Thanks for the thoughtful disclaimer. I am not inclined to take these
communications personally, but appreciate the consideration nonetheless.
You raise some great issues. You are correct in saying that the 2% of
companies not in the mainstream "cannot survive except as a small company
filling a niche market." From my reading of these firms or farms, some are
content to be niche marketers, but are not content with being prohibited
from advancing quality. As for FVO, I have not spoken with any of their
representatives, so I do not know how their clients are reacting.
I am intrigued with the challenges of understanding the intent of Congress
with regards to the prohibitions on higher quality. As in other situations,
it is not unheard of for Congress to abridge, or otherwise change, the
rights of citizens. Since I do not recall the declaration or the bill of
rights guaranteeing the right to liberty and E-quality for all, all we know
is that this red herring was not as obvious to congress and citizens as
flag-burning, so we had little "public" debate. With all the input that the
organic community had into the law, it is fair to say that many of us felt
that organic is about as good as it can get and we were quite interested in
protecting that turf from folks that might think adding gold leaf to
parsley was all it takes to be certified organic. Now, some of us see that
instead of a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, the rainbow goes on and
on and on. Damned disappointing to learn this lesson so late in life. I
encountered a great quote on the airplane this week (I wish I could
properly attribute it to its source): "I never apologize for knowing more
today than I knew yesterday."
As for the great question sequence:
And how can any company get away with violating that law? Is the
government going to ignore the law and allow these companiers to violate it
with impunity? What is going to happen when sellors who choose NOT to
exceed the standards file complaints against thsoe who ar violating the law?
Only the lawyers and the media benefit from arguing about the laws. That's
why they are written imperfectly in all democrazies.
Best Wishes,
Douglas B. Johnson
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