Re: [compost_tea] Re: CT on NOSB Agenda!

From: Robert Monie <bobm20001_at_yahoo.com>
Date: Sun, 29 Feb 2004 14:02:22 -0800 (PST)

Hi Dr. Ingham,
 
Hope you don't mind if I play "devil's advocate" for a moment in looking forward to the NOSB encounter.
 
It would appear critical to the defense of aerobic compost tea that someone present to the NOSB a definition of and guidelines for what you term "properly made compost." Does the scientific literature currently support such a definition and are there commonly accepted analytic tests that can easily be applied to compost to find out whether it has been "properly made"? Are these tests available to the average farmer or gardener or do they require the use of a professional lab? Or is it just enough to follow a certain series of steps without testing the result to insure "properly made compost?"
 
It may appear to some members of the NOSB committees that anerobic compost tea has three aspects that must be dealt with separately: 1) guidelines or procedures for preparing the feeder compost "properly"; 2) a test to show after preparation that the feeder compost meets the desired standards before being used to make the tea; and 3) a test to show that the tea, once brewed, is safe and effective. If someone says that all this sounds too complicated to be practicable, how do you answer the objection?
 
I would assume that NOSB members will be asking questions about 1) procedures for making and 2) testing the completed product for both types of compost, the feeder compost and the aerobic. The concept of what is "proper" will have to be very clear and evidence-backed. (Can proper making of compost be quantified in the same way as, say. proper Pasteurization has been?)

Bob Monie

soilfoodweb_at_aol.com wrote:



There are no data to show that human pathogens grow in compost tea that is made with properly made compost.



[snip]

So, my point of view is that we have lots of data points showing no human pathogen problems in compost tea, as long as the compost is properly made.

[snip]

My conclusion would be that the NOP regs should say compost tea has to be made with properly made compost.

  

Elaine Ingham



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Received on Sun Feb 29 2004 - 17:33:50 EST

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