From The Director

FROM THE DIRECTOR

Cori Skolaski, Executive Director

As I write this article in early February, it does not feel like winter in southwest Wisconsin - it’s 50 degrees and raining. For much of the country, with another El Nino upon us, there has recently been a lot of weather drama. As farmers grapple with floods, droughts, heat stress, and wildfires, and agriculture becomes even less predictable in the face of a changing climate, organic agriculture offers a holistic approach to farming that helps mitigate the impacts of these extreme weather events while promoting environmental sustainability and resilience. I’m so glad you’re building healthy soil, creating diverse ecosystems, and creating sustainable practices so your farmland can adapt to changing weather patterns and mitigate the impacts of extreme events.

In early January, MOSA clients received their annual paperwork. You probably noticed that we have increased our fees this year. This was not something that we did without a lot of thought and discussion; we know how this impacts our clients. This has been just the second fee increase since 2018, and in that time, all aspects of the certification and inspection process have increased in complexity and cost, largely due to the USDA NOP Strengthening Organic Enforcement (SOE) rule, and their ongoing efforts to protect organic integrity. We fully support these requirements as they will help protect the integrity of, and boost consumer confidence in, the Organic Seal by preventing fraud and requiring more operations to get certified. However, SOE has substantially increased staff and inspector time, training requirements, and expenses. We have been tracking the cost of certification for all clients, scopes, and tiers for several years, and instead of raising fees by a straight percentage, we strived to balance the fairness of fees for everyone. With this balancing, some fee tiers and scopes have increased more than others. In addition, with historically low unemployment rates in the US, increased job responsibilities, and rising cost of living, staff salary requirements have increased. And, of course, our day-to-day expenses like postage, printing, supplies, utilities, etc. have all gone up. All this to say, we’re all feeling that economic pinch.
Please remember, too, that Organic Certification Cost Share is available to offset some of your fees - up to 75% of the costs up to $750 per scope! If you haven’t taken advantage of Cost Share in the past, I urge you to look into it. Please contact us if you need assistance.

I encourage you to read through this newsletter; there are some updates you should know about and some interesting articles. 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 844-637-2526. Thank you for reading, and thanks for your continued commitment to organic integrity.