Organic Certification is inherently a conflict of interest, as the "3rd Party Certifying Agency" gets paid to certify you, so they have a vested interest to pass you and grant you the Certification. The inspectors could easily look the other way at violations, in order to get more customer$. Now this becomes an issue of the moral standing of the certifying agency, and the likes of Quality Assurance International (QAI) or any of the other larger certifying agencies I would avoid.
Furthermore, you are allowed to use a restricted chemical in order to save a crop and not lose your certification:
"NOP Rule 205.672 which affects emergency pest and disease treatment,
only the specific crop which is sprayed could no longer be sold as
organic. The organic status of the fields themselves is not compromised. "
So technically the soil has been doused with chemicals but the field is still organic. Heh?
Recently our area was sprayed with imadacloprid (the neonicitinoid blamed for CCD) for the Asian citrus psyllid, organic growers included. They did not lose their certification.
One solution is to have a certification agency that does not get paid to certify people, likely a state or federal program (with its own inherent problems of beaurocracy). This would make the certification more independent and remove the conflict of interest.
Loren Luyendyk
(805)-452-8249
Accredited Permaculture Teacher, PRI-AUS
ISA Certified Arborist WE-7805A
www.sborganics.com
www.surferswithoutborders.org
www.globalpermaculture.com
Date: Sun, 1 Sep 2013 21:51:26 -0500
From: farmer1@gasperfarm.com
To: permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: Re: [permaculture] Certified Naturally Grown: An alternative label toorganic
Yes well, America is well into the corruption stage of things and the
infection runs from top to bottom.
Pete
On 09/01/2013 06:48 PM, John D'hondt wrote:
>
>
>> I have little faith in this label. I've known of several instances of
>> farmers using the label while not certified or admittedly engaging in
>> practices contrary to the cert and the organization did nothing.
> That would most definitely not work over here in Europe. The organic
> inspectors were very sharp and extremely competent. And really, it is > not
> that difficult to establish that fiddling would be going on. You only > hve to
> look at the natural vegetation to see if any weed killers were used. > Turn
> over a stone and you expect to find worms or worm holes and a slug or > two.
> The fiddlers would not be too intelligent anyway. And the penalty for > being
> found out would easily bancrupt the farm.
>> Principles not paperwork. In the end inspections, paperwork, and
>> certifications cannot make up for what is essentially a moral problem.
>> What
>> we need is personal integrity amoung farmers and a willingness to act >> on
>> them even if not profitable and be open about ones shortcomings.
> And I agree with that of course.
> John
>> Pete
>>
>> On 08/20/2013 07:04 PM, John D'hondt wrote:
>>> Makes a lot of sense to me. We were certified organic for 14 years >>> and
>>> the
>>> price for certification went up year after year but our income >>> didn't. We
>>> could see the time coming that we would need to borrow money to pay >>> for
>>> certification. The paperwork involved also was no longer doable. That
>>> took
>>> about a month's work for a person every year.
>>> I know better than most the dangers of using unatural chemical ways >>> and
>>> we
>>> eat our own produce after all. So of course we grow natural.
>>>
>>> John, no longer certified
>>>
>>>> SCHAGHTICOKE, N.Y.: Certified Naturally Grown: An alternative label >>>> to
>>>> organic | Business | NewsObserver.com
>>>>
http://www.newsobserver.com/2013/08/17/3114829/naturally-grown-an-alternative.html
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