Fwd: GO-NOFA Forum: Has Organic Been Oversized? Give Us Your Opinions!

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David Yarrow

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Jul 21, 2012, 6:49:14 PM7/21/12
to kpc...@googlegroups.com, westernmaperm...@lists.thepine.org, Capital District Permaculture, farma...@yahoogroups.com
an excellent assignment, brent.  thanks.  

as founder of NOFA-NY's certification program who helped started NOFA-northeast certification reciprocity, OCIA, OFPANA, and the national certification network, i have long-standing passionate concerns about this question.  for me, growing food without toxic substances was a lower priority, altho i shared consumer-driven alarm about pesticide residues.  

but as a healer, i was much more concerned about food's nutritional content and life-giving properties.  and as a visionary naturalist, i was far more concerned about how to grow food when we can't rely on weather and climate, and can't afford imported, energy intensive, eco-disruptive methods and materials -- or, in today's lingo: climate change and peak oil.

below is my first draft, top-of-my-head statement to answer your request.  i'll sit on this a few days, and send fern my final comment to fern by the 24th.


in the 80s, we worked hard to create the organic certification system because we were deathly afraid the word "organic" would be seized by the corporate big boys.  now, 30 years later, our fears have are realized as organic businesses are bought up and the organic definition is watered down.


rather than fight this nearly complete big boy buy-out, we must go "beyond organic."  the next generation of evolutionary revolutionaries must take the next giant step toward a realistic, ecologic future.  this next step has two legs with two words:  community-centered (local) and nutrient-dense (nutritious).  and climate reality requires a further re-definition: carbon-negative (sequestration).


the word "organic" still mostly means "grown without synthetic, artificial, toxic substances, which is a negative definition—what the food isn't, not what it is.  now, we need food that stands for positive ideas.  "community" and "nutrition" are two pivotal ideas to re-define what we want to achieve.



Begin forwarded message:
From: "Brett Wedel" <br...@nofany.org>
Date: July 20, 2012 12:44:40 PM CDT
Subject: GO NOFA Forum Has Organic Been Oversized? Give Us Your Opinions!

Earlier this month, the New York Times published a story called “Has ‘Organic’ Been Oversized?” The story looks at the role of large corporations such as General Mills in the organic food industry, in particular the amount of influence that representatives of big agribusiness exert on decisions made by the National Organic Standards Board.

 

What do you think? Has the infiltration of mega-corporations eroded organic standards? Can organic food production grow in scale without sacrificing its principles? Send your thoughts to NOFA-NY newsletter editor Fern Marshall Bradley at newsl...@nofany.org. We’ll include a range of your responses in the next issue of New York Organic News. Please limit your message to 150 words or fewer, and send it to Fern by Tuesday, July 24.

 

Here’s the link to the NY Times story:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/08/business/organic-food-purists-worry-about-big-companies-influence.html?_r=2&pagewanted=all

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