About | Meadowlark — USDA Organic, ROC & Non-GMO Inspector

Experience across agriculture, certification, and sustainability.

Meadowlark was founded by Maclaine Sorden to provide independent expertise grounded in both agricultural systems and the practical work of implementing standards.

Meet Maclaine Sorden

My career has taken me from working on farms in Iowa and serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Nicaragua to agricultural program management, certification inspection, auditing, and consulting.

Along the way, I have worked with producers, food and agricultural businesses, certification organizations, government agencies, universities, conservation partners, and agricultural initiatives in the United States and internationally.

That range of experience has given me the opportunity to see agricultural systems from different perspectives: from the field level to the program level, and from day-to-day production to the standards and institutions designed to support more sustainable practices.

I founded Meadowlark to bring those perspectives together.

A young man with a beard and mustache smiling and wearing a black jacket, gray cap, and sunglasses hanging from his shirt, standing outdoors near a bridge with mountains and trees in the background.

Philosophy

Agriculture has to work in the real world.

Sustainability standards can create meaningful frameworks for agriculture, but their value depends on how effectively they can be understood, evaluated, and implemented.

My approach is grounded in a simple principle: good systems should be rigorous without becoming unnecessarily complicated.

Whether I am conducting an independent inspection or helping an organization prepare for one, I focus on understanding what the standard requires, how the operation actually works, and where the two need to align.