‘certified naturally grown’
when i saw this on a sign attached to a stall at the union square greenmarket today, i was immediately turned off. in general, i am very skeptical of the word NATURAL. it’s plastered all over everything, everywhere and has come to mean absolutely nothing. an empty buzz word. but after talking to the farmer at the evolutionary organics stand, i walked away with pea shoots, garlic and three different varietals of greens (cost: $4 per 4 oz. which is around the same price as buying a bag of salad greens at your average grocery store). evolutionary organics is the name of the farm and they are “certified naturally grown.” CNG is a much smaller not for profit grassroots certification organization who monitors their network of farms in the same ways the USDA does and bases their standards on the USDA’s requirements to be certified organic. except, i am inclined to believe they do a much better job of it. this program is more about the small local farmers, with only 500 farmers nationwide. usda certified organic really supports the large scale farming operations while making a very difficult decision for the small farmer, either invest a large portion of energy in paperwork or stop using the word organic. neither of these really supports the ideals of organic farming. the bottom line is that just because a farm is not usda certified organic, doesn’t mean that they don’t adhere to the principals of organic farming, so talk to the farmers, see what they have to say.
(i was especially drawn to this farm because they carry a lot of unusual greens in the asian spinach/cabbage family, which are my all time favorite greens. today i took home purple pac choi, toraziroh and choy sum.)
