As it happens, in the past two days I've spent time speaking with two different growers in the process of obtaining organic certification. One was trying to get certification for a mandarin and hops farm. He was told by the certifier that if there was a single telephone pole in any remote corner of his property, that that would kill the possibility of certification, due to the creosote on the pole (I haven't checked his statement for factuality). The other has managed to get certification for his long-time vegetable farm. The experience left him angry and disillusioned. He considers certification to be an expensive "tax" and paperwork burden upon him in order to put the work "organic" upon his unchanged product (although he still couldn't sell any honey produced on the land as "organic"). -- Randy Oliver Grass Valley, CA www.ScientificBeekeeping.com *********************************************** The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html