Back in 2005, when then-Prince Charles and Camilla touched down in West Marin, they toured what was widely considered the national epicenter of the organic food movement, an agrarian vanguard buoyed by the county’s own in-house organic certifier.
Two decades later, that certifier, Marin Organic Certified Agriculture, operated by the county’s department of Agriculture, Weights and Measures, has ceased to provide organic livestock certification services.
While MOCA will continue to certify organic crops, the shift leaves local dairies, ranches, creameries and other livestock handlers in Marin to seek other, private certification.
“Without the ‘Marin Certified’ label, there’s a bit of a struggle in rethinking the county’s agricultural identity,” said David Lewis, director of Marin’s University of California Cooperative Extension. “Marin remains an innovator with a substantial share of organic acreage—it just won’t carry the same moniker.”
A wave of stringent federal regulations from the United States Department of Agriculture’s National Organic Program—rules intended to combat organic fraud—is taking an outsize toll on small-scale operations.
Marin’s agricultural commissioner, Joe Deviney, said that in recent years, new federal rules have driven up costs and complexity for producers and certifiers alike. Though MOCA weathered the rollout of the Origin of Livestock rule in 2022 and the Strengthening of Organic Enforcement rule earlier this year, the forthcoming Livestock and Poultry Standards—scheduled to take effect in January—proved insurmountable.
“You often hear farmers say, ‘There’s too much regulation’,” said Mr. Deviney, who took his job with Marin five months ago. “That’s exactly what happened. The strengthening of organic enforcement—that’s what kicked us out.”
The updated standards require certifiers to hire specialized livestock inspectors who must log 2,000 hours of training before conducting solo inspections. After MOCA lost eight staff members in the past several years—no small blow to an already lean team—the new standards were the coup de grâce.
Over time, MOCA increasingly relied on independent contractors, who conducted nearly half of last year’s organic inspections. The program’s high workload has impacted the department’s other mandated responsibilities, including pesticide regulation, oversight of farmers markets and enforcement of weights and measures.
In a Nov. 9 letter to Governor Gavin Newsom, Supervisor Dennis Rodoni underscored MOCA’s local importance.
“Unlike larger out-of-county certifiers, MOCA offers community-based expertise and keeps certification costs low for producers already operating on thin profit margins,” he wrote. Mr. Rodoni urged the state to allocate $10 million to support small-scale farms, dairies and ranches in the North Bay, which he said are “facing an existential threat.”
Later that month, supervisors approved reallocating $95,518 in emergency drought relief funds to help 20 former MOCA clients afford the transition to a new certifier.
Some producers remain skeptical of the decision to cut the program. In a letter to Mr. Deviney, the Board of Supervisors and fellow MOCA-certified producers, Tomales sheep rancher Martin Pozzi noted that cattle, goats, pigs, sheep and chickens accounted for 86 percent of Marin’s agricultural value in 2023. Also, considering that more than a third of the county is farmland, he argued, the agriculture department’s budget share of just 0.03 percent was disproportionately small.
MOCA was established in 2002 amid the creation of a new national system of organic certification. Previous regulation, where it existed, had been patchy; farmers in Iowa, for example, could become organic by signing an affidavit saying that they farmed organically. Given the inscrutability of a crop or an animal’s organic status, the new system was likely to preserve a degree of oath-making, but the reliance on trust was now overlaid by paperwork.
Under the federal framework, organic farmers must hire an accredited certifying organization to inspect their operations annually. Marin is one of only three California counties—alongside Yolo and Monterey—to maintain their own organic certification programs. Monterey’s began in 2001 and Yolo’s in 2004; neither currently certifies livestock.
Among those affected is Albert Straus, whose Straus Family Creamery relies on milk from 13 dairies, four of which, including his own, were previously certified by MOCA. He is now transitioning to the California Certified Organic Farmers, a Santa Cruz-based group that already certifies his creamery. Mr. Straus said that he will miss the personalized support and one-stop service that came with having a certifier right in the county.
Many other dairy and cattle ranchers are making the same move, including Kevin Lunny, whose 90-head herd became the first certified-organic beef in the county in 2003. To date, C.C.O.F. is working to certify 12 livestock and dairy producers displaced by MOCA’s decision.
For industry insiders, C.C.O.F. is a logical choice. As one of the country’s oldest organic certifiers, it already works with about half of California’s organic livestock producers and employs nearly 100 inspectors throughout the state. To ease the transition, C.C.O.F. is waiving fees for former MOCA clients.
“For smaller regional certifiers like MOCA, it’s becoming harder and harder to keep up with the requirements for maintaining accreditation,” C.C.O.F. chief operating officer Kelly Damewood said. “They are not the only small program that is either dropping its scope or shutting down entirely.”