The Organic System Plan

Creating an Organic System Plan

An Organic System Plan (OSP) is central to the organic certification process. It describes how a farm or business follows the USDA organic rules and explains every step of production: how crops are grown, animals are cared for, products are processed and handled, and records are kept. The plan includes information on production practices, processing, and how organic products are protected as they travel along supply chains. 

You submit a completed OSP to an accredited certifier, who reviews it to ensure your practices meet USDA organic standards. Once approved, your OSP guides your operation, and you update it each year to maintain organic certification.

Organic certification is complex, and certifiers and operations developing and reviewing OSPs face challenges with inconsistent templates, varying formats, and outdated forms. To address this concern, the Common OSP is a set of OSP templates that comply with the USDA organic regulations. The Common OSP is designed to both strengthen and streamline organic certification. It provides standard content and clear expectations for documenting how an operation complies with the USDA organic regulations.

The Common OSP is optional. A farm or business may complete an OSP using this Common OSP or an OSP template from their certifier. The NOP strongly encourages certifiers to adopt and use the Common OSP to improve consistency, support efficient oversight, and help the organic sector meet the needs of a growing and increasingly complex marketplace.

Consistent with the public-private partnership structure of organic certification, this Common OSP was developed by organic stakeholders. The NOP thanks the following organizations who led the development of the Common OSP: Quick Organics, Wolf & Associates, and the Accredited Certifiers Association.