At 12:38 AM 10/29/97 -0500, Erorganic@aol.com wrote:
>I
>Hello Sal,
>
>Sounds to me like a constructive and valid idea, for small farms, small
>certifiers, small handling operations. We will have to define "small"
>because the Small Business Administration's definition is I believe less then
>$100,000,000 in sales for business. Absurd in light of petite organics. Let
>us compose the definition, for farms, certification agents (under
>accreditation, on site inspection is the term for inspection) and handling
>operations under $40,000 in gross sales. Such entities (Regulatory
>Flexibility Act language) must must be certified (or as applicable
>accredited) but not inspected except every 5th year. Along with the
>reduction in Federal Governmental monitoring, USDA/NOP should charge a lesser
>pro rated fee for those certifying agents certifying small farms or those
>certifiers that have less then $40,000 gross, thus balancing some of the
>efficiencies garnered by either a farm, handling operation or certifier
>becoming very large--over $40,000 in sales. I think we have found a
>direction to take the wave. All the language needs to be based on the
>Regulatory Flexibility Act so SBA can be the advocate in court for small
>organic entities. Now we have to clearly compose the proposal and move to
>inform others for their comments, culminating in the large scale public
>response during the comment period. I would encourage OFMA to join this
>effort and would support the same personally.
>
>Best regards, Eric Kindberg
>
>
>
>n a message dated 97-10-28 12:00:04 EST, sals@rain.org writes:
>
><< Subj: Re: One size fits all NOT
> Date: 97-10-28 12:00:04 EST
> From: sals@rain.org (sal)
> To: sals@rain.org (sal), Erorganic@aol.com, london@sunsite.unc.edu,
>sals@rain.org, sanet-mg@shasta.ces.ncsu.edu,
>organic-certification@listserv.oit.unc.edu, Sprinkraft@aol.com,
>wfof@ptel.net, richmo@indy.net, dhinds@ucol.mx
>
> ..Why not do for the small farmer what they may do for the small certifier.
> Let the small farmer after he goes through the transition period get
> certified every 5 years that will cut down on the inspection cost leave
> inspectors time to check out the big mix operations and it will also make
> sure the farmer understands the certifying rules . There is no need to tax
> these small growers out of business as we want even more small farm
> certified not less. There are more small farms now in Ca. and it is
> growing thanks to CSA and farmers markets and of course the organic
> movement. I say give the small grower of say $40000 in sells the same
> break we are hopefully giving the small certifier. The inspection every 5
> yr. plus paper work every year plus he has to follow all other rules should
> help more small growers be certified . I think the public will go for
> that. I don't mind being certified I just need to keep my cost down and
> this would be a big help. >>
>
>
>
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