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  • From: "Lawrence F. London, Jr." <lflj@intrex.net>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [permaculture] [Fwd: Re: [SANET-MG] Sust Ag standard moves into high gear]
  • Date: Tue, 07 Oct 2008 20:21:36 -0400

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [SANET-MG] Sust Ag standard moves into high gear
Date: Tue, 7 Oct 2008 15:05:33 -0400
From: David Conner <connerd@MSU.EDU>
To: SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU

Hello all on this thread
My, I've stirred up quite the hornets' nest, haven't I?

I begin by saying that I originally posted a somewhat flippant, off the
cuff comment. Maybe I should have posted this more thoughtful one first.

I understand that most if not all on this list are truly dedicated to
sustainable ag and that we all make compromises in life. I mean no
personal disrespect to anyone. However, I think there are major problems
with the NOP that as a scholar and advocate I think are legitimate and
would be remiss in not raising.

I have my own ideas of how things might be different if the NOP were
different or non-existent: I of course cannot prove any of them, it is
an interesting thought experiment.

Some have asked me for documentation of my claims. Here is a shortlist
of readings which provide the basis for many of these critiques.

Dobbs, T. L., R. C. Shane, and D. M. Feuz. "Lessons learned from the
Upper Midwest Organic Marketing Project." American Journal of
Alternative Agriculture 15, no. 3(2000): 119-128.

Guthman, J. (2000). "Raising organic: An agro-ecological assessment of
grower practices in California " Agriculture and Human Values 16(3):
257-266.

Guthman, J. (2004). "The Trouble with 'Organic Lite' in California: a
Rejoinder to the 'Conventionalisation' Debate." Sociologia Ruralis
44(3): 301-316.

Raynolds, L. T. (2004). "The globalization of organic agro-food
networks." World Development 32(5): 725-743.

Sligh, M. and C. Christman (2003). Who Owns Organic? The Global Status,
Prospects, and Challenges of a Changing Organic Market, Rural
Advancement Foundation International-USA.
http://www.rafiusa.org/pubs/OrganicReport.pdf

Phil Howard's website: https://www.msu.edu/~howardp/

I also think a search of SANET archives will yield insight on farmers'
feelings of organic's "highjacking" by USDA

For those farmers out there like Francis who feel NOP works for you, I
am glad it is working out. Many grain farmers here in MI still need
multiple certifications to sell to Japan and Europe...

My major wish is that the growth in organic was met by local sustainable
food systems, not imports from "everywhere." Just yesterday I had a
farmer tell me the local health food store dropped him as a supplier of
organic vegetables because they can get it cheaper off the truck.

I leave you with a prescient comment from 2000:
"Structure of agriculture concerns need to be explicitly built into
strategies that promote organic food from small-to-moderate sized family
farms. Current forces will lead the current organic food and agriculture
system to increasingly resemble the evolving conventional system"
(Dobbs, et al., 2000).


Would that we had heeded their advice...

Thanks for reading

David




David S. Conner, Ph.D.
C.S. Mott Group for Sustainable Food Systems
Department of CARRS
309 Natural Resources Bldg
Michigan State University
East Lansing MI 48823
Voice: 517-353-1914
Fax: 517 353-3834
Email: connerd@msu.edu

http://www.mottgroup.msu.edu





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