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Re: SMALLFARM-MG> Organic Produce

sal wrote:
> 
> At 09:10 AM 9/18/97 -0400, Erorganic@aol.com wrote:
> >eak: Anyone that can not afford $250 per year to create a level playing floor
> >between thousands of farms across the nation selling ag products in direct
> >competition with each other at a premimum price needs to reorganize, either
> >becoming more efficient or find new markets or recognize that the price is
> >part of the cost of doing business.  If your sales are under $5000, the farm
> >must be run according to the USDA/National Organic Program, but the farm does
> >not have to be certified.  $5000 is sort of the breakeven point of premium
> >equaling cost of certification.  25% premium over conventional about equals
> >$250.  If I did not want to pay, I would not use the label "organic".
> >
> > I don't have an extra $250 does that mean I cannot sell organic ?
> >
> >eak: No, If you don't have $250, you are under the $5000 small farm
> >exemption.
> >
> $5000 in sells does not mean I have any money left to pay this organic tax.
>  5000 is not a brake even point it is a bs number.  there are costs you
> know.  you guys are really heartless I can see that.  How is this a level
> playing floor as chemical farmers don't have to pay to farm and organic
> farmers do have to pay.  You are going to level the playing floor alright .
> Just another cross a small farmer has to bear thanks to the goverment. That
> is one reason they are on the endangered list.
> 
> Now organic growers will not only have to support their family but we get
> to support the families of the USDA pencil pushers and we get to support
> the families of the inspectors and  we get to support the certifier and
> etc.  I should not say get to as we are forced too if we want to tell
> people the truth.  We get to buy them gas ,pay for their hotel rooms and
> even buy them new computers.  we get to pay for their bookkeepers and
> office workers.  Yep thats is a level playing floor for organic growers
> alright.  And for paying all this money you know what we organic growers
> get.  Lots more  paper work to do ,a search of our land at anytime (don't
> forget to cheek my trash can and under my bed after all thats were organic
> farmers hid that herbicide. ) ,an organic Gestapo that we are paying to
> harass us and much more bs.  Why because we don't use USDA approved Poisons
> and we want to tell people about what we are not doing and that you can
> farm organic and people don't need to be eating USDA  approved pesticides
> and drinking USDA approved herbicides and we don't have to harm our earth
> to feed folks.   yep I really feel you guys are trying to level the playing
> floor.  LEVEL is the right word.   Organic farmers get the shaft and get to
> pay for all of it.  They have taken the word organic away from us and now
> the USDA owns that word organic and natural and ecological and if we
> organic growers use it we have to pay them.  yep level playing field
> alright.  I knew they could own all the hybrid seed and all the lab made
> gene DNA changed life forms but that they could own our words. Words  like
> organic and natural etc .  this is a new hight.off wickness.  They are
> telling us what we can say and what we can not say. and force us to pay
> them money because of how we live our life.   I know you can not call fire
> in a crowded room that is unless there is a fire . I would think you could
> tell people you are organic if you are.  Now it is a crime to tell the
> truth.  Now USDA  control the words these organic farmers were using. The
> ABC you learn in  the school to make words  is not yours to use as free but
> is owned by the USDA and they will tell us what letters we can use and
> which letters are a no no to put together. [ They have taken our words away
> and no one cares. ] I would say they  leveled  the playing field.  What are
> some of the other words we have to pay the USDA to use.  Can we still use
> permaculture if we earned that right or do we have to pay the USDA.   What
> about bio-dynamic do we have to pay the USDA to use that word.  Can I get a
> list of all the words that I am no longer free to use because I dare to
> grow organic.   This is new to me not being about to talk freely about my
> life of living and having to watch the words I use  when I tell the truth.
>  Thanks for the level playing field. Now when The MAN says jump I am
> suppose to say how high . Thank you for leveling the playing field.  They
> are sitting in a room right now thinking  about how much to charge us for
> using words that have been ours and free to use for 60000 years.  A small
> farmer does not have a chance . Organic growing is big business and they
> only  want the big players and small organic farmers have no business
> farming if they can not pay this extra tax for growing organic.  Small
> organic farmers why don't they all just fad away.  There is nothing like a
> level playing field. Thanks
>  If they charge the certifier the certifier pass the cost down to the
> farmer if they charge an inspector it is the farmer that pays. the farmer
> is paying for all this. It is just another way to bleed the turnips.
> More government more taxes made up special for those crooked,lying organic
> growers.  I already pay an inspector, I already pay a certifier,I all ready
> pay the state of Ca. this is getting nuts.  How many pencil pushers do
> organic farmers have to pay off just because they want to sell organic food
> as organic.
Sal,
	You're absolutely right on target when you discuss the burgeoning
bureaucracy that is being constructed to remove dollars from the pocket
of people who are actually growing organic product. All these people,
organizations, and government agencies  add absolutely not one iota of
value to that product. We seem to be going down the same road that
conventional ag went until it finally transformed those farmers into
agribusiness puppets. 
	I am president of the Indiana Chapter of OCIA and I would love nothing
more than to see there be no need for certification. 	The primary
reason  we have certification is because there is no connection and
trust between the farmer and the people that consume the  food they
produce . We all know the way to make that connection is to grow and
sell local. Unfortunately, it takes time to build those markets and
connections and therefore entreprenuers ( certifying agencies, inspector
trainers, consultants, etc) saw a route by which  that they could
parasitize people who actually work and produce goods.  This appears to
be the way of the modern world. People who really want to avoid work and
can produce no useful product or service need to attach to those people
that can. Everytime money changes hands there is inevitably (sp) some
other character around who wants to take a cut even though they neither
have nor will add anything of  value to that good or service. When
organic beans go overseas to a processor there is no connection.
Brokers, certifiers, etc obtain dollars. When organic produce comes to
Indiana from California there is no connection. Enter parasites, once
again.  I don't need certification to sell my beef  locally.  When I can
sell it all locally I will not need to get my pasture, grain and hay
certified. I work with the folks in our Chapter because they are all
wonderful productive people and I have told them that I look forward to
the day when those agribusiness persons  who do not meet a minimum
standard of  organic or sustainable production methods will be  the ones
surcharged and certified as social, economic , and environmental
culprits, and will continue to be charged until they can prove
otherwise.
	If most people really knew how their food was produced and what effects
it has on rural communities and the natural systems, they would
certainly demand that the "playing field be properly leveled". They
would begin to understand that most of the costs of food are not added
to the price of food, so food is consequently drastically under valued
in this country and most of the world. They would begin to realize that
agrichemical companies add no value but exact tremendous profits and in
addition destroy people, communities , and natural ecosystems. 
	Sal, I know I'm not really telling you anything you don't already know,
but there are many others who read these messages that need to learn
much of what organic farmers are trying to disseminate. All I really had
to say was " Keep up the fight because there many folks who will benefit
from your efforts". I guess I'm just getting  both a little frustrated
and verbose.  Grow, buy, and sell local. Buck megatrends. Support local
businesses and stay out of major chains.      ( Walmart, etc are some 
of the worst plagues on this planet) 

Thanks for listening, Rich
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