What does the USDA “organic” label mean? How organic is it? What are the federal requirements and how are they changing? Read the full article here.
In the State of Arizona it is currently cost prohibitive for small scale farmers to obtain USDA organic certification. This would change if we had an Organic Commodities Commission at the state level. The State of New Mexico has one and it costs a farmer only approx. $650 to receive the certification. In our state it is currently approx. $20,000 per farm, therefore not cost effective for the small scale farmer we see at the Farmers Markets.
Produce at the market is chemical/pesticide free, GMO free and non-irradiated, not waxed and free of synthetics. We invite you to ask the farmer at the market about their production standards!
The article above makes one wonder if USDA organic certification would even be worthwhile if it is geared once again towards commercial large scale operations? Production standards are needed but let’s scale them to the farmer in our backyards. Just food for thought.
More to follow on this subject.
