\ ( / .. 

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OFAGRICULTURE 

AGRICULTURAL MARKETING SERVICE 

BEFORE THE ADMINISTRATOR 

) 

Inre: ) 

William A. Kolaske ) Administrator's Decision 

Woodview Farm ) APL-014-18 

Seymour, Wisconsin ) 

) 

This Decision responds to an appeal (APL-014-18) of a Notice ofProposed Suspension 

ofNational Organic Program certification issued to Woodview Fann of Seymour, Wisconsin by 

Global Organic Alliance, Inc. (GOA). The operation has been deemed not in compliance with 

the Organic Foods Production Act of 1990 (Act) 1 and the U.S. Department ofAgriculture 

(USDA) organic regulations. 2 

BACKGROUND 

The Act authorizes the Secretary to accredit agents to certify crop, livestock, wild crop, 

and/or handling operations to the USDA organic regulations (7 CFR Part 205). Certifying agents 

also initiate compliance actions to enforce program requirements, as described in section 

205.662, Noncompliance procedure for certified operations. Persons subject to the Act who 

believe they are adversely affected by a noncompliance decision of a certifying agent may appeal 

such decision to the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) pursuant to § 205.680 

Adverse Action Appeals Process_:_ General, and§ 205.681, Appeals ofthe USDA organic 

regulations. 

1 7 u.s.c. 6501-6522 

2 7 CFR Part 205 

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FINDINGS OF FACT 

1. GOA is an accredited certifying agent under the USDA organic regulations. Woodview 

Fa.11n of Seymour, Wisconsin, is certified under USDA organic regulations for crops and 

livestock. William A. Kolaske III is the owner/operator of Woodview Fann. 

2. On September 1, 2016, GOA conducted the annual inspection of Woodview Farm. 

During the inspection, Woodview Farm did not make available field activity, harvest, 

storage, feed and equipment cleanout records covering the period from November 7, 

2015 to September 1, 2016. 

3. During July and August 2017, GOA issued four separate letters (dated July 1, July 20, 

August 7 and August 21) to Woodview Farm requesting missing and incomplete 

documentation. Woodview Farm provided partial responses. . 

4. On September 13, 2017, GOA issued a Notice ofNoncompliance to Woodview Farm for 

failing to make feed and equipment clean out records available, as required by USDA 

organic regulations at §205. 103 (Recordkeeping by organic operations). 

5. On October 19, 2017, GOA issued another Notice ofNoncompliance to Woodview 

Farm. GOA identified other noncompliances related to livestock feed (§205.237), 

livestoclc living conditions (§205.238), and pasture management practices (§205.240). 

GOA also restated the unresolved recordkeeping noncompliances from the September 

Notice ofNoncompliance. 

6. On November 7, 2017, GOA issued a Notice ofProposed Suspension to Woodview Farm 

for failure to make records covering the period November 7, 2015 to September 1, 2016, 

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available for inspection. The Notice also cited livestock feed and pasture management 

noncompliances. 

7. On November 22, 2017, Woodview Fann requested mediation and submitted records 

related to feed rations, equipment cleaning, and crop harvest and storage to GOA. GOA 

denied the request for mediation in a letter dated December 4, 2017. 

8. On January 2, 2018, AMS received an appeal from Woodview Fann. 

DISCUSSION 

GOA proposed a suspension of Woodview Fmm's organic certification, which would 

prohibit all sale, labeling or representation of its products as organic. The reasons for the 

proposed suspension are: (i) Woodview Faim failed to provide records about various farming 

activities (e.g., crop harvest and storage, equipment cleaning and feed rations) for the period 

from November 7, 2015 to September 1, 2016, which prevented GOA from conducting a 

complete inspection to verify compliance; (ii) Woodview Farm failed to demonstrate through 

feed records that dry matter intake (DMI) levels for livestockmeet the 30% minimum from 

pasture requirement; (iii) Woodview Farm failed to provide complete feed records for all groups 

of animals; and (iv) Woodview Fatm failed to repmt feed infonnation for nongrazing lactating 

cows. In addition, GOA identified inconsistencies in feed records that were available and the use 

of unidentified minerals in feed rations. 

The record in this case shows that GOA notified Woodview Fmm several times ofthe 

noncompliances that needed to be resolved to maintain organic certification. GOA also provided 

Woodview Farm multiple opportunities, via seven written notifications, to address these 

noncompliances between July 2017 and November 2017. Woodview Farm did provide some 

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information to GOA over this time, but ultimately failed to sufficiently address all 

noncompliances. 

In the appeal, Woodview Farm claimed that William Kolaske's spouse submitted all the 

infonnation pertaining to the 2015 and 2016 records. Wood view Fmm also apologized for "not 

having everything in," and Mr. Kolaske characterized himself as "not a very organized person." 

The appeal essentially admits fault, fails to completely resolve the still outstanding 

noncompliances, and provides no information or evidence that the operation has made changes to 

prevent recurrent noncompliances in the future. Although Woodview Farm provided some 

information responsive to the noncompliances in the Notice of Proposed Suspension, the fact that 

these records were submitted over one year past the time they were due and after seven separate 

requests indicates that Woodview Farm does not have an adequate recordkeeping system. 

Further, the records submitted are incomplete. For example, there is no pasture management plan 

that describes all ofthe required elements(§ 205.240(c)), no information on the minerals in the 

feed ration, and dry matter intake and feed rations records do not clearly cover the entire 

November 2015 to September 2016 timespan. 

CONCLUSION 

The availability of complete and coherent production records for certifiers and inspectors 

is a basic requirement for organic certification and is essential to oversight. Failure to maintain 

or make available necessary documents precludes a certifier from verifying that practices 

throughout the production cycle comply with the USDA organic regulations. Due to the absence 

of essential information in the records concerning its production practices, Woodview Fmm 

cannot demonstrate compliance with the recordkeeping (§ 205.103), livestock feed(§§ 

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205.237(c) and (d)) and pasture practices(§ 205.240(c)) standards to maintain organic 

certification. 

DECISION 

The appeal is denied and Woodview Farm is to be suspended. Attached to this formal 

Administrator's Decision·denying Woodview Farm's appeal is a Request for Hearing form. 

Woodview Farm has thirty (30) days to request an administrative hearing before an 

Administrative Law Judge. 

IfWoodview Farm waives the hearing, the Ag1icultural Marketing Service will direct 

GOA to issue a Notice of Suspension. At any time after suspension, Woodview Farm may, 

" ... submit a request to the Secretary for reinstatement ofits certification. The request must be 

accompanied by evidence demonstrating correction of each noncompliance and corrective 

actions taken to comply with and remain in compliance with the Act and the regulations in this 

part." 

Done at Washington, D.C., on this /t.fl 11 

day of t'\...,"'"' , 2018. 

Bruce ~~Summers 

Acting Administrator 

Agricultural Marketing Service 

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