The Good Soil Standard.

Good Soil isn't about perfection, and it isn't about jumping through hoops. You commit to a short set of practices, state them openly on your listing, and your neighbors can see exactly how their food was grown. That openness is the verification. No lab tests required to join. No binders of paperwork. Just an honest accounting of how you do what you do.

What every Good Soil grower commits to.

• You made it. You grew it, raised it, or made it yourself. You don't buy someone else's product and resell it as your own.
• No synthetic chemicals on what you sell. No synthetic pesticides, herbicides (including glyphosate), or synthetic fertilizers on the crops, pasture, or animals behind the food you sell. Natural and biological methods instead.
• You feed the soil, not just the plant. You work with living soil — keeping it covered, feeding it compost or organic matter, disturbing it as little as you reasonably can.
• Animals live like animals. If you raise animals, they live on pasture or range appropriate to their species, with room to move, fresh air, and dignified, low-stress handling.
• Real ingredients only. If you make or prepare food, it's made from real ingredients — no industrial seed oils, no high-fructose corn syrup, no synthetic colors, flavors, or preservatives.
• You tell the truth. Every claim on your label, sign, or listing is something you can stand behind.

If you do it, it counts. If you don't, it doesn't apply. The sections below only matter for what you actually produce — a market gardener ignores the animal section; an egg seller ignores the value-added one.

Vegetables, fruit, herbs, grain, flowers.

• Keep the soil covered and alive — cover crops, mulch, living roots, compost, or perennials rather than bare, tilled-out ground.
• Disturb it gently. No-till or low-till wherever you reasonably can. Some tillage is fine when it's needed — the goal is healthy soil over time, not a rigid rule.
• Feed it biologically. Compost, composted manure, cover-crop residue, worm castings, and natural amendments — not synthetic NPK.
• No synthetic sprays on what you sell. Approved natural treatments (neem, Bt, beneficial insects, insecticidal soap) are fine. Synthetic herbicides, pesticides, and fungicides on the crop are not.

Cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, poultry, dairy.

• On pasture or range suited to the species — not confined to bare dirt or a barn. Poultry get real, rotated pasture, not a dirt lot under a “free range” label.
• Grass-fed and grass-finished for ruminants. Cattle, sheep, and goats eat grass and forage their whole lives, finishing included. Hay in winter or drought is fine. No grain finishing.
• Move them. Rotate animals so the land improves rather than gets overgrazed — and you can show how you move them.
• No routine drugs or hormones. No growth hormones, ever. No routine antibiotics — a genuinely sick animal can be treated, but it's identified and handled honestly.
• Honest feed. If you supplement, the feed is non-GMO and disclosed. Soy-free is preferred for poultry and worth stating if true.
• Process it legally. Meat sold to others goes through a licensed/inspected processor, or your state's recognized on-farm exemption.

Bread, ferments, honey, broth, sauces, prepared meals.

• Real ingredients, sourced well. Build from Good Soil growers or equivalent quality wherever your local supply allows.
• Good fats only. Butter, lard, tallow, ghee, olive, coconut, or avocado oil. No canola, soybean, corn, cottonseed, or “vegetable oil” blends.
• Real sweeteners only. Honey, real maple, organic cane or coconut sugar, fruit. No high-fructose corn syrup, no artificial sweeteners.
• Nothing synthetic hiding inside. No synthetic colors, flavors, or preservatives, and no “natural flavor” masking something you can't name.
• Label it honestly and safely. A clear, truthful ingredient list, allergen disclosure, and compliance with your local cottage-food or health-department rules.

Raw honey is kept raw and minimally filtered, with no HFCS feeding before harvest and natural varroa treatments only. Raw dairy only where your state permits direct sale, following those rules exactly.

So an honest small grower is never shut out.

• No mandatory lab soil tests to join. (Sharing one strengthens a Verified visit — but it's never the gate.)
• No USDA Organic prerequisite — the whole point is reaching growers organic certification prices out.
• No binders of records or annual paperwork marathons.
• No minimum acreage, sales volume, or operation size.
• No fees. Joining and being listed is free, always.

“Everything I tell you about my food is true.”

“I made this myself. I didn't put synthetic chemicals on it. I treat my soil and my animals well. I use real ingredients. And everything I tell you about it is true.” If you can say that and mean it, you belong in the Good Soil Society.