Workshop outlines organic certification
By Melissa Rollins, Editor, editor@newsandpress.net
On April 6, the Clemson Extension Pee Dee Research and Education Center hosted a workshop on organic farming and certification.
Jennifer Boyles, a Clemson Extension Agribusiness Coordinator, welcomed the attendees.
English Ratliff talks about the study that she did with professors Dr. Michael Vassalos, Dr. Marzieh Motallebi about consumer interest in organic produce in South Carolina.
“This is an official part of our New and Beginning Farmer Program,” Boyles said. “Organics are really getting a lot of attention now and really growing across the state.”
The main speaker for the workshop was Stephen Nix, an Organic Program Coordinator from Clemson University.
According to Nix, there are over 100 certified organic operations in South Carolina. Nix said that he and others with Clemson are responsible for certifying those operations.
“Clemson is an accredited certifying agent,” Nix said. “That means that we’ve basically been approved by the United States Department of Agriculture’s National Organic Program to certify programs to the National Organic Program standards or regulations. My position as program coordinator brings previous experience with navigating regulations together with a passion for sustainable agriculture and organic agriculture.”
During his presentation, Nix broke down what organic means.
“It is often important to look at how what you are talking about is defined,” Nix said. “So with respect to my job, I look at the term organic as a trademarked term and legal term versus biology and chemistry. In the NOP (National Organic Program) regulations, organic is defined as a labeling term that refers to an agricultural product produced in accordance with the Organic Foods Production Act and regulations in (subpart C). Organic Production is a production system that responds to site specific conditions by integrating cultural, biological and mechanical process that foster the recycling of resources, promote ecological balance and conserve biodiversity.”
Nix said that South Carolina’s interest in organic farming has been growing the last several years and hit a milestone at the start of 2018.
“There are 104 certified organic operations in South Carolina; we crossed over 100 in early January,” Nix said. “Fifty-nine of those are crops, forty-nine are handlers and five are livestock. If you add up those numbers, you’ll realize that it doesn’t equal up to 104. That is because some operations have multiple certificates. So if there is a farm that grows kale and they have an on-farm processing operation that packages that in a final retail package…that has got to have a crop certificate and its also got to have a processing certificate. So (with that example), we inspect the way that they grow the kale and we inspect the way that they process is.”
Nix said that each quarter he receives more inquiries about the certification process.
“Organic is definitely growing in South Carolina, which is a good thing,” Nix said. “We are actually getting three to four applications each quarter for new operations. That is a pretty decent clip for the number of operations that we have.”
Another part of the workshop included a presentation from two Clemson professors and a PhD candidate on organic practices in South Carolina.
English Ratliff, who is working on her PhD in Agricultural Sciences, shared some information from a study that was done using survey results from residents across South Carolina. The survey looked at consumers’ interest in buying organic, how much they would be interested in paying for organic vs. non-organic produce and also where they respondents lived. Dr. Michael Vassalos, Dr. Marzieh Motallebi and Ratliff handed out surveys to the workshop attendees so that they could begin compiling data from South Carolina farmers about their organic practices.