This year will mark the 25th consecutive year of Wisconsin Healthy Grown® certification. The program has been advancing growers’ use of biointensive integrated pest management (IPM). Doing so while promoting best management practice (BMP) adoption. This reduces reliance on high-risk pesticides and enhances ecosystem conservation efforts. It is done by certifying under the Healthy Grown potato, onion, and carrot standards. This award-winning program verifies agricultural practices for potatoes and vegetables that use high-bar standards to promote agricultural sustainability and enhance environmental farming systems. This puts Wisconsin growers in a position to capture the expanding consumer demand for sustainable food in the marketplace. This is including the new need for Walmart which is requiring that all products sold in their stores have pollinator health programs in 2025. Healthy Grown is one of their accredited programs to cover that need.
Now is the time to sign up for certification for the 2025 growing season. If you are interested in certifying your potatoes, onions or carrots, sign up now. Then review the updated standard and certification process. If you sign up for certification, you will need to work with UW-Specialists to develop IPM Production and Pesticide plans for the growing season. The program is run out of the WPVGA office, and data collection occurs via an online secure portal.
For details, contact Julie Braun and the WPVGA office at: jbraun@wisconsinpotatoes.com or 715-623-7683. Sign up by March 31st to ensure program status.
