Re: [compost_tea] USNOP non-example?

From: David Anderson <danderson_at_backpackgeartest.org>
Date: Wed, 14 Jul 2004 15:17:32 -0700
Hi Kirk,

I finally got around to reading that report, and I think I am about to
make a few enemies on this list, but I hope you will all hear me out.

I think the report was a good one and that it came to the right
conclusions *for now*. We are, after all, talking about our food supply.
I just wish they were as conscientious when it come to approving
chemicals for use on our food.

I really am on your side here, but I've got a lot of experience battling
bureaucracies, and I have come to learn that there is often a good
reason when they throw up a roadblock in the early going.

Right now, the way I see it, the best thing that can be done with this
document is to use it as a checklist for how to get more approval.

First off, look at the list of ways that CT is approved for use. You are
seeing some of them as limitations, but they are infact limited
approvals. When a new drug is released, they do the same thing. Work on
expanding the approved uses, going for everything all at once just tends
to lead to polarization.

Why concentrate on human pathogens and manure? Because they first have
to decide if it is safe to use it on food before they can decide if it
helps the health of the plant. This is a good thing.

Then there is the issue of them quoting a study done in sealed
containers. Of course that is the wrong way to make ACT, but guess what?
  On this very list there is a lot of talk about people making bad
batches of tea. They have to take into account all the idiots out there
(some of which are farmers that contribute to our food supply) that do
not want to take the time to understand the process. Whatever they
approve *must* be idiot proof.

As for your mention of the sprouts, I agree with their rule 100%.
Sprouts are only alive for a few days before consumption, so there is no
time for pathogen die-off. They also have virtually no UV exposure.
Pathogens on the sprouts *will* survive to be consumed. There needs to
be very specific research on this before it could be allowed in the
commercial pipeline. And yes, people eat unwashed produce all the time.
Look through some seed catalogs and you are sure to see pictures of the
cute little kid picking strawberries and eating them in the field. They
have to be concerned about that.

They also suggest that there is not enough research on this and that the
USDA needs to make it a priority. This is a very real problem. Dr.
Ingham has done the majority of the work in this field, which has the
unfortunate side effect of she has to cite her own work more often than
not. This is in no way knocking what she has done, but to advance CT
into more acceptable uses, there needs to be a lot more variety of
researchers involved.

What I recommend for the next step would be to build a system, damn the
cost, that can repeatedly deal with a pathogen overload. By overload, I
am talking about doing something like going 50-50 compost and raw
manure, with a good concentration of molasses added.

Okay, I suppose that something like that might be over the top, but the
point is that you have to start meeting their objections and not just
objecting to their objections.

Come up with a good specification for what is required of a tea brewer
for it to receive regulatory approval for tea on food crops. Then they
have a baseline to test "approved tea machines", because right now,
there is no standard that they can use, so they must choose to use the
lowest common denominator for their testing.

> Have you sent a CTTF report comment to nosb.crops_at_usda.gov?  This is a
> numbers game, folks.  The more they realize people are watching and
> concerned about what they are doing, the greater the chance they'll come
> down ok on compost tea.

I agree here, let them know that you care about this issue, and you want
that additional research done.

Fighting this report will get you nowhere, but *using* this report to
increase the interest in more research is the way to get things moving.
And don't just send the comments to the nosb, copy the message to your
congresscritters.

Dave


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Received on Wed Jul 14 2004 - 19:09:28 EDT

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