>>You are getting to the heart of the matter. It appears that there
some
>>former champions of small community and family farms have sold out=20
and
>>that farmers are doing so or feeling the pressure to do so. If the
OFPA
>>is implemented as written it may well get worse, since the farmer's
(or
>>distributor's) freedom to differentiate his offering to the consumer
is
>>compromised - limited to the terms of the OFPA, even though a given
>>aspect or aspects of his product may be significantly difference from
>>other offerings also labeled as "organic" or "natural", words which=20
be
>>appropriated by the USDA in the terms of the Act and limited to
>>CERTIFIED organic products, certified by certifiers registered with
the
>>USDA, even when a product was cultivated under conditions that
otherwise
>>adhere to a traditional and legitamate definition of organic
>>agricultural practices. =20
>>
>>There are economic interests motivating some of those who insist that
>>the "public" owns the word and that government is the "publics"
>>appropriate watchdog. Others believe that more and greater abuses
than
>>otherwise occur will be (and already are being) perpetrated in the
name
>>of the "public good" if the law is implemented as now written, and I
>>myself for one promise to try to get the matter on the Supreeme Court
>>agenda if that happens (no small feat but there's no lack of
conviction
>>behind that statement).
>>=20
The Supreme Court decision on Glickman v. Wileman Bros and Elliot inc.
was supposed to put an end to first amendment free speech challenges to
the validity of mandated programs as long as they do not : compel any
person to engage in any actual or symbolic speech or compel the producer
to endorse or to finance any political or ideological views or
<bold><bigger>restrain the freedom of any producer to communicate any
message to any audience</bigger></bold><bigger>.</bigger> The USDA will
say that they do not compel us to use the word organic that if we
voluntary use the word we must pay the organic mandatory fee. True !Now
does this law make us support political or ideological views. I don't
know but I do feel the law will restrain the freedom of any producer to
communicate any message to any audience. Hope this helps The USDA will
say that the law was created at the request of an industry that demands
them and they are not forcing us to use the word organic yet to me this
law does <bold><bigger>restrain my freedom to communicate my message to
my customers. </bigger></bold>=20
I feel the law is not right when you have some states that charge on top
what you pay a certifier and .some states charge only $110 and they do
the inspection and certification and some states charge $150 for 20 a.
and they certify. with all these different costs how can the USDA demand
we be certified if the certification field is not a level playing field.=20
In Ca. I have to pay the state and a certifier and an inspector and the
cost is a lot higher than say in Mich. where they only pay $110 for
everything no matter what you sell or take in or Texas where it would be
around $150 for 20 ac. =20
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