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

From: Kirk Leonard <kirk_at_oregonatural.com>
Date: Mon, 1 Mar 2004 17:41:20 -0800

Thanks Steve and Jeff for new info. So CTTF recommends will go to NOSB 4/29
for discussion only and then be made public? Vote will be Sep-Oct, with
comments acceptable in between?

I hope there will be a chance to support or shoot at them, anyway... next
4/29 NOSB agenda item after CT recommendation was "voting on
recommendations" which I took to be voting on CT recommendation. Thanks for
clarification. Hope it's true.

On other posts today, goshdarnit, we could get so specific about how to make
ACT that you'd have to have your own lab and a PhD to do it! As Ted has
recently said and others have all along (and he and Chris are actually in
agreement here:) it needs to be simple, and it can be simple, which to me
includes not expensive. I appreciate where you're coming from today,
Robert, but the complexity and expense you suggest seems prohibitive.

There are many complications to get hung up on - compost per USNOP's "Final
Rule" is not properly made compost per Doc E or other compost experts, for
instance. But that's where the buck needs to stop today - if compost meets
NOP rule, it needs to be ok for tea. I don't believe we want to be (re)
opening that debate, unless we want tea still uncertifiable in 2010!

Tea making and using support several other levels of safety. I'd add UV
light, in addition to max air with foliar use to Doc's safety list, and it
seems NOP's concern is really foliar, hmm? And what about ferric citrate as
a water pH + pathogen adjuster? Double duty?

The "trick" USDA/NOP has been exploiting here is rooted in biology (pun?) -
Most every little essential critter or plant good and bad can go everywhere,
living or dormant, dominated or dominant, emerging environmentally. They've
used a somewhat hysterical fear of ecoli pathogens (big meat based - zero in
plants) and silly things like "people may not wash their produce" to drive a
wedge in front of tea, as well as some historic uses of manure - none of
which have been shown ever or actually to be a problem. (And I have to say
I never met a rational person who put raw manure in any form on any plant,
let alone produce near harvest!)

They're using biology to bash biology! And they're using risk to imply
certitude, rather than manageable risk, it seems. Hypocrisy on top of
hysteria is not a good basis for any decision.

Be that as it may, what's the thread we need to weave here? We know the
stuff is good and safe, can be a lot of fun, productive work, too. We don't
have 50 years of replicated research to cite. (At this point my blood
pressure goes
up when I remember that 95% of chemical concoctions out there have never
been subjected to the same standard!) So?

There is a lot of good anecdotal information about compost tea, and there is
lots of science on individual elements. We can assemble good data, I think.
Goodness, even USDA has some new info on raw manure, research they never
bothered with before, which is showing up ok. If we put our heads together,
I bet we could do a great proof. Even Brinton says:

> When used according to instructions
> and with composts provided with purchased
> extraction kits, the commercial technology teas produced
> were safe, according to Woods End.

And both Brinton and Bess, and others being used (imo) to whack CT, are
making money testing compost teas, last I checked. There's some
really-really woo-woo stuff happening here.

I have to believe good practices will out, but I can't assemble all the
data. I am convinced that NOSB believes biology works safely. Though a
somewhat mind boggling question (that it should be asked): How do we
convince NOP that biology is safe? Silly as that sounds, it seems necessary
to answer.

What's the ACT line we need to pursue to resolve the goofball issues NOP has
presented? We're right. Biology works. ACT works. Many different compost
and plant teas work. Ok smelling, feeling and looking compost works, with
manures. NOP is wrong, weird and too late. It's that simple. LOL.

We gotta set ACT up basically right at NOP, darnit. All the best
particulars can follow and support good sustainable gardening and farms and
businesses too. Compost teas conscientiously made are inherently safe and
beneficial. You gotta really screw up to miss that. Biology is
fundamentally good and safe if you pay attention. I feel silly saying that
after all these millenia but there you have it.

Kirk L






 
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Received on Mon Mar 01 2004 - 23:49:01 EST

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