The Fundamental Principles of CNF
- To grow and supply customers with the most nutritious food possible from naturally farmed soils.
- To maintain and improve the biological health and fertility of naturally farmed soils through locally relevant composting, mineral and crop management practices.
- To maintain or improve the natural biodiversity on CNF farms.
- To support, assist and act as mentors for other members of the local group.
CNF wants to encourage you, the grower, to feel that you have the freedom to experiment with your management and production practices to establish what works on your property. If you're not sure of the viability of any of your actions then members of the local network and your mentor(s) are always available for advice and discussion and should be freely consulted. Once the group is satisfied that what you want to do falls within CNF's fundamental principles and guidelines then CNF will allow you to “go ahead and get on with it” but remember you have to take full responsibility for the outcome.
Everything you do is, of course, subject to our public disclosure policy.
- You have to have an annual inspection of your farm by another member of the local group. This member cannot be your mentor nor another farmer who you have inspected that year.
- You need to be aware of the CNF Production Guidelines and use them as a sound, but not necessarily limiting, basis to guide your farm management practices.
- If you're in horticultural production, CNF encourages you to consider regular Brix testing of your produce.
- CNF recommends that you have an Albrecht soil mineral analysis as soon as it's convenient for you to arrange it after starting the programme (unless you've got a recent one) and repeat with follow-up analyses at least every 3 years or as recommended by your mentor and/or inspector.
- If your farm has not previously been certified as organic/biodynamic, then you'll need a foliage analysis test for chemical residues on starting the programme. Further residue analyses may be required if directed by your mentor or inspector.
In addition, if you're supplying produce to the organic wholesale markets, you'll have to pay for an annual foliage residue test and the results will be posted on the website as part of the open gate policy. A CNF inspector will collect a sample from your production area(s) on short notice at some random time during the calendar year.
- You need to keep adequate production records using either the templates supplied (see the Administrative Chores page) or near equivalents of your own design.
- You will need to accept the CNF Open Gate Policy of full public disclosure on this website of your signed Pledge, your annual Inspection Report, Soil Fertility Input records, Crop Pest Treatment records and, if applicable, Animal Medical Treatment records. CNF also expects you to be prepared to keep the group fully informed of any other relevant details of your farm and/or environmental management practices.
- If you're already an experienced grower or, once you've gained sufficient experience, CNF would like you to be prepared to act as a mentor to other farmers, especially new or novice members.
- You need to be prepared to undertake at least one farm inspection per annum of another local group member who has not inspected your farm in the same year nor is involved in a mentoring capacity with you.
- CNF expects you to attend at least one of the group's farm Open Days per annum and be prepared to host a group function at your own farm from time to time.
The Production Guidelines are not intended as a set of methods for you to rigorously obey. They are what they say they are, simply guidelines, developed from the practical experience of local organic farmers as well as the results of agricultural research. They will give you some sound information on soil fertility management, composting, pest and disease management and post harvest treatment of produce. Treat them as a sort of basic ‘how-to’ resource and then query your mentor and other group members if you need further clarification or more advice.
Go to the Production Guidelines Index page.
This is likely to be a fairly active page because we intend to be adding information to it depending upon the discussions that happen among members of our group.
As well as producing food and income, CNF requires all of its members' properties to play their individual part in the preservation of the biodiversity and ecology of their local water catchment(s). Your property must have a minimum area either already under native vegetation or undergoing planned rehabilitation and your management needs to take into account both on and off-farm impacts of production and environmentally related activities. This is the goal of true sustainable farming — food production in concert with Mother Nature rather than against her.
The CNF environmental policy is based on a series of general principles for all rural areas established by the CSIRO during research projects into biodiversity management in grassy woodland agricultural systems. The details can be found at the Environmental Responsibility page.
The CNF animal husbandry guidelines are intended for farmers who are keeping animals on a small scale and possibly including them as part of their farm rotations; they're not intended for livestock operations whose principal aim is meat production. Basically, all CNF is concerned about is that you keep your animals under humane conditions appropriate to the species and you must be aware of and prevent possible soil contamination following medical treatment if they graze in orchards and/or vegetable production areas.
Go to the Animal Husbandry Guidelines page.
Unfortunately there have to be a few don'ts and can'ts, well it's never been a perfect world has it so...
- You cannot use any wholly synthetic herbicides, pesticides, fungicides or other chemicals that are known to leave persistent residues in produce or soils in your food production area(s).
If you need to use synthetic herbicides for environmental management work, please carefully assess the risk of contamination to any food production area(s) and/or sensitive environmental area(s) (eg watercourses) and take suitable precautions to avoid any possible impacts.
- You cannot apply water soluble synthetic fertilisers directly to your earth nor can you do the same with bulk, uncomposted animal manures or abattoir waste products either.
CNF is prepared to consider the use of manufactured fertilisers chemically equivalent to naturally occurring chemicals as inputs via compost production only in the case where the usual ‘organic’ equivalents are either locally unavailable, contaminated or would be prohibitively expensive to use. However you must discuss what you propose to do with your mentor and/or other members of the group first.
- You cannot routinely use plastic sheeting as a soil covering for weed suppression during food production because the health of the soil biota depends on exposure to the atmosphere and its natural daily rhythms.
- Your production area(s) need to be 100% Certified Naturally Farmed. CNF does not permit a mixture of its methods and ‘conventional chemical agriculture’ on the same farm.
- You cannot use Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) or products of GMOs in any aspect of your production or processing.
- You cannot use foliar sprays to correct for major soil mineral deficiencies as a routine part of your production cycle. However CNF recognises that adverse climatic or environmental conditions can sometimes affect even the best preparations. So, if it appears that a deficiency has arisen in a crop, contact your mentor or other members of the group as soon as possible to discuss available options. If the problem could be rectified with a suitable mineral-based foliar spray that doesn't leave chemical residues, then CNF will be prepared to consider its application. From CNF's point of view, it is ethically incorrect for you to be knowingly supplying nutritionally sub-standard produce to your customers if it can be easily avoided. A foliar spray is regarded as a fertility input so must be recorded and will be subject to the CNF public disclosure policy.
However CNF expects that you'll subsequently be working to improve your soils to correct any deficiency so that the plants can obtain all of their nutrients from the earth.
- For restrictions applying to running animals in food production areas following medical treatment, see the animal husbandry page.
The CNF mentoring system is put in place in an attempt to capture any possible problems before they arise but, as everyone knows, accidents do happen. However the group is as powerless as any other organisation to prevent deliberate abuse of their regulations and will only be able to act after the event.
De-certification of a Production Area
- If accidental contamination of a production area should occur, any produce from that area cannot be sold as certified and the area will be de-certified.
- You will be responsible for paying for chemical residue foliage analysis tests until the results are within the allowable threshold for organic produce. The area can then be re-certified.
- De-certification of a production area will appear on the annual farm inspection so is also subject to public disclosure on the CNF website.
De-certification of a Grower
Failure to Meet the Production and/or Environmental Standards of CNF
- If, after an unsatisfactory annual inspection, you are not deemed to be meeting your responsibilities for your production and/or environmental areas as required by these regulations, Certified Naturally Farmed reserves the right to suspend your certification status until satisfied that corrective measures have been taken.
- Your name and the reasons for de-certification will be subject to public disclosure on the CNF website.
Deliberate or Continued Abuse of the Regulations
- Certified Naturally Farmed will follow due process under sections 10, 11 and 12 of the Model Rules of the Incorporated Associations Incorporation Act 1981 to terminate the grower's certification and membership status.
- The grower's name and the reasons for termination will be subject to public disclosure on this website.