Who is going to pay for the USDA National Organic Program? Is that your
question? The only people that pay for anything, the consumer. The consumer
could stop at the certifiers, but they only make their expenses and profits
from the farmer and handler, and the farm and handling operation applicant
only make money from the consumer. And the consumers only make money working
their jobs. The issue is not who pays, but the distribution of net profits.
If being certified organic does not work out to an increased net profit or
benefit to an applicant in some way, they should exclude the use of the word
"organic" from their business plan. If one does not have a business plan,
one probably should limit investing in businesses for which quality assurance
to the consumer is not necessary or is very simple. Organic farming is not
simple in comparison with conventional (at least we keep telling potential
farmers that, though we know the opposite is true). Certainly selling cattle
at a livestock barn or taking soybeans to the elevator, or supplying lettuce
to the Ventura dock all take quality assurance too. All those that feel more
comfortable with the conventional farming approach should continue. Organic
farmers charge at least 25% more at the farm gate for organic products than
conventional, and know very well it takes, on average, running an efficient
operation, less cost to produce an organic than a conventional product. What
are we being paid for? Quality farming, quality post harvest handling,
healthiest of foods, enhancing the quality of the environment, quality
assurance to our customers. When a customer buys my organic product, I even
add quality harvesting and pay conditions for my workers and food and fiber
produced without toxic chemicals for my customers, plus no chemical pollution
of the water and air for my neighbors and land that is vastly better for the
next generation. I am satisfied. I believe most organic customers are too.
What it cost to pay my part to USDA for a new generation of farmers, small
businesses and consumers to have high quality standards of food, fiber and
even cosmetics, those being National Organic Standards, is cheap insurance
for us all, my friends.
There are problems with any institution, with any bureaucracy. The major
problem being its distance from the people who pay for it and who it
effects. But that is what democracy is all about. Organizing and making our
thoughts and needs responded to. I don't begrudge the bureaucracy, the
universities, the researchers for there roles, for there continual
reductionist rather then looking at what they do as part of the whole. To
make the system organic, whole is the job of all having an intimate
connection with the long range environmental values and healthy use of the
earth that makes the next generation as healthy as possible. We inherited
that job when we were hippies and against the spread of war, nuclear
proliferation, racism, sexism, homo phobia and hate in general. We undertook
to make it real in the 60s and kept going as responsible farmers, forest
harvesters and fishermen in the 70s, 80s and 90s. We now know that we are
tremendously appreciated for our skills and willingness to look way out ahead
and see and shape the next and following generations' healthy world. We are
so far ahead that the USDA, the governments themselves, are only beginning to
recognize the change is in their interest, in the interest of all of us. For
me the expense has been and will continue to be pure pleasure. Implementing
a USDA run National Organic Program is only a cog in the gear representing
society that continues with momentum beyond the capacity of any government or
leader to control. Contrary to the media, the existing governments, the
celebrities present viewpoint, the real momentum of the world is for everyone
to lead a productive and potential fulfilling life. We have profound
problems, created by a number of forces, some being our fore parents allowing
terrible conditions of democracy, economy, social life and health to continue
or develop. And yet they did their part to improve life for everyone. As
young people of the 60s, we eventually grasped for the one thing we could
control--what we eat. With leadership from survivors from the past, we
rebirthed the simple skills of healthy food and fiber--organic farming.
Thirty years later organic still is minute in the totality of farming, but
its impact is as dramatic as chemical fertilizer and pesticides. The most
difficult person to change in a society is an opinionated farmer. And yet
once the farmer changes, the entire nation changes. Watch. What are the
next steps--to institute quality organic standards at a reasonable cost--to
control those standards through democratic procedures. We, as in any
revolution, will always lose some of our own freedoms--the creators are
always freer than the duplicators--but our loss of freedom is nothing besides
what the entire US community and even world community has a possibility of
gaining--health. From healthy children will come healthy communities,
healthy governance, healthy social life and maybe even if we try real hard a
healthy economy. I still have another 50 years left to work cooperative with
others on creating these other needed changes. No since stopping now. I
and every generation has nothing to lose by bettering the life for others.
That is all I know, based on what little experience I have in running organic
farms for 24 years of my life. If anyone sees any shortcuts to life, feel
free to suggest them.
Best Regards, Eric Kindberg
To Unsubscribe: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with "unsubscribe sanet-mg".
To Subscribe to Digest: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command
"subscribe sanet-mg-digest".