Organic Certification

The AOPA offers certifications for crops, livestock, greenhouses, apiaries, processors and custom service provider.

Alberta Organic Producers Association (AOPA) is a chapter of Trans Canada Organic Certification (TCOC). Read overview or visit the TCO Cert website for the most up to date information and documents.

Facts about Organic Livestock

• All agricultural products used for feed or feed ingredients, including pastures, must be certified organic to the respective program.
• All other feed additives must be of a natural source and have undergone only mechanical, physical, biological/enzymatic, and/or microbial (i.e., fermentation) processes.  (Chemosynthetic processing, extraction, etc. is prohibited).
• Feed and feed supplements produced through genetic modification are prohibited.
• Any feed product containing manure or urea is prohibited.
• Synthetic/artificial appetizers, colorants, preservatives, growth promoters, and/or growth stimulants are prohibited. (This includes synthetic hormones, antibiotics, and trace elements).
• Meat, eggs, and dairy products can be certified organic.
• Meat animals/slaughter stock must be under organic managements from the last third of gestation period.
• Dairy stock must be under organic management for one year prior to organic production.
• Poultry broilers and poultry products must be under organic management no later than the second day of life.
• Feed and feed supplements produced through genetic modifications are prohibited.
• Feeding of mammalian or poultry by-products to mammals or poultry is prohibited.
• Hormone treatment for growth promotion is prohibited.