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  • From: w Baroli <modernpen AT yahoo.com>
  • To: market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Market-farming] USDA vs Naturally Grown
  • Date: Mon, 6 Mar 2006 12:40:05 -0800 (PST)

Hi I have a small organic five acre farmer here in the Desert outside of Palm Springs. I am also a certified Naturally Grown Farm. What I have learned is this - the USDA program as it WAS created- served as a tool for small farms to become educated and re-learn how to create a healthy system to produce food. The "stamp of approval" certified organic was in it's purest form a dynamic way to market our small farm products. Today, as with any government maintained program the 'third house' in Congress has gotten hold of the incredible value to the words Organic. It has been manipulated to be used by the largest producers who want the marketing value without the overall process of returning to a different way of farming. The USDA certified program has been eroded to suit large corporate processing methods.
 
Organic should mean a couple of things the first being locally produced. All things considered, true organics is not just a marketing tool but a way to reduce costs of energy ie trucking costs, cold storage energy, wasteful packaging, etc, etc by providing food direct to the consumer or at minimum to a market that is a small part of the cost of providing healthy food to the consumer. Secondly, it is a method that creates responsibility to soil and and water conservation as well as open spaces for agriculture. Thirdly, organics gives back the power to the real producers in this country SMALL FAMILY FARMS. The whole co-op movement that became the 'company store' small farms owe their souls to is very much like the newest USDA program. 
 
Corporate farms have created this mess we are in  - in terms of disease in animals over crowding ,feeding dead ground up contaminated animal parts to food animals. Since when did ungulates (cows) eat other cows? Since when did chickens lays eggs without a resting period. Doesn't anyone else wonder how it is that prostrate cancers are rampant, pet deaths due to cancer, allergies and breathing disorders are at the highest measured levels? Ever wonder why they call the stuff in say diazinon, malathion, and other poisons are called organophosphates? Corporate farm lobbyists are now in charge of the USDA program.
 
Small farms are small business. Small farms create community, invigorate labor markets or all kinds, skilled and unskilled, small farms employee PEOPLE.  Farming has an critical opportunity to change the playing field. Consumers are demanding their food not be chock full of chemicals - they want flavor not shelf or trucking life, they are suspicious of genetic altering. We are on the cusp of something dynamic as farmers. The thing is we have to agree to disagree about politics and come together concerning process. We must be responsible, educated, discerning questioners of practices we have been taught and have taken for granted. Organics began as a grass roots movement that has proven it's market value which is why the big guns are now stacking the deck in their favor. So, as small farmers we can also adapt and so an end run around their watered down rules. Certified Naturally Grown is a method in response to this issue. Join it, participate check out the SLOW FOOD movement join it participate.
 
Organics cannot be reproduced on enormous corporate farms. Because as my grandmother wisely ingrained in me - haste makes waste - food is not a widget- except at McDonald's. Food is the one thing all of us have in common. It is an enormous power let's not sit back and say we can't be heard. The consumers have told us what they want we have an opportunity to respond. For all the nay-sayers about organics being too expensive, etc, etc check out this fact.
 
There is a larger consumer demand for organics than there are producers. In fact, this country is IMPORTING organic food from other countries. This is ridiculous and poor economic policy.
 
Big  corporations get this they have used their powerful lobbyists to re work the USDA organic rules to fit their needs the new rules allow them to call their products organic when in fact they are able to skirt many requirements. As farmers we needs to realize organics is no longer a 'Hippy dippy' movement of a select few but a reality in farming. It is our moment to actually make a profit and a living.
 
Is there anything good about the USDA program? Absolutely. ATTRA,  the best part of the USDA program is a gateway of information on every subject of organics and conversion and we should fully support the funding of ATTRA.
 
Here is why I am now certified Naturally Grown.
Farmers, real farmers not politicians run the program. It has not yet created its own monstrous self promulgated bureaucracy so what you pay for is actually what you get. What you participate in with the program is what you may expect a return on. The rules are still the former (not the revised) tough organic standards. There is no fudging because it is expensive to use IPM or alternative ways to provide nutrients for production however, like the USDA rules if you can make a valid case for say- basic sulfur or an iron product for soils without available iron it will not prevent you from using things not on the List. What I find is Naturally Grown paperwork is MINIMAL you must keep good records as all business should  but the crap and expense and fees is nominal. The labels and logos are consumer friendly and easily distinguishable to market your produce,the standards are high and most importantly it is run by actual farm people.
 
Business is business and those will the largest market value win - family farms should be no different. You must be prepared to educate yourself.  Understanding soil and water is key, not just how to irrigate or fertilize but what happens when you add or subtract something to your crops.  What happens if you scrape away all the soil and dump a load of Round up to control weeds. An overall farm plan not for the bank ,but a workable idea of the health of your business that you and your workers can follow is vital. Everyone working for you must be infected with the drive towards a healthy goal. What I have learned from belonging to a third generation farming family is this - information is the key to innovation and innovation is the key to success. Bigger is not always better. Intensive farming is manageable, you can get off the farm welfare train, and you can provide a future for the inhabitants of this planet while providing a living for your own family.
 


WSBaroli
Sky Valley Botanicals and Organic Farm
19800 Diamond Ave.
Sky Valley, CA 92241


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