This month I'm announcing a contest. But before I give you the details let me give you some background about why.
I've been involved in farming and gardening in some fashion for more than 30 years. I've watched the organic movement transition from the back-to-the-land hippies into the commodity of multinational marketing departments. The term organic has gone from a general concept of food raised without use of chemical fertilizers or pesticides into a Federal law that splits hairs over the minute details of what should or shouldn't be considered "organic". What seems to bother many of the organic farmers that grew up and matured as business people from those early years is that we've lost the spirit the word organic used to contain. The Feds and multinational companies now own and control the marketing of the word organic. Their extension of the word organic to questionable products has effectively diluted the meaning and credibility of the word organic. The value behind the organic label used to be accessible and understood by anyone. Now it is clouded by the definitions within a lengthy document.
Yet there are farmers and gardeners who still practice what we used to call organic. Some of them shun the term organic now for one reason or another even though they could easily qualify for the "Certified Organic" label. I am saddened by what has become of a once powerful term that encapsulated a promise as much as it did a physical product. As I've thought about how organic farming and gardening has grown, I wonder about what organic means to others. Has the meaning changed for you as well?
Which brings me back to the contest. If you grow and/or buy organic products, I'd like to know what "organic" means to you and why it's important to you and your family. Here are the contest details:
- Submit a 600-1200 word paper on what "organic" means to you and why it's important to you and your family by close of business on January 31, 2007.
- Send your submission electronically to gbanse@farm-garden.com. Use the subject "What Organic Means"
- The prize for the winning entry is a $75 gift certificate to High Mowing Seeds.
- Please be sure to include your name, complete mailing address, phone number and email address.
- Contest starts today - December 14, 2006.
- Contest ends January 31, 2007. All submissions must be in our hands by close of business on this day.
- Winner will be announced on February 12, 2007.
Read the Official Rules here.