MOSA provides our clients with much more than just certification.

Joe Pedretti

MOSA Client Services Director

Executive Director’s Report

Executive Director’s Report

Cori Skolaski, Executive Director

Happy Holidays! I hope you all enjoy time with family and friends this season, and I wish you a happy and prosperous New Year. Here at MOSA, we are so grateful for your trust in us and your continued business, and for your year-round good and hard work. Thank you for using your time and talents within the organic community, for your work sustaining and improving biodiversity and the soil, for following the Organic rule, for doing your seed searches, for using OMRI-listed materials, for diligently filling out your paperwork (we know it’s a lot!), and for walking the walk. I wish you the very best in the new year, and may your days be merry and bright.

Soon after the new year begins, you will receive your 2023 Annual Update paperwork from MOSA. After careful consideration and discussions with our Management Team and Board of Directors, we are happy to tell you that we will make no increases to our tier fees for 2023. There are a few changes to additional service fees, tier structure, and policies noted in the newsletter. We understand that these may be difficult economic times for many in our industry and we are committed to being a practical and affordable certification partner

I have some other very good news: MOSA has been selected and approved as the Regional Center for the Midwest, an eleven state area, for the new USDA Transitioning to Organic Partnership Program (TOPP). To help us coordinate this five year program, we have hired Allison Walent as Program Director. Allison comes to us with a wealth of experience working with organic farmers and organizing complex partnership programs. See Allison’s TOPP article in this issue for more information about this exciting new program.

Along with Allison, there are several new faces at MOSA. We send a warm welcome to Shelby Wheeler, Certification Compliance Manager, Aleisha Schreffler, Inspection Coordinator, Christian Strickland and Lauren Lewis, Certification Specialists, and Ben Jackle, Material Reviews Specialist.

As always, if you have any questions or comments about anything in this newsletter or about MOSA please feel free to contact me at cori@mosaorganic.org or 847-637-2526. Thank you for reading, and thanks for your continued commitment to organic integrity.