Recently, I responded in a forum on the struggle of organic certification to keep up with the growth of the market. Someone was asking how we can regroup on certification to enable it to go from 5% of the market to 50%. Here is my answer:
“… 5% to 50% happens like this: Local create a simple written pledge for a newly spawned local producers collective relating to non-use of synthetic chemistries and biologies (non-naturally occurring). Add the non-use of feed antibiotics, synthetic parasite controls, or hormones to stimulate production or growth.
Keep the pledge directly related to purity of food and not about “organic agriculture”. Let each farmer differentiate his name by his methods of production. This means locally you have a basic level bar to found the agriculture on that is production of pure wholesome food without putting un-natural synthetics into the environment. That is a springboard into permaculture, precision agriculture, organic soil management, and general agroecology.
In the producers collective develop a contrived economy of scale including shared labor, shared delivery trucks, shared marketing for direct to store and restaurant and CSA sales, but keep the product attached to farm name (traceability and farmer to consumer connection). Manage GAP and Modernization Act related protocols by collectively staying 10 steps ahead keeping it relevant to local and to true food safety. Work into the Act over time the monitoring for zero tolerance of pesticides and GMO’s in the local market.
Meanwhile let the big organic ag megaliths continue to produce pure non-local food to fill in the gaps while local ramps up. In the end all locale’s will be producing the bulk of their food and will be aware and buy the non-local primarily from organic producers. Conventional will try to pull their cards, but in the end poison free food that nurtures the environment can be had for all for real costs of production plus a margin associated to an economy of scale achieved by the collective.”
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