is it worth being organically certified?

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is it worth being organically certified?
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is it worth having organic certification

yes

[ 2 ]

90%

[ 20 ]

Total Votes : 22

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shadiya

Joined: 02 Feb 2008
Posts: 1285

Posted: Sat Apr 09, 11 9:46 pm Post subject:

I am a wwoof host and you don't have to be certified to be one.

It isn't really fair to blame the Soil Association for the way the word organic has been commodified, that'd be the EU. I am no longer certified as the cost is high but to be fair, that's any of the certification bodies, OF & G and the rest. It costs money to send people round the country inspecting people and they know it's a problem for small producers but they can't seem to find a way round it, primarily because the word is now a legal definition and so certain standards have to be adhered to. I have spent enough timne badgering them about it, as have many other small producers but they do have costs and someone has to pay them. The government make the rules and they have to enforce them.... To the best of my knowledge, which isn't up to date as I gave up my licence last January, they don't make a profit on certification fees.

Although there is no doubt that they have jumped into bed with the supermarkets, much to the disgust of many of us small producers, it has to be admitted that they have succeeded in raising the profile of organic food production in a way that would have been unthinkable 15years ago so I think it's worth remembering that. They are a charity, doing their best to spread the word and personally I think they've done a bloody good job, even if it's not a way I myself would personally have chosen. As for their members being middle class, not only is it a sweeping generalisation but even if it is predominantly true, so what? Why do we have to apologise for being middle class? Try saying they mostly have darkies as members and then maybe you might realise that until we stop judging people by things that they can't help, ie birth, the world will never be a better place....

As far as I can see, the only really lasting problem with being middle class is an overwhelming urge to tell people not to have their elbows on the table during meals

but I tell myself that is fairly harmless and I only think it - honest!

dan1

Joined: 23 Jun 2010
Posts: 102
Location: Bristolish

Posted: Wed Jun 22, 11 3:08 pm Post subject:

I don't think there's anything wrong with being middle class. I certainly am.
I do think a food movement that's only achieved impact within the middle class who were the healthiest + most well nourished to begin with must be flawed, however. "Organic" food has become something aspirational and expensive. The rules about its' provenance seem arbitrary and unscientiific and it makes dubious claims about superior taste/nutritional value.
I get fed up as a GP seeing poorer mums being guilt-tripped into buying expensive jars of organic baby food when they could make cheaper healthier food with fresh local produce organic or otherwise. I've seen organic mange-touts flown in from Kenya in the supermarket in the middle of pea season! It all seems a bit dodgy.

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