Givhans Alternative Farm

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Organic or Not or Semi-Organic

At our first meeting, we briefly discussed the possibility of growing organic fruits and veggies. With the big craze to buy and eat organic foods, this method seems to be the way to go. However, we face several obstacles. For example, for an agricultural product to be labeled organically grown the FDA has to approve that it has indeed been reared using organic materials only.
Sandy mentioned that there is an alternate organic certification but I'm not sure of the specifics. Sandy?

posted by Givhans Alternative Program @ 1:44 PM  

1 Comments:

  • At May 13, 2008 at 9:00 AM , Blogger Givhans Alternative Program said...

    I waded through 100 plus pages of USDA Organic Certification summaries this past weekend. I think this is do-able for us, but it is also cost-prohibitive. The application fee alone is $500, plus any testing. That doesn't count hiring the certifier. The only certifier in SC is in Clemson, so we would also be liable for travel and per diem in addition to any hourly fees charged by the certifier. Organic certification also requires 3 years of documentation of organic practices. We likely have a good start on that if Mrs. Dearing and JOey can certify that no chemicals have been used on the fields in the past 3 years. Whether or not we can afford the certification right now, I think we can certainly go ahead and implement those practices and start keeping documentation. The research and recordkeeping will be great projects to do with the kids, and when we get to the point where we can afford USDA Organic Certification, we'll already have documentation. There are alos some grants out there to help with the process, so we can get some help from our district grant-writer. This is an amazing time to be starting a small farm. There is a big push from lots of sectors to support small, local, sustainable farms. We just have to tap into the resources.

     

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home