How do I know if something is organic?
Many of the farms and producers we work with are certified organic under the National Organic Program regulations. However, for a variety reasons some farms choose not to become certified but rather to follow as closely as possible organic management practices without formal government oversight. Only some of our CSA member farms have organic certification, but all of the farms use sustainable, low impact growing practices.
What is sustainable?
Sustainable agriculture is a method of farming that produces food without damaging the ecosystem of the land. Two important pieces to sustainability are the physical aspect (soil and productivity) and the socio-economic (farm income and labor). Sustainability also has to do with environmental stewardship, the profitability of small farms, and farming communities.
What is seasonal?
Seasonal refers to what the land produces at any given time of year according to the local environment and the availability of water, sunshine, and soil nutrients. Each vegetable or fruit is produced in profusions but for a relatively short period of time. Eating seasonally entails eating what is available when it is available locally, and canning or freezing what we can't eat fresh for the upcoming winter months.
What is local?
There is an increasing sentiment that we should all eat more foods raised within our bio region, it is based on the belief that the choices we make about what foods we eat have importance in the spheres of politics, the environment, the economy, and health. Grocery store food travels an average of 1,500 miles before we get it. Not only is the long-distance journey costly, but food that travels and sits, is distributed and sits in a store, loses a great deal of its freshness, nutritional value, and (importantly!) taste. Eating local foods benefits your local economy, is more nutritious and better tasting, helps protect genetic diversity, preserves open space, and maintains a clean environment.
What is a bioregion?
A territory defined by a combination of biological, social, and geographic criteria, rather than geopolitical considerations; generally, a system of related, interconnected ecosystems'.
What is free range?
Free range indicates that animals are permitted to roam freely rather than being caged or contained. Ideally, free range animals live naturally, using their instinctual behaviors whether or not they are eventually killed for meat. An example of a symbiotic advantage of free-range animals on a farm is the insect control provided by free range chickens. Because there are few regulations imposed on what can be called free range, the term may not insure that animals are raised humanely. It's best to know your farmer.
What is all Natural Beef?
No antibiotics or hormones are added to the feed or administered during the feeding period. But calf-hood vaccinations are given at birth. The animals may be raised exclusively on grass, with no supplemental grain during their life span or they may be fed a grain of corn silage and hay the last 60 to 90 days.
What is fair trade?
If we only ate locally, we wouldn't have to worry about Fair Trade. But we wouldn"t be drinking coffee or eating chocolate either. If you do imbibe, the Fair Trade label ensures that the farmers who grow your beans are getting a fair shake. Importers of Fair Trade coffee and chocolates (and a host of other foreign-made items) agree to pay a fair price for the goods (a price that covers sustainable production and quality of life for the producer). Producers agree to form democratically controlled cooperatives.
What's a CSA?
CSA stands for "Community Supported Agriculture." CSA is a grass-roots revolution! After WWII, farmers were told by the Department of Agriculture to "get big or get out." The result was huge mono-crop farms (that degrade the soil and water) and the attendant use of chemicals to produce tasteless food that travels long distances across the country (and around the globe). Organic farms are mostly small and cleave to more traditional methods of farming that provide a diversity of products, stewardship of soil and water and air, and high-quality, good tasting and nutritious food. Unfortunately, the food industry supports commercial farming, not organic. CSA is turning the tables. CSA supports small scale farmers who don't receive government subsidies or have contracts with huge food companies. CSA's are partnerships between consumers and farmers. Most CSA's work on the model of financiers/customers pay "seed money" up front for a share of what the farm produces. And traditionally they also share the risks, eating what the farmers grow and accepting the vagaries of weather and insects and other unknowns.
What does “Certified Naturally Grown” mean?
When USDA's Organic program was implemented in 2002, many farms earning more than $5,000 per year were forced to make a difficult choice: either pay high certification fees and complete mounds of paperwork to become Certified Organic, or else give up using the word "organic" to describe their produce and/or livestock.
Believing that neither choice was very attractive, some farmers created Certified Naturally Grown to provide an alternative way to assure their customers that they observed strict growing practices. CNG strives to strengthen the organic movement by removing financial barriers to certification that tend to exclude smaller direct-market farms, while preserving high standards for natural production methods.
CNG's Certification Standards are based on the highest principles and ideals of organic farming. CNG's Certification Standards take as their starting point the USDA Organic Standards, but Certified Naturally Grown is an independent program not accredited by or in any way affiliated with USDA's National Organic Program.
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