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Re: SMALLFARM-MG> Organic Produce
it is sure different here in Ca. . I can see why you are calm cool and
collected. I have to pay both the state and CCOF for the same thing. I
pay twice and do paper work twice and may get two audits and two
walk-throughs etc. The state of Ca. is pure enforcement and they are
not out to help us. They make no bones about it . The USDA will be the
same way they are not out to help organic growers they have a different
agenda . I like it like the old days . I like CCOF and I am sad to see
the USDA take them over. hey Steve check this out I got it in the mail
and tell me I am not going through every thing twice:How many pencil
pushers does it take to tell me my small place is organic and why do I
have to pay to prove I am not guilty every year.I say shift the burden of
proof to them and let them pay to prove I am not organic .
This is another happy letter for the State Of Ca:
Agriculture Commissioner
Weights and measures Aug.1, 1997
To Santa Barbara County organic registrants:
The county agriculture agricultural commissioner's office will begin
inspections or audits to check for compliance with the California organic
food Act of 1990.
These inspections will help educate the organic industry regarding the
California organic foods Act and provide a level of integrity and
credibility for California organic products
Inspections involves checking records, labels, and verifying registration
information, including a walk through of the premises. The following are
the types of records that will be checked;
For producers records must be kept for three years from data of sell, if
not keep on the premises records must be made available for inspection
within seventy-two hours of request;
Records identify each field the size of the field unit in the
commodities qualities and dates of harvest for each field unit records
listing the names and addresses in registration numbers of each buyer and
the date of each transaction proof of certification if certified lot
filled number on invoice need to be able retract commodities back to the
field should also have producers registration number on the invoice and
state indicating that the food may be sold as organic records listing the
substances quantity and David application of each field unit also offices
to be identified by brand name if they need and by stores attached is a
copy of the odd for use during our inspection this office will be
telephone mean to set up.
Producer Audit
Names and dates of harvest
Name address, registration number of buyer and date of each transaction
available
Proof of certification
Lot filled number organic statement and registration number on invoices
Labeling
Proper labeling on containers
Substances
List of substances as quantity and gave application for each field or
unit
36 months since last application of printed material
Registration
Registration current
Commodities in gross sales complete
Location grown listed correctly
Fee calculated correctly
The certifying organization listed
Substance list complete
Changes in information and reported to and updated
Premises inspection
Check for band material in storage area
Segregation of organic in conventional products
Buffer between organic conventional product reasonable
Does this sound like CCOF Steve or not . Sounds just like and It is the
same as CCOF and I have to pay both for the same thing.and go through
every thing twice. double bullshit
The state puts you through this and yet will not certify you as organic
when they are done. Just like the USDA will put us through their hoops
and yet say organic is not safer than commercial food. you got the
cross but not the crown.
Get ready cause here it comes
Also I have to pay a certifier and support a local chapter and I pay a
inspector to do the same thing that the state is making me pay for them
to do and go through this all over again and again every year, year after
year and now they say not enough we got another 600 pages for you to read
of new stuff. Is it going to be in English? It just keeps going and
going why I blame <bigger>Robert points of order</bigger> or what ever
you call it. Some folks get in a room and say things like "I move we
make the farmers pay for it" and someone says" I second the motion"and
they talk about it and ask for a vote and I always lose the vote and the
motion passed and they send the farmers the bill. Man laws can be so
unjust sometimes. I hate Roberts points of order or what ever you call
it and I am not good at playing that game . I am sure glad nature does
not follow Roberts point of order. it is like the bunny rabbit it just
keep going and going. The water company make a motion raise the water
bill 200 % ok the ayes have it send out the bill. Now I see there is a
bunch of little people in little rooms working using this Roberts point
of order bull shit on me all day long. The certifiers had a little itch
and it fills good to scratch it but it keeps getting worse because they
keep scratching it on and on not knowing that the scratching is the cause
of the itch. I think that organic movement found Roberts point of order
and found that they can force people to do things by calling for a vote
was our downfall. They just keep scratching and scratching and the itch
will not go away and now they are ripping their own skin off scratching
hard but still they itch even harder. here is how you recognize one of
these control freaks Example : Lets vote to not talking about this on
sanet-mg the public form for sustainable ag. ok i second the motion ok
lets have a vote. Bull shit it is a public form . this is about
sustainable ag. now these jerks can vote on lets not talk about it any
more well it is not going to go away I just paid the State an unjust tax
because I grow and sell organic and I could have used that money. How
did that vote come out did the ayes win and we don't talk about it any
more or what . Now was that a quorum or do we vote on do we need a
quorum lets have a vote if we need a quorum or not but their is no quorum
will that vote count. and on and on . It is not righteousness any more
it is who can buy the most or swing the most votes. give me thrips and
mealybug and ants and weeds any day to this bull shit. I wish I never
heard of Robert point of order or what ever it is. <bigger>This is
turning into a tar baby . </bigger>We need a Jim Hightower here in Ca.
not more enforcement and intemadation.
At 04:02 PM 10/21/97 EDT, Sprinkraft wrote:
>Sal:
>Good to hear from you. One reason why I wanted to move to Texas was the
state
>certification program and the work being done by Jim Hightower who was
the
>State Ag Commissioner then. Well, he lost his last election, but the
program
>continues. It is a good system, regionally based, with competent
inspectors
>who are full time state employees.
>
>The yearly fees are based on acreage, and my fee was $150.00. They take
a
>yearly sample of foliage from around the farm and send it in to a lab to
run a
>residue analysis, and you know that this alone would cost a few
hundred
>dollars. The state also runs a parallel marketing program which I do not
pay
>for, so all in all it is a good program, underwritten by government
with
>modest user fees built in. Probably too modest in some regards, like 2
or 3000
>percent lower for processors or corporate handlers. The state also
certifies
>retailers....which protects bona fide growers by educating the marketers
as
>well as making sure that they are playing by the same rules as the
producers.
>
>Your yearly fees would be under 150...unless you had production
greenhouses
>now, or were processing products...in a health department certified
>facility...and so on, but just for fruit production and packing, it
would be
>very inexpensive.
>
>The state has a "stop sale" capability for products not in conformance,
and
>this inhibits, to a certain extent, the transportation of products that
are
>not all that they should be when it comes to certified organic. Here
locally,
>if the department discovers that someone may not be doing what they
should,
>all they do is roll the truck with the state seal on it out to the farm
and
>have a little conversation with the grower. If the grower can't back up
their
>claims, then they just give them written notice to cease and desist. If
they
>can back it up, they let them go on, since there is no obligation to
certify,
>although all the major receivers, including the small storefront coops,
demand
>certification. We get a few marginal players at farmers markets who
may
>misrepresent themselves, but it is really rare. All in all it is sort of
like
>the old days in California, and we have a growers group called Texas
Organic
>Growers Association that provides some of the educational and social
>interaction opportunities we had in CCOF.
>
>In my opinion, if California adopted something like what we have in
Texas, it
>could be run by the county ag commissioners office...just so long that
the
>state was aware that by providing the service to growers they were
growing a
>system that would go far towards eliminating a lot of problems with
chemical
>agriculture. There would be real cost benefit....and the growers should
be
>charged minimal fees, like Texas, that reflected that the state was
willing to
>underwrite a program or kind of farming that was less expensive for
society to
>bear the burden of.
>
>I am in Iowa right now. This morning I learned that there is a state
program
>that pays 55 dollars per acre per year over a three year period to a
grower
>who converts to organic.
>
>I also understand that a similar program exists in England, which pays
>something like 150 dollars an acre ad infinitum for a farm that
converts.
>
>I think we are all headed down a road that has programs like that on
it, but
>it may take some of us longer to see those landmarks.
>
>best regards, Steve
>
>
>
>
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