High Plains Food Coop

Standards for High Plains Food Coop (HPFC)

Members of the High Plains Food Coop are interested in local foods and products produced with sustainable practices that show good stewardship of the environment.
Every producer member is responsible to know and be in compliance with all appropriate federal, state and local inspections, licenses, statutes and ordinances.
Every member producer must complete a HPFC questionnaire providing information on their location, products, livestock, and practices. All producer questionnaires are subject to review by HPFC for adherence to these standards.
Producer questionnaires must be kept current and reflect all items that the producer has for sale. An addendum shall be submitted when a producer offers new classes of products for sale.
Products Sold: Individual producers may only sell products they themselves have grown, processed or crafted. An individual producer may not buy wholesale from someone else and then retail the product through the HPFC, unless they are buying ingredients for further value-added processing. If ingredients are bought, the producer must add value to the product. Simply repackaging the ingredients is not adding value.

(For example, you can sell tomatoes that you grow, but not tomatoes that you buy from someone else unless you buy the tomatoes and make salsa to sell through HPFC. As another example, you can buy flour or cornmeal and make bread or tortillas to sell, but you can't buy bread from someone else and sell it through HPFC).
Beef, pork, lamb, goat (and other meat products where applicable) sold through HPFC and delivered via our transportation system must be processed in a USDA inspected plant. Poultry to be sold through the network and delivered via our transportation system must be processed in either a USDA inspected plant or a state licensed and inspected plant that operates under an on-farm exemption (processes less than 20,000 birds). Each package must have either a USDA or state approved stamp. The network shall not deliver meats processed by custom butchers whose packages are stamped, “Not for Sale”. Any meat packages brought to delivery day stamped "Not for Sale" will be returned to the producer.
Processed or prepared foods: A complete list of ingredients shall be available from producer upon request for all processed and prepared foods that are offered for sale. Ingredients that originate in High Plains shall be noted. The producer should estimate the High Plains content of the product.
Organic producers must be in compliance with the National Organic Program (NOP) and provide HPFC upon request a signed affidavit or a copy of their current certificate. National Organic Program states the following exemption:

§ 205.101 Exemptions and exclusions from certification.

(a) Exemptions.

(1) A production or handling operation that sells agricultural products as "organic" but whose gross agricultural income from organic sales totals $5,000 or less annually is exempt from certification under subpart E of this part and from submitting an organic system plan for acceptance or approval under § 205.201 but must comply with the applicable organic production and handling requirements of subpart C of this part and the labeling requirements of § 205.310. The products from such operations shall not be used as ingredients identified as organic in processed products produced by another handling operation.

All NOP standards online: http://www.ams.usda.gov/nop/NOP/standards.html
To protect the integrity of our marketing system, HPFC reserves the right to verify via physical inspection the production claims and geographic production location of products offered for sale through our marketplace.
Highplains Food Coop is required to collect and pay sales taxes on all products sold through the HPFC network.