Certifiably organic. (snapshots).

Steve Sears has an eye for detail. As certification administrator for the Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association (OEFFA), Sears' job is to oversee the process by which foods--crops, livestock and wild crafted edibles such as mushrooms, grown not in tended plots but in the wild-receive organic certification.

What may seem simple to consumers--an organic label--is the end result of a complex procedure. For foods to be certified, farmers must first detail what they grow; the seeds they use; their methods of fertilization, weed and insect control; their sources of irrigation water; and how their crops are stored and transported. "We look at the whole gamut of operations," says Sears.

The workload for organic certifiers made a dramatic shift upward once the National Organic Program (NOP), under the aegis of the US Department of Agriculture, went into effect a year ago. NOP set up specific protocols for how the OEFFA and similar agencies carry out the organic certification process. "There's a lot more paperwork," Sears says.

Tight Control

The rules Sears enforces are stringent. Farmers cannot have used any prohibited substances for the past 3 years. Those no-nos include synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, sewage sludge and any genetically modified seeds or other products. Pests are not likely to be an issue for organic farms, says Sears, because bugs go for weaker plants, which happens when crops are dosed with "massive amounts of nitrogen," that is, when they are conventionally farmed. ...