Certified Organic - Mhonpaj's Garden

The last several posts went through the nuts and bolts of certified organic farming. The farm with which I worked this summer is certified organic, and near the close of my time with them, I asked my supervisor, Mhonpaj, to talk about why being certified organic is important to Mhonpaj’s Garden.

She gave me an earful, but it boils down to two main elements. First, as an undergrad, she read a lot about food systems on the side and her interest grew over time. Mhonpaj believes that many health problems could be prevented by switching to organic, from ADHD to cancer to diabetes.

Second, the Minnesota Food Association trained the Lee’s to farm organic. The MFA’s program sessions include “Intro to Organic Farming,” “Farmers Market Success – Learn new ways to … emphasize local, certified organic,” and “Record Keeping – Learn how to keep good records for business planning, organic certification, and for financial institutions.” Becoming certified was the natural outcome of Mhonpaj’s focus on health and the MFA’s program.

Whenever I talk to people about Mhonpaj’s Garden, I say that it is the first Hmong-owned and operated certified organic CSA. This introduction highlights their unique position in the Hmong agricultural community, their adherence to national standards, and their method of distribution, but it fails to capture the depth of the operation. I wrote in July that Mhonpaj’s Garden is “a curious blend of subsistence, organic, and mission-driven agriculture.”

This better captures the essence of Mhonpaj’s Garden. The organic piece is important, but not the whole story. “Subsistence” refers to how the Lee’s are really farming for themselves, a point Mhonpaj emphasized in our most recent conversation. What they put in their CSA boxes, sell wholesale, and vend at the farmers market is really just the extras. That said, they need to break even and so sell through different channels. They are sharing their produce with the people who know its value and are willing to pay the true cost.

And mission-driven? When I started, I noticed that their web site lack a mission statement. I asked Mhonpaj about this, and she said that every year her vision changes. And while winter is the time for organizing and planning for the year ahead, sitting down to pound out a mission statement is consistently the last thing on her mind. Still, her passion for education and outreach and the cooking demonstrations that she and May do signal a deeper purpose for their farm than just sharing their extra vegetables.

Mhonpaj pointed out that early American settlers started out farming organically, but would make the switch to reduce labor costs. “There’s not enough community discussion” around organic farming, she said. “The only source of education is the stores, [but] they are not there to educate; they are there to sell a product.” Why would someone selling herbicides tell you how to rotate your crops to control weeds? “Learning to farm organic is almost like a hidden education,” she continued. “It’s like it’s top secret, behind the counter - you gotta ask for it.”

Mhonpaj plays an exhausting role. Not only does she call the business shots on the farm in addition to her job as an interpreter at HCMC, but she is a solitary liaison between organic agriculture and Hmong farmers, along with the MFA. “No one besides the MFA is helping the farmers. Nowhere else speaks Hmong,” she said, “We have to show by example.”

Photo by Chue of red oak lettuce growing at Mhonpaj's Garden.

Certified Organic - Shelling out the Beans

The last four posts have been about the organic certification process: who’s responsible for making sure the rules are followed, what the application requires of a farmer, and how an inspection goes. Another piece of the puzzle is, of course, how much it all costs.

Let’s take the Midwest Organic Services Association as an example (Riverbend Farm has been certified through MOSA since 1994). Their cost of certification includes Base Certification, Inspection, and User Fees. The base fee for a first year crop certification is $200, and for an update, $150. The inspection fee starts with a $200 deposit, and the final cost is the inspector’s fee for service, mileage, and lodging. The user fee is a percentage of sales, with a minimum of $200 per year. For annual gross organic sales of a producer (versus a handler or processor) between $0 and $200,000, MOSA takes 0.75%. For over $200,000, it drops to 0.1%, and is capped at $7,500.

How does this compare with other agencies? Let’s take a look at the Minnesota Crop Improvement Association. MCIA charges a membership/application fee as well as a base fee, an inspection fee, and final fees. The application fee for the MCIA is $50. The base fee for a first-timer is $375, and for an update, $325. Inspection charges are listed as $75/hr; Cornercopia’s inspection fee is usually around $600-$700. The final fee is 0.5% of total organic revenue for the first $500,000, 0.25% for $500,001 to $750,000, and 0.1% for $750,001 and up. So the more you make, the less you pay (percentage-wise).

And, of course, there are all sorts of additional fees and charges Joe Organic could rack up: late fees, additional inspections, adding products or services at another time, etc. Barring those extras and assuming $30,000 in sales, an initial certification could cost between $625 and $1,175. Is it worth it? Depends on the farmer and his market.

Next up: why certification is important for Mhonpaj’s Garden.

Certified Organic - Jane Growright, Part II

This Tuesday, Courtney Tchida of Cornercopia sat down with Brenda Rogers of MCIA in a lovely air-conditioned conference room of Hayes Hall to for part two of the organic certification inspection. Last Thursday was the farm tour, this Tuesday was the records tour.

Looking at her formidable black binder, Ms. Rogers opened by noting that last year, Cornercopia was cited for using biocontrols not included in their OSP (organic production system plan). Courtney confirmed that they did not use any controls this year. Ms. Rogers then noted that she had not received documents regarding the high tunnel. Courtney made a note to turn them in. Subsequently, Ms. Rogers noted that Cornercopia had sold seedlings. Yes, Courtney replied, but not as certified organic.

Thus the pattern for the meeting was set. Ms. Rogers perused the OSP, made check marks, and occasionally asked clarifying questions. The first area of review was seeds. Ms. Rogers went through page after page of seed records, stopping to double-check each nonorganic entry in the master list against the nonorganic seed list, which included the companies who did not carry organic versions of the desired varieties. The list was daunting, but Courtney’s clear organization made it a breeze. “This is almost too fast,” Ms. Rogers said.

She went on to ask questions about the likelihood of greenhouse staff interfering with seedlings, the status of unplanted strawberries, previous soil tests, the rotation plan, and soil fertility. A brief discussion ensued about compost requirements. Courtney had been applying raw compost (plant material) to fields at the end of the season to avoid monitoring the carbon-to-nitrogen ratio, temperature, and age of their compost heap. Ms. Rogers clarified that those requirements are only for compost containing animal products, not including plant material-based worm castings, which are, in her words, “just like magic."

The questions continued: what about chickens, wildlife, spraying, water testing, straw from the poultry barn, disease control, buffer zones, reuse of berry boxes, equipment cleaning? Courtney got dinged on that last one – she did not have records of the mower being power washed between fields. “I’ll have to get those from Mike,” she said, making a note.

Courtney was also missing hard copies of sales records, and while she went back to her office to print some samples, Ms. Rogers turned to me and politely asked what I was doing there. I gave her the run down of my recent activities and hopes for the future, then fired some questions at her (for a change) about her time with the MCIA (lengthy), who she inspects (vegetable gardeners), how much of Minnesota she covers (from Norman to Big Stone to Pine to St. Louis - look here if you need a refresher on the counties of Minnesota), and when she inspects (May to September, generally).

Courtney returned with the sales records. Ms. Rogers glanced through them and the harvest records, and was satisfied. She reviewed the few points needing follow up and then it was over.

After Ms. Rogers left, Courtney revealed her secret to success: they’d been going through this process for six years now, the first three during the transitional period, when meeting every single requirements isn’t as big a deal (except for the application of prohibited materials to land, which would set you back to month 0 of 36). With plenty of time to work out the kinks, this year’s inspection was “pretty painless,” Courtney said.

So there you have it: a ground-level look at how a certifying agency applies the National Organic Program’s rules and regulations. Discuss.

Photo from the UMN website.