Growers & Artisans Agreement

Thank you for your interest in YOUR MARKETs NAME.farmfreshnetwok (“The Market”).

We are so happy to partner with you to provide healthy, sustainable foods and products to our community. To make things easier we wanted to compile a simple list of guidelines to make sure the Market runs smoothly.

Please read this carefully before you Submit your application to become a Grower/Artisan (“you” or “your”) at The Market. If you choose to join us please use them as a guide once you’re approved as a Grower/Artisan on the site.

Guidelines for Participation

To ensure that our market truly is trying to build a local food system, The Market only allows farms and farm products produced within a 200 mile radius of the markets address of record. As farms and farm products increase we may try and tighten that radius. All farms and processors selling through the market must be focused on “sustainable” production of local foods. Also, we are a GMO Free market, therefore no items that contain GMO ingredients or animals raised on GMO feed are allowed. You will be asked to sign a Non GMO pledge as part of the requirements for participation in our markets. For processed foods, we encourage you to make efforts to obtain ingredients from local sources must be employed, and some ingredients that cannot be found locally may not be allowed. See below for more details on that.

Fruit and Vegetable Production

Farms must be Synthetic Chemical Free – by requesting to be listed as a grower on The Market you are guaranteeing to our members that you do not use chemicals on your farm. These would include, but are not limited to, synthetic fertilizers and pesticides. We also require that in keeping with organic standards any land that has been treated with chemical pesticides, and fertilizers, cease use for three years before producing products for this market.

Organic and other standards – though The Market doesn’t require growers to be certified organic or Certified Naturally Grown, we still highly encourage growers to be familiar and follow these requirements where appropriate. For in¬stance many OMRI certified pesticides are intended as a last resort, not intended for routine application, and certification programs often restrict the use of many OMRI listed products. Other common sense practices such as precautions with manure handling close to crops, and safety of crop washing water for E.Coli bacteria should be taken into consideration. NO produce from GMO seeds are allowed.

On-Farm Produced Products – All products sold on The Market must be produced on the farm which is listing the product. Through sales of products grown on another farm other than your own are not allowed. Some Wild harvested products that are found off the farm will be allowed provided they are harvested following all applicable laws. (*Please notify us first, if you’re not sure about a certain wild harvested product)

Processed Foods

Because of stringent state laws, processed foods will require all applicable state licenses in order to sell through The Market. If your products require a state license we do request that you send us a copy of your license number and even consider posting it on your Grower Description on the website. *Georgia State law basically states that anything that’s edible that isn’t sold in the exact same form it was harvested in requires a license. We will accept a Cottage Food License for certain items. The Cottage Food License allows Cottage Food Operators to produce non-potentially hazardous foods in their home kitchens for sale to the end consumer. These foods include:

• Loaf Breads, Rolls, and Biscuits;
• Cakes;
• Pastries and Cookies;
• Candies and Confections;
• Fruit Pies;
• Jams, Jellies, and Preserves;
• Dried Fruits;
• Dry Herbs, Seasonings and Mixtures;
• Cereals, Trail Mixes, and Granola;

For baked goods, we also ask that you send us a list of ingredients. There are certain ingredients that are not allowed at this market. These ingredients are: refined sugar, high fructose corn syrup, white (bleached) flour, refined or hydrogenated vegetable oils, margarine, MSG, hydrolyzed vegetable protein, artificial flavorings and colorings, or toxic additives such as aspartame.
Licensed certified kitchen – All processed food must be prepared in a properly licensed certified kitchen and products must be properly labeled. These rules are fairly stringent and can be difficult to meet such as having a 3-basin sink, an additional mop sink, and a hand washing sink. Certified kitchens are regulated through the GA Dept. of Ag. Only items that are accepted under The Cottage Food License are exempt from using a certified kitchen. Please submit your certified kitchen address or Cottage Food License #.

Ingredients (sourcing local) – We are slowly trying to work out some standards for what ingredients are allowed in processed foods. The Market is vigorously trying to encourage local production of all sustainable and organic food products, and as the market develops we may need to be more stringent in how we define this standard. No GMO ingredients are allowed on this market. Please check your sources to insure this requirement is met.

As a general rule, we require at least 60% of the ingredients in a processed food to come from your farm. The remaining ingredients can be purchased from other farms locally. If (and only if) these ingredients are not available locally, you should use the most sustainable ingredients you can find. In other words if you are making fig preserves, they should be figs that you’ve produced on your own farm. If you add sugar, pectin and lemon juice you’ll likely be unable to locate any of these locally. You should then source organic sugar and organic lemons if they are readily available (which they should be).

This standard applies to all processed foods except for breads. At this time we are not requiring the use of local or organic grains in artisan made breads (though we highly encourage their use).

However, for flavored breads such as a blueberry muffin or pumpkin bread, you must source local and sustainable in¬gredients rather than conventional products unless it’s an ingredient that is not available locally (cranberries are an example). Again, we request that you source organic or sustainably produced ingredients whenever you can.

We may tweak these standards again in the future so please give us your feedback. We just want everyone to try and source the best ingredients that they can while living up to our local and sustainable marketing push.

Ground Grain

If you are milling products such as corn, wheat or rye for sale, the Georgia Department of Agriculture requires a milled products license to be obtained.

Animal Products

Eggs – if you plan to sell eggs through the market you are required to have a state candling license obtained from the Georgia Department of Agriculture. There are additional requirements for proper refrigeration during transportation. A state candling license requires attendance at a training program. Other than that these rules are fairly easy to follow. In our efforts to differentiate The Market products from conventional products we also require producers to have layers on pasture, meaning that they are moved onto fresh grass routinely. We do not require organic-only grains at this time.

Packaged meats – have a slew of requirements. Contact the Georgia Department of Agriculture for information.

Live Plant Sales
Live plant sales also require a license through the Department of Agriculture.