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  • From: Roots Farm & Karen Sutherland <rootsfarm AT cwdom.dm>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Organic certification
  • Date: Thu, 22 Jul 2010 10:43:45 -0400

Thank you for sharing this.  It is easy to forget that organic farming (and the whole huge and imperfect system that has grown up to support and profit from it) is a means to an end value and not the end value itself.  Thanks to the brave WA growers for their action, for the additional latent caution about similar nonorganic contamination by GMO's,   and the implicit reminder that we need to keep checking the basic values and make sure our means for getting there are still leading where we want to go.

Best wishes to all,

Karen

Roots Farm
Organic Produce
Fruits, Roots, Vegetables & Herbs
CockraneDOMINICA
767-449-3038


On Jul 21, 2010, at 3:43 PM, Samish Heirlooms Farm wrote:

When I first started market farming, I looked at organic certification and didn't like what I saw.  Since, other farmers have expressed their dislike for the system but participate because it is required to sell to commercial interests like groceries.  A neighboring farm in Whatcom County, WA has turned in their card for another reason.

For Immediate Distribution:
July, 2010
 
Growing Washington Surrenders Organic Certification in Protest; Demands EPA, WSDA and Chemical Companies Address Major and Lingering Herbicide Contamination Issues

 

Everson, WA

 

 

The Action
In a strong statement to the companies creating and the agencies permitting the use of potent herbicides that are causing direct loss to innocent citizens and farmers and are endangering the viability of organic specialty crop production in our region, Growing Washington has voluntarily relinquished its organic certification with the Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA) in protest and has turned down its option to renew.  This decision of protest is made with high hopes that both the manufacturers of potent, persistent, widely disseminated herbicides and the agencies tasked with regulating and permitting their use can work together to protect the welfare of the general public and also the welfare of farmers who are experiencing incredible losses that WSDA administered soil and tissue tests trace back to these persistent herbicides.

 

The Reasoning
“It is counterproductive for one division of an agency on any level of government to permit, promote and control the word, definition and use of “organic” while in another division it is simultaneously continuing to permit, promote and, through delegated authority and its regulatory role, control the unleashing of highly potent, increasingly complex, and not fully understood chemicals into our soil, our water, our air, our animals, our food, and our bodies,” says Growing Washington director Clayton Burrows.  “As certified organic producers making the conscious (and incredibly labor intensive) decision to take care of the environment that sustains us, each year we pay a share of our profits to the WSDA Organic Program.  By paying into the agency, and by ceding to an agricultural agency the authority to decide what is and what is not “organic” we are also tacitly consenting to both the legitimacy and the activities of the agency in other divisions, including an agency’s regulatory role with herbicides that are, unfortunately, not being properly used, regulated, monitored, or controlled. It’s an absurd situation-- like being an outspoken gun control advocate while running around and shooting people, including yourself, in the foot.  It becomes a dangerous, contradictory cycle that leaves everyone hobbling in broken circles.”
 
Background
Clopyralid and its more exclusive and persistent cousin Aminopyralid are potent broadleaf herbicides that have both been banned and then reintroduced in areas around the world (use of Clopyralid was once banned in Seattle, for instance, and Aminopyralid was banned in the United Kingdom), and despite the fact that both were developed for very specific purposes, occurrences of their unwanted/unknown presence and the subsequent disastrous damage to plants continue to emerge.  While the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the federal-level agency with ultimate authority over the release of herbicides, has classified these chemicals as “not likely” to be carcinogenic[1] to humans, and while there are “no acute or chronic risks to non-target endangered or non-endangered fish, birds, wild mammals, terrestrial and aquatic invertebrates, algae or aquatic plants,” both Clopyralid and Aminopyralid stunt, deform, and kill specialty crops—things like tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, beans, strawberries, raspberries—at extremely low concentrations (as low as single parts per billion according to the WSDA Pesticide Division). 
 
The Potency
“We’re talking about concoctions that can be finely sprayed on grass, then consumed by a cow, then pass through the beast from the rooter to the tooter, then sit in a pile for two years or more, then be tilled into a field, be flushed by torrents of notorious Pacific Northwest rain, then persist at, say, 2 parts per1,000,000,000 and still retard and kill some of the most important specialty crops in our region.  In the parts per billion these herbicides make bean plants look like melted candles, turn beautiful tomato plants into something resembling a club footed fern, and turn vigorous young raspberry plants into a couple weeping, burned up leaves dangling on a used weiner-roasting stick..  But, from what I have been told, and from what the EPA fact sheets state, acceptable tolerances have been established for the presence of these herbicides in the milk and meat that people consume coming from the animals eating the laced forage.  And, the fact sheets also state that in the developmental stages when they tested large amounts of the herbicides on rats the researchers seemed to find only a few induced chromosome aberrations[2], so that is comforting,” Burrows continues.

 

The Inaction
Perhaps the most disturbing part of the situation is that this problem—more specifically contamination via clopyralid—has been known for nearly a decade and since being first banned and then reintroduced virtually nothing has been done to effectively monitor and regulate its current use, movement, and effects.[3]  When it was first front page news in Washington nearly a decade ago there were very few producers of the herbicide and it was easy—or at least easier--to trace to its source.  Since that time the product has fallen out of patent and can now be found in close to 100 different products, including many fine concoctions from the super-safe Chinese industrial complex.  And, unfortunately, the permitting agencies do not have systems in place to accurately trace the path and movement of these herbicides, akin to when they try to recall and trace tainted meat from massive confinement and processing facilities, where one pound of burger might contain meat from sixty three different cows.

 

The Result of Inaction
“Generally speaking, when a product is banned and then later reintroduced, that reintroduction comes with heightened monitoring and regulation,” says Burrows.  “In the case of Clopyralid—and now Aminopyralid—it appears as though nothing has changed except that more and more people and crops are being affected and the damage is becoming more widespread and crossing into several sectors.  Home gardeners, compost facilities, and broadleaf row crop farmers are all now reporting damage, and many more would if they knew what to look for in their plants.  Unfortunately, the problem we face today is nearly identical to the same situation faced last decade.” 
 
People Do Care; It is Just a Complicated World
“That said, I want to stress that both Dow AgroSciences and the WSDA seem to sense the severity of the issue, and representatives from the company and agency have been incredibly helpful, if not apologetic,” Burrows states, “and the good news is that quality individuals, from the WSDA Pesticide Division and its Organic Program, to managers at Dow, to researchers at WSU, all seem to want to fix the problem rather than fix the blame, and they are all supportive of our decision to forego organic certification as a strong statement that these products either need to be pulled by the WSDA or a viable solution needs to be found to control their use and movement and to protect innocent individuals and the natural resources that sustain us all.”
 
There are Straight-Up Solutions
“I am confident that a solution to this problem will be found, and when that time comes we will gladly and readily recertify with the WSDA’s Organic Program.  In the meantime we’re marketing our food as Certified Straight-Up, which basically means that our crops will continue to exceed National Organic Program standards, will rely upon no sprays (organic or otherwise), will be inspected by objective third parties, and that we are standing tall and refusing to accept poisoned waste or giving a percentage of our income to a self-defeating system..  In order to figure out a solution, we’ve basically opened up our farming operation to all interested parties this Spring and Summer, and we are confident that all parties know that we are in the right on this issue.  Of course, what is right is not always popular, and what is popular is not always right, so we don’t expect magic solutions to appear overnight.  But again, we maintain strong faith that those involved will do the right thing and remedy the lingering problems.”

 

Growing Washington’s Standing and Damages
“Alm Hill Gardens, our organization’s lifeblood and the employer of dozens of young and Latino farmers, and also one of the oldest and most storied organic farms in the state, is facing hundreds of thousands of dollars in real damage right now,” says Burrows.  “This is damage that could have been and should have been avoided.  Normally this time of year we are picking 250-400 pounds of tomatoes per greenhouse, per picking.  This year we have picked a total of 20 pounds on the entire farm.  The vast majority of our tomato, pepper, and eggplant starts have been destroyed.  Beans, berry plants, and other crops have been affected.  Long-term damage to perennials and the soil beneath them is a strong possibility.  Luckily, we noticed the problem early this spring in the fava beans, so we have been able to make adjustments and cease using poisoned compost  Nonetheless, we have been backed into a situation where we have to assume that all compost and manure is tainted until proven clean, and that goes against the sprit of farming and the spirit of this country—its like a system where folks are guilty until proven innocent or where a person can’t eat food without having it tested for poison first.  Who wants to live or work in an environment like that?” Burrows asks. 
 
People Do Care, and Do Want to Help
“That said, within 36 hours of contacting Dow a representative from Southern Oregon was up here and touring the farm with me and shaking his head in disbelief and sympathy.  WSDA agents have visited the farm three times in the last month, taking compost and tissue samples for additional testing.  Some of the compost sellers up here are now forced by conscience to give their customers verbal warning about the potential for contamination.  Grain, grass and dairy farmers who may or may not be using these herbicides are just trying to survive and provide for their families, and like most farmers, they will use an effective tool if given access and will trust that it is safe until told otherwise.  The press has been calling me wanting to write stories on the issue and I have refrained from speaking until positive laboratory tests were provided.  Spreading fear is not a sound approach.  We just want to see the problem fixed.”
 
It’s A Big Issue With Serious Implications
“I think that everyone knows this is a big issue, one that should have been solved a decade ago, and we hate to be in the uncomfortable position of either sucking it up and taking our losses, going about business as usual, or making the conscious and hard decision to demand action and setting an example by taking action ourselves.   To date, being certified organic has been very important to our marketing—it’s kind of like a reward for hard work--and surrendering it in protest will likely lead to immediate market-based losses—these losses in addition to the crop losses that we have already experienced.  For instance, our Community Co-op Grocery Store in Bellingham may no longer want to carry our items once they hear of our decision.  Or, maybe they will stand behind us because it is the right thing to do.  I don’t know.  What I do know is that thousands of producers have labored for decades to build up the organic movement and the subsequent trust that consumers place in it,  I can think of no louder statement that we, as an organization comprised of farmers, can make than to give back something that we’ve worked incredibly hard to earn and maintain—our organic certification.  We just received the test results from the WSDA a couple of days ago, and wanted to wait for confirmation before announcing a decision that we have been discussing for several months.  We hope that our customers will understand our decision, that other farmers will support our position, and that the companies accountable to their products and agencies responsible for our governance will exact timely and appropriate action to remedy this growing problem.  In the end, when short-term gains are a thing of the past and we are facing the long-term viability of agriculture, I don’t think that anyone benefits from lingering and persistent poison.  I think that we are all looking for some honest, delicious, Straight-Up food,” Burrows concludes.”

 

Washington State University’s Whatcom County Extension has developed a clopyralid/aminopyralid fact sheet that can be accessed here[4]

 

If, after reading the WSU bulletin and looking at the pictures, you think that your crops or garden plants have been affected by Chlopyralid or Aminopyralid laced compost please contact the WSDA Pesticide Management Division. 

 

Growing Washington is also gathering rough data on the scope and extent of the contamination, and would be interested in hearing if herbicide residues are affecting your business or your garden.  We’re also interested in knowing if other producers are interested in growing some Straight-Up Food.  Contact clayton AT growingwashington.org

 

 

**Growing Washington would like apologize for the length and depth of this information release.  Since our inception in 2003, Growing Washington has never once sent out such a release, so 1) we aren’t very good at it, and 2) the fact that we decided to release one at this time, about this topic, speaks to the seriousness of the issue at hand.  Again, we’d rather be selling vegetables in parking lots than dealing with this manure.**

  

I say Amen.

Bradley Smith
Samish Heirlooms Farm
Sedro Woolley, WA
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