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market-farming - RE: new terminology

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Subject: Market Farming

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  • From: Leigh Hauter <lh AT pressroom.com>
  • To: "Market Farming" <market-farming AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: RE: new terminology
  • Date: Wed, 16 Oct 2002 12:22:29 -0400


Most of the organic farms in our state are small,
and many will not be able to handle the red tape of USDA certification -
especially when it comes to tracking sales. The other big issue is seeds.
I'm not sure where I read it this week, maybe newfarm.org, but the general
consensus seems to be that you must buy organic seed, if it is available, as
long as it is not more than 3-5 times more expensive! So, for us, with an
annual seed cost of $600-$700, we could conceivably have to spend as much as
$3000 for seed. Now, in reality, it wouldn't come to that much. Many of the
seeds we use are not available at all as organic seed, and much of the
organic seed available is reasonably priced. But, it illustrates another
good reason for small, diversified growers to market directly, and forget
about the USDA label.

Alison, a very succinct argument for not certifying'usda organic'

I think I'm changing our webpage to say something like:

'Locally grown! Fresh! Our vegetables are grown by us on our farm without chemical pesticides, herbicides or fertilizers. Our vegetables are chemical and gmo free.'

I just finished surveying my subscribers and 90% said not to certify and of the 10% who said we should, only 1% said that it mattered to them, the other 9% was afraid no certification would deter others from signing up to our CSA in the future.




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