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"Certified Naturally Grown." Really?
Yesterday, I visited Minneapolis' Mill City Farmers Market. As I wandered around, I noticed Burning River Farm had "certified naturally grown" on its signs, and my greenwash radar beeped.
Natural is one of those vague, meaningless words, always thrown around by greenwashing companies.
So, I asked if they had certified organic products, and they gave an honest, "No." I bought my carrots elsewhere.
Since part of the market's mission is "to promote local, sustainable and organic agriculture, increasing economic opportunities for farmers, urban youth, small businesses and food artisans" I stopped at the market's info booth to ask about their requirements for farms to claim certification.
Thankfully, the market director was able to answer my questions. She said that to use the word "certified" vendors had to provide the market with proof of certification. After a moment she mentioned that one of the farms was "Certified Natural Grown." I perked up -- and asked whether that was an actual certification. She said yes, we talked a little more about what it was, and when I got home I did more research.
I found this Wikipedia article. Evidently, the creators wanted to have a nonprofit alternative to the USDA's organic standards that was accessible to small farmers. They do have certification requirements, including inspections.
I'm pleasantly surprised, and won't avoid Burning River Farm's produce next time around. I'm also a astounded that Certified Natural Grown picked the word "natural" despite all the education groups like this Brigade and TerraChoice have done to inform consumers that "natural" isn't a useful word for consumers.
Have we, the educators, gone wrong? Or can Certified Natural Grown make "natural" meaningful - and communicate that to consumers?
We're CNG too. If you think about it, CNG is basically what "Organic" meant before the USDA got involved. There are a lot of farms that were organic before 2002. They used peer-certification back then, with no fees paid to inspectors, who were just fellow farmers committed to growing food without herbicides, non-organic pesticides, chemical fertilizers, and frankenseed.
Also, while the national organic program allows for small farms, under $5000/yr in revenue (I think) to call themselves organic, they can't use the NOP organic logo. But some states, like ours, don't even allow that. You can only say you're organic if you're NOP certified. If you're only making $4000 per year growing organic veggies part time, you have to shell out 1/4 of your revenue to call your produce "organic". That's not really a good business decision at that point.
Hello, my name is Mike, owner and operator of Burning River Farm, mentioned in this article.
Yes, the farm is Certified Naturally Grown. We have gone with this label as opposed to USDA Organic for a few reasons. One is a marketing reason. We do very little sales to co-ops or restaurants and so have no need for an Organic label for a store shelf. Most of our produce goes directly to our farm members or customers at the Mill City Market, many of which know the farm and practices used. Second is political. Certification should be independent of government and for profit entities to remain unbiased. USDA Organic is both government and for profit in most cases. CNG more closely fits this ideal. Third is just to buck the mainstream perception about all of it and perhaps get people to ask questions and get to know their farmer. USDA Organic is useful for people to have some kind of assurance that the food they are eating was at least somewhat responsibly grown, due to the fact that they will never meet the farmer who grew that item. We sell everything directly. Do you want to know how we grow things? "Are you Organic?" is not the right question. "What do you do for fertility?", "How do you control pests and disease?" "What are your weed control practices?" These are questions to ask your farmer.
Well, we are a CNG farm, and also have lost faith in the word "organic". There are so many exceptions made for the large corporations to comply with the certified organic movement, that the word "organic" just doesn't mean much anymore. We still purchase dried 100% organic herbs for our teas and spice products, but on the fresh end of the business, we are more comfortable with CNG, no loopholes for chemicals, no exceptions, just pure and simple growing.
Janne,
I found your posting very interesting. Our family purchased a farm a few years back and have been resting the land and preparing to start a sustainable "natural" farm operation. At first i was hot to trot to become certified organic. Then i read a few of Joel Salatin's books, then Food Inc, Omnivore's dilemma etc etc. I became discouraged by the fact that big multinational corporations and the FDA are highjacking the Organic movement. I have lost a lot of faith in the organic label. This is the same Federal government that proclaimed it same to resume commercial gulf fishing operations in record time after the oil spill and use of banned dispersant. Funny we don't hear much of that anymore.......we will once the toxins have time to work up the food chain!
Anyway when I came upon the CNG label I was intrigued. I may be mistaken but I think they may be on to something good.
Your thoughts?
The National Organic Program was from it's inception a political project to weaken smaller famers. It was funded and lobbied for by Big Food. People complain about how the "standards" are being diluted every year. But were the standards sufficient to begin with?
Certified Natural means that they are principled growers and want to eat and sell food with no pesiticides,fungicides, insecticides artificial fertilizers. If it's called "natural" that's fine. But one thing it isn't (thankfully) is "organic"
Why don't you spend more time exposing the "Organic" program for what it really is?: The monopolization of small farmers under the guise of "cleaner," more "nutritious," and "safer" food, everything that "organic" is not. Certified Natural are the real "organic" growers. Give it time and the USDA, with the funding of free market Big Food producers, will coopt these farmers as well.
You time woulod be better spent exposing the ies about "Certified Organic" The coveted green "organic" label is just a license to charge double the price. That's why we have Smuckers "organic" jelly and peanut butter!!!! Wake up!
