What You'll Learn
- Why handlers see organic certification as both a values choice and a sound business decision.
- Why certification works as a long-term investment rather than a quick return, and what "embracing the investment" actually means.
- Why separating the emotional pull of going organic from the practical compliance checklist helps you focus your effort.
- How training and buy-in across the whole team, not just admin staff, make certification actually work.
Watch Time: 8:42
Going organic is both a values-based decision and a business decision, and this video gathers handlers, processors, and farmers to make the case for why certification is worth the effort. The commercial argument is direct: organic pays the bills, opens doors to major buyers, and puts the USDA seal on your product. As one handler puts it, without certification his company wouldn’t be in business. But the speakers are equally clear that certification is a long-term investment, not a quick return. One salient point recurs throughout: the operations that thrive are the ones willing to build and fund the systems that organic integrity requires, rather than treating it as a one-off box to check.
Several speakers reframe what certification actually is. It’s tempting to see it as bureaucracy (proving on paper what you already know you do right), but that documentation and audit process is the entire reason the organic label means anything to consumers. It’s what creates real transparency with the end customer. The advice for anyone starting out is to separate the emotional pull of “going organic” from the practical work. Ask the certifier what compliance requires, get the black-and-white list, and focus on that. And expect frustration along the way. The speakers are candid that it’s a lot of work and there will be days it feels like too much.
The final theme is that certification only holds up if the whole team is on board. An SOP written in an office fails if it doesn’t work for the people running production every day, so handlers stress that everyone who touches receiving, production, or finished product needs training, not just admin staff. The most effective approach is explaining the “why” in plain language, building organic into the company’s culture from top to bottom, and correcting mistakes patiently rather than complaining about the requirements. Get people to understand and care, the speakers agree, and compliance follows.
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.
Clarkson Grain
- Organic Grain Aggregator and Distributor
- Cerro Gordo, IL
- Certified Organic since 2002
A food-grade specialty grain company that connects farmers who will raise something specific with the buyers who need it: makers of food, ingredients, cosmetics, and pharmaceuticals. It handles soybeans prized for tofu, miso, and tempeh, corn for milling, and lecithin standardized to a client’s specifications, shortening the supply chain between grower and end user.
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.
Prairie Gold Eggs
- Organic Egg Aggregator & Distributor
- Oconomowoc, WI
- Certified Organic since 2024
A solar-powered farm producing certified organic, pasture-raised eggs, packing its own eggs alongside eggs from partner farms under its own brand. It has grown by bringing on additional farms and building a recognizable brand around its pasture-raised, organic offering.
Janie’s Mill
- Organic Stone-milled Flour
- Ashkum, IL
- 28 Employees
- Certified Organic since 2017
A stone mill producing flours from grain grown on partner farms and its own fields, with quality as its stated first priority. It sells wholesale to bakeries and retail to home bakers. The operation grew from a farming family’s interest in connecting good growers, careful milling, and bakers who value the resulting product.
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.
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.
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.
TCHO Chocolate
- Organic Chocolate Maker
- Berkeley, CA
- Certified Organic since 2009
An organic chocolate maker focused on flavor and sustainability, built on the philosophy that better beans make a better bar. It works directly with cacao-farming communities in Ghana, Ecuador, Peru, the Dominican Republic, and Madagascar, co-creating higher quality and sometimes helping growers reach organic status rather than compromise on flavor.
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.