At this year ’s Organic Association of Kentucky ( OAK ) conference , a question was posed to a grouping of big constitutional farmers : If my customers do n’t manage , whycertify organic ?
It turns out I was n’t the only who had been weighing this question . We asked our customers if the USDA Certified Organic recording label was of import to them , and they said they do n’t really give care . They know us and know we would never habituate chemical , but I still wanted to see if there were benefits beyond the recording label that I may be overlooking .
Some of the answers these four farmers on the conference panel feed were straight and sparing . For instance , with an increase number of stores refuse to buy produce that is n’t certified , Wisconsin farmer Jim Munsch said , “ You are cutting off a wholesale channel of sales for veg farming if you do n’t go Certified Organic . ” Put another means , it ’s intemperate to grow a farm business without some wholesale electrical outlet — a fair , though not entirely game - change , point .
But these farmers were just warming up .
Munsch also go on to describe an increase amount of medical facilities throughout the country , who will give a rebate toCSA customerson their wellness insurance cost if the client is a member of a Certified Organic CSA . induce discount on wellness costs for being a member of a licence CSA could be a profound inducement for your customers to sustain your farm , but also for you as a farmer to propose that to your customers .
Daniel Pike , proprietor of Pike Valley Farm , Kentucky ’s largest Certified Organic pastured - chicken farm , suggested that in the get-go , certification may not matter .
“ If you ’re small enough to know every unmarried customer you have on a first name basis , you may have a conversation with everyone explaining ‘ we do it like this , ’ ” he say . “ But when you are grow , you do n’t know what conversations you ’re lose , because there will be people who look at your site who do n’t see Certified Organic , and they never call you , they never contact you , you never talk to them . ”
As someone who does sometimes struggle to fill my CSA and who want to feed more masses , these words still environ in my ears several days later . What conversations have I never gotten to have ?
These farmers also spoke about the importance of going constituent for how extensive of an action it is . When you certify , you are required to use certified seeds and inputs that fall from farm who are themselves play along the same regulations . To be a universal pocket-sized farmer — even if you claim to be natural — doesn’t require you to buy only constitutional germ , and it may mean you do n’t buy them from meter to time because they are more expensive or just harder to find . But you do n’t really have that option in organic certification . It keeps you honest . It drive you to back your fellow organic farmer . And I care that .
It ’s hard to make certain all of your seed is organically develop . You ca n’t then turn around and easily charge the same agiotage for your food as another farmer with the Certified Organic recording label . So , trust me , you will cut a corner here or there — on book binding crop , on radish seed you do n’t desire to tell from another society , et cetera . It happens . But it wo n’t go on in organic certification . It ca n’t .
Therefore , to reply that interrogation , “ Why do it if you customers do n’t care ? ” I came to hear that maybe they do care , but they just do n’t know it yet . They would wish if they eff it could profit them — say , in the guinea pig of health insurance . They would care if they could jazz they were also , in abide you , supporting thousands of other farmers . And I intend they would care because there would no longer be any doubt — no matter how hour it may be — between you and them that your food is grown organically .
So as I fill out this hefty certification software program , I feel not only lofty to tell our customer we ’ve make up one’s mind to go constitutive , but downright emotional to — for them , ourselves , and everyone else it do good .
