News & Research
Stay up-to-date on the latest from OCIA International, our operators, and the organic industry.News: Updates from the Organic Industry
We’ve compiled the latest news from the organic industry to help you stay up-to-date on industry innovations and regulatory updates.
Greetings from OCIA President
Greatings OCIA Members, I would like to introduce myself. My name is Jack Geiger. At the February 2015 Annual General Membership Meeting, I was elected President of OCIA. I am a sixth-generation Kansas, USA, grain and livestock farmer. My father first certified with...
OCIA Continues Building Roots as World Celebrates International Year of Soils
Lincoln, NE - The Organic Crop Improvement Association, one of the few farmer-controlled organic certifiers, convened its 30th Annual General Membership Meeting with 65 attendees at Council Bluffs, Iowa, Feb. 11 and 12. OCIA member delegates came from Canada, Mexico...
OCIA Family Spotlight: Hunt & Behrens
Premiums for organic products come at a cost to more than just customers. An organic product's price has been affected at many points before it reaches its final customer. Organic certification is a lesser-known cost, but one that is increasing in the growing...
2015 Annual General Membership Meeting
Join us February 11th and 12th at the Holiday Inn Council Bluffs at Ameristar. This Holiday Inn is located on the banks of the Missouri River in Council Bluffs, Iowa and is connected to the Ameristar Casino through an indoor breezeway. Just minutes from downtown...
OCIA Family Spotlight: Pure Prairie Farm
Jim Rowh, 66, an organic farmer from Clayton, Kan., is among those with 30 years of experience farming organically in the middle of the United States. The area has its own challenges, regarding the production and marketing of organic products, and transitioning...
OCIA Family Spotlight: Sumiya Brewery
Three hours from Tokyo by Shinkansen, bullet train, and a few local trains later, you would arrive at a processor tied to tradition. Toshio Sumiya (right,) president of the Sumiya Bunjiro Brewery Co., Ltd., shows Kazuko Moriyama, OCIA Japan's representative director,...
OCIA Family Spotlight: Hoculak Family Farm
A farmer's work ethic gets tested between drought and floods. Drought in 2002 and cattle markets closing in 2003 took everything Ward Hoculak had on his Lamont, Alberta farm. It was "start over" for the fourth generation, 43-year-old farmer. The world closed its...
OCIA Family Spotlight: Diddley-Squash Farm, Earth Friendly Farm
Thursday, May 1, 2014 The newest member of the OCIA International Board of Directors is no stranger to the organization or farming. Susan Linkletter, 44, grew up on a dairy in New Brunswick, Canada, with farming in six generations of her family on both sides. "So I...
OCIA Family Spotlight: Wagon Wheel Farm
Picturesque Family Farms have Helping Hands Across Generations The Wagon Wheel Farm carries on that image. Mike and Karen Ostry and their 11 children farm land that was settled near the rolling hills of Bruno, Neb., in 1874. The children are the sixth generation...