Agricultural Practices and Certifications

In recent years certifications acknowledging various business and production practices have proliferated, yet how certifications are recorded in transactional systems is inconsistent and not always visible, eg: buried in notes fields. The guidelines aim to resolve inconsistencies in tracking agricultural practices and certifications via the inclusion of a dedicated field for recording agricultural practices and certifications. Consistent inclusion of agricultural practices and certification data will give purchasers better tools for finding production attributes they are seeking and enable producers to get rewarded for these practices within a broader market space. 

Notably, the practices and certifications field is not intended to capture whether or not a product is considered “local”. Given significant variation in definitions and requirements for local product across businesses and purchasing programs, these data guidelines include robust production location information with the aim of allowing buyers to determine on a case-by-case basis if a product meets their definition of local. Location information is included in the product traceability profile section of the data guidelines and includes information on the physical location products were grown.

Some Common Certification Programs

1.     USDA Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) Program

2.     USDA Organic / Other organic certifications

3.     US Small Business Certifications
a.     Veteran-owned
b.     Women-owned
c.     Minority-owned
d.     Native American-owned
e.     LGBTQ-owned

4.     State or Regional Certifications (Eg: Pennsylvania Grown, California Grown)

5.     Environmental & Social Justice Certifications (many)

The Market Data Guidelines for Produce in Regional Food Systems were developed through a collaboration among USDA AMS Local and Regional Food Systems, Wolfe’s Neck Center for Agriculture and the Environment, and the International Center for Food Ontology Operability Data and Semantics. Funding was provided through USDA AMS Cooperative agreement #22-TMMSD-ME-0002.