Friday, June 2, 2017

Organic Council gets grant to develop directory

The federal and provincial governments are funding the Organic Council of Ontario to develop a province-wide listing of organic producers, processors, and value chain members.

The council says “that will help strengthen connections throughout the organic sector in this province.

“Although the directory will include some consumer-based products, it will largely focus on increasing linkages between businesses.

“The goal of this project will be to ensure that organic growers can find inputs and distributors for their products, organic processors can find local, organic ingredients, and organic consumers can find farm fresh, local, organic food.”

 The couuncil’s lead consultant, Carolyn Young, said after a 2016 survey of members’ wishes “we wanted to find out why more people aren’t transitioning to organic.

“One common barrier to certification that we identified was access to local organic inputs and distribution channels.

‘It’s hard to find some of these things without knowing where to look. We think the directory is one part of the solution.”