permaculture

["John Schinnerer" <john@eco-living.net>]

Aloha,

>> If I want to know more personally those who grow my food, I am
>> unlikely to want them to be certified by some national organization
>> run by people perhaps neither of us have seen or met, let
>> alone gotten to know.
>
> Yet national certification supports the development of a growing
> organic food market in this country. The NASAA (National Association
> Sustainable Agriculture Australia), Biofarm (a biodynamic certifier)
> and OHGA (Organic Herb Growers Australia, which also certifies
> vegetables and fruit) logos provide quality assurance to buyers.

The key for me is my first sentence - "...know more personally..."

I won't likely be able to drop by the farm of most who are selling through
centralized certification, unless they just happen to farm nearby...and if
they do, I can know them and what they're doing and the certification is
irrelevant.

I have no idea what any of those big organizational certifications
*really* mean in practice.  I do know that the bigger they get the more
they seem to become a tool of agribusiness, which is interested in
profiting from the organic food fad but not really intereseted in truly
sustainable agriculture.

It's a cultural difference - arbitrary certification authority vs. knowing
your local farmers.  I prefer the latter and I think it would be a
healthier and more sustainable food culture overall.





John Schinnerer, MA
-------------------------
- Eco-Living -
Cultural & Ecological Designing
People - Place - Learning - Integration
john@eco-living.net
http://eco-living.net