WSDA To Stop Certifying Organic Dairies

The Washington State Department of Agriculture announced earlier this month it will stop certifying organic dairies, as well as other livestock operations. The department says there aren’t enough producers to support the service.

Producers have until March 15^th to find another organization to certify that their operations meet USDA standards. Producers who have not been certified by a new agency by July 15^th may lose USDA certification, according to Book.

According to the WSDA’s Hector Castro there are a few reasons behind this decision.

• The high cost - Our organic program is a fee for service program, and the fees that organic dairies pay for the certification does not cover the costs of providing this service. The work requires more oversight than crop certification.
• Low demand – WSDA currently certifies about 1,200 organic operations in Washington. Of those, 41 are organic dairy operations.
• Other certifiers – WSDA worked with Oregon Tilth Certified Organic, which provides this type of organic certification for hundreds of operations. They agreed to take on any Washington operations that would like to work with them. In most cases, the cost for certification through Oregon Tilth will be lower than it would have been with WSDA.
• Staffing - Last year, we lost one of the inspectors trained to provide this type of organic certification, which requires specialized training. Before recruiting a replacement, the organic program decided to review whether it made sense for us to continue this service. We opted to discontinue.

In 2021, the WSDA collected less than $121,000 from organic livestock producers, and to make the program viable, fees would reportedly need to be raised at least 100%.

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