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market-farming - Re: [Market-farming] manures/GAP training

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  • From: "William H Shoemaker" <wshoemak AT illinois.edu>
  • To: "'Market Farming'" <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] manures/GAP training
  • Date: Thu, 4 Mar 2010 07:17:58 -0600

Personally, I think it’s been a very healthy conversation which has made us all more aware of future challenges. Thanks to all the contributors I have a much better feel for the kinds of issues I face working with growers in my area as they begin to wrestle with GAP. In all honesty, I’m not confident GAP will become law. There are some in Washington who feel it may be over-the-top regulation if enacted as law. Let’s hope. But I still think growers should seriously consider GAP and see if they cannot use it as a tool for improving their management of their farming operation, particularly in marketing. It could have a tremendous impact on your ability to gain loyalty from customers. And I believe they are many, many ancillary benefits to management from the discipline of GAP. As good as all of you are, I think it could make you better growers.

 

I’m old enough to consider retirement down the road a few years (if my pension survives!). But I won’t quit working. I’ll probably join your ranks as a market farmer and I’ll be keen to use GAP as a management tool. I’m considering it for our University research farm. I’ve always been a grower (research plots; gardens; my mother accidentally hit me in the forehead with the back end of a hoe when I was about 7. That’s what sealed my fate!).  I’ll probably grow things around my grave!

 

William H. Shoemaker

Sr. Research Specialist, Food Crops

University of Illinois - Crop Sciences

St Charles Horticulture Research Center

535 Randall Road, St Charles, IL, 60174

630-584-7254, FAX-584-4610

wshoemak AT illinois.edu


From: market-farming-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:market-farming-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Road's End Farm
Sent: Wednesday, March 03, 2010 7:50 PM
To: Market Farming
Subject: Re: [Market-farming] manures/GAP training

 

 

On Mar 3, 2010, at 5:04 PM, KAKerby AT aol.com wrote:



I'm sorry, folks, but I'm getting really overwhelmed with all this.  I started this thread because I just took the class and was concerned about what I learned.  I was curious if other folks had gone through the GAP training and if so, whether they were going to change their practices because of them.  Now I'm fielding all sorts of questions about why this paper?  Why those testing protocols? Why didn't the researchers do this and that, and did they know about such and such, and so on.  I have no idea.  

 

Sorry! I didn't reply with that list of questions because I expected you to be able to answer them, but because I thought you had asked what questions we thought important. Apologies if I gave the impression of expecting you to come up with the answers.

 

It is a really complicated subject; that's part of the reason that hard and fast answers about what to do -- or sometimes, even about how to design the studies -- aren't easy to come by.


 

-- Rivka; Finger Lakes NY, Zone 5 mostly

Fresh-market organic produce, small scale

 

 

 




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