There are many organizations certifying what we buy. We choose to only be certified organic by CCOF. As so many of you visit the farm and see , we have thought of not doing this and saving the $2,500 a year it costs. I was recently asked why we are not also certified by an animal welfare organization. There are several to choose from, and the one suggested works over the the whole country, which is why I have a problem with some of their rules. What works in a climate with 20F below does not apply here where the chickens are out every day of the year. In a very cold climate the chickens need to be shut inside for months at a time. We would need to build three times as many chicken houses to comply with these rules for the number of birds that we have. At over $6,000 per house, that would mean an investment of $36,000 when only 15% of our girls have ever been counted during daylight hours inside our houses at at one time. The rules are not climate adapted, and they also allow pesticides and herbicides, which we don’t use.
Certification is accepted as valid when you cannot visit the coffee plantation to make sure they are organic or being paid a fair price. I have to spend the money you send us and the time that it creates in the best possible way. So I judge that you can see for yourself when you are here with your family and friends picking strawberries or making tomato sauce. Let me know what you think…. Nigel