Re: [compost_tea] CTTF testing requirements

From: Robert Norsen <bnbrew_at_yahoo.com>
Date: Mon, 26 Apr 2004 16:39:46 -0700 (PDT)

Good RANT, Elaine !! Bob

soilfoodweb_at_aol.com wrote:The testing being required is simple FECAL E. coli tests. Not coliforms, not the other pathogens, but the normal indicator of fecal contamination.

Compost tea brewers will need to test compost used in compost tea, and if that is pathgen-free, then life is fine, use the tea without restruction.

If pathogens-levels are below restricted levels in the compost, but still present, then either do not add anything to the compost tea brew that will allow pathogen growth in the compost tea - such as molasses or other sugars - or test the final compost tea to make sure you did not grow pathogens in the tea.

Please note that SFI is just about finished developing a 3-hour turn-around test for E. coli using molecular probes. We will be able to do Salmonella, Shigella nad other human pathogens as well. I just have to get back to the lab, and finalize the testing, to get this one available at all SFI labs around the world.

You will be able to test your compost tea at 18 hours into the tea brew, and get the data back before you need to use the tea. Believe me, the Idaho lab is chomping at the bit to get this test! they can guarantee that each tea brew sold is E. coli-free, or at levels below any concern by the USDA or EPA.

-----

We HAVE to finish the testing that shows the aerobic conditions, with proper aerobic beneficial organisms, result in NO pathogens in the compost tea.

I tried to get that work done before the CTTF finished, but there just wasn't time in my life. Some of you folks out there also seem to think I'm supposed to pay for all that testing out of my own pocket! That really ticks me off, that somehow its wrong for me to be paid for my work.

Let me ask those of you not wanting to pay for testing - Do you give away the food you grow to all the hungry people in the world? what is wrong with you that you ask for money for the produce you make? what about the workers in your fields? Do they not insist on being paid?

My lab technicians have families, rent, and groceries to pay for. There are costs for the lab to stay in business. Rent for the laboratory does not magically appear at the end of each month.

You want SFI testing to be free to the growers? Fine, you provide the money to pay the lab techs, and SFI will be happy to do the work.

SFI has done, and still does, a great deal of research work, funded from the samples we process. The Compost Tea Grant, for example. SFI is footing most of the bill ($750 out of $1000 worth of testing) for the Compost Tea Grant for 2004. All we are asking is that participants pay for $250 of that testing. This is practically unheard of in the world of commercial labs. And yet there's a group of people crying "for shame" that we should ask for even the small amount of support asked for!

Walk a mile in the shoes of any lab offering testing services, and a different tune develops about "free" testing. Quality data requires trained technicians. Quality techs don't work for free. You get what you pay for. Pay nothing for the data, and the data you get will be worth nothing.

--
Elaine Ingham
President, Soil Foodweb Inc.
SFI Corvallis, OR
SFI Port Jefferson, NY
SFI Lismore, NSW, Australia
SFI Hilversum, The Netherlands
SFI Cambridge, New Zealand
SFI Culiacan, Mexico
SFI Jerome, Idaho
http://www.soilfoodweb.com





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Received on Mon Apr 26 2004 - 20:21:43 EDT

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