By Suzannah Schneider, Communications Manager and Certification Coordinator

We're proud to share a brand new perk of the Certified Naturally Grown membership!

CNG farms can now post an unlimited number of jobs for free on Good Food Jobs.

With a unique-to-CNG offer code, CNG members will save at least $60 when posting on GFJ.

This special code is valid through February 16, 2021, but it's only available to CNG members.

If you're already certified and want to take advantage of this offer, drop a note to [email protected] to get the secret code.

Note: if you're not ready to hire staff for your farm, Good Food Jobs also offers listings for:

- Internships/apprenticeships

- Summer jobs

- Educational opportunities

- Americorps

- Positions with non-monetary compensation, including college credit

By Suzannah Schneider, Communications Manager and Certification Coordinator

We are overjoyed to announce that there are now over 100 markets listed in our Guide to Exceptional Markets (GEMs)!

In fact, the majority of states in the US now have markets listed in this highly selective roster!

We're proud to promote qualified GEMs markets around the country - including these five recently-added listings that helped us surpass 100:

GreenStar Cooperative in Ithaca, NY

Crossroads Farmers Market in Takoma Park, MD

Lake Saint Louis Farmers & Artists Market in Wentzville, MO

Memphis Farmers Market in Memphis, TN

Schenectady Greenmarket in Schenectady, NY

If you're new to the sparkling world of GEMs, let us introduce you: these are the farmers markets, coops, and independent grocers that have made a conscious effort to recognize and prefer the farmer vendors who verify their growing practices with a certification. In turn, Certified Naturally Grown qualifies, applauds, and rewards these markets that are building a better food system by encouraging ecological practices.

Find a listing of all the GEMs markets across the US and Canada here!

Our Guide has three tiers: Recognized, Preferred, and Required. Each tier offers exciting benefits for the markets that make the cut, including social media promotion, a free press release, a dedicated blog post, stacks of temporary tattoos, and more.

You're invited to check out the full benefits package. We're open and interested in other collaborations we can think up together!

Does your neighborhood market feature certified vendors?

If there's at least one CNG farmer, let us know!

We would be delighted if it qualifies, and will happily add it to our GEMs listing.

Farmers, you're especially invited to recommend your market for our GEMs guide! You'll be making sure your market gets as much promotion as possible with the help of the marketing perks that come with being listed in GEMs.

Just click the button below to #PitchYourMarket!

Upcoming GEMs Webinars

Want to learn more about our Guide to Exceptional Markets? Wondering if your market is a good fit?

Register for an upcoming GEMs webinar lead by CNG's Executive Director. The webinar will wrap up with a Q&A session.

Tuesday, February 11, 2020
1pm Eastern / noon Central / 10am Pacific
Click here to register

If this time don't work for you, register for future invitations here.

Top photo: Flowers from Whitton Farms at Memphis Farmers Market (L) and cabbage at Dodo Farms (top R) at Crossroads Farmers Market (bottom L) helped grow our GEMs guide to 100+ listings!

By Suzannah Schneider, Communications Manager and Certification Coordinator

We are so excited to share a fresh series of videos about the Certified Naturally Grown community!

With extraordinary editing and videography help from Steve Merkel of Vegetable Power Farm in Pennsylvania, along with a handful of other outstanding CNG producers, we've compiled videos of different lengths to share what Certified Naturally Grown is all about: peer-review certification, ecological practices, transparency, and advocacy.

They're a great resource to introduce your community to our grassroots group and share your pride to be a part of this participatory certification.

Can you help us share these clips throughout your network?

• Share the videos on Facebook to tell your community you're #CNGproud
  • Share the 8 minute video (our favorite!)
  • Share the 60 second video
  • Share the 30 second video
• Embed the videos on your website to introduce your customers and others to your certification
  • When watching on YouTube.com, click the SHARE button on the lower right side of the video screens then click Embed to copy and paste the code for your site. Email us if you have any questions about this process, as it's a bit high-tech (but very effective!). 
• Share the video links by email or text message with farmers who would be a good fit for the CNG community, or anyone else who's new to Certified Naturally Grown: your farmers market manager, your CSA members, your employees, your local faith leader, your mother-in-law, your barber...you get the idea!
  • 8 minute video link (again, it's our favorite!)
  • 60 second video link
  • 30 second video link
• Email us to receive the raw video files to share as Instagram posts

Endless thanks to the following producers who poured their time, energy, and enthusiasm into creating their community-sourced footage for these clips:
A Gardens Glory, FL
Bee Boys, HI
Caribe United Farm, GA
J and L Farm & Stables, GA
New Way Aquaponic Farms, TN
Tooth of the Lion Farm and Apothecary, PA
Valhalla Organics, OR
Vegetable Power Farm, PA

You can watch all of the videos after the jump.

Don't forget to share!

By Suzannah Schneider, Communications Manager and Certification Coordinator

Welcome Leonard Githinji, Katie Gourley, Kim Karris, and Jasmine Nielsen!

We are thrilled to welcome four new board members to our grassroots group! They bring with them a true breadth of experience from different fields within the food system and all around the country. These new members hail from Virginia, Oregon, Georgia, and New York, and join the Certified Naturally Grown Board of Directors for a three-year term.

But before we introduce them, we'd like to offer deep thanks to our two outgoing board members: Jonathan Duffy, former board Chair, and Elizabeth Weller, former board Secretary, for their dedication and contributions over the past three and six (!) years, respectively. We look forward to staying connected with them both in their continuing roles as beekeeper (Jonathan) and farmer (Elizabeth). 

Thank you Jonathan Duffy and Elizabeth Weller!

Read on to meet the new folks joining our returning board members: Andrew Linker, board Chair and Ross Margulies. Welcome Leonard Githinji, Katie Gourley, Kim Karris, and Jasmine Nielsen!

Help power the impact of peer inspections for hardworking farmers! 

Boost learning for CNG growers like Tooth of the Lion Farm!

You know as well as we do that farming is a knowledge-intensive occupation, and insights shared by experienced farmers can significantly boost the odds of success. Helping farmers to connect with their equally busy peers is quite challenging - but it is invaluable.

It’s also central to CNG’s peer review certification model.

Your special gift will help to enhance the ease of connecting hardworking farmers with peers for inspections, and the value of those interactions when they happen. 

We are starting to pair the most experienced farmers with newer members, while providing more guidance on how to deliver a top-quality inspection, and incentivizing peers to conduct multiple inspections annually.

Can you chip in to help create even more impactful inspections through our new Mentorship program?

When you give, you'll support CNG inspections that:

Build Community	Boost Knowledge	Create Critical Networks	Grow Profits with Values
CNG inspections are about more than checking the boxes of our high growing standards. They are crucial pathways for farmers to find community.	Farming is a knowledge-intensive occupation, and insights shared by experienced farmers during inspections can significantly boost the odds of success.	Peer inspections go far beyond paperwork: they help connect like-minded farmers who choose to grow in harmony with nature.	Growing food is a labor of love. With the technical and community-based support of enhanced CNG inspections, farms will see greater returns on their hard work.

By way of thanks, we'll send new monthly sustainers two hand-drawn CNG bandanas, festooned with seasonal roots, oyster mushrooms, seeds, and crisp greens. (Designed by our own talented Aly Miller, of course!)

Because of you, our group of community-minded growers will have the best chance of success.

Thank you for your support!

By Suzannah Schneider, Communications Manager and Certification Coordinator

We're so proud to announce that we just sent out the third edition of our print newsletter, Growing Above and Beyond. We feel this issue is our best yet! It's chock-full of inspirational stories about the ecologically-focused farmers all around the country making a difference in their communities. 

We're trying to make 20 new friends by October 20. Can you pitch in? When you do, you'll receive a crisp copy of this issue ASAP!
Read on for a sneak peek of the articles...

By Suzannah Schneider, Communications Manager and Certification Coordinator

We're proud to announce that we just sent out the second edition of our print newsletter, Growing Above and Beyond! Read on for a sneak peek of the articles, and learn how to snag your very own copy.

By Suzannah Schneider, Communications Manager and Certification Coordinator

WE DID IT!

Thanks to our generous community, we SURPASSED our 2018 fundraising goal of $3,000 for our Grassroots Fund!

By Suzannah Schneider, Communications Manager and Certification Coordinator

We're proud to announce that we just sent out the first-ever edition of our print newsletter, Growing Above and Beyond! Read on for a sneak peek at the articles, and learn how to snag your very own copy.