All: Over the years I have bashed my head against many brick walls and I finally learned that you don't fight the system, you use it. To use the system you need two main things: 1, You need to be very clear on what you want. 2. You need to know the system and all it's intricacies so that you can manipulate it to achieve your aims.
Governments, regulators and accreditation authorities are part of the scene like it or not, how about we try to get them to compliment the farmer with their regulations so that everyone wins Regulatory bodies are more likely to listen if you present complete and constructive ideas as against just telling them they are wrong and putting up ideas that confront their ideology. This forum, BDNOW, brings together a world wide group of forward thinking people who should be able to come up with a system that satisfy all parties. As I see it they can make all the rules and regulations they like, I'll find a way around them if I want to and so can everyone else, but like most people I want to turn out the best produce I can and regulations that assist me to do that are good. It is the responsibility of governments to ensure that food is not contaminated, their efficiency at doing this is questionable. The definition of contamination is also questionable, I refer in this post to biological contamination not chemical. In Australia the government has set up Chemical and Pesticide courses that in theory anyway you must attend in order to use these products, I have not attended a course but those who have certainly seem to be much more responsible in their chemical use. The point being that there is an official effort at educating people in correct and safe?? usage of products and in theory users should be aware of the associated dangers. Thus removing the excuse of "I didn't know". I suggest that similar courses may be an answer to compost and compost tea problems as envisaged by the regulators. Is it worth the effort to put together a submission using the list to gather ideas to put forward to regulators? I don't mean just the education idea but others as well. Have to go and do some work now, I have other ideas about the subject I will probably put forward later. David C with the flat head.
