Florida Organic Growers and Consumers (fog)
The Simply Organic Giving Fund has donated $5,000 to Florida Organic Growers and Consumers (FOG) in support of their 2018 Organic Food and Farming Summit.
This two-day event brings together hundreds of farmers, educators, students, advocates and exhibitors. Activities include farm tours, on-farm workshops, in-depth educational sessions, workshops and a trade show. The second annual summit will be held in Tampa in August.
FOG is a nonprofit group established in 1987 as a true grassroots organization — at the start, its office was often located in someone’s kitchen or an unused corner of a barn. The group was heavily involved in the development of the National Organic Program regulations governing organics. FOG continues to be very active in policy issues today, such as those related to the continuing development of the NOP standards, food safety and genetically modified foods.
FOG also has an Education & Outreach program and a certification program, Quality Certification Services (QCS), accredited by the USDA and the American Standards Institute. QCS includes a Food Justice Certification designed to promote food that supports a more just agricultural system — protecting small farmers from exploitation by predatory agribusiness firms and farm workers from financial exploitation, child labor, exposure to toxic chemicals and other abuses.
Education & Outreach reaches farmers, youth, businesses, policy makers and the general public through a wide variety of teaching, research and service projects. One project, Fresh Access Bucks, makes fresh, local produce more affordable and accessible to low-income families by increasing the purchasing power of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) participants. FOG provides a one-to-one match for Florida-grown fruits and vegetables purchased through SNAP, doubling the participants' purchasing power for fresh, local produce.
FOG's support and promotion of organic and sustainable agriculture is helping grow and strengthen organic and sustainable agriculture. We welcome the opportunity to support them with our Simply Organic Giving Fund.
