Appalachian Growers is now GAP Certified!

WE HAVE SOME (MORE) EXCITING NEWS FOR YOU…

We are thrilled to announce that our farm is now Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) certified! This means that our entire operation (fields and harvest building), logs, and Standard Operating Procedures have been thoroughly reviewed by an impartial third-party, approved by our certifier, Ceres Certifications International, and were found to be in conformance with the Primus Standard GAP guidelines for agriculture. It is essential to be informed about where our food and other ingestible products come from, and we at Appalachian Growers believe that everyone deserves to have the peace of mind knowing their hemp was farmed with the highest quality in mind. 

What is GAP Certification?

GAP is an acronym that stands for Good Agricultural Practices. GAP certification is a voluntary audit program designed for the fruit and vegetable production industry to verify that the crop in question is grown, packed, handled, and stored as safely as possible. These audits check for adherence to the FDA’s production guide as well as industry standard food safety practices.

In the hemp industry, importance is typically placed on test results such as:

• Cannabinoid potency
• Pesticide residue and heavy metals
• Microbial analyses

While these tests are an important piece to knowing the quality of your hemp, this testing profile does not cover the farming practices involved in creating the product that you have chosen to ingest.

So what does GAP Certification cover?

Good Agricultural Practices certification encompasses aspects of the farming process such as land location, farm traceability and security, and employee hygiene and sanitation practices. Standard Operating Procedures are written and put into place to ensure that staff are following industry standard best farming practices on site, and logs are reviewed by a neutral third-party to verify that these practices are followed correctly. From the mixing and applying of our organic fertilizers and pest control products, to the hygiene of the employee that hand-bucks our harvest, these practices are up to the GAP standards that the USDA and FDA have established.

Good Agricultural Practices are also a vital component of sustainable agriculture. Appalachian Growers continually seeks to set industry-wide standards of food safety, quality assurance, transparency, and compliance. With our GAP certification, we want to provide:

Peace of mind for our customers

Accountability to the public

A clean and safe product

We value every person that chooses to select our products, and we believe that our customers deserve to be assured that we refuse to compromise our commitment to quality in bringing them the very best hemp selection possible.