ORGANICS vs CONVENTIONAL??!!!

[red maples]

Just starting a thread here it might turn bad, hopefully we can keep things friendly as we are all entitled to our own opinions. Don't want to start fights, and hey we might even learn something new. but If it gets out of hand then it can be shut down and I am fine with that.

I do take an organic approach to my "Hobby Farm" I pay the extra money for organic chicken feed, and do my best not use any pesticides for my veggies, I don't use any pesticides or antibiotics in my hives and I have learned to keep the mites in check.

I use organic chicken feed for my meat birds and never use antibiotics for them. they are very healthy. same for maple I use poly or stainless.

Now I am not perfect and don't claim to be. but I do my best and I am honest and my customers return for that reason. And I take pride in products as we all do and should!!!

In my opinion "organic vs Conventional" is SOOOO backwards it is ridiculous. with organic you need inspections, receipts, tags, certifications, permits etc. if your conventional....(pesticides, herbicides, etc) well do what ever the hell you want and sell it. doesn't make any sense to me!!!

[Thompson's Tree Farm]

I have mixed feelings about organic and organic labeling and certification. As a society, I feel we have become too dependent on chemicals, antibiotics and additives. Results have been super bugs and spray resistant weeds. Often the recommendations for what chemicals to use are made by the very people selling us those products. For me personally, I find certification rules to be quite arbitrary and ill defined (what is a "tree in decline" anyway). The cost of certification on my operation could not be recouped without raising prices to old time customers who are living on fixed incomes and they would be getting a product that is exactly the same as what I produce now except I would be buying certified organic vegetable oil as a defoamer and going through more inspection and record keeping. I think organic is fine for the people who believe in it and seriously try to do things organically. I do have problems with those who do it only for monetary gain. I know of organic maple producers who buy lots of sap from non organic producers, I know organic dairy producers who have a cellar full of antibiotics. Why are some drugs approved (aspirin) and others not. Just because they were used further back in history does not make them naturally occurring.

[CBOYER]

I do my best and I am honest and my customers return for that reason. And I take pride in products as we all do and should!!!

I will prefer "Honest certified" than any other certification...

[bees1st]

I am " certified organic" not for monetary gain , as I charge no more than others. But it shows to your buyer that you respect the maple as a resource ,and that you are a good steward of the land. This is attractive to a certain customer. I do agree it is somewhat of a farce as they reley totally on MY records as to my practices. They do inspect my bush to make sure I'm tapping to their standards. As far as record keeping ,it's the same around the world , you can easily have a false set of records , and use pesticides , and call yourself organic. With the dishonesty of certain people looking only to get more for the crop sold as organic, this system does not work.

[heus]

I have no problem with organic. It does upset me though when organic producers advertise that they dont use formaldehyde in the tapholes. Like anyone has done that for 30 years.

[Dill]

You do need a pesticide certification to spray your own crops in NH. And a commercial cert to spray someone else's crops. What blows my mind is to get that cert you need some many hours of continuing education, so you can buy a big jug of roundup. But if you want to buy a gallon for your lawn all you need is the money.

[MapleMark753]

We have chickens, horses, bees, vegetables, corn, hay, etc... on our farm too, and we try to do things as naturally as possible, avoiding the "organic" label. The maple syrup and our small set up IS organic, though we can't call it so. It seems a bit too many hoops to jump through for the organic certifications, not to mention a lengthy time frame. I suppose there is a bit of both positive and negative feeling toward the organic movement. Many customers are organically minded, and those who are don't seem to mind paying a bit more for it. Those who may fudge their organic credentials do sort of p*ss me off. Composted hay and horse manure DOES make good fertilizer for just about everything though! Mark

[PerryFamily]

Cant you label your syrup as a "organic" product, just not a "certified organic" product?

My other question is how do the "big packers" sell syrup as organic? Bascoms have never asked me if mine was organic or not? I would think the logistics of keeping organic syrup separate from non would be a challenge.

[MapleMark753]

Hi-- Its my understanding that as far as just calling something “organic” vs “certified organic”, the answer is dizzyingly annoying. Apparently you can, if you have under 5k a year income in that commodity, and are certified organic exempt. Or, you can not, as per NY law overseen by the USDA, see: http://www.agriculture.ny.gov/AP/organic/ConsumerInformation.html Or you can call a product certified naturally grown, and be overseen by a grassroots organization started to be an alternative to the USDA certified organic program. I know good people who use the word organic in marketing, but aren’t certified. We don’t. take care, Mark

[red maples]

Honest certified...I like that that's a good one!!!

I am not certified nor will I ever be. I do charge a little more for my eggs just to cover the cost of the organic feed its not that much more about $1 per doz more than the other farms around the price varys from 2.50 to 3.50 a doz. I sell for $4. People think I don't charge enough and have no trouble paying the $4. most of the farmers markets certified or not sell for $5 a doz. I don't do it for the extra money hell I haven't made a penny from anything I sell....yet!!! everything I make goes back into it anyway.

Yes Dill I know about the cert. for spraying in NH but when you sell your food you don't have to say what you sprayed or if you sprayed at all and to me that's where the problem is. I will choose no pesticide produce any day! I think we use way to much pesticide I know it can be tough on apple trees etc but I will take a blemish it doesn't bother me one bit!!! still tastes good!!!

It just sucks that people cheat just have to try to trust the best you can.