Subject: Re: BT yet again
From: [email-masked] (Tracy Aquilla)
Date: Mon, 11 Jul 1994 20:27:10 GMT
Newsgroups: alt.sustainable.agriculture

I can't tell who wrote this, since the thread has apparently gone off-line
and then come back on again, but recently, someone wrote:

>....(some stuff deleted)....
>farmer pays for all the buracrate bs. Then some one says there is no 
>difference between organic and not.  If there is no difference than why is 
>there something called organic and and if you use the word organic there are
>different laws for you and different taxes and more paper work.

    The reason for this bureaucratic nightmare is that ANYONE can CLAIM
their stuff is organic, even if it isn't. How will you compete with these
people (ie: the cheaters and liars)? How do the consumers know who is
telling the truth? The purpose of all the paperwork, etc. is that if you
claim your stuff is organic, now you have to be able to prove it. This was
supposed to give organic growers a chance to eliminate unfair competition
from those who claim to be organic when they really aren't, and to protect
consumers from fraud.
 
>All for not using chemicals.  Can you belieave that .what a joke on one end you

>have jokers saying organic is no different that conventional and  then 
>other end you got to pay money get inspected and fill out tons of paper 
>work pay just to say your organic pay pay pay.

    I hope your program involves more than just eliminating ag-chemicals
from the system. If not, how is it significantly different from
'conventional' growing methods?

>I'm hate going to the mail 
>box never know who else I have to pay off just for not using unnatural 
>stuff. For years I have been farming organic and never had to pay anyone 
>because I don't use chemicals . now every what a % of the pie because I 
>don't pollote.  yet people that change the dna of the food we eat and 
>inject cows with lab dna and spray poison on food don't have to tell the 
>people that eat the food what they use.

    First of all, injecting cows with ANY DNA is not allowed in any case.
Secondly, the issue of BGH (BST) use is being delt with (although somewhat
ineffectively at present). Third, and most importantly, growers using ANY
pesticide on food must keep very specific records of each and every use, and
if you (the consumer) want to know about it, you can find out all the details.

>Why do I have to pay to say I'm organic?  what happen to free speech.  If 
>you say organic that word is not free anymore.  it will cost you to use 
>that word.  They have taken that free word away from us now after all 
>these 1000000's of years if you say your organic be prepared to pay.  If 
>you don't use their poisons to grow food and tell someone you don't then you 
>got to pay in paper work and money .  You get no choice if you are 
>organic don't tell no one or pay.  thats it.  a bunch of people get 
>together in a room and frame their mischif and call it law.

    You can use the word organic all you want, but if you are going to sell
products you claim are produced organically, nowadays you have to be able to
prove it. I try to look at it this way: I can say I'm a doctor or a lawyer,
even if it just ain't true. But if I try to sell those services to someone,
I'd better be telling the truth, and I have to be able to prove it,
otherwise I'm a fraud, and subject to legal action. I guess the problem is
that 'organic' has become so popular recently that people are (or were?)
lying about it, and that is simply unfair to both growers and consumers of
organic products. So now we have these laws, for better or worse, and we
have to deal with it. I presume you use the organic label so you can get the
organic premium price for your products. Otherwise, you can always sell your
organic products without the organic label if you want to. If these
inspections, certifications, taxes, etc. cost you too much, you might make
more profits that way.
    (Also, what kinds of taxes do you pay just because you're an organic
grower? Please email me on this, whomever you are)
                  Tracy