Certified Sustainable
Guidelines for sustainable certification include environmentally and socially responsible agricultural practices. Typically there is a very strict set of criteria that ranges from using natural pest controls to providing safe and fair working conditions for farm laborers. There are a few agencies that certify farmers who produce sustainable food.
Food Alliance, a nonprofit organization that supports sustainable agriculture, is one of the main third-party sustainable certifying agencies in North America. Their certification not only recognizes farmers and ranchers but manufacturers, processors and distributors as well.
Protected Harvest is another nonprofit organization that certifies sustainable farms. Their mission is to “advance and certify the use of environmentally and economically sustainable agriculture through the development of stringent, transparent and quantifiable standards, incentive-based eco-labeling and public education.”