Market Farming

["Liz Pike" <liz AT laughingbrookfarm.com>]

> You organic folks asked for these regulations and when they were not tough
enough you petitioned for tougher regs. Now some folks are complaining the
regs are too tough. Well you got what you asked for.


Personally, I never asked for them.  All I ever wanted were for those
growers who sold at market to prove they were organic, something which some
fm managers refused to follow through on.   We didn't want tougher regs,
just tougher enforcement!!!

What I resent most is the US govt taking away a word....a WORD that so
simply defined what we organic growers do, and now the struggle to find an
alternative is tiresome.  It was much easier on signage & paperwork to put
"organic"...but now, to have to say something like "grown without chemicals
& pesticides" or "sustainably grown" irks me.  It will take years and years
for customers to readily know what "sustainably grown" means.  I know, I
know, if I establish a relationship with my customers.....well it was much
easier when they knew what the words meant.

> There is nothing the US government does better than invent regulations,
but every new regulation chips away at our freedoms.

I so totally agree!!!! I don't understand why we're so willing to sell out
those "little" freedoms to replace safety & common sense.

>Rule 1 was; "honesty is the best policy", if you tell me you grew it
organically then I have >no reason to not believe you.

We can't even use the word "organic" anymore!!!!  I can't legally say "I
grow organically."

> For some of you who bitch and moan about the corperatizing of the term
organic, where were you when this whole certification process began?, why
did you sit back and allow your most precious asset, your "organic", be
taken away. Wasn't there 200000 last minute petitions calling for the
banning of GMO's from organics? well why wasn't there 200000 petitions
keeping the term organics in the hands of small farmers?...Bob.

175 letters, $120 in phone calls, 4 petitions, 2 face-to-face meetings with
state reps, and umpteen emails & meetings.  And I was just one of thousands.

Then there were the growers who did nothing.  In their naiveté, they
hoped/thought the new regulations would work.  They thought, erroneously,
since most "organics" were grown by small marketers, that their interests
would be protected.

And here we are.

Liz Pike
Laughing Brook Farm
Westfield NC