Organic Certification 101

David Gould is Global Head of Sustainability Programs for FoodChain ID. He is a food scientist by training with a degree in Life Sciences from MIT. He has been involved in the food and agriculture sector for the past 25 years and has worked on issues of genetic engineering and its effects on health and ecology since 1996. David was one of the originators of non-GMO standards and certification programs and has stayed closely involved in their development globally throughout their development. Working across a range of sustainability schemes, he has inspected and/or certified thousands of farms, processing facilities, and other value chain actors on 6 continents, and contributed to the formation of numerous standards and policies in addition to non-GMO, including organic, fair trade, fisheries, and non-food agriculture-based sectors. He has and continues to train and consult globally to the private sector and government agencies on sustainable development, quality assurance, policy reform, and stakeholder engagement. Prior to joining FoodChain ID at the beginning of 2019, David spent the previous 7 years as Senior Facilitator for IFOAM - Organics International, where he was instrumental in elaborating best practices in agriculture, its value chains, and the forward trajectory of the organic movement. He lives in Portland, Oregon, where he also spent various years as owner of a small food processing business and a permaculture farm.