Future of Organic Workshops
Stakeholders’ Comments
Between October 2021 and March 2022, OTA and the ASU Swette Center for Sustainable Food Systems hosted four online, by invitation workshops to solicit ideas from a broad range of organic stakeholders on the future of organic.
The first workshop was designed to focus on issues of certification and accreditation and was primarily attended by organic certifiers. The second workshop was accessible to the public who had previously registered on the OTA website. The third workshop brought together a broad array of national and DC organic coalition partners. The final workshop was a convening of organic farmers and was conducted in partnership with the Organic Farmers Association (OFA). In total, over 500 stakeholders participated across these four workshops. Under Workshop 1, 2, 3 and 4, you can read a list of comments from the participants.
All workshop participants, along with key organic stakeholders who could not attend, were given the option to complete a digital workbook, including a series of questions on each theme discussed during the workshops. In total, 23 workbooks were completed and returned for content analysis. The Organic Farmers Association also designed a 58-question survey for its members. The surveys included both quantitative and qualitative questions. Under “Workbooks and Farmer Surveys,” you can access the combined list of comments from the workbooks and survey participants’ qualitative responses.
