This article is part of the Good Matters series, sponsored by Organic Valley, a cooperative of over 2,000 small family farmers who produce dairy, eggs and produce in a way that's good for animals, people and the planet. We’re highlighting stories about the people, communities, and companies who are making the world a better place, literally from the ground on up.

Along with his wife and seven children, Kinley Coulter operates Coulter Farms, a 220-acre USDA-certified organic beef, lamb, and dairy farm in Honey Grove, Pennsylvania, and sells his milk and meat locally and at DC-area farmers' markets.

To maintain his farm’s organic certification, Coulter must keep an acre-long trail of records pertaining to his feed purchases, his meat and milk sales, animal births and deaths on his farm, and much else. “We have to be able to show a flow of nutrients and foodstuffs and bedding and animals in and out of the farm that is credible based on how much meat and cheese and milk we’re selling,” he explains. “The paperwork is a headache, but we grit our teeth and do it.”

Most importantly, he and other organic farmers must produce and maintain a detailed organic system plan, or OSP, that outlines all the land- and animal-management practices they employ to ensure their operation is sustainable, free of genetically modified organisms (GMOs), and untainted by banned pesticides and fertilizers—all of which are required under USDA Organic regulations. While most conventional farmers keep records for accounting and tax purposes, very little is legally required of them unless the food products they produce are found to be adulterated with high levels of drug residues, or are otherwise unsafe for consumption.