permaculture

["Wordgarden" <wordgarden@iinet.net.au>]

Hi Antonio an others,
>
>  Put it another
> > way are organic, certified crops tested also for their content in
> > toxic materials coming from the sky?
>
> No. Certification bodies look at the grower's methods and techniques. I've
> never seen a certifying body test crop tissue samples.
>

Our farm is not certified, but I know a few farms who are with NASAA (
http://www.nasaa.com.au/ ) and I know of one that was not able to get
certification because it was on an old apple orchid--a soil test showed that
the build up of pesticides remaining in the soil was too high for
certification, even after the orchard had been gone for more than 20 years.
So I guess that, regardless of how organic your methods are, if your soil is
contaminated with toxic material (whether coming from the sky or form
wherever), many certifying agencies would be reluctant to certify you..

Nevertheless, I would still use organic methods. I have heard of reports
(which I can't supply references to right now) showing that composting and
fungi can reduce/immobilise many toxic compounds.  We don't often have much
of a choice about where we grow and live...best to do the best with what
we've got.

cheers,
Robert