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  • From: Road's End Farm <organic87 AT frontiernet.net>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] clarification of use of "organic"
  • Date: Sat, 10 Sep 2011 14:28:15 -0400


On Sep 10, 2011, at 7:41 AM, Vern and Amy wrote:



An organic grower told me that they can buy conventional if they
document that what they want to buy is not available or is too expensive
organically.

I have seen organic growers reselling conventional starts at a
farmers-only market. They even displayed the original grower's
literature on how to grow at their stand! Somehow, though, they are
able to avoid the complicated scenario you envisioned. They don't sell
organic starts.


The first statement is only partly true; I don't know whether you misunderstood what the grower said and the grower legitimately falls under the more limited actual exemption, or whether the grower misunderstood the rules, or whether the grower is cheating and hopes you don't know any better.

There is a partial exemption for seed that is untreated but not organically certified, and for plants of perennial crops only if they will be grown organically at least one year before sale of crop, and for annual crops potentially for sweet potatoes, onion and shallot sets, and I think maybe potatoes.

If the person told you that cost was a factor in the exemption, that person was wrong. Cost is not supposed to be a factor at all; only availability of the specific variety in a quantity suitable to the grower's needs; and the buyer is supposed to document, not only that the variety is not available as organically grown seed, but also why that specific variety is needed and one that is available as organic seed won't do.

If the person told you that the exemption applied to annual vegetable transplants of other sorts than I've listed, that person was probably also wrong. The exemption exists for the above cases because a suitable variety just plain may not be available as organic seed or plants, or may not be available in the quantity needed. Such an exemption is not generally considered to be needed for annual vegetable transplants because availability is considered to be sufficient (there are organic greenhouses that will grow any variety you want to order, and many farms can grow their own. Growing one's own disease free, true to type seed; or disease-free sets and fruit plants; is generally a whole lot harder.) If major weather or other disasters have destroyed the organically grown supply, an exemption can also be made for this reason; but such exemptions have to be approved at the State level as well as by the certifier, and are temporary. And again, cost is not supposed to be a factor; only actual availability.

The second case (the people reselling conventional transplants) may be entirely legitimate, depending on the market rules and on how the farm's organic plan is set up. It's possible to have a split operation, in which part of your fields are organic and others aren't; or in which part of what you sell is organically grown, and other parts of what you sell aren't. The producer is supposed to a) satisfy the certifying agency that they have effective ways of keeping the two parts of the operation separate and b) make entirely clear in all of their labeling which parts of what they sell are organic and which aren't. If the people you're talking about are selling some plants labeled as organically grown, and others clearly labeled as not organically grown, then the question is whether their certifier knows about this and is convinced they're keeping the two categories straight. Ask who their certifier is, if they don't have this posted; then call the certifier and ask. (If they won't tell you who certifies them, something is very wrong. You don't have to tell them why you want to know who certifies them. While much of the information the certifier winds up with is confidential, I don't think whether they're legitimately running a split operation is; even if it is, the certifier, if notified of the situation, has to investigate if they don't already know and/or didn't approve the situation.)

If reselling another's plants is against market rules, the problem is not with whether they're organic (though of course they might be in violation of both sets of rules at once; but they might be in violation of market rules but not organic rules, or vice versa.) Talk to the market manager. If that doesn't get you anywhere, talk to the board or owners of the market. If that doesn't get you anywhere either, the market is messed up; but that's not a problem with organic certification, but with the market.

Note that depending on how the market rules are written, the sales may be legitimate; so the first thing you want to do, if you don't have one already, is to get a copy of the rules for that specific market. Some markets are grower-only in the sense that people who are only resellers are not allowed, but do allow selling a percentage of other people's items. Some such markets require the items to be from within a specific area. Some require them to be labeled with where they are grown -- if the market in question has that as a rule, the inclusion of the other grower's information may be intended to meet the requirement. For instance, the markets I sell at are producer - only markets; but, if the items aren't more than 20% of what the vendor puts out in a given week, they're from within the permitted areas, and they're properly labeled, that's allowed -- this lets vendors bring some of their neighbor's stuff, basically, and lets us increase the variety allowed at market while still making sure everything is local and avoiding the quality and pricing problems common with people who are only resellers and not primarily growers/bakers/crafters themselves. Market rules can of course vary drastically from one market to other.


-- Rivka; Finger Lakes NY, Zone 5 mostly
Fresh-market organic produce, small scale






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