Setting a STANDARD

Certified Naturally Grown offers a grassroots option for responsible agricultural production and guidance.

- ANNIE MAXWELL

Across the world, trillions of honeybees are hard at work, pollinating vital crops and turning nectar into honey. In various locations near Wilmington, Delaware, more than a million of those bees return home to "microapiaries" under the care of Stephanie Grant.

"I am selective in my locations, as the properties cannot be treated with synthetic herbicides or pesticides," she says. "There needs to be an abundance of natural resources, including a variety of pollen and nectar sources, as well as a water source, and I need to ensure that the safety of the bees and people are always at the forefront. I believe we need to use nature and work with it, not against it." This belief system is what led Grant to pursue Certified Naturally Grown certification for her Sassy Bee Honey two years ago. Largely described as a grassroots alternative to the U.S. Department of Agriculture Certified Organic label, Certified Naturally Grown producers see it as that and more.

"I read the acronym somewhere online, and I did not know what it was, so I researched it," Grant says. "As I read, I thought it was completely in line with my current philosophy and many of the practices I already followed. I did have to make a few modifications to become certified, but they were changes that are for the betterment of the bees, so I was completely on board."

For beekeepers, USDA Certified Organic approval is difficult. To start, the National Organic Program doesn't have an apiculture standard, rather it relies on the livestock standards, a few items on the allowed synthetic-materials list, plus some "draft guidance" standards that have been issued but not made official by the National Organic Standards Board. Because bees can travel miles to forage, a USDA Certified Organic operation must prove their bees forage from plants not treated with prohibited materials in a 1.8-mile radius, which is difficult to come by.