By Barth Anderson

Fifteen years of pushing for a federal organic law came to fruition on October 21, 2002 when the USDA's Final Rule on Organics went into effect. While most of the new Rule simply puts federal muscle behind the organic certification process as it's existed for years, one new wrinkle has been added: organic certification for retail stores.

During the Organic Trade Association's trade show in Austin last year, I figured out how important this new wrinkle is. My employer, Wedge Co-op , had asked me to study the new USDA Rule on Organics and OTA's Good Organic Retail Practices Manual to see if retail certification was a good option for us. I wasn't convinced. The GORP Manual seemed like an impossible set of hurdles over which most stores wouldn't be able to jump: strict cleaning regimens, logs for recording cleaning tasks between handling of conventional and organic produce, resets to prevent commingling and contamination. I went to the OTA trade show thinking, "Retail certification is all foot race and no trophy."

But over tacos at a cafe, Joyce Ford, one of The GORP Manual's authors, convinced me that whether the Organic Trade Association intended it or not, organic retail certification was built for co-ops precisely because it was so difficult. Many hurdles, yes, but those hurdles would favor small, nimble stores with motivated workers over ponderous corporate chains whose directives trickle down from distant offices to disinterested employees.

Retail certification, I realized, was a strategic gift from the organic industry to its old allies, the grocery cooperatives.

Building a certified store

I came home from the OTA trade show very, very psyched. I told our general manager Dan Foley that I had seen the light and that the Wedge had to seek certification. I think I convinced (or scared) him with my disturbing passion for the task, and he decided the Wedge should try to be the first organically certified store in Minnesota.

The Wedge is big by co-op standards at 23,000 square feet and over $20 million in annual sales. Luckily, the USDA Rule allows stores to seek certification department by department, so I started writing the mandatory handling plan for those departments in which organic handling practices would be most self-evident: Produce, Meat, Cheese, Bakery, Juice Bar, and the pivotal Co-op Partners Warehouse, our wholesale program. The first three departments on this list sell 100% organic product, making the new and intricate labeling rules a real breeze. The Juice Bar made organic smoothies in dedicated "organic" blenders already, and the Bakery simply had to prepare its 95-100% organic breads before the non-organic loaves. Not terribly difficult.

Co-op Partners Warehouse was a much greater challenge. As our primary wholesaler, CPW is responsible for the "auditability" of organic products coming through CPW into the Wedge and other stores -- a slightly different set of challenges from simple retail. For example, CPW had to implement the practice of using a price gun to sticker every organic case that came through the loading dock, so that organic product could be more easily tracked to its invoices. At $4+ million in organic sales annually, that's a river of boxes and an ocean of stickers, but CPW did it.

It took nearly a year, but by this summer we had thoroughly divided all the displays in our certifiable departments, corrected problematic signs, divided the backstock, designated certain cutting boards "organic" and certain knives "conventional." We tracked down and updated the organic certificates for the organic products that didn't come into the Wedge through Co-op Partners Warehouse. Our water was tested, our MSDS sheets were updated, our pest traps thoroughly mapped.

Once certifiers were accredited by the USDA in May, we contacted one for an application, Midwest Organic Services Association. A smaller co-op would have sailed through the application process. We, however, performed more of a trudge. Because we wanted 12 items from the bakery certified, and because the Wedge has a warehouse and off-site storage for some frozen organic products, MOSA had to create new documents just to do business with us. But by the middle of August, we'd sent them our completed handling plan and final application.

As I write this, we've just completed the organic inspection. I was a coiled spring of nervousness beforehand, but the Wedge was calm, cool, and ready to go. Our inspector seemed very impressed with our operation, pointing out easily fixable problems in our bakery, but otherwise giving us a totally clean report. I'm quite hopeful that by the time you read this, our organic certification will be official.

Small is beautiful

Cut to Oryana Co-op in Traverse City.

At $3 million a year in sales and 4500 square feet, Oryana is the very size of cooperative grocer that OTA and The GORP Manual seemed to have in mind for retail certification. In April of this year, Oryana began the task of switching its handling practices in preparation for organic inspection. Oryana had its inspection at the end of August, and by the time this article appears the whole store will be certified organic.

Getting ready for retail certification was a familiar task for Oryana since the store had already been certified as a processor. "We're somewhat unique, making organic tofu and tempeh for the last 15-20 years," General Manager Bob Struthers says. "We saw [certification] as an opportunity for the retail end, so we went for it."

Oryana Co-op has seven certified departments: The Deli and its kitchen, Produce, Bulk, Refrigerated Dairy, Health and Body, Grocery, and the "Soy Department" (tofu and tempeh). The most challenging of these, says Struthers, were Produce, Bulk, and Deli, while Grocery was easiest -- containers prevented the need for separate displays and barriers between products. The biggest reset came in the Bulk Department, which was divided between organic and conventional products to prevent spillage and commingling.

"I definitely encourage any co-op to do it," Struthers says. Why, if retail certification is not required by law? Struthers makes three good arguments:

1. As handlers, retail co-ops must comply with the Rule anyway, even if they aren't getting certified, and it's just a few extra steps to comply with a certifier.
2. The co-op message is very similar to the organic message.
3. It gives you a marketing perk.

It's difficult to overestimate the value of number three. The new USDA rule is attracting lots of media attention, so co-ops electing to seek certification will find that they are suddenly news and the beneficiaries of valuable free advertising. More important is Bob's second point. Like the Wedge, Oryana had a strong reputation of supporting organics among its members. "We decided that even though we didn't have to get certified, it was the right thing to do," said Struthers. "We were proponents of the organic way of life already."

I do . . .

Co-ops have long been identified with organic food. Here in Minnesota, every member of Twin Cities Natural Food Co-ops is looking into certification for at least one of their departments, and many retail members of Northwest Cooperative Grocers are pursuing certification as well. As more co-ops accept the challenge, stepping forward to complete the chain of certified organic integrity between farmer and shopper, the cooperative movement will become yet again the face of the organic industry, effectively renewing the "marriage vows" between co-ops and organics.

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