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market-farming - Re: Organic Certification questions

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  • From: "wiediger" <wiediger AT msn.com>
  • To: "Market Farming" <market-farming AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: Organic Certification questions
  • Date: Wed, 17 Jul 2002 08:27:07 -0500


Precisely why we decided not to certify any longer. Fortunately, our market
is retail (farmers' market and email ordering) and we have that choice. Our
form also included sales information to be kept. That means, exactly how
much we harvested from each crop from each planting, who we sold it to and
how much we sold it for. An impossibility for a diversified market farmer
selling to consumers. We figured it would cost us at least 100 hours a
year, not counting all the other record keeping.

For those of us not doing wholesale, I still think we need to move together
in whatever way we decide to move beyond the USDA's idea of what organic
growing means. Whether it is The Wholesome Food Association, Elliott
Coleman's Authentic Food, Ron Khosla's Certified Naturally Grown (see July's
"Growing for Market) or some other scheme. USDA has only taken a label from
us. We farmers did all the educating of the consumer what that label means
in the first place. We can do that educating again - but it'll have more
impact is we are all moving in the same direction.

Paul and Alison Wiediger
Au Naturel Farm
http://aunaturelfarm.homestead.com


----- Original Message -----
From: "Chris Sawyer" <css AT ioa.com>
. It would take a non productive employee full time just to manage record
keeping
> for this system. If this is how it is gonna be, I cannot see my way to
> continue certification>






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