Market Farming

["Wiediger, Alison" <awiediger AT HART.k12.ky.us>]

> From:         Jill Taylor Bussiere[SMTP:jdt AT itol.com]
> 
> Alison,
>     Would you be willing to share the list of qualifiers?  I love the idea
> of having our own folk term.  Power to the people!!!!
> 
        Paul just sent these to me:

As quoted from Mother Earth News, Dec/Jan 2002 pages 73 & 74.  Beyond
Organic by Eliot Coleman
Authentic Food - Beyond Organic: A seal of quality from a farm near you.
 
"...The word authentic derives from the Greek authentes: one who does things
for him or herself.
 
The standards for a term like this shouldn't be set in stone, but here is
what I would like for growers to focus on:
All foods are produced by the growers who sell them
Fresh fruit and vegetables, milk, eggs and meat products are produced within
a 50-mile radius of their place of their final sale.
The seed and storage crops (grains, beans, nuts, potatoes,etc.) are produced
within a 300 mile radius of their place of their final sale.
Only traditional processed foods such as cheese, wine, bread and
lactofermented products may claim "Made with authentic ingredients".
The growers fields, barns and greenhouses are open for inspection at any
time, so customers, themselves, can be the certifiers of their food.
All agricultural practices used on farms selling under the "authentic" label
are chosen to produce foods of the highest nutritional quality.
Soils are nourished, as in the natural world, with farm-derived organic
matter and mineral particles from ground rock.
Green manures and cover crops are included within broadly based crop
rotations to maintain biological diversity.
A "plant positive" rather than "pest negative" philosophy is followed,
focusing on correcting the cause of problems rather than treating symptoms.
Livestock are raised outdoors on grass-based pasture systems to the fullest
extent possible.
The goal is vigorous, healthy crops and livestock endowed with their
inherent powers of vitality and resistance.
"Authentic" growers are committed to supplying food that is fresh, ripe,
clean, safe and nourishing.  "Authentic" farms are genetically modified
organism-free zones.  
I encourage all small growers who believe in exceptional food and use local
markets to use the word "authentic" to mean "beyond organic".
With a definition that stresses local, seller-grown and fresh, there is
little likelihood that large-scale marketers can appropriate this concept."
-Eliot Coleman