What’s required for a farm to be certified organic?

Posted by Preston Bristow on May 16th, 2007 filed in Vermont Farms 101

A common question I am asked is what is required for a farm to be certified as organic. The place to turn is to Vermont Organic Farms, LLC (VOF), the certification arm of the Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont (NOFA Vermont) which is accredited by the USDA to offer organic certification to Vermont farms. The short rule of thumb is that it takes three years without application of pesticides, herbicides and inorganic fertilizers to certify land as organic, and a year of organic feed for production animals to be certified as organic. NOFA was founded in Vermont, by the way, and is one of the oldest organic farming associations in the country. Here’s the link to their website:

http://www.nofavt.org/orgcert.php