Congratulations to These 50 Newly-Certified Farmers and Beekeepers

We are delighted to welcome these 50 farmers and beekeepers who have completed all the requirements for CNG certification since the end of June. They are listed below alphabetically by state and province.

Sending big thanks to the Certified Naturally Grown garlic farmers who shared their input to help create these two new signs! 

Hoe in hand, hand weeding the garlic. Goeffrey Yockey (right) and Jaykob Dolquist (left)

We wanted to learn a little more about what it's like to be a Certified Naturally Grown garlic farmer, so we spoke with Jana Yockey of Garlic Gods in the Magic Valley region Idaho, which became certified in June of 2020. With a farm name like that, we knew they'd have some insight to share!

Certified Naturally Grown is pleased to be partnering with Organic Growers School on a multi-year project to offer courses on production methods for ecological farmers. We will have more information to share about that soon. Meanwhile...

We thought many in our community would be interested to learn about their upcoming 7th Annual Harvest Conference. It is being offered online for the first time this September 11 & 12, which makes it easier for all members of the CNG community to participate! Read on to learn more about this and other educational opportunities with Organic Growers School!

Vera and Slava Strogolov are scientists and beekeepers who believe that microbes can change the world. They put their passion into practice through their business, Strong Microbials, the first company to create probiotics for honeybees. Welcome to our Business Allies community, Strong Microbials!

Flashback to another time (Autumn, 2019): Two farmers inside a tunnel completing a peer inspection, without masks 

When we asked the Certified Naturally Grown membership how we could better support them during the COVID-19 Pandemic, the number one request was for flexibility with CNG's peer inspection requirement. People were concerned about the health risks posed by such a contagious virus. We wanted to help keep our members healthy, so we've granted flexibility with inspection deadlines as a stopgap solution.

But for the long run, it was important to investigate alternative, safe approaches to conducting peer inspections - ones that would protect the health and safety of our members. It seemed very unlikely the pandemic would just disappear in a few months. So we began to explore the option to conduct remote inspections via video call, where the farmer receiving the inspection gives a live virtual tour of their farm and fields questions from their peer inspector who is at another location.

Farm Brigge connects farmers, eaters, farm workers and farmer's markets through an online platform full of educational resources and communication and marketing tools. Right now, there are thousands of farmers, farmer markets, eaters and more than 500 farmer's markets participating in this thriving online community. We recently had a chance to interview co-founder Troy Rice about the story behind Farm Brigge and its many angles. Thank you for joining our Business Allies program, Farm Brigge!

With the input of CNG beekeepers, we created two new market safety signs, and one Proud to Be sign!

Special Focus This Quarter: Black Farmers of CNG

The current moment has us looking closely at what role Certified Naturally Grown can play to help overcome racial inequity, particularly within our farming and food systems. Our inquiry is in the early stages, but in the spirit of elevating Black voices, this Harvest Quarterly is dedicated to featuring some of the Black CNG farmers we are proud to have in our community, plus the usual task of welcoming our latest crop of newly-certified members. The other content we had originally intended to share here can wait, and will be included in our next monthly update, in our Naturally Grown News. (Sign up here to get our updates delivered to your inbox.)

A Whopping 84 Newly-Certified Farmers and Beekeepers

Not everyone who applies to CNG qualifies to complete the certification process. So we are delighted to welcome and congratulate the 84 producers who achieved this distinction since the end of February, including bumper crops from Georgia and Virginia, with 14 and 8 new members from each respectively. Read more to see all of our newly-certified producers listed below alphabetically by state and province.