Who governs the Ohio Produce Marketing Agreement

The Ohio Produce Marketing Agreement is a certification program run by the Ohio Produce Growers and Marketers Association, and the question most growers ask first is a simple one: who actually decides what the certification means? The answer sits in a legal page that OPMA publishes on the association's own domain, and it names three bodies with real authority: an Advisory Board, a Compliance Board, and the inspectors and auditors who meet members in the field. What follows is what that page does and does not say about each.

If you farm in Ohio and you have been asked to sign off on due diligence documentation for wholesale or institutional buyers, this matters to you. The governance described on the OPMA legal page is what stands behind the certificate that carries your farm's name.

What the OPMA certificate actually says about a farm

The page is careful about this, and it is worth reading twice. OPMA certifies that a producer has demonstrated competence in accordance with its rules and guidelines to perform due diligence for the production of produce. That is the claim. It is a claim about the producer's process, not about the food.

The page then says the certification of the producer or the products is, by no means whatsoever, any indication, guarantee or warranty that the produce is safe for human consumption. Those are the words OPMA uses on its own legal page. A certificate from OPMA tells a buyer that a grower has been through a process. It does not tell a buyer that the crop is safe. If you are a buyer building a purchasing file, or a grower explaining to a buyer what the certificate means, that distinction is the whole of the thing.

Who sits on the boards, and what each one decides

The OPMA legal page names two boards inside the organisation: an Advisory Board and a Compliance Board. It also names a category of people who are held to the same standard without sitting on either board: inspectors and auditors who come into contact with clients in the field.

The Compliance Board is the body that issues written permission for a member to use OPMA's certificates and marks of conformity. That is a decision, not an administrative stamp, and it is the Compliance Board that holds the pen. Beyond that, the page describes an Advisory Board with procedures in place about its members and their decisions, and about other boards and their members within the scope of OPMA's authority.

The page does not publish the number of seats on either board, how members are appointed, or how long a term runs. It does not publish a meeting schedule or a quorum. If you need that level of detail, the page itself directs you to write to OPMA and ask, and it says to allow up to 10 business days for an answer.

How does OPMA handle a conflict of interest?

This is one of the few places where the page is explicit rather than procedural. It states that OPMA will avoid any conflict of interest, and that it has procedures in place covering Advisory Board members and their decisions, other boards and their members, Compliance Board decisions, and the inspectors and auditors who come into contact with clients in the field.

The phrasing matters more than it looks. The same standard is applied to people inside the room and people outside it. An inspector visiting your farm is held to the conflict-of-interest procedures, not just the board members sitting in a meeting. For a grower being inspected, that is the part of the sentence that does the work.

What stays confidential, and what does not

The Advisory Board has procedures in place to safeguard the confidentiality of information obtained in the course of its certification activities, and the page says this applies at all levels of the organisation, including committees and external bodies and individuals acting on OPMA's behalf.

The non-disclosure commitment extends to inspectors, technical advisors and anyone else who comes into contact with member information. And there is a specific line for growers who worry about their name circulating: member information will not be sold or used in any fashion without the expressed permission of that member.

Confidentiality is not absolute, though. Appeals, complaints and disputes brought before the certification body by members or others are handled under the procedures of the specific OPMA body that owns them, and OPMA asks that you contact it for guidance before starting such a procedure. The page says that information will be held in the highest of confidence. So the pathway for a dispute exists, but it is not sketched out on the legal page. A grower who wants to challenge a decision should ask OPMA directly which body handles the matter and what the steps are.

What a certificate and mark can and cannot be used for

OPMA sets seven conditions on its certificates and marks of conformity, and they are narrower than a grower might expect.

First, only members in good standing may use them. Second, use requires written permission from the Compliance Board. Third, use must reflect the good name of OPMA, its members and its products, and it must not be used where there is a possibility of misuse or unintended association with products, services or endorsements that fall outside OPMA's intent. Fourth, a mark must not be used to convey any message not in keeping with the spirit of OPMA. Fifth, the certificates and marks must not be altered in any way with regard to size, colour or quality. Sixth, failure to adhere strictly to these requirements is liable to the full force of the law, Ohio code and the Advisory Board. Seventh, any other use requires written permission from OPMA.

For a grower printing labels, building a website banner or supplying a buyer with a logo file, the practical reading is this: the mark comes with a permission slip, it comes with conditions on how it is reproduced, and it is not a general-purpose endorsement. The page does not describe the process for requesting that written permission, what it costs, or how long it takes. The Ohio Produce Marketing Agreement can be contacted directly about it, and the legal page is the right place to start, which you can reach at the OPMA legal page.

How a grower asks OPMA for information

At any time, a member or a non-member may request information about any process within the organisation. That is what the page says, and it is a broader door than most growers assume.

The request has to be made in writing and has to refer to the specific information being requested. It has to be documented with a name, an address and a telephone number, or another means of contacting the person making the request. OPMA asks that you allow up to 10 business days for an answer.

Those two requirements, in writing and with contact details attached, are the ones that trip people up. A verbal question at a trade event is not a request under this procedure, and neither is an unsigned email with no way to reply. If you want a documented answer, write a documented question.

What the legal page leaves open

Two ambitions are visible on the page without being spelled out in operational terms. The first is the conflict-of-interest standard, which reaches inspectors and auditors as well as boards. How that standard is applied in a given case, and who reviews it, is not on the page. The second is confidentiality, which the page describes as extending to external bodies and individuals acting on OPMA's behalf. What a grower is told about how their own file is handled, and by whom, is likewise not on the page.

Both are answerable through the written request procedure, and OPMA sets a clock on it. For a grower deciding whether to pursue OPMA certification, or for a buyer reading a farm's certificate, the questions worth sending to OPMA in writing are the ones this legal page raises but does not settle.

The Buckeye Rows editorial team, [email protected]

About opgma.org

opgma.org is the domain of the Ohio Produce Growers and Marketers Association, an Ohio produce trade body. Its OPMA legal page publishes the certification rules of the Ohio Produce Marketing Agreement, covering advisory and compliance procedures, confidentiality, appeals and complaints, written information requests subject to a 10 business day answer window, and the conditions for using OPMA's certificates and marks of conformity. The association manages the Ohio Produce Marketing Agreement and can be reached at 6870 Licking Valley Road, Frazeysburg, OH 43822, by phone on 740-828-3400.