Organic certification
20
MENTIONS
5
EPISODES
5
PODCASTS
Search complete. 20 mentions across 5 episodes found for "Organic certification".
Sep 15, 2026
Angela BozoHOST
I was this many years old.
MattPANELIST
I did, uh, in, in a former job I was the, um, designated in charge of the organic certification at our, at our co-op, and so I dealt with, uh, inspectors coming in on a scheduled visit, and making sure that we were following all the proper guidelines and everything, 'cause it's a pretty extensive process.
Sarah Fulton KerblingMODERATOR
Yeah.
Sarah Fulton KerblingMODERATOR
What are some of those, um, things that you would do as an organic retailer to ensure organic integrity?
MattPANELIST
Um, but then there's also regulations around keeping things clean and, uh, making sure that your invoices are in order, and basically following that whole supply chain all the way back to the, back to the farm.
Sarah Fulton KerblingMODERATOR
Yeah.
Sarah Fulton KerblingMODERATOR
I feel like organic certification is really a lot...
Sarah Fulton KerblingMODERATOR
It's, you know, obviously the methods that you use to grow it, but the real burden of the organic certification is all of the paperwork, and the administration, which farmers are famously excited about.
Bethany CameronHOST
This episode has been a month and a half in the works, at least.
Bethany CameronHOST
So I have been investigating many, many USDA-certified organic brands, and I have been looking up in the USDA Organic database, which is available to the public, by the way, so you have access to it.
Bethany CameronHOST
And I'll put that link in today's show notes, because I highly encourage you to do your own research.
Bethany CameronHOST
So basically, what I have been doing for the past month and a half is I have been looking up USDA organic certified companies, wellness companies, obviously, quote, healthy brands that are certified organic, to see if, in fact, they are certified organic.
Bethany CameronHOST
Because if you've missed some past episodes in this podcast...
Bethany CameronHOST
I highly encourage you to do that.
5 MINS LATER
Bethany CameronHOST
I want to talk about the companies that are either pretending to be organic or a little sketchy here.
Bethany CameronHOST
Okay, so I go to that website, open to the public.
Tiffany GardnerGUEST
I feel like as an American, there are so many things that we leave it to our government or some government body to guarantee that something is pure or correct or whatever they really you you have to be a conscious consumer So yes, a product can say, a bag can say organic lotion or organic grains.
Tiffany GardnerGUEST
And if it doesn't say USDA organic, if it doesn't have the symbol, and if the ingredient itself doesn't say 100%, like let's say it's a single thing like coffee beans, we put you know, organic coffee beans on there.
Tiffany GardnerGUEST
If we have a situation where we don't have the USC organic symbol, there's certain rules around if we just have a one-off special coffee and we don't have time to submit it for approval, we can put ingredients 100% organic Arabica coffee beans on So you want to look for either that 100% or for the USDA organic symbol.
Michelle VisserHOST
Okay.
Michelle VisserHOST
Wow.
Tiffany GardnerGUEST
Hmm.
Tiffany GardnerGUEST
Okay.
Michelle VisserHOST
So with coffee, when it is certified USDA organic, that guarantees, I'm assuming, no pesticides or herbicides?
Ladd HarrisGUEST
So we find that we really have to rely on some type of certification process to tell us, is this food what it actually claims to be, right? And so through that process, um, you know, this is really where I came across your project of trying to decode, like, all of these different, um, certification processes out there.
Ladd HarrisGUEST
So, uh, I mean, we know the US- USDA Organic and what that entails, but there's all of these other, um, things and terms out there that some have good definitions behind them, some don't.
Ladd HarrisGUEST
Um, and so as we were going through that process, like, I obviously came across your, um, your work and, and really resonated with the authenticity there and the, um, rigor behind, um, what you were saying organic actually is and agreed with a lot of the nuances between, um, what, uh, USDA Organic has become and what organic was meant to be, right? And so that kind of led me to your network of farms that, um, you've identified that are, you know, living that higher standard.
Ladd HarrisGUEST
And so looking at the- our region, right, like, and what, um, farms that were associated with Real Organic Project, um, that's what led me to Hugh and his farm in Florida, and the understanding, like, you know what? Like, is it that much different than shipping blueberries from Mexico and shipping from Florida? And it's probably better from Florida.
Ladd HarrisGUEST
And guess what? These berries taste a million times better than anything that we're getting out of Mexico.