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market-farming - Re: Organic industry vs. organic movement

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Chronological Thread  
  • From: "Rick Williams" <mrfarm AT frontiernet.net>
  • To: "Market Farming" <market-farming AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: Organic industry vs. organic movement
  • Date: Tue, 1 Oct 2002 22:28:20 -0500


Paul Bransky wrote:
> While the dozens of certifying agencies now must adhere to the same
> (USDA) standard, their prices vary considerably. We pay $350 up
> front, plus 3/4 of a % of gross. Not the cheapest, but we get good
> service from our agency (MOSA).

I did not realize that there was a cut of the farm gross receipts. However,
it is pretty good compared to a business franchise:) The direct cost I
realize would only be a part of the actual cost. It seems that the record
keeping cost is a huge factor. You would think that they could simplify some
of that. Especially for the smaller farms that have just as many different
products as a large farm but it sounds like the paperwork would be huge.

Recently, I did hear some very strong concerns about the fact that the
certifiers are often people who are not even farmers themselves but young
kids really who do not even have much experience behind them. So there is
some resentment there. Also, instead of the certifying inspector being
friendly and helpful, it was more of an adversarial approach and also they
receiving threatening letters from the certifying agency about making
certain changes instead of working together to solve any poossible problems.

It is a good thing that there is some competition between certifiers since
that may help to keep them customer driven rather than looking at trying to
find a problem.

> Each month "Growing for Market" publishes organic wholesale produce
> prices from the USDA Market News Service. Usually wholesale organic
> prices are close to non-organic retail prices.

Would that be around 30% difference? Not sure of the markup. Is it quite
variable with different stores? Or is there a generally accepted rule of
thumb?

> Every week strangers come to our stand
> and ask us if we are certified organic, even though our signs say so.
> Being certified organic does not necessarily mean we are better
> growers, just as having a college degree does not necessarily mean
> you are more qualified for a job. But in both cases it is a shorthand
> way of showing a stranger that you have passed a certain arbitrary
> threshold.

I don't really even recall being asked about our organic status with our
produce. But people do ask about our beef.

> When I worked in 1986 for Rick's neighbor, Richard DeWilde (Harmony
> Valley Farms), he spent a LOT of time on the phone selling to
> wholesale buyers. That was with about 15 acres of vegetables. For
> quite a few years now Richard and Linda have had more demand than
> production, even with 60 acres of vegetables. They send availability
> by fax to their buyers, then the buyers fax back their orders.

Seems like last years open house they mentioned as much as 70 acres but
maybe I am off on that. I did ask Richard a few years ago, if he sold much
wholesale and he said that they try to avoid wholesale as much as possible
as it does not bring in enough income if it was a very large part of the
farming operation. But sometimes you have to sell on the wholesale market if
you have a big surplus of some crop.

> We shall see. Many people do not understand that the high price of
> certification is not driven by the USDA per se, but ISO 65
> requirements. ISO stands for International Standards Organization.
> They are in charge of standardizing technical parameters to
> facilitate international trade. They establish the standard width of
> a credit card, technical parameters for electronic components, and
> hundreds of other things most people never think about. ISO 65
> specifies general requirements for a third-party product
> certification system. The purpose is to prevent corruption in an
> organization by establishing a system of specific checks and balances
> (i.e. bureaucracy). The extra paperwork and office time costs money.

And really, we do need a way to market to a larger audience. But why didn't
they just have an ISO 65 Certification program instead of preempting even
the name organic. That is the odd thing to me.

> It makes a lot of sense to me for a farmer to bypass certification,
> and just rely on their personal reputation for honesty, and their
> personal relationship with their customers. But I don't understand
> spending money on an alternate, non-ISO 65 certification label that
> really only certifies that you spent some money.

This would only work for more local sales to individuals, I would think,
unless the other certifiers began to get some momentum and become well
known. But that will take years I would think.

For our farm the cost is less than 5% of gross.

Based on your earlier listing of costs, this would include the labor for the
recordkeeping requirement? If that is so, then it does seem that organic
should be a wise thing for even moderate sized farms that need to sell to
the wholesale market.

Sincerely,

Rick Williams
Misty Ridge Farm
Dairy heifers and dairy beef graziers
Viroqua, WI

www.mistyridgefarm.com





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