Kellogg Garden Products: NOP USDA Certified Organic

#tbt to 2012 when Kellogg established an all organic product catalog,  Quality Organics – – – – since 1925?

Wait, so why is Kellogg commemorating celebrating only our fifth anniversary of “going organic“? I remember the days.  I might’ve been 25 arriving at a nursery proudly with our organic Topper and the nursery manager pointed out to the back of the nursery and said of our organic top dressing, “That ‘stuff’ goes out there. I hate that organic…stuff!”  The INSIDE of the nursery was where the pristine white, powdery substances that provided fast plant growth resided.

Yep, we’ve come a long way, haven’t we?

It was in 2011 when we were told we needed to remove the word “organic” from our packaging.  What?

Not all of the ingredients met the definition of “organic” as prescribed by the USDA’s National Organic Program (NOP). The national organic standards had changed.  Although our compost “contained a carbon molecule”, and once came from a living plant or animal as defined in most scientific textbooks, our products could no longer use the word “organic” to describe them based on the NOP guidelines. Thanks to the leadership of our president, we went all in and reformulated products that formerly contained ingredients that did not meet NOP guidelines.  It took a tremendous amount of work, commitment and expense, but we decided to achieve double certification, both from the Organic Materials Review Institute (OMRI), and the equally rigorous Organic Input Material (OIM), from the California Department of Food and Agriculture. So today in 2017 we celebrate five years as the only company in which ALL products under the Kellogg Garden Organics and G&B Organics brands are “Proven Organic” through OIM and OMRI certification to serve this great industry.