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Southern Tier NY | When I first joined NAT (many years ago), I jumped on every discussion involving organic agriculture. Within a short amount of time I realized that people have to come into organics on their own terms.
I'm not going to bore you with my story ("my terms"), but I'd like to address one point that has been made in this thread. Conventional manure can be spread on organic ground because of politics. When the Organic Food Production Act was being written, some compromises had to be made to get enough votes from politicians to pass the new law. (One compromise, thanks to Ted Stevens of Alaska, was the eventual inclusion of standards for organic fish and seafood - don't get me going on that. I was on the National Organic Standards Board when those rules were approved.)
Another compromise was the ability to use manure from conventional farms as a source of fertility. The politicians in question were those from Maryland, Pennsylvania, and a few other states where there was a large concentration of poultry and hog producers - those constituients were pressing very hard for that inclusion due to the impending EPA regulations regarding protection of streams. In other words, they needed someplace for their manure because for the most part conventional farmers didn't want it and the cost of disposal at sewage treatments plants was prohibitive.
Does this cause problems in terms of pesticide residue, antibiotic residue, or any other chemical input used on the conventional farm where the manure was sourced? In all probability, yes. I think someday that part of the National Rule will be revoked. Testing is done, and the NOP does have parameters with regard to acceptable levels of residue, but in my opinion they've headed down a slippery slope with that approach. Again, politics remains the cause of the problem but the powers that be use twisted logic to justify the inclusion of conventional manure in the list of allowable inputs.
Lastly, to answer your question, there are successful organic farmers in every state. If you believe in organic ag and have a market for what you produce, I would encourage you to switch, but until you believe, your chances of success are limited.
Kevin | |
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Going organic
