Re: I've read the new standards

Rich Molini (richmo@indy.net)
Mon, 05 Jan 1998 20:57:24 -0500

Greg,
Yes you can become organic overnight and barely change your operation.
Yet, you will still receive $35 a hundred weight for your hogs because
an immense number of other producers even confimement operations that Mr
Magoo Avery so eloquently discusses with his enlightened ignorance will
also magically become organic pork producers according to the
bastardized proposed rule published in the 12/16 FR. I wouldn't count on
those eviscerating proposals every becoming a standard that true organic
producers or the consuming public will ever accept. The USDA sold out to
agribusiness and the rest of the regulating community which is why many
organic and sustainable advocates prefer to concentrate on the local
level and build confidence in their production techniques with the local
communities which surround each and every one of us.
It's hard to get hoodwinked and bushwacked from people who know and
trust how you farm. A couple hundred pages of confusing and misleading
regulatory BS won't make a damn bit of difference to folks who trust you
care about them and their families and friends and everybody else who
lives downstream, downwind, downterra, and downecosystem from your
operation.
And by the way, in reference to some of the replies to your inquiry,
my animals are not sick and unhealthy even without receiving a single
vaccination or antibiotic for the last eight years. I have lost one half
of one percent of my livestock during that period and that was due to my
negligence in not keeping a good eye on and restabling a calf that was
weakened and finally succumbed to pneumonia. Greg, I know you have
realized this but many others would be amazed how healthy animals can be
when they receive 100% (not 80%) organically raised feed without an
ounce of supplemental off farm derived vitamins, minerals, antibiotics,
hormones, or parasiticides. ADM, Monsanto, Ciba, or any other global
corporate shark did not five-finger one red cent from my pocket during
this period. It all starts in your soil.
I think anyone reaching organic status via the proposed rules will
have achieved a Pyrrhic Victory at best. It reminds me of a similar
event a few years ago when state environmental agencies said the stream
quality made a dramatic improvement when they neglected to inform us
that they had changed the methods by which they extracted and measured
the contaminant levels found in stream biota. The actual levels of
contamination in the water and biota remained the same or may have even
risen, but everyone felt better, except of course those who knew
otherwise.

Thanks,
Rich Molini

Greg and Lei Gunthorp wrote:
>
> I just read the new proposed USDA standards on livestock production.
> Can anbody tell me if the following assumptions are correct?
> I can use vaccinations. I only vaccinate sows prebreeding now.
> I can use 20% non organic feed. Can this be sows gleaning non-organic corn feilds in early
> gestation.
> I can use paraciticides if they aren't used routinely. Would worming only sows be considered
> non routine.
>
> The way I read it, these production practices would easily comply.
> If they have lowered the crop and vegtable standards to these levels watch out because
> organic prices are coming down. I'm raising organic pigs according to these regulations once
> I quit banding my corn!
> Best wishes,
> Greg Gunthorp
> hey4hogs@kuntrynet.com
>
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