permaculture

[mIEKAL aND <dtv@mwt.net>]

I dont know about the other certifications mentioned previously, but to 
be certified organic after the new USDA rulings in October is actually 
quite rigorous & the consumer can be sure in most cases that having 
that seal on your products correlates to very specific farming 
practices.  (So rigourous in fact that at this point compost tea is not 
a legal input & the use of something like farm generated compost 
requires such tedious documentation that I can't see a lot of smaller 
farmers actually having the time to do such things.)  mIEKAL


On Thursday, July 10, 2003, at 12:38 PM, Toby Hemenway wrote:

> On Wednesday, July 9, 2003, at 12:46 PM, John Schinnerer wrote:
>
> > 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.
>
> Though I know some local growers, when I go to a farmer's market and 
> my buddies are out of the stuff I want, it's a comfort to see another 
> stand labeled "certified organic." Other stands may say,"no spray," 
> and I saw one yesterday that said "certified all-natural," whatever 
> the hell that means (strychnine is natural!), but I'll go to the ones 
> certified organic. Part of this is that I know the certification body, 
> and that would be equally true in permaculture. If it got beyond that 
> scale, it would be time to rethink it.
>
> Toby