Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

permaculture - Re: [permaculture] Certified Naturally Grown: An alternative label toorganic

permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: permaculture

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: loren luyendyk <loren@sborganics.com>
  • To: Permaculture Listserve <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] Certified Naturally Grown: An alternative label toorganic
  • Date: Mon, 2 Sep 2013 06:14:59 +0000

Organic Certification is inherently a conflict of interest, as the "3rd Party
Certifying Agency" gets paid to certify you, so they have a vested interest
to pass you and grant you the Certification. The inspectors could easily
look the other way at violations, in order to get more customer$. Now this
becomes an issue of the moral standing of the certifying agency, and the
likes of Quality Assurance International (QAI) or any of the other larger
certifying agencies I would avoid.

Furthermore, you are allowed to use a restricted chemical in order to save a
crop and not lose your certification:
"NOP Rule 205.672 which affects emergency pest and disease treatment,
only the specific crop which is sprayed could no longer be sold as
organic. The organic status of the fields themselves is not compromised. "

So technically the soil has been doused with chemicals but the field is still
organic. Heh?

Recently our area was sprayed with imadacloprid (the neonicitinoid blamed for
CCD) for the Asian citrus psyllid, organic growers included. They did not
lose their certification.

One solution is to have a certification agency that does not get paid to
certify people, likely a state or federal program (with its own inherent
problems of beaurocracy). This would make the certification more independent
and remove the conflict of interest.

Loren Luyendyk
(805)-452-8249
Accredited Permaculture Teacher, PRI-AUS
ISA Certified Arborist WE-7805A
www.sborganics.com
www.surferswithoutborders.org
www.globalpermaculture.com




> Date: Sun, 1 Sep 2013 21:51:26 -0500
> From: farmer1@gasperfarm.com
> To: permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
> Subject: Re: [permaculture] Certified Naturally Grown: An alternative label
> toorganic
>
> Yes well, America is well into the corruption stage of things and the
> infection runs from top to bottom.
>
> Pete
>
> On 09/01/2013 06:48 PM, John D'hondt wrote:
> >
> >
> >> I have little faith in this label. I've known of several instances of
> >> farmers using the label while not certified or admittedly engaging in
> >> practices contrary to the cert and the organization did nothing.
> > That would most definitely not work over here in Europe. The organic
> > inspectors were very sharp and extremely competent. And really, it is not
> > that difficult to establish that fiddling would be going on. You only hve
> > to
> > look at the natural vegetation to see if any weed killers were used. Turn
> > over a stone and you expect to find worms or worm holes and a slug or two.
> > The fiddlers would not be too intelligent anyway. And the penalty for
> > being
> > found out would easily bancrupt the farm.
> >> Principles not paperwork. In the end inspections, paperwork, and
> >> certifications cannot make up for what is essentially a moral problem.
> >> What
> >> we need is personal integrity amoung farmers and a willingness to act on
> >> them even if not profitable and be open about ones shortcomings.
> > And I agree with that of course.
> > John
> >> Pete
> >>
> >> On 08/20/2013 07:04 PM, John D'hondt wrote:
> >>> Makes a lot of sense to me. We were certified organic for 14 years and
> >>> the
> >>> price for certification went up year after year but our income didn't.
> >>> We
> >>> could see the time coming that we would need to borrow money to pay for
> >>> certification. The paperwork involved also was no longer doable. That
> >>> took
> >>> about a month's work for a person every year.
> >>> I know better than most the dangers of using unatural chemical ways and
> >>> we
> >>> eat our own produce after all. So of course we grow natural.
> >>>
> >>> John, no longer certified
> >>>
> >>>> SCHAGHTICOKE, N.Y.: Certified Naturally Grown: An alternative label to
> >>>> organic | Business | NewsObserver.com
> >>>> http://www.newsobserver.com/2013/08/17/3114829/naturally-grown-an-alternative.html
> >>>> _______________________________________________
> >>>> permaculture mailing list
> >>>> permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
> >>>> subscribe/unsubscribe|user config|list info|make a donation toward list
> >>>> maintenance:
> >>>> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/permaculture
> >>>> message archives: https://lists.ibiblio.org/sympa/arc/permaculture/
> >>>> Google message archive search:
> >>>> site: lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/permaculture [searchstring]
> >>>> Permaculture Institute USA http://permaculture.org
> >>>> Avant Geared http://www.avantgeared.com
> >>>>
> >>> _______________________________________________
> >>> permaculture mailing list
> >>> permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
> >>> subscribe/unsubscribe|user config|list info|make a donation toward list
> >>> maintenance:
> >>> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/permaculture
> >>> message archives: https://lists.ibiblio.org/sympa/arc/permaculture/
> >>> Google message archive search:
> >>> site: lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/permaculture [searchstring]
> >>> Permaculture Institute USA http://permaculture.org
> >>> Avant Geared http://www.avantgeared.com
> >>>
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> permaculture mailing list
> >> permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
> >> subscribe/unsubscribe|user config|list info|make a donation toward list
> >> maintenance:
> >> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/permaculture
> >> message archives: https://lists.ibiblio.org/sympa/arc/permaculture/
> >> Google message archive search:
> >> site: lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/permaculture [searchstring]
> >> Permaculture Institute USA http://permaculture.org
> >> Avant Geared http://www.avantgeared.com
> >>
> > _______________________________________________
> > permaculture mailing list
> > permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
> > subscribe/unsubscribe|user config|list info|make a donation toward list
> > maintenance:
> > http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/permaculture
> > message archives: https://lists.ibiblio.org/sympa/arc/permaculture/
> > Google message archive search:
> > site: lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/permaculture [searchstring]
> > Permaculture Institute USA http://permaculture.org
> > Avant Geared http://www.avantgeared.com
> >
> _______________________________________________
> permaculture mailing list
> permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
> subscribe/unsubscribe|user config|list info|make a donation toward list
> maintenance:
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/permaculture
> message archives: https://lists.ibiblio.org/sympa/arc/permaculture/
> Google message archive search:
> site: lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/permaculture [searchstring]
> Permaculture Institute USA http://permaculture.org
> Avant Geared http://www.avantgeared.com




Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page