Dears, The rules for spraying compost tea w/molasses were written out of fear and ignorance, unfortunately. It's that "one size fits all" mentality that so often infects bureaucracies. There's a lot of crops that don't have 120 days from planting to harvest.
I'm told that the commonest vector for transmission of trichinosis (sometimes found in pork) is bird droppings on lettuce or some such. If the politics were a little different maybe we would see compost tea mandated to protect us from such a thing. Personally I don't want to be regulated by the government. What I've noticed over the years is the more laws we have the more lawless our society has become and that where governments work best is where people act responsibly because of personal motivation rather then because they are made to do so. Yes, the real issues are clean tea makers and teas with a good mix of healthy bacteria and fungi. There is a fear of pathogenic coliforms akin to the fear of poisonous spiders. Most are benign or evens beneficial. There are just a few dangerous ones, and if you keep your eyes peeled you don 't run afoul of them any more than you would run afoul of dangerous coliforms. Best, Hugh Lovel >If the rules say that you can't spray CT on food crops for 120 days >before harvest, then they are talking about foliar feed. They are >worried about I. coli which forms in anaerobic situations in CT where >there is too much food for the organisms (molasses) and too little >aeration getting on food that is going to market. > >The participants in the CT list/serve are talking about their CT makers >in terms of their ability to clean them well and quickly and in terms of >getting not only bacteria, but a balance of bacteria and fungi. There's >so much to understand. > >I would say that the NOP standards apply only to "Certified" organic >growers. But certified organic is supposed to be the highest standard >in the U.S. If they are so worded that they exclude the use of CT, then >really they aren't useful for organic farmers because 24-hour CT as >conceptualized by Elaine at Soil Food Web, Inc. makes organic much >better. This is why Elaine's lectures around the world are so >important. A lot of organic growers don't really know anything about >what is actually going on in making compost--only that raw manure is >prohibited. They have the rule without the understanding, and could >easily have anaerobic conditions in their compost pile to start with. >Elaine is writing a guide for understanding compost making. That ought >to help matters. I surely do hope she can reach mainstream organic >growers. If people do listen and understand instead of just following >rules, then there shouldn't be any trouble. > > There also must be a difference between a cow pie you pick up in a BD >pasture and the stuff that comes out of the kind of confined conditions >that exist in feed lots. This does not help matters. > >I found Will Brinton's analysis of 500 to have limitations. His >analysis of 500 doesn't tell me why it enlivens the soil. It only says >that 500 is not raw manure. But how do BD compost and 500 work >together? Has anyone ever been able to analyze the process or is it too >esoteric? > > >Allan Balliett wrote: > >> If you're monitoring SANET or Elaine Inghams compost tea discussion >> group, you already know that the USDA organic rules group has been >> advised to restrict the use of compost teas on food crops. This >> applies particularly to teas that use added sugars (mollasses, for >> example). Already, however, it appears that the rule may be >> generalized to 'ban' all cow manure based teas. The chances of this >> impacting BD 500 and BC is very high. Of course, this only applies to >> people who are interested in receiving USDA organic certification, >> but the possibility of truly negative publicity is very high. I don't >> have all the details on these events, and what I've said above may be >> misleading. >> >> What I have to say most importantly is that we need to gather all the >> information we can on this move by the USDA organic group and discuss >> it among ourselves so we are prepared to speak out on it and more >> importantly, to talk intelligently to our customers about the >> difference between biodynamically grown foods and USDA organics. >> >> -Allan Visit our website at: www.unionag.org
