Organic Certification Bodies Editing and Proofreading Services

A certifier reviews an organic grain operation whose neighbour sprays a conventional crop from the air. The inspection report notes that a buffer zone is maintained. When residue turns up in a load two seasons later and the buyer demands the file, the questions are how wide the buffer actually is, which field boundaries it applies to, whether the buffer crop is harvested separately, and what the operator does when the neighbour sprays in a crosswind. The report recorded that a buffer exists and nothing that would let anyone judge whether it works.

We edit what organic certification bodies produce — inspection reports and organic system plan reviews, buffer zone and contamination risk documentation, input and material approval records, audit trail and mass balance verification records, certificates and product scope schedules, non-compliance notices and corrective action requirements, transition and land history documentation, supplier and handler certification records, and residue testing protocols and result interpretation notes. Our editors work on the file a buyer demands two seasons after the inspection.

The organic system plan review is where a risk is either specified or waved through, and its failure is a note confirming a control exists without recording anything about how it operates. We work through these so a control is recorded with its actual dimensions and boundaries — the buffer width in metres, the specific field edges it applies to, how the buffer crop is harvested and where it is sold — rather than noted as maintained, since maintained describes existence and the risk is governed by the specifics; so the risk the control addresses is named, given that a buffer sized for ground spraying and one sized for aerial application are different controls and the report should show which risk was assessed; so the operator's stated response to a foreseeable event is recorded, because contamination arises from the unusual day and a plan silent on it has not addressed the risk at all; so the audit trail is verified by tracing specific quantities from a named input purchase through to a named sale, since a general statement that records reconcile is the claim an investigation is trying to test; and so land history and transition dates are recorded against specific parcels rather than the operation as a whole, given that operations add and drop rented ground constantly and eligibility attaches to the parcel. Reviews written this way answer the buyer's question from the file.

Everything you send is treated in confidence, including operator records, inspection findings and certification files. We are editors rather than organic inspectors, certifiers or agronomists, and we offer no view on compliance determinations, contamination risk or certification decisions. What we can do is make sure the file records how a control works, not only that it exists.