Ginger Brown started a vegetable stand last year at her farm in Conquest. She grew everything from squash and tomatoes to peppers and beets. This year, she's even going to try some small melons.
Lou Lego, owner of Elderberry Pond in Sennett, hangs a coddling moth trap in his apple orchard. The moths fly into the trap and get stuck, keeping the pests' larvae from infesting the apples. Devon DelloStritto / The Citizen
Because she grows her produce without using chemical pesticides, Brown could be considered an organic farmer. Her farming practices make sense to her for many reasons, not the least of which is that her organic produce just tastes better.
With an initial investment of $600, Brown was pleased when she made $400 of that back.
"I thought I did quite well," Brown said.
This year, her garden plot will be about three times the size and she's hoping to turn a profit not only through her farm stand sales, but also at the new weekly farmer's market in Port Byron. Banking on her relative success last season, the question in Brown's mind is not whether to continue with this enterprise; it's whether or not she should become certified organic.
The work involved in growing organic produce and getting certified is laborious and costly, so Brown isn't sure whether it's worth it.
Her husband's farm, Conquest Organic Farms, which grows certified organic soybeans, field corn, winter and spring barley and hay, has been certified for six years by Northeast Organic Farming Association of New York Certified Organic LLC (NOFA-NY).
"There's a lot of paperwork involved. Todd has to record the day he plants and the day he harvests and (NOFA-NY) comes and inspects the records," she said.
Keeping a few records and then getting inspected is a simplified explanation of the organic certification process and does not even hint at the amount of work necessary to gain and maintain organic certification.
Under the Organic Foods Production Act of 1990, Congress required the USDA to develop national standards for organically produced agricultural products. The final rule for national organic standards was implemented in 2002.
As prescribed by those rules, state or private USDA-accredited certifying agents like NOFA-NY carry out the certification process. According to the USDA's National Organic Program, NOFA-NY is one of only three accrediting entities in the state.
Organic growers may choose to get certified through other entities outside the state, as long as those certifying agents are USDA-approved. Once certified, the farm's products will be considered organic and may use the USDA Organic seal.
The organic market is continuing to experience exponential growth far beyond the conventional food market.
The Organic Trade Association estimates that the organic market is expected to reach a value of $30.7 billion by 2007, posting a compound annual growth rate of 21.4 percent between 2002 and 2007.
This growth is consistent with previous years, when consumer demand rose throughout the 1990s by about 20 percent a year.
The certified organic cropland in the U.S. doubled between 1992 and 1997 to 1.3 million acres. By 2001 USDA estimates, nearly 2.5 million organic acres were farmed in the U.S. That growth presents an increasing demand for qualified certifying agents like NOFA-NY. But, said Carol King, that organization's co-administrator, organic inspectors are being stretched to the limit.
With more than 45,000 organic acres on more than 300 farms in New York state alone, that's a lot of territory for the eight inspectors to cover.
"There are more than enough agencies in the U.S., with over 100, but we have limited inspectors. Bigger farms can take two days to inspect," King said.
NOFA-NY inspects its organic farms once a year, but they are all subject to surprise inspections; however, with the number of farms becoming certified increasing, the inspectors have enough to do with regular inspections and surprise visits are rare.
With consumers becoming more educated about their food sources, the demand for organic food is higher.
Consumers want better food and thus organic farmers can demand a higher price for their produce. By Lou Lego's account, it's a win-win situation for his customers at Elderberry Pond in Sennett and for him as a farmer.
"You get a premium price on organically produced food. Commodity price has just gone to nothing," he said.
But Lego's premium price doesn't come without major effort on his part. His farm has been certified organic by NOFA-NY for five years and he's had to be a conscientious, borderline-obsessive record keeper.
"They've said our farm is a model of recordkeeping and orderliness. We wouldn't normally keep records like that, but they've been amazingly useful," Lego said.
Of Elderberry Pond's 100 acres, the Legos farm 35 to 40 acres of fruits and vegetables. They have to record how much was harvested every day, what kind of seeds were used and what kinds of biological methods were used for pest management.
Lego doesn't have much to worry about these days in terms of NOFA-NY's annual inspections. Since their fields have been farmed organically for years, the land has adjusted accordingly.
"The longer the land is organic, the more it becomes a natural environment. The beneficial bugs control the pests and it gets easier and easier to control them," Lego said.
Elderberry Pond isn't dependent on chemicals and their initial organic certification process wasn't as difficult as it is for some people. Farms that were dependent on pesticides have a more challenging organic transition.
"That first step is scary," NOFA-NY's King said. "It's not something you just jump into. People are preplanning three years out."
Rose Ryan of Harvest Home Organics in Moravia just received her first organic certification a year ago, but she has been employing sustainable agriculture practices for five years. She said because she had already been using ecologically sound farming methods, getting certified wasn't too difficult.
"That first year process can be tricky with the recordkeeping and the mapping and the soil-testing. But it wasn't a huge transition," she said.
For conventional farmers, making the organic transition is about learning a whole new way of doing business, said Sarah Johnston, director of NOFA-NY, which is separate from the certifying entity. Organic is not what they learned and not what they're comfortable with. Johnston likened the transition from conventional farming to organic to a PC user switching to a Mac.
"The technical information and the equipment is all different. If you want to learn something new, you have to unlearn your old approaches," she said.
Transitioning to organic is not without risk. Johnston said farmers, especially those in the dairy business, are under increasing pressure to convert to organic. Johnston cautions that farmers should transition gradually, learning as they go.
"If you make a mistake, it haunts you for a year. You have to pace yourself. It's not necessarily that easy," she said.
Of the 11 NOFA-NY certified organic farms and four that are first-year organic applicants in Cayuga County, the risk has been worth it. As consumers care more about the quality of their food, the demand for organics increases.
"Food quality drives people's interest and organic farmers have something to offer in that realm," Johnston said. "That's the trend that's pushing us forward.
New organic farms are cropping up all the time to fill the need. In Cayuga County, one new farm - Finger Lakes Garlic in Venice - became certified by NOFA-NY in 2005 and four are either transitioning or are first-year applicants. And with a 75 percent reimbursement on certification costs from the state Department of Agriculture and Markets up to $500, the state is supportive of farmers making the switch.
Ryan, of Harvest Home Organics, is pleased she got certified not because she can get a better price for her product, but because it proves her commitment to farming the way nature intended.
"For me it wasn't a money thing. It was the right thing to do. It's good for what I believe in philosophically," she said.
For Brown, the Conquest farmer, deciding whether to become certified comes down to dollars and cents.
If Brown makes less than $5,000 a year from her produce, it is exempt from certification. She may still call her fruits and vegetables organic, but she doesn't have to make it official through certification until she earns more than $5,000.
Brown's been farming organically for a while, but said she'll make the decision about certification once she sees how successful she's been.
Until then, her customers will have to take her at her word that she's employing organic practices.
"If things keep going better each year, then maybe I'll certify," she said.
Staff writer Lauren Ober can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 245 or lauren.ober@lee.net
With an initial investment of $600, Brown was pleased when she made $400 of that back.
"I thought I did quite well," Brown said.
This year, her garden plot will be about three times the size and she's hoping to turn a profit not only through her farm stand sales, but also at the new weekly farmer's market in Port Byron. Banking on her relative success last season, the question in Brown's mind is not whether to continue with this enterprise; it's whether or not she should become certified organic.
The work involved in growing organic produce and getting certified is laborious and costly, so Brown isn't sure whether it's worth it.
Her husband's farm, Conquest Organic Farms, which grows certified organic soybeans, field corn, winter and spring barley and hay, has been certified for six years by Northeast Organic Farming Association of New York Certified Organic LLC (NOFA-NY).
"There's a lot of paperwork involved. Todd has to record the day he plants and the day he harvests and (NOFA-NY) comes and inspects the records," she said.
Keeping a few records and then getting inspected is a simplified explanation of the organic certification process and does not even hint at the amount of work necessary to gain and maintain organic certification.
Under the Organic Foods Production Act of 1990, Congress required the USDA to develop national standards for organically produced agricultural products. The final rule for national organic standards was implemented in 2002.
As prescribed by those rules, state or private USDA-accredited certifying agents like NOFA-NY carry out the certification process. According to the USDA's National Organic Program, NOFA-NY is one of only three accrediting entities in the state.
Organic growers may choose to get certified through other entities outside the state, as long as those certifying agents are USDA-approved. Once certified, the farm's products will be considered organic and may use the USDA Organic seal.
The organic market is continuing to experience exponential growth far beyond the conventional food market.
The Organic Trade Association estimates that the organic market is expected to reach a value of $30.7 billion by 2007, posting a compound annual growth rate of 21.4 percent between 2002 and 2007.
This growth is consistent with previous years, when consumer demand rose throughout the 1990s by about 20 percent a year.
The certified organic cropland in the U.S. doubled between 1992 and 1997 to 1.3 million acres. By 2001 USDA estimates, nearly 2.5 million organic acres were farmed in the U.S. That growth presents an increasing demand for qualified certifying agents like NOFA-NY. But, said Carol King, that organization's co-administrator, organic inspectors are being stretched to the limit.
With more than 45,000 organic acres on more than 300 farms in New York state alone, that's a lot of territory for the eight inspectors to cover.
"There are more than enough agencies in the U.S., with over 100, but we have limited inspectors. Bigger farms can take two days to inspect," King said.
NOFA-NY inspects its organic farms once a year, but they are all subject to surprise inspections; however, with the number of farms becoming certified increasing, the inspectors have enough to do with regular inspections and surprise visits are rare.
With consumers becoming more educated about their food sources, the demand for organic food is higher.
Consumers want better food and thus organic farmers can demand a higher price for their produce. By Lou Lego's account, it's a win-win situation for his customers at Elderberry Pond in Sennett and for him as a farmer.
"You get a premium price on organically produced food. Commodity price has just gone to nothing," he said.
But Lego's premium price doesn't come without major effort on his part. His farm has been certified organic by NOFA-NY for five years and he's had to be a conscientious, borderline-obsessive record keeper.
"They've said our farm is a model of recordkeeping and orderliness. We wouldn't normally keep records like that, but they've been amazingly useful," Lego said.
Of Elderberry Pond's 100 acres, the Legos farm 35 to 40 acres of fruits and vegetables. They have to record how much was harvested every day, what kind of seeds were used and what kinds of biological methods were used for pest management.
Lego doesn't have much to worry about these days in terms of NOFA-NY's annual inspections. Since their fields have been farmed organically for years, the land has adjusted accordingly.
"The longer the land is organic, the more it becomes a natural environment. The beneficial bugs control the pests and it gets easier and easier to control them," Lego said.
Elderberry Pond isn't dependent on chemicals and their initial organic certification process wasn't as difficult as it is for some people. Farms that were dependent on pesticides have a more challenging organic transition.
"That first step is scary," NOFA-NY's King said. "It's not something you just jump into. People are preplanning three years out."
Rose Ryan of Harvest Home Organics in Moravia just received her first organic certification a year ago, but she has been employing sustainable agriculture practices for five years. She said because she had already been using ecologically sound farming methods, getting certified wasn't too difficult.
"That first year process can be tricky with the recordkeeping and the mapping and the soil-testing. But it wasn't a huge transition," she said.
For conventional farmers, making the organic transition is about learning a whole new way of doing business, said Sarah Johnston, director of NOFA-NY, which is separate from the certifying entity. Organic is not what they learned and not what they're comfortable with. Johnston likened the transition from conventional farming to organic to a PC user switching to a Mac.
"The technical information and the equipment is all different. If you want to learn something new, you have to unlearn your old approaches," she said.
Transitioning to organic is not without risk. Johnston said farmers, especially those in the dairy business, are under increasing pressure to convert to organic. Johnston cautions that farmers should transition gradually, learning as they go.
"If you make a mistake, it haunts you for a year. You have to pace yourself. It's not necessarily that easy," she said.
Of the 11 NOFA-NY certified organic farms and four that are first-year organic applicants in Cayuga County, the risk has been worth it. As consumers care more about the quality of their food, the demand for organics increases.
"Food quality drives people's interest and organic farmers have something to offer in that realm," Johnston said. "That's the trend that's pushing us forward.
New organic farms are cropping up all the time to fill the need. In Cayuga County, one new farm - Finger Lakes Garlic in Venice - became certified by NOFA-NY in 2005 and four are either transitioning or are first-year applicants. And with a 75 percent reimbursement on certification costs from the state Department of Agriculture and Markets up to $500, the state is supportive of farmers making the switch.
Ryan, of Harvest Home Organics, is pleased she got certified not because she can get a better price for her product, but because it proves her commitment to farming the way nature intended.
"For me it wasn't a money thing. It was the right thing to do. It's good for what I believe in philosophically," she said.
For Brown, the Conquest farmer, deciding whether to become certified comes down to dollars and cents.
If Brown makes less than $5,000 a year from her produce, it is exempt from certification. She may still call her fruits and vegetables organic, but she doesn't have to make it official through certification until she earns more than $5,000.
Brown's been farming organically for a while, but said she'll make the decision about certification once she sees how successful she's been.
Until then, her customers will have to take her at her word that she's employing organic practices.
"If things keep going better each year, then maybe I'll certify," she said.
Staff writer Lauren Ober can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 245 or lauren.ober@lee.net
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