Professional Growers

Helpful Links

Center for Rural Affairs: The Center for Rural Affairs is a private, non-profit, working to strengthen small businesses, family farm and ranches, and rural communities. www.cfra.org

CAFF: Community Alliance for Family Farmers is building a movement of rural and urban people to foster family scale agriculture that cares for the land, sustains local economies, and promotes social justice. www.caff.org

Chef's Collaborative: The Chef's Collaborative is a network of chefs, restaurants, and other culinary professionals who promote sustainable cusine by teaching children, supporting local farms, educating each other and inspiring their customers to choose clean, healthy foods. http://www.chefscollaborative.org

Community Supported Agriculture USDA AMS: A national listing of Community Supported Agriculture operations with information and links. Presented by the Alternative Farming Systems Information Center. www.nal.usda.gov/afsic/csa

Cornell Composting is maintained by the Cornell Waste Management Institute and provides access to a variety of composting educational materials and programs developed at Cornell University.
http://compost.css.cornell.edu/Composting_Homepage.html

CUESA: Center for Urban Education about Sustainable Agriculture. Located on the San Francisco embarcadero, CUESA is dedicated to promoting sustainable food systems through the operation of the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market and its education programs. www.cuesa.org

International Federation of Organic Agricultural Movements (IFOAM): IFOAM is an international non-profit that supports organic agriculture through organizing conferences and publishing information about organic agricultural issues. IFOAM’s mission is to lead, unite and support the organic movement in its full diversity. Their goal is the worldwide adoption of ecologically, socially, and economically sound systems that are based on the principles of organic agriculture. www.ifoam.org

NOP: The National Organic Program homepage provides a list of the National Organic Standards, information about the National Organic Standards Board, and a list of USDA accredited Organic Certifying Agencies. http://www.ams.usda.gov/nop/

New Farm: New Farm is a program of the Rodale Institute. Their web page has recent organic price indexes, articles and interviews pertinent to organic farmers, reports of recent organic news and research, and much more. Their mission is to inform, encourage, equip and inspire farmers with the support they need to take the important transition steps toward regenerative agriculture. NewFarm.org is committed to working for the achievement of an important goal of The Rodale Institute: to assist and witness the emergence of 100,000 organic farmers in the United States and 1 million organic farmers worldwide, by the year 2013. www.NewFarm.org

Oregon Tilth: Oregon Tilth is a non-profit research and education organization certifying organic farmers, processors, retailers and handlers throughout Oregon, the United States, and internationally. Oregon Tilth's mission is to support organic and sustainable food production practices. Oregon Tilth certifies the Seeds of Change Research Farm, Seed Cleaning Facilities, and Seed Packing and Storage locations for their compliance with USDA organic standards. www.tilth.org

OFRF: Organic Farming Research Foundation's mission is to sponsor research related to organic farming practices, to disseminate research results to organic farmers and to growers interested in adopting organic production systems, and to educate the public and decision-makers about organic farming issues. Founded in 1990, OFRF is a non-profit organization and has awarded more than $1,000,000 in support of organic farming research. http://www.ofrf.org/

OMRI: The Organic Materials Review Institute is a non-profit organization created to benefit the organic community and the general public. Its primary mission is to publish and disseminate generic and specific (brand name) lists of materials allowed and prohibited for use in the production, processing, and handling of organic food and fiber. OMRI also conducts scientific research and education on the use of materials by the organic industry. http://www.omri.org/

Organic Seed Alliance: Organic Seed Alliance is a new non-profit which grew out of the education and research component of Abundant Life Seed Foundation. Their mission is to act as a nonprofit public charity, which supports the ethical development and stewardship of the genetic resources of agricultural seed. They accomplish their goals through collaborative education and research programs with organic farmers and other seed professionals.
Organic Seed Alliance
PO Box 772
Port Townsend, WA 98368
(360) 385-7192
Email:info@seedalliance.org
www.seedalliance.org

Public Seed Initiative: The Public Seed Initiative (PSI) is a joint cooperative effort between Cornell University Departments of Plant Breeding and Horticulture, the Northeast Organic Farming Association of New York, Inc, the USDA—Agricultural Research Service’s Plant Genetic Resources Unit in Geneva, NY, and the Farmer’s Cooperative Genome Project—Oregon Tilth. The PSI is engaged in supporting public domain plant breeding, organic seed production, and participatory models of organic, on-farm plant breeding. www.plbr.cornell.edu/psi

Slow Food USA: Recognizing that the enjoyment of wholesome food is essential to the pursuit of happiness, Slow Food USA is an educational organization dedicated to stewardship of the land and ecologically sound food production; to the revival of the kitchen and the table as centers of pleasure, culture, and community; to the invigoration and proliferation of regional, seasonal culinary traditions; to the creation of a collaborative, ecologically-oriented, and virtuous globalization; and to living a slower and more harmonious rhythm of life. www.slowfoodusa.org

University of California Small Farm Center: Information on small farm issues and statistics as well as selected crop guides to minor and specialty crops. http://www.sfc.ucdavis.edu

Wwoof: Need help on the farm or looking to volunteer on one? Willing Workers on Organic Farms can help.