By Harshawn Ratanpal (KBIA)
On a cold winter day in Illinois, three little pigs are resting in a three-sided shed. They have plenty of space to trot around, as they do when Jennifer Duensing approaches. Those footsteps mean it's feeding time. They squeal impatiently, waiting for their usual diet of organic feed, which sometimes includes vegetables like squash grown right here on the farm.
The farm, Illinois Country Harvest, had been in Duensing’s family for generations when she took it over in 2015. She was new to farming, so there was a lot to learn about how to best manage the near-12 acres now under her purview. But one thing she definitely knew was that she wanted to manage the land, crops and animals without chemical inputs.
“We use absolutely zero chemicals, which means if we have pests, we don't spray,” she said.
There are countless certifications she could have chosen and labels she could slap on her products to try and prove her farm has good practices. In the midst of rising consumer demand for organic foods, a nonprofit called “A Greener World” which “promotes practical, sustainable solutions in agriculture by supporting farmers and educating consumers” has a 15-page guide that attempts to clear up consumer confusion around labels that use terms like “natural,” “humane” and “organic.”
Certified Naturally Grown was a perfect fit for how she was already running her farm.
“Our certification process is really pretty simple, because we have zero chemical inputs,” she said. “There's nothing we had to justify or have reasoning for, because we just do not use anything.”
Started in 2002, the non-profit organization’s standards are modeled after the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Certified Organic Label, but they’re designed to give farmers a cheaper and more accessible way to certify and communicate how their farms work.
“A lot of farmers are committed to ecological practices, and probably would qualify for organic certification, but they hesitate because of the expense and also the paperwork,” said Alice Varon, CNG’s executive director.
“There's some minor differences, but for the most part, it’s just like the National Organic Program.” she added.
USDA Organic certification vs. CNG
Liz Graznak is a certified organic farmer in Jamestown, Mo. The program’s requirements vary by produce and animal, but generally, it requires the use of “eco-friendly pest control,” “natural fertilizers,” and for farmers to allow animals to “roam freely outdoors.” She has to renew her certification every year.
After adopting organic practices, the next step is applying to a USDA-accredited certifying agent. While there are more than 17,000 certified organic farms operating in the U.S, there are less than 80 certifying agencies. They send inspectors out to interview farmers and check that they are abiding by the USDA standards.
“Someone comes to my farm and pretty much spends the entire day at the farm looking through my records, looking through the records of the crop rotations that I use, what was planted in what field last year, what was planted in that field this year,” Graznak said. “I have those records for 14 years of my farming,”
She pays the certifier for this service, including their travel costs.
“I was with an agency out of Florida that based their costs on a percentage of my sales,” she said.
A few years ago, she switched to a closer certifier – based out of Oklahoma. Out of the 73 active agencies, there aren’t any headquartered in Missouri.
Her bill is usually $2,000 to $3,000 a year.
The USDA does have a cost-sharing program that can help reimburse organic farmers for up to 75% of these costs, which is capped at $750 per certification category, which include “crops, wild crops, livestock, processing/handling, and state organic program fees.”
Varon said the reimbursement is useful, but fronting the cash is still a barrier for small operations.
CNG certification costs just $250 a year. That’s because instead of certifying agencies, CNG farmers are peer-reviewed by other CNG farmers, either in-person or online. CNG provides farmers with training and allows them to virtually observe inspections of other farms.
“It helps keep the program affordable for the farmers because they're not paying someone to come out and do the annual inspection,” Varon said. “Instead, they agree to conduct a peer review of another farmer if there's someone nearby who needs one.”
To be certified organic, farmers must stop using chemical inputs for three years, and the certification process typically takes about six months.
According to CNG’s website, it takes one year of growing and selling before farmers can apply, and certification usually takes two months or fewer.
The other hurdle CNG is trying to help farmers avoid is laborious bookkeeping. The organic certification requires farmers like Graznak to keep diligent, in-depth and plentiful paperwork of what they do on their farms and when.
“It's extremely arduous, an immense amount of record keeping for all things that I do on the farm, from the compost that I buy to the seeds that I buy to the fertilizers that I buy,” Graznak said.
It’s such a common challenge that there are even bookkeeping companies to help farmers remain compliant with the standards.
“For example, I have to keep very detailed records of planting, seeding, and harvesting,” she said.
Duensing said the paperwork was a major reason she avoided USDA organic certification.
“That kind of scares me a little bit to be overwhelmed with all that,” she said.
CNG still requires paperwork, but a lot less. It requires an application that details the farm’s operations, which becomes available to the public. There’s also a form to fill out during annual inspections. They’re also asked to keep receipts of purchases, like seeds, in case an inspector wants to take a look.
“We want to know how they're producing the crops, what are the inputs and what seeds they're using,” Varon said.
Varon said another benefit to CNG is the networking opportunities from the peer-to-peer inspection.
Jill Beebout runs Blue Gate Farm in Chariton, Iowa. There are two other CNG farms near her, and she says the peer-review process has given her ideas about how to better her own farm.
“I've learned great things about improving our fruit tree production or orchard management, things that I didn't know,” she said.
CNG peaked with around 800 certified farms around 2018. Post-pandemic, they’re down to 600. Varon says that may say less about CNG and more about general trends in farming – the number of farms has been steadily decreasing, while the average farm size has been increasing, according to the USDA. In 2023, the average size of a U.S. farm was 464 acres. Most CNG farms are just 2-10 acres.
Varon said they typically ask farmers who choose not to renew their certification why they left the program.
“The main reasons are they've stopped farming, or they can't justify the cost and effort of certification with the value it's bringing to them,” she said.
The USDA doesn’t publish surveys on the National Organic Program every year, but between 2021 and 2019, there was a 5% increase in the number of organic producers
Label confusion
While some seek out certification alternatives to the organic label, Graznak says the cost and “arduous” process of getting USDA’s certification are worth it because the label is both recognizable and trusted.
“The public knows what the USDA label is, they recognize that, and it means something,” Graznak said.
According to a survey by a trade association of organic businesses, she’s right. The group’s 2024 survey estimates that the label is “trusted by 70 percent of consumers.”
Graznak said it's a quick way to communicate how she grows her produce, which is particularly important because she sells in retail and wholesale spaces where she can’t have conversations with every customer.
“I sell to 500 plus customers every Saturday (at the farmers market), and I can't have a long detailed conversation with all of them.” she said.
With so many labels on the market, there aren’t a lot of things that can cut through the noise like the USDA’s Certified organic label, and there are a lot of gaps in knowledge about what they even mean.
David Lovelady purchased produce from Graznak at the Columbia Farmers Market. Eating healthy is important to him, but he says the current labeling system is confusing..
“It’s a leap of faith,” he said. “There will probably be an additional cost to these particular labels, (like USDA Certified Organic) but I don't mind that. I want to make sure that I put good fuel in my body, because I feel it's a temple, so I want to make sure that I get what I pay for.”
Another customer, Barbara Parker, agreed.
“It’s kind of like playing Russian roulette with your food,” Parker said. “You want to know that your cows ate grass, you don't want to know that your cows ate ‘question mark.’”
An uphill battle
Sharon Gray at the University of Connecticut’s Department of Extension works on fixing the knowledge gap around labels. She educates consumers about nutrition and what food labels do or don’t mean.
She said consumers sometimes see terms like “natural” as buzzwords without backing, so Certified Naturally Grown might be in an uphill battle to earn trust and recognition.
“People do like purchasing natural foods,” Gray said. “I think right now, it's just the definition isn't clear enough that people buy it, and it's not necessarily regulated.”
CNG is making an effort to increase its name recognition and opportunities for certified producers.
“We have some funding from the USDA for a three-year project to really invest in expanding customer awareness of what it means for a farm to be Certified Naturally Grown,” Varon said.
The grant was given through the USDA’s Farmers Market Promotion Program. CNG received over $400,000 for the project, with the goal of “Opening Doors and Boosting Sales for Local and Certified Producers.” It will start in western Virginia and central Arkansas and will roll out to a third location sometime in the next three years.
“We really want to expand the purchasing of local direct sales from farmers to independent grocers of locally produced food, and then help those grocers feature what food is local and what food is certified,” Varon said.
With the money, they’ll also train farmers in marketing their business and reach out to grocers, influencers and media to do outreach about local producers and what labels like CNG mean.
But some CNG farmers don’t seem too worried about the label’s recognition. Duensing, of Illinois Country Harvest, has a small operation and sells directly to consumers. She’s not in retail stores and she’s able to directly show and tell her customers exactly how her animals are treated and how her produce is grown.
She said that communicates more than any label could. For her, being Certified Naturally Grown is to prove to her consumers, and herself, that she’s following those standards correctly.
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