Florida Certified Organic Growers

Last updated
Florida Organic Growers
Formation1989
TypeNon-Profit Organization
HeadquartersGainesville, FL
Website http://foginfo.org

Florida Certified Organic Growers and Consumers, also known as Florida Organic Growers or FOG, is a non-profit organization founded in 1987. It is classified as a 501(c) corporation. One of the main facets of FOG is Quality Certification Services, a program that extends through 30 states and 14 countries. FOG is also concerned with community outreach and education in order to promote healthy organic lifestyles and social equity. [1]

Contents

History

Headquartered in Gainesville, Florida, FOG began as community farmers joining together to promote and ensure quality organic food and farming practices. [2]

In response to the Florida Organic Farming and Food Law of 1990 and the Organic Foods Production Act of 1990, FOG began a quality certification program in order to protect consumers and enforce consistent organic standards. [3] In 2001, FOG received their USDA accreditation, allowing it to certify organic farms. FOG also become involved in policy creation and promotion, including the National Organic Program and Farm Bill. [4]

More recently, FOG has expanded its interests to include teaching and research projects oriented towards sharing knowledge and resources to create a healthy and just food system. These projects span from involvement in local farmers' markets to the implementation of organic community and personal gardens in low-income areas. [5]

Quality Certification Services

Florida Organic Growers adopted the name Quality Certification Services (QCS) for its organic certification initiative in 1996 to reflect its widespread clientele. QCS is aimed towards economizing organic certification and fostering diversity, as shown by its 400 member farms. [4]

As of 2001, FOG's Quality Certification Services can USDA certify farming, wildcrafting, livestock, processing, packing and handling operations. These products can be deemed as Certified Organic, Certified Transitional, Certified Hormone, Antibiotic Free, or Organic Aquaculture. These categories help farmers differentiate their products and allow consumers to make informed purchases. [4]

Education and Outreach

Farmers Markets/EBT

EBT Project EBT Project Gainesville.jpg
EBT Project

In late 2010, FOG launched its Alachua County Farmers Markets EBT Project. EBT, or Electronic Benefit Transfer, cards are given by the government to members of the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program for the purpose of purchasing food and non-alcoholic beverages. Before the launch of FOG's EBT Project, there were not many places in Alachua county for people with these federal food benefits to purchase groceries besides standard supermarkets. FOG wanted to implement a method for those with food assistance to purchase fresh, local merchandise at Alachua county farmers' markets. As a result of FOG's EBT program, EBT cards can now be swiped at a FOG vendor booth stationed at various farmers markets for tokens that can be used within the market to purchase meat, produce, and edible plants. [6] This project makes products at the farmers markets available to members of the food assistance program, offering these people more nutritious food options. In addition, the EBT project boosts the local economy by supporting Gainesville farmers and promotes local sustainable agriculture. The FOG booth is also an educational hub, offering resources on gardening, cooking, community events, and more.

From February 2011 through September 2011, the FOG EBT Project offered double value coupons to those using their EBT cards at the Gainesville farmers markets, giving users $2 for every $1 swiped from their card. The funding for this aspect of the project was provided mostly by Alachua county. The double value promotion substantially increased awareness of the program and brought even more money into the local agriculture community. [7]

Gift Gardens

Downtown Farmer's Garden Gift Gardens.jpg
Downtown Farmer's Garden

A project of FOG's main outpost in Alachua County, Florida is the GIFT Gardens. GIFT Gardens—Gainesville's Initiative For Tasty Gardens—have two facets. One entails providing low-income county residents with up to three vegetable garden beds and ample tools and information to maintain them. Allowing families the means to become more self-sufficient and supplement their food supplies upholds FOG's effort towards social justice, as inequity often parallels nutritional disparities. They also provide these services to community centers, such as churches, schools and recreation areas, which can receive up to ten garden beds. [8] There are now over 200 GIFT gardens in Alachua County, all providing nutritious food, education and physical exercise for a healthier community. These gardens are funded by Alachua County and the City of Gainesville, although to supplement FOG offers 1-4-1 gardens, where people purchase personal gardens and the money is used to provide low income areas with a free GIFT garden. [9]

The other component of the GIFT gardens are the community gardens maintained by volunteers. These include the Downtown Farmers Garden, installed in July 2010, and the recent addition of the City Hall garden in May 2011. These gardens provide educational opportunities, and their harvests are donated to local charities and homeless shelters. [10]

Grow Gainesville

In collaboration with Slow Food Gainesville, Abundant Edible Landscapes, the Edible Plant Project, Santa Fe College and The University of Florida, FOG is seeking an "urban gardening network," in which they supply the means and information for people to grow food for themselves, while enhancing the aesthetics of the city. [11] [12]

Grow Gainesville is a membership based organization, whose annual dues fund the operation of an urban garden network. The membership allows access to seeds, equipment and discounts on plants and supplemental materials. [13]

Neighborhood Nutrition Network

The Neighborhood Nutrition Network is a nationally acknowledged food program that created gardens with student participation at three low income schools. The harvests were divided among their cafeterias and the students' families, amounting to over 4,000 pounds. [14]

The project was supported by the USDA Community Food Project grant, awarded in 2000 and 2003. The latter grant allowed the formation and proliferation of the Youth Entrepreneurial Farm and Food Preservation Project, employing at risk high school students at a local farm, giving them the experience to establish their own businesses.

Outreach

FOG also created the Organic Transition Project, an initiative that gives free technical aid to farmers dedicated to switching to organic production. Workshops provide farmers with information on organic farming practices, federal regulation, and farm development. FOG also discusses financial incentives offered to transitioning farmers, as included in the 2008 Farm Bill. [15] [16]

Social Justice

Since 1999, FOG has worked on the Agricultural Justice Project (AJP) to create a "socially just" food label. Such a certification reflects fair working conditions and economic equity, often ignored by standard organic labels. These labels are awarded to business that exemplify an open relationship between producer and consumer, while maintaining environmental and social integrity. [17] To promote the project, FOG administers technical assistance and certification to qualifying farms and gives training to other certifiers, enabling them to verify deserving businesses. [18]

FOG also contributed to the formation of the Domestic Fair Trade Association, oriented towards "health, justice and sustainability." [19] They promote family-scale farming, direct trade, stable pricing, empowerment and transparency, achieved through education and assistance. They recognize that a method for evaluating the social and environmental implications of a business must be devised, and are working towards a sufficient criterion. [20]

Research

FOG's main research was a 2009 to 2011 project entitled "Organic Perspectives: Understanding the Views of Florida Consumers, Specialty Crop Farmers and Retailers."[ citation needed ] The report aimed at unveiling the most pervasive market influences on organic production as opposed to conventional methods, emphasizing attitudes and the consumer component. The research was funded by a grant through the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. [21]

Related Research Articles

Fair trade Sustainable and equitable trade

Fair trade is an arrangement designed to help producers in growing countries achieve sustainable and equitable trade relationships. Members of the fair trade movement add the payment of higher prices to exporters, as well as improved social and environmental standards. The movement focuses in particular on commodities, or products that are typically exported from developing countries to developed countries, but is also used in domestic markets, most notably for handicrafts, coffee, cocoa, wine, sugar, fruit, flowers, and gold.

Farmer Person engaged in agriculture, raising living organisms for food or raw materials

A farmer is a person engaged in agriculture, raising living organisms for food or raw materials. The term usually applies to people who do some combination of raising field crops, orchards, vineyards, poultry, or other livestock. A farmer might own the farmed land or might work as a laborer on land owned by others, but in most developed economies, a farmer is usually a farm owner, while employees of the farm are known as farm workers, or farmhands. However, in other older definitions a farmer was a person who promotes or improves the growth of plants, land or crops or raises animals by labor and attention.

Organic farming Method of agriculture meant to be environmentally friendly

Organic farming is an agricultural system that uses fertilizers of organic origin such as compost manure, green manure, and bone meal and places emphasis on techniques such as crop rotation and companion planting. It originated early in the 20th century in reaction to rapidly changing farming practices. Certified organic agriculture accounts for 70 million hectares globally, with over half of that total in Australia. Organic farming continues to be developed by various organizations today. Biological pest control, mixed cropping and the fostering of insect predators are encouraged. Organic standards are designed to allow the use of naturally-occurring substances while prohibiting or strictly limiting synthetic substances. For instance, naturally-occurring pesticides such as pyrethrin and rotenone are permitted, while synthetic fertilizers and pesticides are generally prohibited. Synthetic substances that are allowed include, for example, copper sulfate, elemental sulfur and Ivermectin. Genetically modified organisms, nanomaterials, human sewage sludge, plant growth regulators, hormones, and antibiotic use in livestock husbandry are prohibited. Organic farming advocates claim advantages in sustainability, openness, self-sufficiency, autonomy and independence, health, food security, and food safety.

Local food Food produced within a short distance of where it is consumed

Local food is food that is produced within a short distance of where it is consumed, often accompanied by a social structure and supply chain different from the large-scale supermarket system.

Outline of organic gardening and farming Overview of and topical guide to organic gardening and farming

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to organic gardening and farming:

Community-supported agriculture Type of sharing system for food production and distribution

Community-supported agriculture or cropsharing is a system that connects the producer and consumers within the food system more closely by allowing the consumer to subscribe to the harvest of a certain farm or group of farms. It is an alternative socioeconomic model of agriculture and food distribution that allows the producer and consumer to share the risks of farming. The model is a subcategory of civic agriculture that has an overarching goal of strengthening a sense of community through local markets.

Organic movement

The organic movement broadly refers to the organizations and individuals involved worldwide in the promotion of organic food and other organic products. It started during the first half of the 20th century, when modern large-scale agricultural practices began to appear.

Organic certification Certification process for producers of organic food and other organic agricultural products

Organic certification is a certification process for producers of organic food and other organic agricultural products. In general, any business directly involved in food production can be certified, including seed suppliers, farmers, food processors, retailers and restaurants. A lesser known counterpart is certification for organic textiles that includes certification of textile products made from organically grown fibres.

Urban agriculture Practice of cultivating, processing and distributing food in or around urban areas

Urban agriculture,urban farming, or urban gardening is the practice of cultivating, processing, and distributing food in or around urban areas. Urban agriculture is also the term used for animal husbandry, aquaculture, urban beekeeping, and horticulture. These activities occur in peri-urban areas as well. Peri-urban agriculture may have different characteristics.

Organic Crop Improvement Association

The Organic Crop Improvement Association (OCIA) is a member-owned, non-profit organization, which provides research, education and certification services to organic growers, processors and handlers around the world. OCIA certifies and verifies farm, livestock, processor/handlers, broker-traders, Community Grower Groups (CGGs), and Private Labels to various programs.

Équiterre is a Canadian non-profit and non-governmental organization, operating in Quebec. It manages a community-supported agriculture system of farms and consumers, including households and institutions.

Organic coffee

Organic coffee is coffee produced without the aid of artificial chemical substances, such as certain additives or some pesticides and herbicides.

Organic food Food complying with organic farming standards

Organic food is food produced by methods complying with the standards of organic farming. Standards vary worldwide, but organic farming features practices that cycle resources, promote ecological balance, and conserve biodiversity. Organizations regulating organic products may restrict the use of certain pesticides and fertilizers in the farming methods used to produce such products. Organic foods typically are not processed using irradiation, industrial solvents, or synthetic food additives.

The term food system is describes the interconnected systems and processes that influence nutrition, food, health, community development and agriculture. A food system includes all processes and infrastructure involved in feeding a population: growing, harvesting, processing, packaging, transporting, marketing, consumption, distribution and disposal of food and food-related items. It also includes the inputs needed and outputs generated at each of these steps. A food system operates within and is influenced by social, political, economic, and environmental contexts. It also requires human resources that provide labor, research and education. Food systems are either conventional or alternative according to their model of food lifespan from origin to plate.

Animal-free agriculture,, consists of farming methods that do not use animals or animal products.

Marin Organic

Marin Organic is a non-profit 501(c)(3) association of organic producers headquartered in Point Reyes Station, California. Founded in 1999 with the goal of creating the first all-organic county, Marin Organic staff and board work with government officials, community groups and organizations, fellow ranchers and farmers to advance the practice of sustainable, organic production. The organization has become an internationally recognized model for building economically viable, community-based local foodsheds.

Citizens Co-op

Citizens Co-op was a food cooperative, or a community owned market located in Gainesville, Florida. It closed in 2016 due to financial issues.

Fairtrade bananas was a marketing initiative which focused on increasing the price paid to small banana growers and the wages of agricultural workers. This is not a commercial brand, but a marketing strategy. Fair trade is based on higher prices paid by consumers that allow an equitable distribution of gains from trade over the chain partners.

David Vetter is an organic farmer and leader in the sustainable agriculture movement. He was instrumental in developing the infrastructure for the organic food production system in the United States.

References

  1. ↑ "Florida Organic Growers". Florida Organic Growers. Retrieved 3 November 2011.
  2. ↑ "What is FOG?". Biting Sparrow. Archived from the original on 25 April 2012. Retrieved 3 November 2011.
  3. ↑ "Federal Organic Foods Production Act Of 1990" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-09-29. Retrieved 2011-11-07. US Code 7, §§ 6501-22
  4. 1 2 3 "Quality Certification Services" . Retrieved 3 November 2011.
  5. ↑ "Florida Organic Growers Charity | Gainesville Florida United States charities guide find a charity to donate or volunteer for child elderly homeless organizations and more". charity-charities.org. Retrieved 25 March 2016.
  6. ↑ "SNAP cardholders can now buy fresh farm products". The Gainesville Sun. Retrieved 4 November 2011.
  7. ↑ "Double your SNAP bucks at farmers' markets". The Gainesville Sun. Retrieved 4 November 2011.
  8. ↑ "Gift Gardens helps people get healthy, self-sufficient". The Gainesville Sun. Retrieved 4 November 2011.
  9. ↑ "Florida Organic Growers building gardens at schools in Gainesville, Alachua, Hawthorne". Alachua County Today. Retrieved 4 November 2011.
  10. ↑ "Downtown Farmer's Garden Now A Reality". Gainesville Sun. Retrieved 4 November 2011.
  11. ↑ "Slow Food Gainesville". Project. Retrieved 4 November 2011.
  12. ↑ "Gainesville". Edible Gardens. Retrieved 4 November 2011.
  13. ↑ "Let your gardens grow with a little help". The Gainesville Sun. Retrieved 4 November 2011.
  14. ↑ "Current Reports". What Kids Can Do. Archived from the original on 7 April 2012. Retrieved 4 November 2011.
  15. ↑ "April Workshops Provide The Tools For Growers to Transition to Organic". Farmer and Rancher. Archived from the original on 25 April 2012. Retrieved 4 November 2011.
  16. ↑ "Organic Report: Making a Move". The Gainesville Sun. Retrieved 4 November 2011.
  17. ↑ "New certification for organic produce coming to Canada". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 1 January 2013. Retrieved 4 November 2011.
  18. ↑ "Food Justice Certify" (PDF). Food Justice Certified. Archived from the original (PDF) on 12 April 2012. Retrieved 4 November 2011.
  19. ↑ "FAQ". Domestic Fair Trade Association. Retrieved 4 November 2011.
  20. ↑ "What We Do". Domestic Fair Trade Association. Retrieved 4 November 2011.
  21. ↑ "FDACS Funds Projects To Enhance Florida Specialty Crop Competitiveness". Florida Agriculture. Retrieved 4 November 2011.
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