require a pasture plan to be part of the farmer-member’s overall Farm Plan, and on file with our Cooperative. In 2007, we physically inspected all of our dairy farms. The results of that audit demonstrated that 95% of all our dairy pool farmer-members were in compliance. The 5% who were not in full compliance were put on warning status to reach full compliance by the next pasture season or membership will be terminated. Our goal, in the spirit of Continual Improvement, is to give those farmers the opportunity to improve their pasture plan. We have and will terminate membership if compliance is not met.

Access to Outdoors

The National Organic Program (NOP) requires access to outdoors for all livestock with temporary exception due to weather, environmental or health concerns. Our Cooperative standards are stricter with specific requirements for each species. In our egg pool, members in the East and the Midwest are required to provide a minimum of 1.75 square feet per bird indoors and 5 square feet per bird outdoors. Our egg producer on the West Coast provides at least 1.75 square feet of indoor space and uses outdoor runs as defined by the national organic standards.

Farm Materials

We have supported the USDA National Organic Program (NOP)/National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) process for defining farm inputs but at times have disagreed with the final allowance of some materials.

The following materials that are allowed by USDA are not allowed in the CROPP Cooperative program:

Oxytocin—This is a hormone stimulating synthetic that is used widely in milk production to aid in calving and therapeutic uses. Since hormones are a great concern to us and to our citizen partners, we elected to not allow this "hormone mimicker" in organic milk. We can truthfully tell our consumers our products are “produced without synthetic hormones.”

Antibiotics

While antibiotics are not allowed in organic production, their use is encouraged for treating sick animals rather than allow the animal to suffer. If used, the animal cannot return to organic production. Our Cooperative maintains the ability to review members’ certification and if we determine that antibiotics are improperly used or an animal is allowed to suffer, that member may be terminated.

Even though antibiotics are not used as a medical tool in organic livestock, there are two minor exceptions where trace amounts of antibiotics are used as a preservative. Those exceptions are vaccines for young animals and artificial insemination, both of which are invaluable tools in organic production that aid in animal well being.

Replacement Animals

After entering organic dairying, we require our farmer-members to raise all of their future milk cows on their organic farms, organically from the day they are born. We see this as a critical component to animal health, and a holistic organic farming system works best when the animals are tied to the land from birth. Our farmers are held to this standard and if the animals raised on the farms are not adequate for the organic farm plan then they can only purchase other organically raised replacements or dairy animals that were transitioned in the new herd process. This standard is stronger than the USDA organic standard, and we continue to be active in advocating for the USDA standard to be strengthened to our standard.