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livingontheland - Re: [Livingontheland] certified organic

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Subject: Healthy soil and sustainable growing

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Chronological Thread  
  • From: Dan Conine <dconine@bertramwireless.com>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] certified organic
  • Date: Wed, 30 Jan 2008 18:49:01 -0600


Date: Tue, 29 Jan 2008 11:50:33 -0700
From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>
Re: [Livingontheland] certified organic was: growing own food

Not to be picky but to make a point - the organic standards don't actually
allow a percentage of residuals or disallow them. Certification simply does
not involve routine testing for banned substances. It's all about the
paperwork, showing you got seeds, materials, etc. from approved sources,
and claiming not to have used non-organic pesticides and fertilizers. They
cannot test your produce for chemical fertilizers. There isn't any such
test. Testing for various pesticides would be outrageously expensive and
unreliable, and it just isn't part of organic certification.

In addition, there are huge loopholes in the existing rules, as you point
out with soy lecithin. All so the multinationals can make off with the
profits from unsuspecting customers.
paul
This is covered very well in this month's AcresUSA magazine. In a sidebar on page 14, Mark Keating explains that organic certification is about the process, not the product. In a way, it has to be, because testing after the product is already grown would be the hard way to eliminate pesticides, etc. In a perfect world, both the process and the product would be monitored, but that would mean higher costs and a change in philosophy from "always low prices"....
Testing after the fact is the way that corporations get away with dumping 'x' amount of pollutants per year or per day. Eliminating the pollutants up front means the intrusion of authority into the process. Farmers can be forced to accept this, factories buy their way out of it.

Dan C.





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