Hello All
Todd's post made me think that maybe I should explain "organic" as used for
produce and fruit for the list to understand a bit about organic in general.

  I said:
(and save the $270 U.S., inspections and pesky rules and
most important giving a percentage of their profits to the certification
agency and access to your books.)

The $270 fee is yearly and was for the year 2003 and has climbed from year
to year and is the fee our Missouri agency charges. Fees could be lower or
higher in other areas.

They do not certify honey as organic as they feel the area over which the
bees forage can not be controlled .

Most (if not all ) of the people which are small and are certified organic
in our area do their best to follow the rules which would produce a truly
organic product.

The certified organic friends of mine have got a big problem with
"freeloaders" which use the organic name and say their produce has not been
sprayed, used herbicides and commercial fertilizer in order to get a higher
price .

They also doubt produce from large farming corporations is truly organic
(but only the opinion expressed to me).

I grew an organic orchard for thirteen years but had to give up organic as
the finnished product would not compete with the 14 sprays per year waxed &
polished apples of the large apple orchards. Borers also got into my trees
and killed many trees. The only way to kill borers back then in a organic
orchard was with a piece of stiff wire jambed into the borer hole.

I now spray with with a half the label dose of insecticide one to a high of
three times a year and tell the customer the type of spray and the amount of
times I spray. Some walk away and some buy.

YES A HALF DOSE MOST TIMES OF AN INSECTICIDE WILL WORK AS GOOD AS THE
RECOMMENDED LABEL DOSE!

It is not illegal or against label to use less of a product only illegal
when you raise the dose above the reommended amount.

I could produce apples by organic method but only for myself as the
investment in time would mean I would need to charge about four times the
amount of the apples of the large orchards.

By using an IPM method I sold all the fruit my orchard produced this year
through local markets at the same price  at times higher than the large
orchards.

Bob

Ps. Will be back on line next week!

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