Michael Torbett of Terra Vita Farm tends his produce within the framework of Certified Naturally Grown.
Terra Vita Farm is hard to find, but not so hard to find that it won’t pop up on an Apple map search. It’s on a lot set back at 2223 Chair Road in Castle Hayne. Take the dirt driveway past a windbreak of trees to find a tidy planted two acres on a seven-acre plot of land. In the sun, the rows almost glitter green. The whole place smells like clean, fresh soil.
The farm and its produce are “Certified Naturally Grown” (CNG) by a self-governed collection of farmers from across the country. The certification was initiated in 2002 by growers in the Hudson Valley in New York, who realized the money, time and paperwork required to get certified organic by the USDA was too much.
These were among the reasons Michael Torbett, Terra Vita’s owner, chose to pursue CNG. His farm is currently the only one in southeastern North Carolina to do so.
“It’s farmers policing other farmers, as opposed to a government conglomerate,” he says. “And, for me, it’s a way to show our customers we do what we’re saying we do, and that we have their best interest at heart.” Terra Vita’s certification allows the use of the CNG badge on his products and marketing.
Other things he likes is that the dues are substantially less expensive and the yearly inspection is done by a colleague. In turn Torbett will inspect other farms, thus institutional knowledge grows.
Alice Varon is the executive director of CNG, which is run as a nonprofit. She says the standards are in some cases more stringent than the USDA’s while at the same time more accommodating to the needs of small farmers. “It’s a grassroots organization that specifically is for farmers growing food for their local communities without synthetic inputs; there’s a transparency” she says.
CNG classes and farm school are open to home gardeners and all farmers regardless if they are dues paying members.
Certifications are not just for produce and flower farmers; there are standards for apiarists, animal farmers (ruminants, pigs and poultry), aquaponics farmers and mushroom growers.
Terra Vita Farm produce is sold at the Wilmington Farmers Market at 5329 Oleander Dr. Wilmington, on Saturdays and the Hampstead Farmers Market at 2368 Country Club Dr., Hampstead, on Thursdays. A farm stand at the farm, 2223 Chair Road in Castle Hayne, operates on Fridays.
naturallygrown.org
terravitafarmnc.com
The story originally appeared in the Winter 2023 issue.
