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certification
"Organic certification should either be less expensive and time consuming"
- Lawrence F. London, Jr
Of course it should. Likewise if we all bought from local CSA schemes or
local box systems or whatever where we could drop in on the farmer and see
what he was up to at any moment so that that we knew how our food was grown
we wouldn't need certification.
Unfortunately there is a big, bad world out there that either can't or
can't be bothered to get involved and wants to get something labelleld
organic from the local supermarket, wants organic food out of season,
wants, wants, wants.....
Some of them really care and are doing the best they can by going to that
supermarket. And quite a lot of them have been ripped off, and are still
being ripped off, by farmers who cut corners because its cheaper in cash
terms or because they want a premium or whatever. The world is not perfect
and your farmers market can have as many pesticides on the food as any
other market and the farmer may not be telling his customers the truth, the
whole truth...... so nasty certification schemes come along - don't blame
the certifiers, blame the guy who cheated. And if you are only doing $5000
business get your customers involved so they can see what you do, don't
make any claims, organic or otherwise, just explain your system and sell
locally. But the fees, whether in dollars or Irish pounds or yen or
whatever are to pay to keep out the cheats - and there are plenty of them
about wherever you say "premium".
And in case you are interested I'm an unpaid "beaurocrat" and I would
rather be able to spend the time in my garden.
Kathryn Marsh