OUR PRODUCER STANDARDS

The following is adapted from the Oklahoma Food Cooperative's "PRODUCTS THAT MAY BE SOLD THROUGH THE COOPERATIVE" found here:

http://www.oklahomafood.coop/producers.php#products

  1. Producers may only sell products they themselves have grown or processed. Nobody can buy wholesale from someone else and then retail through our service, unless they are buying ingredients for processed foods. If ingredients are bought, value must be added to the product by the producer, simply repackaging the ingredients is not adding value. For example, you can sell tomatoes that you grow, but not tomatoes that you buy from somebody else to sell. You can, however, buy tomatoes from someone and make salsa and sell that through our cooperative. 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 the cooperative.
  2. No genetically modified (GMO) foods or products may be sold through the cooperative. No meat, poultry or egg products from Confined Animal Feeding Operations may be sold through the cooperative, nor may they be used as ingredients in processed foods. Our assumption is that supermarket meats originate in CAFOs so meat, poultry, or egg products should be bought directly from farmers or local aggregators. They do not have to be bought from cooperative members, although some members may find this as an added benefit of your product.
  3. Meats to be sold through the cooperative and delivered via our transportation system must be processed in a USDA or state licensed and inspected plant, or in a state approved equivalent (for example, as per the Texas Department of Health's Grant of Poultry/Rabbit Exemption for low volume producers of those animals). Each package must have either the USDA or state inspection stamp (again, with exceptions as provided by relevant Texas state regulations for some livestock). Meats processed by custom butchers, whose packages are stamped, "Not for sale", may not be delivered by the cooperative. Any meat packages brought to delivery day stamped "not for sale" will be returned to the producer.
  4. Sales for live animals may be booked through the cooperative. The producer can then, as a courtesy, arrange with the customer to deliver the animal to the processing plant of the customer's choice. If the processing plant is a USDA or state inspected facility, the meat may be delivered by the cooperative. if the processing plant is a custom butcher, the producer and customer will have to make their own arrangements for delivery.
  5. Standards for processed or prepared foods:
    1. Processed and prepared foods that are offered for sale shall be submitted with a complete list of ingredients. Ingredients that originate in the Cross Timbers Coop membership area shall be noted. The producer should estimate the locally produced/purchased content of the product.
    2. Producers shall not include CAFO meats, poultry, or eggs or derivatives from them as ingredients in their processed products.
    3. Genetically modified animals, plants, seeds, grains, or fruits shall not knowingly be used as ingredients.
    4. Customer members of the Cross Timbers Food Co-op are interested in local foods produced with sustainable practices that show good stewardship of the environment. Consequently, they have a preference for organically or naturally produced foods that originate locally in the north Texas area and will be much more likely to buy these foods, which they regard as superior to the foods offered by supermarkets.
    5. Producers will exercise due diligence in the selection of their raw materials to insure that they are produced, traded, and/or distributed sustainably, equitably, and responsibly, and are in accordance with the ideals and principles of the CTFC . Producers will maintain documentaion or other evidence stating such. Examples of appropriate documentaion are certifications from TransFair USA, Smithsonian Institute, Rainforest Alliance, ForestCare, etc.
  6. All new products from new or existing producer members must be reviewed by the Compliance and Standards Committee to ensure that they are eligible for sale through the cooperative. To review your product(s), this information is required:
    1. A statement regarding the geographic location of the origin of your products and that you are the grower or producer. In the statement, the producer must give the exact location(s) where the crop(s) was or were grown, animals were raised, or processed product was prepared.
    2. A statement regarding your production practices, which explains whether you use herbicides, pesticides, or chemical fertilizers in producing the product. For animals, tell us if you use bovine growth hormone or routinely put antibiotics in feed. No animal products or byproducts may be used in animal feeds of meats sold through the cooperative. If your product is certified organic, include a copy of the organic certification.
    3. For processed products, a list of ingredients, note any of local origin and estimate the local content of the product, and a statement regarding the processing practices. Also include the location of the kitchen or processing facility for each product.
    4. The information regarding new products or changed products must be sent by email to producers@crosstimberscoop.org. If you do not have email, they should be mailed to the committee at Cross Timbers Food Cooperative, P.O. Box 565, Denton, TX 76202.
    5. Once the product is approved, follow the procedure described below to actually list your product in our database for access by our members. Getting the product approved, and then having it appear in our database of currently available products are two different steps.
  7. To protect the integrity of our marketing system, the cooperative reserves the right to verify the production claims and geographic production location of everything sold through our marketplace.
  8. Each producer has a page (or pages) in the on-line Customer Handbook and information on our website and in the cooperative's price and product lists for their product(s). Each producer also has a page to introduce themselves and tell the story of their farming operations and its products.
  9. Producers set their own prices, and receive the full retail price they set for their products, less the cooperative's shipping and handling fee for producers (presently set at 5%). The charges the cooperative makes for its services are always under review in consideration of our expenses. The cooperative is not in a position to lose money on its operations, so the financial structure of the cooperative may be changed from time to time.
  10. We have a monthly order/delivery cycle. As membership and sales increase, we will increase the frequency, first to twice a month, then to weekly.
  11. You may book orders in advance through our service. For example, meat producers may take orders for meat in advance of the actual dates the animals will be delivered, to allow appropriate time for processing of the meat or poultry. Vegetable producers can book sales for the following season from customers interested in larger amounts of produce, for example, people who do home canning may be interested in buying vegetables by the bushel, and this can be arranged in advance.
  12. The cooperative can act as the order and delivery agent for customers buying live animals directly from producers that will be processed at a custom butcher. If the cooperative has to pick up the meat directly from the processor as agent for the customer member, an extra cooperative charge may be added for this purpose.
  13. Producer members must comply with any relevant health codes or agricultural laws regarding direct sales of farm and food products. The Cross Timbers Food Cooperative serves as the agent of the buyers and sellers, performing a "cross-docking" function, and at no time does the cooperative have title to the products; products are at all times owned either by the buyer or the seller.

 

Return to About Us page.