----- Original Message -----
From: Frank Teuton
>
> What the Bess study purports to do is falsify Elaine's assertion. Bess
took
> 'good enough' compost that had met process standards, put it in a Growing
> Solutions 25 brewer, measured DO levels throughout, and was able to grow
E.
> coli when simple sugars were added to the mix, under repeated trials.
Hi Frank
Whats going on here??? Below is direct from one of Elaine's
messages and she is talking about the material that Bess requested for her
"test"
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Thu Oct 17, 2002 4:00 am
Subject: Re: [compost_tea] Re: Testing & NOP Decision
'The Rexius material used was pre-compost material. Jack Hoeck of Rexius
made that clear to me in an e-mail from him. He was asked for material
containing E. coli, and that's what he gave them.'
and again
' Wil Brinton told me in mid-July (I have the e-mail still)
where he told me he'd never heard of 24 hour compost tea. And he was the
expert the Compost Task Force was using to tell them about compost tea?'
Somebody is bullsh***ing us! Who do you pick ?
When I read the Brinton stuff my immediate reaction was this is nothing more
than a direct attempt to sabotage the use of compost teas - clearly biased!!
Typical science 'set the agenda first then design a test to come up with the
appropriate answer'
Ditto (only more so) for the work done by Brian Duffy (the closed flask
experiment) totally irrelevant to the brewing of compost tea !!
There is big money and big egos behind this dispute.
The work of Bess, Brinton and Duffy should go in the trash can where it
belongs, and some honest testing of the compost tea method be done, using
quality tested compost, clean materials for feed, and the latest successful
aerobic tea brewers, unbiased science - ha! it will never happen eh?
Understand I am not totally opposed to your point of view - there needs to
be rules - "modern" food transport, processing and distribution methods
provide almost ideal conditions for pathogen growth - lots of moisture,
warmth, lack of fresh air, a long time in the supply chain, and as the big
boys take over organic production there will be problems for sure - which
will no doubt be blamed on the small farmers, 'backyard operators' same as
is now the case with the poultry industry.
Hugh Lovel (as usual) has this right - the best protection for any consumer
is to be looking the producer in the eye when the money changes hands!
Cheers
Lloyd Charles
