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<DIV>Re Patricia's excellent questions:</DIV>
<DIV>The urls listed in the initial email that started this discussion
should answer your questions regarding IFOAM and NOP since the websites for
both are listed among the five or six sites suggested. </DIV>
<DIV>Currently, the National Organic Program standards do already apply to
dietary supplements. Recently an attempt to remove them was overturned,
mostly due to public comment. "Dietary supplement," food, or herb, they
are agricultural products and the organic methods of growing and
processing them apply no matter what you call them.</DIV>
<DIV>Wildcrafted items are ocnsidered organic if they come from a certified
organic property. If not, the item is negotiated independently based on
the reputation of the supplyer., i.e., they cannot technically be called
"organic" but if they come from a reputable organic farmer, the buyer may trust
that source enough to pay a higher premium for the product, voluntarily.</DIV>
<DIV>Regarding quality: beyond legally applicable food handling and
bioterrorism requirements for commerce, standards for quality are determined by
industry professionals, i.e., buyers, especially those who operate on an economy
of scale that gives them greater clout in the industry. Some products that
have a long history of commercial trade have well recognized quality
standards. Ginseng, goldenseal, ginger are among them. No doubt any
of our colleagues in the Herbal Products Assocation can address this
point.</DIV>
<DIV>I've been helping farmers in Latin America learn quality control and
certification norms for gaining access to specialty markets (like the fair trade
market for example). What we hear from growers both abroad and in the
United States is that the certifications are requiring more and more paperwork,
so that farmers are having to become computer literate bureaucrats, or hire
desk-bound paper-pushers just to keep up with it all. In cases of small
farmer foriegn co-ops, many of the producer members seeking these certifications
are functionally illiterate, so the certification process demands that they
become dependent on aid agencies or outsiders (like myself). This is an
important point in regard to fair trade which currently, overwhelmingly applies
to foriegn trade. Many of the agencies don't even offer the application
forms in any language but English (I was recently surprised to learn that the
Fair Trade Federation does not have forms available in Spanish or French
though they do much business in Latin America and in Africa).</DIV>
<DIV>A big point of contention on the buyer end of things is that some
industry professionals would like to see a whole-business certification, rather
than partial or product-by-product certification. In other words, why is
Dole Organic on the shelves? Dole is not an organic company. Or, why
is Starbucks having so much trouble because they tried to run a fair trade
selection ? -- it's because the consumer who wants fair trade wants 100% fair
trade, not a single pick on a menu that by default, is not "fair". At
any rate, it may be safe to predict that whole-business certification is the
next and coming level. </DIV>
<DIV>Another big point of contention is is that fees are not adjusted by
national currency values -- farmers outside the US pay just as much for
certification, often multiple certifications, as do domestic farmers, though the
cost in comparison to national economic indicators skyrockets for
the foriegn farmers. Then, the US consumer for the most part refuses
to pay, or cannot afford to pay, a higher premium for products carrying one
or more certifications. We can all say okay, then buy domestic... but the
price goes up. "Outsourcing" does not just apply to IT services.
And, what about tropical or regional crops not available from domestic
farmers?</DIV>
<DIV>It would be nice to believe that farmers are out there following the
highest standards of production and quality but, the fact is, people lie.
We need third party certification to verify claims. The only way
around it seems to be the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) model.
That was, you as a consumer can get to know and trust your farmer. But
this is frankly inconvenient. Consumers have to engage in sourcing their
own products which most people don't want to do,
unfortunately. Nevertheless, the CSA model offers some interesting
alternatives and hope for a more engaged, well-educated consumer
public. For information about how a model of the CSA applied to organic
medicinal herbs might work please see "Earth Medicine Share" and "Reserve Notes"
at the Heartsong website <A
href="http://www.herbsandapples.com/FarmGrown/index.html">http://www.herbsandapples.com/FarmGrown/index.html</A></DIV>
<DIV>or write to Nancy and Michael with questions. (I have
nothing to do with their farm. They are just friends).</DIV>
<DIV>If certification is too much effort for farmers and too confusing for
consumers, what that really means ultimately is that large scale commerce
simply isn't working. Going local, and creating local-to-local direct
trade relationships (village-to-village) giving a human face to the trade
relationship, getting rid of the middle-man to the degree possible, and
co-creating standards that work on a local level, that's the only way
around expensive bureaucratic third-party certifications. But,
its an ideal that is not yet in practice. Maybe the next
generation... </DIV>
<DIV>Okay, I'll stop posting now! and see what others have to say.
Please excuse my passion, this is the area of what I do...</DIV>
<DIV>Best regards, Jennifer</DIV></FONT></BODY></HTML>