What does that certified organic seal on your food really mean? When you buy from a certified organic family farmer, you can be confident that you’re feeding your family food grown with respect for the environment, without harmful pesticides or synthetic fertilizers and without GMOs. Certified organic farms are inspected annually to ensure that they follow the National Organic Program’s 500+ pages of requirements. In this edition of the Stew, it’s our honor to introduce you to some of our member farmers and food businesses to share the heart, perseverance, and integrity that also comes with their organic seal.

One farmer in our Carolina Organic Project Video Series opted to lose his strawberry crop to a spring hail storm, rather than spray fungicide and lose his organic certification. Another farmer started raising organic beef cattle years before a certified organic processing facility was an option. Why? Because not only does the organic standard represent a promise from these farmers to their customers, it represents their promise to the land.

CFSA is proud to help our amazing farmer and food business members bring organic closer to home. Check out their videos – we promise you’ll be inspired! And if you want to see more organic farms and food in the Carolinas, become a member of CFSA during our 100 New Member Challenge! We’re building our network to increase our impact (consumers, foodies, and ag-tivists, we need you more than ever!). With these new members, we can support more sustainable family farms, grow more local food businesses, and add more voices to advocate for fair farm and food policies. Join us!

Cheers,

Elizabeth Read, CFSA’s Communications and Development Director