Below are the Known & Grown
Good Stewardship Practices.
Farmers must adhere to all the required practices and are encouraged to use other environmentally responsible and ethical practices, listed below.
Farmers must adhere to all the required practices and are encouraged to use other environmentally responsible and ethical practices, listed below.
No antibiotics were used over the animal’s lifetime, with the exception for therapeutic treatment. According to the journal Public Health Reports, “Evidence that antibiotic use in food animals can result in antibiotic-resistant infections in humans has existed for several decades. Associations between antibiotic use in food animals and the prevalence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria isolated from those animals have been detected in observational studies as well as in randomized trials.”
Synthetic sprays contain harmful chemicals that pollute our waterways, putting ecosystems and human health at risk. Known & Grown farmers do not use synthetic sprays on their crops or in their pastures (unless required by a government-funded conservation program such as the Conservation Stewardship Program).
Animal confinement is not permitted for Known & Grown STL farms. Shelter is allowed, as long as there is deep bedding to absorb nitrogen, preventing it from entering our waterways.
Synthetic growth promotants and added hormones impact animal welfare and the environment. When animals are forced to grow quickly, it puts stress on their bodies and forces them to have a less healthy, more sedentary life. Growth hormones are used to speed up production, especially in farms that concentrate animals in tight confined spaces – these CAFOs (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations) have devastating environmental impacts on air, water, and soil.
Farms in close proximity to other farms that use synthetic chemicals must create adequate buffers to prevent drift from chemicals.
Nutrient management plans are documents of record establishing how nutrients will be managed for plant production while addressing identified resource concerns including the offsite movement of nutrients. These plans are prepared in collaboration with producer and/or landowner and are designed to help the producer implement and maintain an effective plan for the application of nutrients from available sources.
Riparian herbaceous cover is establishment and maintenance of grasses, grass-like plants, and forbs that are tolerant of intermittent flooding or saturated soils and that are established or managed in the transitional zone between terrestrial and aquatic habitats.
A pollinator habitat enhancement plan is a site-specific conservation plan developed for a client that addresses the improvement, restoration, enhancement, or expansion of flower-rich habitat that supports native and/or managed pollinators.
A Livestock Exclusion System means a system of permanent fencing (board, barbed, high tensile or electric wire) installed to exclude livestock from streams and critical areas not intended for grazing to improve water quality. Benefits may include reduced soil erosion, sedimentation, pathogen contamination and pollution from dissolved, particulate, and sediment-attached substances.
A grazing management plan is a site specific conservation plan developed for a client which addresses one or more resource concerns on land where grazing related activities or practices will be planned and applied.
A water and sediment control basin, (WASCOB), is an earth embankment or a combination ridge and channel constructed across the slope of minor watercourses to form a sediment trap and water detention basin with a stable outlet
Access control includes temporary or permanent exclusion of animals, people, vehicles, and/or equipment from an area.
Field borders are strips of permanent vegetation (grasses, legumes, forbs, or shrubs) established on one or more sides of a field.
Forage and biomass planting is used to establish adapted and/or compatible species, varieties, or cultivars of herbaceous species suitable for pasture, hay, or biomass production.
Emphasis is placed on the holistic development and interrelationships of the soil, plants and animals as a self-sustaining system.
Water conservation efforts such as drip irrigation prevents water waste by using piping along the ground. This avoids water waste from evaporation that occurs when water is applied from above.
IPM is a chemical-free way to manage and prevent pests. Some farms use predators, like bats, to manage their pest populations. Others use other beneficial insects (that eat or parasitize harmful insects), or plants such as marigolds that naturally repel pests, or walk their rows and pick bugs by hand.
According to the EPA’s Office of Pesticide Programs, “Biopesticides are certain types of pesticides derived from such natural materials as animals, plants, bacteria, and certain minerals. Biopesticides are usually inherently less toxic than conventional pesticides.”
Animals should have access to the foods they evolved to eat, including grass and insects. If grass and insects found in pasture are not available (due to cold weather, for example), then feed should be non-GMO and/or Certified Organic.
Antibiotic use is allowed only for illness. The Known & Grown brand is not granted to producers who use growth hormones and requires animals be rendered insensible to pain prior to slaughter.
The removal or destruction of the testes.
Removing all or part of the bird beak, normally practiced to avoid birds pecking each other as a result of overcrowding or other production stresses.
The removal of an adult animal’s horns.
A ring that is inserted into the cartilage that separates the nostrils.
The removal of all or part of the tail.
The removal of young mammals from milk and/or transition from milk to a solid food as a source of nutrition.