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market-farming - re: Writer's Request: Organic Industry vs Organic Movement

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  • From: Marcie Rosenzweig <fullcircle AT jps.net>
  • To: market-farming AT franklin.oit.unc.edu
  • Subject: re: Writer's Request: Organic Industry vs Organic Movement
  • Date: Sat, 28 Sep 2002 07:33:56 -0700


Allan,

I agree with Alison on this. When I wrote in opposition to the organic regulations during the comment period, I did the same math with the forms that existed at the time. I figured that between joining an organization, paying the initial certification fee, paying for the inspector's time at $65/hr including drive time at two trips per year minimum, and counting my time at $10/hr to fill out the paperwork, it would cost me $3500 the first year allone to certify a 2.5 acre farm with a $36-$40,000 budget. Clearly a bad investment. The current forms are even more odious than the ones that existed at the time and it didn't include the search for organic seed sources. I couldn't raise my already premium prices to cover that spread.

I'm asked almost weekly by producers if they should certify. My questions back to them is always these. Do your customers require it? Does the way you market your crop require it? Does it make economic sense based on your sales volume?

Here's how it would have played out for my farm.

My farmers' market and CSA customers knew me and knew my practices even if the government took away my farm name - Full Circle Organic Farm - and my signs, I had built a clientele who knew what was going on. I could still put pictures of the farm in our booth and described our cultural practices and folks were still welcome to come out and tour the place.

My restaurant customers bought from me because what I had was fresh, local, and the highest quality they could come by. Even if they were looking for organic from a philosophical point of view, they weren't advertising it through the front end so it wouldn't have hurt my sales there either.

The co-ops will be a different story. When I started, buyers knew me. Some had even been to the farm. Because of this I was "grandfathered" when decisions were made to purchase only form certified organic growers. With the new regs, that market is now gone for folks like us.

I believe the decision to certify or not is an individual one. If you are truely direct marketing to your end user, or they are buying from you for reasons other than your organic status, you probably don't need to go to the expense. If, on the otherhand, you are dependent upon certification to hold your wholesale markets or your clients aren't the end user, you need to do the math and see if certification is economically feasible or you are simply out of business.

On a sightly different tact on this subject - the paperwork Alison describes is clearly reflective of why the regulations went forward in the first place. This was NOT regulation requested by consumers - don't even try to argue with me about this. This was law put forth by large scale commodity crop growers and processors so they could trade with the EU - - a huge market that demanded one uniform standard from the States. Follow the money at the time. The fruits and veggies most of us grow are "minor" crops from the standpoint of quantity and overall dollars. Cereal grains, corn and soy and their many manufactured derivatives are what drove the law. Do city folks who buy organic fruits and veggies from a co-op or supermarket benefit from someone having a paper trail to assure them what they are buying really is organic? Certainly, but that was NOT what drove the regulation in the first place.

Alison, if you sold you produce to yourself for resale, you would have to certify also as a handler, track a whole different set of paperwork and pay a whole different set of certification fees.

It seems to me that certifying organizations may have the leeway on how buyers are tracked. In other words, you may be able to track your sales at individual farmers' markets via a load list and that may be enough for that marketing channel. There are advantages to doing so. Anyone doing multiple markets knows each has its own personality and clientele. You want to know what sells where so you can position your highest return crops into the highest demand markets and maximize your sell-through. The same thing is true for farmers' markets vs CSA or restaurants. And your cropping scheme should favor your dominant channel - but that's a different discussion.

It is incredibly sad to me as an ol' Rodale organics person that those of us who championed this system of healing the soil while producing the highest quality products in the face of riducule and contempt have now had our language and culture co-opted by input substituters chasing a market advantage. It is equally sad to me that "organic" produce transported from Mexico to Wisconsin is seen by consumers purchasing from a supermarket as being a more healthy choice for themselves and the plant. It is a marginal difference at best given that scenario.

With that, I will atke my long wind out of my sails for the moment and sign off.

Marcie

--
Marcie A. Rosenzweig
Full Circle
3377 Early Times Ln
Auburn, CA 95603-7900
(530) 885-9201

ask about our books:
Market Farm Forms- Spreadsheet Templates
for Planning and Tracking Information on Diversified Market Farms
AND
The New Farmers' Market: Farm-fresh Ideas for Producers, Managers, and Communities




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