Re: [compost_tea] USNOP non-example?

From: Robert Norsen <bnbrew_at_yahoo.com>
Date: Sun, 11 Jul 2004 13:20:28 -0700 (PDT)

Sorry troops. that message should have been addressed to Kirk, Bob

Robert Norsen <bnbrew_at_yahoo.com> wrote:Kirk- Did Jim Toler mention to you that you were invited to stay here the night before and the night after the ICTC meet? I think that is what Jim had in mind. We are about an hours drive when traffic is good from the meeting place. Kevin and "Pogo" will also be here. Breakfst will have to be early and lots of us. but all on the same side in this campaign. I wonder if Jim would bring his trailered system? That would be a show piece. Microscopes and all that. If the micro school lasts longer the inviation lasts as long as the need. Bob and Donna Norsen - 206 937 2901 or cell, 206 571 4671.
 
Location 3 blocks due south of the Vashon Ferry terminal on your map, along the west coast of West Seattle, WA. 9616 Fauntleroy Way SW. Fauntleroy stops in a barricade 100' south of our house, East side of 'Fauntleroy Way'.. ( Get a Seattel Map !)

>From Portland driving North take the West Marginal exit 156 ( just north of SouthCenter
Mall, ( M/50 on your map) get in right lane of I-5. follow West Marginal northwest, under First Avenue Bridge, (509 hyway) to the foot of a big hill. Take the hill, Hyland Park, follow south 6 blocks on 9th to Henderson, then West - will turn into Barton. Barton squiggles west - whatever road you take west will end up at Fauntleroy. Go south on Fauntleroy to the END. The Vashon Ferry is just suth of Lincoln Park - a big green point sticking out west on the coast. If you and Jim come up together share instructions? Or if you don't car pool let me know so I can send like instructions to Jim?? the university is near 27-U on the Seattel map. I didn't find the exact location yet. Bob
Kirk Leonard <kirk_at_oregonatural.com> wrote:
I have an National Organic Program perception to share, haven't sent,
probably won't.

What USNOP has done to compost tea so far is not irrational. It doesn't
make a lot of sense but it's not crazy, which is how they've gotten away
with it... They've focused on raw manure and pathogens and mapped that
directly to compost tea, exploiting a lack of specific science on it and
using research that's largely irrelevant. (and yes, bubba, this is an
example of how US gov warps science when they want to.)

We need to consider tea safety, to be sure, but USNOP is way overboard with
their concerns and how they see tea. There's an example imbedded already in
"The Final Rule" and CTTF report recommendation #9, which bans tea from use
with "edible seed sprouts."

Someone at USNOP or among their agribiz patrons has a thing about sprouts.
It's a good illustration of a fundamental misunderstanding of compost tea,
imo. (not to mention manure)

This is the picture they paint: Pathogen-ridden raw manure, or even
composted or vemicomposted manures, anything with manure in it, it seems, is
"brewed up" and sprayed on sprouts. A direct channel to potential pathogen
problems, maybe, and likely either inappropriate or not useful in growing
sprouts. Actually, their full picture includes spraying pathogen-ridden
teas on produce just before harvest and then eating unwashed... based on the
notion that people are such fools they think organic produce doesn't need to
be washed! (and can't tell the difference between raw and not-raw
manures...)

To my knowledge, most sprouts are grown hydroponically, a method so
different from most foliar/soil tea uses... makes their picture odd. I have
to wonder if anyone ever did that. I hear some hydroponic growers are
experimenting with tea - as a nutrient infusion in the watering system but
not as a foliar spray. Maybe with tomatoes. It doesn't seem to me you'd
use compost teas the same way with sprouts as most other produce.

I think it's pretty clear USNOP is imagining something that doesn't happen,
using sprouts to cause people to conjure the worst possible picture.

Anyone have any experience with tea and sprouts? Their other favorite
produce to bring up is lettuce. Any experience with tea and lettuce out
there?

Have you sent a CTTF report comment to nosb.crops_at_usda.gov? This is a
numbers game, folks. The more they realize people are watching and
concerned about what they are doing, the greater the chance they'll come
down ok on compost tea.

-- Kirk

CTTF report is at
http://www.ams.usda.gov/nosb/meetings/CompostTeaTaskForceFinalReport.pdf.
Apart from the pathogen hysteria, it's a decent basic compost tea read. Doc
E is right about it giving short shrift to simpler tea preps than ACT, too,
and the lack of "additive" specificity is positively strange in light of the
manure table appendix.








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Received on Sun Jul 11 2004 - 17:41:38 EDT

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