We guarantee all our fruits and vegetables are harvested with ethical and socially-just practices.
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Fresh, Healthy Food
Lady Moon Farms takes sustainability seriously. Organic farming is more than just growing vegetables without pesticides. It is about letting nature lead, building healthy soils, biological diversity and social justice. As Lady Moon Farms has grown over the years, we have never lost sight that growing great food requires passion and perseverance.
Being truly sustainable means more than just not using harmful chemicals. We incorporate many different practices with a promise to put more into the soil than we take out, ensuring a healthier Earth for our future.
Air, Energy and Climate
- Protect air quality by adjusting timing of operations (modifying erosive techniques during high wind like tilling).
- Using mulch and cover crops to prevent erosion.
- Utilizing wind breaks where possible.
Renewable Resources and Recycling
- Installed solar panels in Pennsylvania which provide over 20% of energy needs.
- Currently moving forward with a large solar installation on the Florida home farm.
- All packaging materials are from recyclable materials, are recyclable themselves or are biodegradable.
- All vegetable off-grades are given to local food banks or are composted.
“Lady Moon Farms donates millions of pounds of produce to communities through their partnership with local food banks.”
Farm-Worker Welfare
Lady Moon Farms believes that one of its core assets is its people. Over 90% of our farm workers are employed year round and have been with us for many years. On top of providing a reliable and consistent job, Lady Moon offers a multitude of additional benefits.
- Fair hourly wage pay with annual pay raises
- Holiday bonus for farm workers based on length of employment
- Paid time off for all major holidays based on length of employment
- Paid lunches
- Free housing when out of their home state of Florida
- Travel expenses and time reimbursed for travel to other states
- Health benefits in accordance with the ACA
“Lady Moon Farms from the beginning believed that social justice was just as important as soil health and to that end has been on the cutting edge of redefining the life of a migrant farmworker.”
Ecosystems and Biodiversity
- Foster a natural habitat for pollinators in Pennsylvania, Georgia and Florida incorporating native species.
- Environmentally sensitive areas & wildlife habitats are protected such as wetlands, meadows and forested areas.
- Bird and bat boxes utilized.
- Nesting sites protected.
- Bee hives kept on site.
- Cover crops planted for additional food for bees.
Soil Health
- Cover crops are planted between crops and at the end of each season as well as on any fallow ground. Cover crops help protect the soil from wind erosion, increase organic matter, keep excess nutrients from leaching into ground or surface water, provide nutrients to the cash crop that follows, help improve soil structure and can provide food for bees at critical times of the year.
- Crop rotation is used to minimize the depletion of soil nutrients
as well as limit any disease or insect pressures that may arise from planting the same crops year after year. - Compost is applied before each crop.
- Application of rock minerals and other soil amendments per soil tests.
- Use of beneficial bacteria and fungi.
- Monitor water capacity, soil nitrates, and micro/macro nutrients by soil testing done annually.
- Tissue sampling of crops through their life cycle.
- Visual inspection for earthworms, soil compaction, erosion, etc.
Pest Management
- Crop rotation.
- Use of resistant varieties.
- Timed plantings so as to miss certain aspects of an insect’s life cycle.
- Use of beneficial insects, bacterias and fungi.
- Judicious use of biological and botanical insect and disease suppressants.
- Actively rotate organically approved compounds to minimize the chance of resistance build up by insects/diseases.
- Clean up old fields immediately after harvest ends which greatly reduces insect/disease pressures.
- Mechanically and manually control weeds.
Waste
- Much of our packing material is paper based product which is both biodegradable and recyclable.
- We recycle 100% of cardboard, metal, glass, and oil. Recycle plastic mulch in Georgia and Florida.
- Will begin use of biodegradable plastic mulch. This material has just been approved for certified organic operations.