As part of its Specialty Crops Integrated Operating Network (SCION), the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) will issue inspection certificates and audit reports in several formats, using an new online platform that will improve USDA specialty crops inspections.
SCION will be developed and implemented over the next year in three releases. Each release will support expanded functions surrounding USDA specialty crop inspections and audits.
AMS began using SCION on Sept. 24, 2021 for lot inspections, plant surveys, and USDA Good Agricultural Practices audits. These services will soon be accompanied by new SCION certifications. By mid-2022, two additional releases will support the entire USDA specialty crops inspection and audit program.
The next step for AMS is to deploy SCION so stakeholders can receive both traditional inspection and audit documents and SCION-generated outputs.
There may be some slight differences between the new output documents and the old ones, and the new ones will be recognizable by the word “ES.” on the form name. Inspected and audited reports generated by traditional and SCION methods are official USDA documents.
At https://www.ams.usda.gov/services/scion, you can find information about SCION and examples of current and past SCION certificates.
