What You'll Learn
- How organic pest management differs from conventional IPM and where the rules get stricter.
- The four-tiered intervention hierarchy and what you have to demonstrate before moving up each level.
- What prevention actually looks like in practice, from building envelope management to storage layout.
- Why any pest control substance needs certifier approval before you use it.
- How to manage third-party pest control contractors so their work doesn't put your certification at risk.
Watch Time: 16:39
This video is about pest control in a certified organic facility, and it starts from what you already do in integrated pest management (IPM). Most of the IPM mindset carries over into organic pest management, but certain approaches differ with organic’s four-tiered hierarchy of management tactics. It follows the organic pest hierarchy from the ground up, beginning with monitoring as the prerequisite, then climbing the four tiers from prevention, to mechanical and physical controls, to National List materials, to synthetic pesticides as a last resort.
The organizing idea is that every step up the hierarchy raises the stakes and tightens the oversight. Nothing pesticidal goes into your facility without being documented in your OSP and getting certifier approval first, and the higher tiers demand you show that the lower ones failed first. Application method drives contamination risk, which is why a locked exterior bait station is treated very differently from fogging an enclosed room. The same responsibility reaches your third-party contractor, since under the regulations their mistake lands on your certification, not theirs.
Running underneath all of it is the point that prevention is cheaper than the cure, in both product and paperwork. Watch this when you are building or reviewing your pest management practices, or bringing a pest control contractor into an organic facility.
About the Featured Operations
Raven’s Brew
- Coffee Roaster, Wholesale & Retail
- Tumwater, WA
- Certified Organic since 2002
A small family-owned coffee roaster producing organic and conventional blends, serving grocery stores, cafes, service organizations, and direct-to-consumer customers online. It grew customer by customer from a small operation into a roastery that emphasizes strong relationships with its importers and green-coffee suppliers.
Organically Grown Company
- Organic Produce Wholesaler & Distributor
- Portland, OR
- 260 Employees
- Certified Organic since 1998
An organic produce wholesaler and distributor sourcing certified organic fruits and vegetables domestically and internationally for retailers, restaurants, buying clubs, and processors. At its core a logistics operation, it also sorts, repacks, co-packs, and private-labels. Founded to support local organic growers, it is now purpose-trust owned, serving a mission rather than profit and committed to advancing organic.
Sauk Farm LLC
- Organic Fruit Grower, Packer, & Aggregator
- Concrete, WA
- Certified Organic since 2016
A family farm growing organic apples and plums and processing them into juice, dried fruit, and fruit powders. Its philosophy is to do the work in the field and let the fruit speak for itself, avoiding additives and preservatives. It also custom-processes and co-packs for other farms and food businesses, valuing the diversification that brings.
Sailer’s Food Market & Meat Processing
- Meat Processor & Butcher
- Elmwood, WI
- 28 Employees
- Certified Organic since 2016
A meat operation offering both slaughter and processing services for organic and conventional product. It handles animals from intake through cutting, cooking, and packaging, and also hauls livestock for customers who lack their own transport, caring for animals in its possession as they would be on the farm.
Cedar Grove Cheese
- Organic Cheese Maker
- Plain, WI
- 28 Employees
- Certified Organic since 1995
A family-owned cheese manufacturer producing both conventional and organic cheeses, including cow, sheep, and goat varieties. Small enough to design productions directly to a customer’s specifications, it makes specialty cheeses and produces in bulk for other companies to label and market.
Traditional Medicinals
- Organic Herbal Teas
- Rohnert Park, CA
- Certified Organic since 1995
An herbal tea company and early organic adopter, deeply committed to its source communities and organic teas. It sources organic botanicals from grower communities worldwide, treating those relationships as essential to its work, and advocates for organic on a broader scale beyond its own products.