Exploring the areas of my expertise.
Since most of us cannot afford the thousands of dollars required to get organic certification from the USDA, an alternative is emerging that will let your customers know you’re approaching beekeeping the natural way, and it won’t cost you a small fortune. Certified Naturally Grown (CNG), a “non-profit offering certification programs tailored for small-scale, direct-market farmers,” is piloting a program for beekeepers in North Carolina and Virginia. This certification will allow you to put the CNG label on your honey. Eventually, this certification will apply to all products of the hive, bees, and queens.
The standards emerging from the pilot program are strict, but they are doable by most beekeepers. To ease the transition, the program does allow for a “transition period” for many management practices except using synthetic chemicals and antibiotics. Most astute, deliberate beekeepers probably meet many of standards already.
To find out more about this program, view the CNG Apiary Standards.
There will be additional workshops this summer concerning disease management in the three regions of NC. The dates for these events will be posted soon. I’ll be helping with these, so I hope to see you there.
April 27, 2010 • Beekeeping
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