Thomas and Tim,
I forwarded your emails concerning organic certification to our fruit
club member who grows blueberries.
He checked the information and sent me the following:
"Hi Judi,
Thanks for the e-mail. It's good to get this issue cleared up both for
me and for the fruit club members. I talked to Katherine Lange of the
organic division of Washington State Department of Agriculture about the
compost tea issue. The "issue" is that a task force of the National
Organic Standards Board (NOSB) is recomending that "compost and
vermiculture teas are still under review and are; therefore, not
eligible to satisfy section 205.203 (SIC, of the National Organic
Standards Act) at this time". However, in the WSDA list of approved
materials compost tea from Cedar Grove Composting Inc. is approved for
use. This is an apparent contradiction. Katherine thanked me for my
call, because WSDA hadn't picked up this regulations conflict as yet.
Because the NOSB recommendations came out so late in the organic
certification application / reapplication process for this year, WSDA is
APPROVING compost tea, with the following guidelines, for this year (
and probably for the forseeable future ).
1. The compost used must meet the criteria for compost in the
NOSB/WSDA standards.
2. Any compost that is on the WSDA list of approved materials
may be used to make compost tea.
3. A compost that is not on the WSDA list of approved materials
may also be used as long as it has met all the compost criteria in the
national and state organic standards acts.
The regulations for the application of compost tea are as follows:
1. If all materials used in the compost tea met the NOSB/WSDA
criteria the regulations for compost would apply with no additional
restrictions.
2. If the compost has not met NOSB/WSDA criteria or contains RAW
manure the regulations for application of raw manure must be followed.
Basically, WSDA is taking the position, that if a compost has been made
properly according to the NOSB/WSDA standards, there should not be any
pathogens in the compost and subsequently in the resulting compost tea.
Thus, WSDA's position leaves a lot of freedom of action in choice of
compost and the application of compost tea. However, the problem of
pathogens is still out there and under consideration by the NOSB, which
may impact the use of compost tea at some point in the future.
I hope this clarifies this issue; check at <
http://www.omri.org>
www.omri.org for more information."
L C
Thank you both.
Judi
Received on Thu Feb 05 2004 - 21:55:28 EST