>I do agree with much that you say here, but you start with saying no
>one is criticising anyone except the organisations but this is not
>true. People are singling out individuals (just re-read recent posts
>in this thread, including your own comments below). It just makes
>the genuine points of criticism seem like sour grapes.
>
>But the certification issue is a big one. I have just been involved. . .
Dear List,
Of course, writers on this list sometimes disparrage others either on this list or off it. A couple cases in point are:
>> People are using the real preps, (as though homeopathic and radionically prepared preps are not real)
and
> One or two people
>dominate to the detriment of all others. (as though assuming the role of victim was the chief if not the only option in this situation)
I myself am far from immune to falling into such traps, and in pointing out the above I too am tarred with the above as everyone will recognize the authors of these statements. I happen to have an extremely critical nature which I have to work hard on keeping in check and often fall short. This is at least humbling if not (usually) humiliating. But Hamish has the best point I've heard voiced on this list in a long time:
Yes Biodynamics is growing in Australia. We have a number of Biodynamic associations around the country and the 2 biggest have very different cultures. to me that matters not. what matters is that people are "having a go".
The second most important is that we share our experiences in the light of the laws of the free spiritual life. when our sharing descends below this level it does no-one any credit, but even then we need to have some modesty and tolerance. Like our Biodynamic practices we don't always get it
right first go.
With that said, please let me address certification. We are free to certify or not to.
Here in the US some of the better known pioneers of the organic movement--Elliott Coleman and myself for two--have opted out of certification now that the government has taken it over by force. Why? We don't want to lend our good names to what we perceive as a prostitution of the founding ideals of the movement. I don't think it has so much to do with size. Some very large growers have a reputation for reliable quality--Lundberg rice, Coleman beef, etc. that far transcends the organic label. Arrowhead Mills had it at one time and hasn't entirely lost it after changing hands.
What does organic certification mean to me?, and I routinely buy certified organic when presented with a choice that is otherwise not clear.
If you can imagine this, recently the congressman of my home district, Nathan Deal, attached a rider to a key appropriation bill allowing chicken raisers to feed whatever feed was available to their birds and still label them organic under the government standards. This measure passed and took several months to repeal, though it created a rather vocal public outcry.
Personally I love such shenanigans because they point up the folly of government certification as a means of assuring the consumer gets quality products. It always has been and will be necessary for buyers to be wary. Certification in my view is no substitute for grower integrity, and buyers might best become acquainted with their growers, whether large or small, and buy from the growers they know have integrity whenever possible.
I relish each and every opportunity to tell inquirents that now we are not certified organic. We opted out of that process after many years of pioneering participation because we feel it has cashed in its heritage for a mess of porridge.
Is life any worse for me today than when the public hardly knew organic existed? No. Selling quality is still the same. You only get across to those who really tune in to quality and have educated their taste for it and are willing to pay, whatever the cost of it. Sometimes it is cheap, sometimes dear, but they seek it out and you don't fool them with certified garbage.
I treasure having such customers--the celebs who buy a year's supply of my garlic every year because it is the best they've ever had, to the 6 year old who eats four helpings of my mashed potatoes and throws up his thumb with, "The BEST I've evah had!"
Certification, whether I chose to go for it or not, was never even close to being as satisfying as such knowledgable, discerning customers whose allegiance I knew I had won by being uncompromising about quality.
There is no substitute for quality food. Steiner envisioned it would lift those who ate it above their "personal ambition, illusions and petty jealousies."
It was the vision of such food that led me into farming, eventually to discover biodynamics as an answer to my sincerest prayers. Biodynamic farmers do not always achieve this ideal such as I envisioned, and biodynamic certification does not guarantee it. I have not always achieved it myself--far from it--and there are times when I fail even now after all these years. The integrity of the grower is at stake with every crate of lettuce, bushel of pole beans, wheat, bale of hay or box of bananas he produces. I don't see how it will ever be otherwise, no matter what we do to certify it. If a grower loses this focus his work goes downhill, no matter how much he may strut or cast blame, and no matter what he puts on his label. In fact, strutting and blaming are surely traps. If we only could see ourselves thrashing about when we fall into them. Shucks!
Regards,
Hugh
right first go.
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