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Re: Organic? From what source?



those are good points Tracy here are some ideas. I like being certified by
CCOF it is voluntary and people respect them.  I think the industry should
regulate itself as it has.  I don't think the state of feds should tax
organic farmers for selling their stuff.  My solution to this problem is
regulate the certifiers and set the standards so the certifiers have a
level playing field.  it should not cost that much money to set the
standards and that way every one will know what the US feels is organic.
They should be able to set the standards and not charge much money just for
a definition of what organic is and if they want to register the certifiers
ok and it should not cost that much and let the certifiers do what they
have been doing so well. 
     I like what the  ORGANIC ORGANIZER Issue # 4, November, 1996 says
"Local or regional certifiers are closest to the heartbeat of certified
organic farmers and handlers and can provide the best quality management
systems for certification of farms and handling operations. It is mandatory
that all accredited organic certifiers maintain the highest level of
professionalism, integrity, accountability and independence from even
perceived conflict of interest no matter what size. 

Problems: The cost of accreditation paid by USDA accredited certifiers will
be charged to certified organic farms and handling operations in the
certification fee, and could be excessive because of inefficiencies in the
USDA accreditation process. 

Small organic certifying businesses will be unduly burdened by the same
compliance costs, staff time and timetables that larger certifiers can
easily meet and recover. 

Proposals: The Proposed Rule needs to outline a management system for
accreditation of certifying agents that contains a clear, concise and
simple procedure for application, review, determination of eligibility and
appeal of an accreditation ruling. The performance criteria for
establishing a quality management system for certification applicants under
the USDA/NOP needs to be explicit. 

Exceptions need to be made for small certifying businesses to be accredited
once every 5 years only. A certifying agency with over 125 applicants per
year or $45,000 gross income (including inspection fees) on the average or
with more than two farms with over $500,000 or one farm over $1,000,000 in
gross sales should be accredited every other year, i.e. every second year.
The statistics on projected gross sales should be part of the confidential
business information certifiers collect in determining that sales is not
exceeding capacity of production. 

Fees charged of candidates for USDA accreditation need to be based on
determining the number of farm and handling operation applicants on the
average over the preceding 2 years (or projected to be certified by the
certifier over 2 years) and pro-rating a USDA/NOP quote for accreditation
services to each projected farmer and handler on a yearly basis. 

Fees charged by the USDA/NOP should only be assessed to pay for the
USDA/NOP services of accrediting each certifying agent. 

Accreditation cost to certifying agents should be proportioned on a yearly
basis per the accreditation cycle and paid at the end of the calendar year
upon invoice. 

All other performance criteria, compliance and reporting requirements
should be applied equally to all applicants for accreditation by the
USDA/NOP."

me again 
also all state money charged to farmers should be stopped as there is no
reason for double taxation of the poor farmer there is only one thing
called organic and the farmer should pay only once and fill out paper work
only once.  just a few ideas 



At 09:56 AM 12/10/96 EDT, you wrote:


>I strongly support organic farmers, and until fairly recently was one myself.
>Unfortunately, I see a lot of redundant complaints here and not a single
>suggestion of ways to solve the perceived "problem". Do you think organic
>certification should be eliminated completely? If so, it would be easy for
>anyone to claim their products are organic when in fact they aren't. Fraud
>on consumers, distributors, wholesalers, and retailers would be rampant.
>That's why certification programs were implemented in the first place, to
>prevent such fraud. If you can accept that organic certification is a good
>thing, you must also realize that such programs cost money. Somebody has to
>pay those inspectors. Who should pay for this? Taxing the general public
>would be unfair because only a fraction of US citizens consume organic goods
>(such a tax would never make it through congress anyway). The most
>reasonable way to pay for certification programs is to pass the cost of
>certification on to the consumers of organic products. I suppose we could
>put a tax on organic foods (see above comment on the liklihood of passng
>such a tax). Would you like that any better? It would probably cost more to
>do things that way, which is why instead we simply charge the growers who
>wish to be certified, and allow them to pass that cost to consumers, just as
>retail food establishments such as restaurants must pay for their own health
>inspections. If you don't like that, you don't have to be certified and you
>can still be an organic grower. You could forgo certification and sell your
>crop as non-organic, as non-certified organic, or as pesticide-free instead.
>But do you think consumers would want to pay the same price for your goods
>if they weren't certified organic? I doubt many would, but if so, then just
>don't be certified. Then you wouldn't have to pay the "organic taxes", and
>you could still sell your crop at the same price, AND you'd have a higher
>profit margin (no extra taxes), AND it would still be an organic crop, with
>all the benefits to the environment! After all, isn't that what being
>organic is really all about? People who truly care about the environment are
>willing to make sacrifices. That's why many consumers of organic products
>are willing to pay a higher price for those goods.
>Tracy
>
>
An organic farmers home page check it out
http://www.rain.org/~sals/my.html