Farmers interested in transitioning to organic crop production will have access to a new series of free webinars beginning January 14, 2026. The “Transition to Organic Webinar Series” is organized by the Community Alliance with Family Farmers (CAFF), UC Cooperative Extension, and the UC Organic Agriculture Institute, which is part of UC Agriculture and Natural Resources.
The sessions will take place every Wednesday at noon through March 18, 2026. Each webinar includes a 75-minute presentation and discussion followed by optional office hours. Topics covered include certification processes, market dynamics, soil health, pest and weed management, biodiversity, recordkeeping, and inspections. Spanish and Hmong interpretation will be available for all sessions.
“This is the first time UC ANR is partnering with CAFF to offer such a series focused on transition to organic,” said Margaret Lloyd, UCCE organic agriculture and small farms advisor for Yolo, Sacramento and Solano counties. “Ultimately, we hope to provide the resources, community and support to folks who want to make a successful transition.”
California leads the nation in organic farming. According to a recent report from the California Department of Food and Agriculture, there were over 3,300 organic producers in California in 2023.
Grace Jackson of CAFF’s Farmer Services team explained that the series aims to bring together technical assistance providers and farmers: “This series brings together technical assistance providers and farmers to explore the full range of challenges producers face when transitioning to organic – from certification and market considerations to management practices, biodiversity, recordkeeping and inspections.”
Katharina Ullmann from the UC Organic Agriculture Institute noted that previous workshops revealed strong demand for more information: “Standalone workshops are great, but there is a lot of information to cover in a two- or three-hour workshop,” Ullmann said. “We thought it would be helpful to have a longer, regular series, where we would have a whole hour to dig into a specific transition topic.”
The lineup includes farmer panels as well as presentations from certifiers, inspectors, UCCE advisors and specialists. Ullmann added: “Over the past three decades many individual farmers and other partners like the UC Santa Cruz Center for Agroecology, the CCOF [California Certified Organic Farmers] Foundation and the Ecological Farming Association [EcoFarm] have provided training on transitioning to organic production. We are excited to add to that body of work.”
The content was shaped by feedback collected during needs assessment surveys conducted by the Organic Agriculture Institute across California. Growers indicated they needed more support on certification processes and paperwork such as developing an Organic System Plan; these topics will be addressed early in the series.
Registration details can be found at https://actionnetwork.org/events/transition-to-organic-webinar-series-for-crop-producers/.
Funding for this initiative comes from several sources including state agencies such as the California Department of Food and Agriculture State Organic Program as well as federal programs like USDA’s Transition to Organic Partnership Program.
