Certified Organic Seed at Fedco

Fedco Seeds is certified by MOFGA Certification Services, Maine’s USDA-approved certifier. MCS conducts an annual inspection and audit of Fedco to ascertain that we remain in compliance with the national standards. Each variety labeled as organic in our catalog has been certified by a USDA-approved agency. By maintaining an audit trail and careful procedures we ensure that our certified organic seed will not be contaminated.

If you buy organic seed because you are a certified grower, save your invoice from us and your packet labels so you can keep track of lot numbers to maintain your own audit trail.

The NOP rule requires organic growers to use certified-organic seed whenever it is commercially available. While in practice it still leaves a wide range of choices, certifiers have been interpreting it increasingly strictly, though they differ in what constitutes a good faith effort to locate organic seed. Consult your regional certifier for their specific seed requirements. If you are growing in Canada please see our organic certificate for a list of organic seed varieties that are certified organic in accordance with the terms of the U.S.-Canada Organic Equivalency Arrangement.

We continue to expand our range of suppliers and our offerings of certified organic varieties.

Your invoice is your documentation that we are a certified-organic handler. View and download our primary MOFGA certificate here, which lists all of our organic items in Seeds, Trees, OGS, Bulbs, and POE. Seeds, seed potatoes, and plants labeled ‘Organic’ are certified organic. This year, we have been issued a second certificate for items that ship from our Hinckley Road warehouse, which stores and processes trees and perennial plants. These plants are also listed in the main certificate linked above. View and download the certificate specifically for items that ship from our Hinckley Road warehouse. Some of our amendments and supplies are on the national list or the OMRI list, but it is your responsibility to check with your certifier about the allowability of any product.

Sustainably Grown Seed

All seed in our catalog offered as “ organic” comes from certified farms. Even farms grossing under $5,000 that would otherwise be exempt from certification must get certified for us, as a processor, to label their product “certified organic.”

Believing it essential to the democracy and self-reliance of our agricultural community and to our integrity as a seed supplier, we have painstakingly built our network of small seed growers over the past 40 years. Most of our growers use farm and seed revenues to supplement income from other jobs. Many gross less than $5,000 farming.

Some growers who practice sustainable farming methods conscientiously eschew certification for economical or ideological reasons. Thus, we are using the ecological label ECO after the variety name to describe uncertified seeds grown without pesticides, herbicides or chemical fertilizers in gardens and on farms that maintain an active soil-building program. Often this seed is as sustainably grown as the certified organic seed. We hope you will continue to support both Organic and ECO growers with your purchases.

We use the label BD for those varieties certified biodynamically grown. Some varieties have both biodynamic and organic certification and so will be labeled Organic/BD.