permaculture

[Russ Grayson <pacedge@magna.com.au>]

On Thursday, July 10, 2003, at 05:46  AM, John Schinnerer wrote:

> Aloha,
> I have no idea what any of those big organizational certifications
> *really* mean in practice.  

It means - and I can only speak of Australia - that consumers of organic produce have quality assurance that the products they buy have been grown organically. For farmers, it means that they can access the growing urban organic food market.

Certification is a means of product differentiation, an essential marketing tactic in making organic farming economically viable.

> I do know that the bigger they get the more
> they seem to become a tool of agribusiness, 

I know of no evidence that certification is becoming a "tool of agribisuness" here, unless you refer to the organic sector in agribisuness.

> 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.

I agree with you John. But in a big city there is no way of knowing local farmers. The nearest we come to this in Sydney is through the city's only community-supported agriculture scheme. For city dwellers - and that's most of the Australian population (Sydney, with four million, holds a quarter of the country's population) - knowing your local farmer is not achievable.

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Russ Grayson
Media services:  journalism-print/ online/ photo
pacedge@magna.com.au  Phone/ fax: 02 9588 6931
PO Box 446 Kogarah NSW 2217 Australia
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