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  • From: "Rainbow's End Farms & Orchards" <rainbowsend AT swva.net>
  • To: <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [Market-farming] Interesting reading on a cold and snowy day
  • Date: Wed, 4 Dec 2002 14:28:02 -0500

I guess it was bound to happen...

A year ago we began looking for a term that would be so generic
that its use would provoke neither conflict nor infringe upon the
legal rights of others while also being easily understood.

(In Georgia during the preceding year we had incorporated a firm
with the name GeorgiaGrown and reserved a web site by the same
name only to see it "borrowed" by the Georgia Department of Ag
within several months of our sharing the concept with their
agents.) The purpose of Georgia Grown was to be a springboard for
those uniquely identifiable products that were grown, handmade or
manufactured by Georgians in Georgia.

In relocating and launching our farm in Virginia we selected
"Naturally Grown Goodness" to represent our products. Reading
across the internet I have noted countless others using the term
"Naturally Grown" ..which well describes similar principles. Our
thought was that the term Naturally Grown implied something that
the customers could understand without the need for "Organic".
Why, because I am one who happens to believe that the term has
gone from representing a concept and related commitments as
launched generations ago as natural farming and gardening to its
present understanding by industry as a way to obtain a greater
return. Mind you, that is my own simple observation and reflects
nothing negatively about the bio-intensive underpinnings of the
organic concepts that I treasure.

Yesterday I received a copy of this month's Fruit Grower News
with a front page article proclaiming "Naturally Grown new option
to organic program". The article describes yet another
certification program and their website
http://www.naturallygrown.org/ carries numerous trademark and
copyright references. There is a sliding scale of up to $100.00
to be so certified and monitored. Does this now mean that for the
rest of use who have long used Naturally Grown or some
combination thereof in describing our product mix should now be
expected to pay for and suffer the monitoring of yet another
"program"? Frankly, as a small farmer/private citizen I am weary
of those seeking to control or profit from our rights to use long
held totally generic terms.

Last week it was a farm IN TEXAS claiming on their website to
have trademarked the term "Tennessee Meat Goat". Shockingly, many
of our land grant colleges are apparently ascribing to the claim
by listing the Tennessee Meat Goats as a separate breed. No
research thus far has turned up such a trademark. The owner of
the site will not graciously support the claim with documentation
and none of the three registry associations have apparently ever
seen such.

I raise Tennessee Goats and have long, long heard them referred
to as Tennessee Goats, Tennessee Meat Goats, Tennessee Fainting
Goats, Fainting Goats, or Myotonic Goats. While I have chosen for
reasons of respect for the beautiful, large animals to select
those with little or none of the fainting characteristics, some
would purposely breed to maximize the epileptic like fainting
with the claim that it tenderizes the meat. Is that any the less
a myotonic goat or the goats of others any the less the Tennessee
goat? Should we then be subjected to threats of legal action for
using yet another generic term?

Must everything, even the use of totally generic terms, now be
certified, trademarked, copyrighted, inspected?

How many new programs must the public be brought to
understand...or do they truly ONLY need to understand Locally
Grown Quality?

Clarence W. and Lisa J. Walker
Rainbow's End Farms and Orchards
880 Central Academy Road
Stuart, Virginia 24171
email: rainbowsend AT swva.net
web: www.rainbowsendfarms.com
phone: 276-894-4324

NATURALLY GROWN GOODNESS!

Beef, Lamb, Boer Goats, Trout, Poultry
Vegetables, Fruit, Berries, Herbs






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