What “Certified Organic” Means
Several years ago the Federal government took the word “organic” by eminent domain. For a farm or food producer to legally use the word organic they must be certified by a third party certifier, or sell less than $5000 per year of total products and follow all the rules. The certifier, in our case Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Certification Services, LLC, which is a separate legal structure from the MOFGA that runs the Common Ground Fair, requires us to provide information about our practices every year and then comes and verifies the information presented during an annual audit.
The whole thing is a pain in the neck. Filling out the paperwork takes a day. I have had to adjust my filing system to keep the records for certification separate for the audit. Some of the rules are stupid and costly and aren’t anything like what the general public is thinking when they think of organic food. Most people think “no spray.” We do use sprays for bugs and fungal diseases. There are some that we could use that we won’t touch because they really aren’t that great for the environment. What’s allowed under organic rules is based on the genesis of the product, not the safety or efficacy. So if it comes from the natural environment (no synthetic chemicals or petroleum based products) it’s OK. If it’s approved by the Organic Materials Research Institute (OMRI). Some products would probably be fine but the manufacturer doesn’t want to spend the money to have it reviewed by OMRI. From the “natural environment” sounds good, but keep in mind that arsenic, poison ivy, and snake bite are all natural. You still need to think.
When I say organic I think “natural fertilizers.” We use products that are high in nutrients and are from certain rock quarries like limestone or rock phosphate and animal based nutrients, like pasteurized hen manure or blood meal. I like these because they have a range of elements in them, rather than just the NPK (nitrogen, phosphate, potassium) of chemical fertilizers. I think they are part of makes our vegetables taste so good.
The dumb rules are things like, I have to use organic seed if it’s available, even though a lot of it is of poor quality and makes poorer quality plants than conventionally grown seed. We use black plastic in the fields to add heat to the soil, and although it will hold up for two years, and we could leave it indefinitely on a perennial plant like raspberries, we can’t use it for two years for vegetables. Dumb rule.
The certification doesn’t actually cost much in out of pocket expenses, as three quarters of the cost is reimbursed through a federal program. It ends up costing less than ½ of 1 percent of our total annual sales.
Lately, many of the local farms have decided to drop their certification. Some of them still imply that they are organic. Some farms outright say they are organic when they have never been certified and probably never even read the rules. Both of these things are illegal because of the federal rules about organic – you can’t say it if you aren’t certified. Who you buy from and what you believe is up to you. With our farm, you don’t have to believe us, you can believe the third party certifier, MOFGA Certification Services. If you’re going to buy organic, you might as well be sure.