Dr. Christopher Shade

So we talk about microbiome.

Real organic farming is real microbiome terrain farming.

management and to get nofa certified you had to show you were doing all that you were putting the right amount of carbon in you were doing the composting uh and i remember this i remember this this guy at a conference saying you think it's going to be a great day when you can go into mcdonald's and get your organic hamburger but that's not going to be a great day he said what's coming is they're going to lower the standards for organic so you're not

You're just substituting out this chemical fertilizer for something pretty similar, like chicken manure is pretty similar.

Very high in nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, and very low in carbon.

So you're not getting the substrate in there to feed the soil.

So indeed, that's what happened.

We went from these smaller certification groups that were really hardcore into USDA Organic, where it just really scrubbed

uh scrubbed their requirements so it was so much easier to have an organic food right yeah it's a shame because i love fruit and vegetables but now i can't even trust it yeah i mean i was kind of shocked the last few years going into the store and like here's the conventional blueberries and here's the organic blueberries and they look the same but they're huge and they i'm like yeah i don't know about that

Well, I mean, that's just, I thought that was just water because they got to keep it from drying out.

Oh, geez.

yeah i mean as you go to the farmers market i guess so you get a csa share and you know community supported agriculture and you go pick it up from the organic farm you know yeah uh that's pretty much the more we do that that's you know that's better for us as a community it's better for the earth and it's better for us as bodies you know and just you know have the stores have your basics there and uh

I mean, it's good the awareness has come with demanding organic and all organic and the availability.

Now, if you're a real stickler for perfect, is that the stuff?

Maybe not, but at least the good part is that it's in the national conversation.

It's in the awareness and the demand for it is there.

And so if they hear that it's getting cheated, people are going to be pissed off because they're paying a lot more money for that.

And I remember being asked questions.

When I was working for Rodale Institute, the organic farming research place, I went to Epcot Center and give talks down there.

And someone was like, are we cheapening stuff?