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The Dirt on Certified Organic Farming

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Photo by Maria Petrilak

Spiral Path Farm is located in Loysville, Pennsylvania.

I consider myself an organic gardener. I fertilize with organic fertilizer and manure. I don’t use pesticides, fungicides or sprays on my fruits or vegetables in my home garden. And I pay the price for making those choices – in spotted peaches that sometimes rot on the tree, blemished sour cherries, and this year, a non-existent blueberry crop.

But I don’t seek out organic produce or products at the grocery store. And there’s only one reason why – they cost significantly more.

At a recent visit to a local grocery chain, 24-ounce containers of blueberries shipped from a New Jersey based conventional farm were $4.99, while the organic blueberries in the same size container were $8.99. The organic produce was almost twice as expensive.

So we went to Spiral Path Farm in Perry County to interview Mike Brownback, founder and farmer of Spiral Path. I wanted to know if he could justify the extra cost for organic produce at the grocery store. And I hoped to get a better understanding of what organic farming really means.

Spiral Path Farm was a conventional farm from 1977 through 1990, which means that they used all the typical pesticides, insecticides and weed killers on their crops. It has been certified organic since 1993. What happened from 1990 until 1993? “If somebody wants to farm a new piece of land that they claim is organic, it has to be free of chemicals for 3 years,” Mike Brownback explained. “You can’t go in and start with year one and start growing organic. It takes 3 years transition.”

“You can’t go in and start with year one and start growing organic. It takes 3 years transition.” –Mike Brownback, Spiral Path Farm

But why, after thirteen years as a conventional farm, would they make the changes to become certified organic? Brownback said, “My wife Terra and I were approaching 40, and I remember walking around this farm I said ‘I’m having my mid-life crisis now’. My mid-life crisis is – if I see an ear of corn and I want to pick it off and I want to eat it, I knew I had sprayed some weed killer on that on that. And I knew that it was more than quite possible that there was weed killer in that corn that I was eating and we wanted to make a change.”

I asked Brownback to explain to me why the husk of the corn wouldn’t stop the weed killer from getting on the kernels of corn, or why a banana peel wouldn’t keep the fungicide off a banana. He said, “it’s simple. Everything we put in the soil is supplied through the roots of the plant, into the fruits, into the other parts of the vegetables that we eat.” So even a fruit or vegetable that has a peel that you remove could still contain trace particles of chemicals or sprays.

What does it really mean to be an organic farmer? “For me, it’s about nutrient density,” says Brownback. “We really focused on soil improvement. It’s of paramount importance to myself and my family and really, it’s a bond that I think most all organic farmers and growers share is to is to do the utmost to improve the soil and improve the earth and in so, improve the lives of the customers that buy our products.”

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Photo by Maria Petrilak

Soil quality is a top concern for the owners of Spiral Path Farm.

He explained the process of how fruits and vegetables grow – how each tiny microbe, trace mineral and micronutrient that is contained in the soil will be transferred through the roots into the plant and into the fruit or vegetable. He explains, “a lot of flavor comes from how we treat the soil. And making the soil flavor link is something that’s yet to come into our in our consciousness as buyers.”

But a farmer who decides to grow organic has to go through a certification process in order to have the USDA Certified Organic label. What does that process look like? At Spiral Path, it’s about having an extensive paper trail to prove all of their methods are within the guidelines for organic growing. “There’s a lot of documentation,” says Brownback. “So where I bought my seeds. Did I make every attempt to procure organic seed? If I was not able to procure organic seed did I get non-treated seed? There’s no allowance for any treated seed. What type of materials am I using? Are they are they all able to be used in an organic operation? And do I have documentation of that?”

I also spoke with Nicole McNeil of Pennsylvania Certified Organic or PCO. PCO is accredited by the USDA and certifies operations in accordance with the USDA National Organic Program (NOP) Regulations, a set of rules for the production, handling, and labeling of organic agricultural products in the United States. She explained that there are USDA standards that must be followed by every certified organic farm. All certified organic farms must go through an application to become certified organic, including a paper submission of practices, a physical inspection, and then a chance to change any systems that are non-compliant. The process can take up to six months. But there are many farmers who grow organic produce who do not seek out the “certified organic” seal.

Why wouldn’t a farmer get the certification if they farm using organic practices? “If a farmer produces a small amount of product, or works with a low profit margin, they may not have enough produce to have that seal on their crop,” says McNeil. She said that many of these farmers already have consumers lined up at local markets or farmers markets, and they don’t have a need or desire to market their produce in a retail environment. So if your trusted, local farmer at your farmers’ market claims their product to be “organic”, it may be. But there is no guarantee without the certified organic seal. She also shared that getting the USDA certified organic seal typically costs a farmer less than $1,000, and that the USDA reimburses using a “cost share” up to $750 or 75% of the cost of the certification process.

In 1990, Congress passed the U.S. Organic Foods Production Act, which ordered the USDA to set certification standards. The standards that the USDA came up with were implemented fully in 2002, but the materials list of approved and non-approved substances is a “closely guarded secret” says McNeil. She also said, “each certifier has the ability to go above and beyond what the standards list entails.”

The USDA does publish the National List of Allowed and Prohibited Substances on its website. But it is not a wholly comprehensive list, nor does it include practices – like crop rotations. Only those who are certified organic growers and those who certify them have access to this proprietary information. Why?

Brownback explained that organic growing methods are always changing, and that “there’s a lot of chemistry involved. Really the new frontier as I understand it is biochemistry. It’s living chemistry. It’s looking at the living components and looking at them from a chemical standpoint, but a living chemical standpoint. Technology is starting to move towards less invasive, more Integrated Pest Management (IPM) standards, greater appreciation of the ecosystem and looking at ecology from a holistic point of view.” And those developments are what keep organic farmers cutting edge with advanced technology that gets back to the earth – and what makes the Certified Organic label so valuable to growers.

When wrapping up our interview, I asked Mike Brownback if he feels organic farmers are a fraternity. He said, “I would say there is very much a fraternity among organic and even sustainable growers. But I would extend that farther and say that I feel a fraternity to all my neighbors that are farmers also, whether they are conventional or not. And I feel really strongly that it’s not my place to proselytize and to convince someone. I want to lead by example.”

Related

Per PCO Certification Manual 

Spiral Path Farm 

Pennsylvania Certified Organic