Claiming Organic program

[lawncuttinfoo]

So for those who use only the products listed in the faqs on this fourm, do you claim that your program is organic?

[Smallaxe]

Sounds like a question for purists :)

I would say that most of your organic meals are genetically modified to be roundup ready. Glysophate is fairly benign from the MSDS, but are your soybeans for animal feed organic? In the purest sense of the word.

Organic is a loaded word and means different things to different people. It is even a tenant in many Gaia and Humanistic religions.
To me it just means safe, healthy and natural.

What are your thoughts about it?

[Kiril]

I think an organic program is more about the principles and practices employed than the material used. It makes no difference if your using all "organic" materials if the program is not sustainable.

[lawncuttinfoo]

I plan to use a labeled 9-0-0 100% corn gluten meal product, compost tea, and manual weed pulling.

I feel I can not get much more pure than that.

I am concerned about getting sued for saying it is organic since most CGM is from GMO corn. ( I contacted the ONE company: McGeary Organics, that is listed under corn gluten on the OMRI list and they said "We don’t always have the non-GMO meal which is pretty hard to get but we do have some right now." So I guess at times no one can apply CGM truly organically)

As for the compost tea, I don't think there is any OMRI tea out there, is there?

[Kiril]

Then don't call it organic, call it sustainable. :)

[lawncuttinfoo]

Then don't call it organic, call it sustainable. :)

Unfortunately, people who want a non-synthetic lawn are still searching out "organic lawn care", not "sustainable lawn care".

[mbucuk]

The USDA only regulates organic food production. If you are a farmer netting more than $5,000 selling organic produce you need to get certified to claim you are "organic". If its a small less with less than $5,000 net then you are just supposed to keep records in case you get inspected.

That is agriculture though... no regulation on food production. NOFA has a set of standards for organic landcare that all NOFA accredited professionals are supposed to follow in their organic programs. You should get a copy of their standards, I think they may be posted online.

Either way, you should keep records or what you are applying and when it was applied in case anyone asks.

Also, almost all corn and soybeans grown in the US are GMO contaminated at this point due to cross pollination with GMO varieties. They are even finding GMO genes in landrace corn in remote Mexico, its pretty screwed up. Don't worry about it though. When I worked on an organic farm they used conventional alfalfa meal. I don't think raw materials applied for applied to the soil for fertility need to be of organic origin. I may be wrong though.