United States

Department of

Agriculture

Agricultural

Marketing

Service

$1400$ Independence Avenue, S$.$W$.$

Room $2642-$S$,$ Mail Stop $0268$

Washington, D$.$C$.20250-0268$

May $2,2019$

TO: $,$ USDA$-$Accredited Certifying Agents

FROM:

SUBJECT: Organic Integrity Learning Center Launch

To support the ongoing development of personnel working in organic certification and

compliance and enforcement roles, the National Organic Program $($NOP$)$ has launched the

Organic Integrity Learning Center. The Learning Center is a formal Learning Management

System, that supports the professional development and continuing education of professionals

working to protect organic integrity.

Well$-$qualified and trained certifier staff, including inspectors, and reviewers are critical to

maintaining organic integrity. These professionals stand at the center of effective organic control

systems, and directly impact fair and consistent organic certification around the world.

Certifiers are responsible for communicating the availability of the Learning Center to

their staff, including in$-$house and contracted inspectors and reviewers. To track individual

training records, all Learning Center users must have unique accounts and passwords. In April

$2019,$ NOP registered the lead and secondary contacts for all NOP certifiers; we are providing

this information to certifiers with a link to this memo.

The flyer How to Sign Up for an Account $($pdf$)$ provides instructions for group sign$-$up if you

wish to register a group of people. You can also instruct your team and your contracted

inspectors to request individual accounts using instructions in the flyer. People with accounts can

access the Learning Center at:

usda.blackboard.com$/.$

Examples of current courses in the Learning Center include: Fundamentals of Inspections,

Import Oversight Essentials, Compliance and Enforcement, Sound and Sensible Certification,

and Introduction to the USDA Organic System. New courses will be added on a regular basis.

Upcoming courses will include Dairy Compliance, Materials Review, Certification

Administration, and Residue Sampling and Testing.

The Organic Integrity Learning Center was launched to help organic professionals protect

organic integrity and provide fair and consistent organic certification around the world. Certifier

leadership will play a critical role in ensuring their teams access and use this new resource.