A rose by any other name ....
Just when you think that you have started to experience “it all”, you get thrown a curve that is so beyond incredulous and potentially damaging for our efforts that you start to laugh in spite of yourself.
Under the column of “what were they thinking?” as well as the column “who lobbied whom?”, we have unexpectedly learned that we have lost the use the word of the term, “organic”, in Canada.
Super.
Some will fault us for not being aware of the initiative undertaken by the Canadian General Standards Board to establish a standard for those who decide to use “organic” as a claim for their product.
But in the column of “misery loves company”, I’m glad that our staff as well as the Council is joined with every provincial and territorial ministry of the environment as well as agricultural… heck --- every premier and his/her government, every municipality and every business enterprise who is building a new way-of-life and an organization to encourage the diversion of organics from landfill and their transformation into compost for added environmental and agronomic benefits.
If you bought into the thought that Canada was a democratic system and that there are processes in place to engage interest groups in public consultation efforts, etc., you would have believed that somewhere along the way, our Council or one of our many members or even the non-members of our Council but players in the organics recovery efforts would have been alerted to the fact that the word “organic” was in play and that we had better gear up to get our voice and position heard.
But no.
Our recent survey indicated that, through organics recovery and composting, we recover about 4 million tonnes of “waste” materials and transforming them into a value-added organic-based product – compost – instead of being buried in the landfills across Canada. Those 4 million tonnes of organic materials represent 12% of the overall Canadian waste stream.
12%. And now our education and communication messages as well as the labels and messages of all those involved in the organics recovery business will need to re-jig our efforts so that we eliminate the use of the word, “organic”.
Good stuff.
We get limited attention on any political front. We definitely don’t get adequate attention re: program priority.
And now we have lost our rallying cry.
We can’t use the word, organic, unless we apply for certification.
At the Council, we have tried to eliminate the word, “waste” when we speak about organics. As in … let’s not say “organic waste”, let’s use the phrase “organic resources” to denote the value associated with scooping those organics out of the waste bin and putting them in a compost bin, green bin, compostable or plastic or paper bag or whatever else container that will ensure their destination to a composting process.
We also speak sternly and react strongly when folks use the 4-letter word that ends with –uck … and starts with “y”. Not even the worst marketers of consumer products lead with negatives.
But all our re-orienting of the dictionaries and thesauruses in the world pale in comparison with the regulatory “acumen” that has been passed to restrict composting efforts in Canada from using the word, “organic”, in our messages and product descriptions.
Kind of makes me terribly glad that our members, our Council and our staff have taken the “easy” way to help build a new waste-resource mindset to build composting’s credibility and acceptance in Canada, take 12% of the landfill-destined “waste” stream and convert them in to value-added products of environmental and agronomic benefit.
And just when you wondered if there was still enough “fight” left amongst the “organics recovery warriors” ….
Comments
Preaching to the Converted
First, let me start by providing an important definition, so that you
may understand my speech today,
- "Petrified Thinking" (from the origins of petrified wood), can
be defined as a thought process and/or belief system that is so
entrenched into a persons brain, that no amount of logical arguments or
scientific fact can effect a change to these beliefs. To become a
"Petrified Thinker" the brain-matter contents of your skull must become
so hardened (solidified to rock-like matter) to new ideas that they can
no longer penetrate your mind.
Some may say in order to believe in composting you must have faith in
nature. For sure, composters feel that they also share many idealistic
viewpoints about sustainable environmental practices, protection of
earth's natural abundance, and in the power of plants and gardens to
sooth the soul. We have even formed national compost industry
associations and publish magazines and journals, and also enable
web-logs like this one to provide a support group to all our
"like-minded" friends.
It is unfortunate, however, that of our most common shared behaviors, it
is our inherent "patience and tolerance" that has allowed other more
forceful "Petrified Thinkers" to enforce an agenda onto our national and
provincial policy-makers that is so contrary to our beliefs and
long-term goals. As of the time of this writing, many potential setbacks
of serious consequence to our industry are in the works through policy
and regulation changes, and government leadership inaction that are
embracing the ways of "Petrified Thinking".
Some of my suggestions for 2007 Annual Compost - Petrified Thinking
Awards are listed below (*Note to any potential persons who may fall
into one of the examples below. Firstly, I am quite surprised that you
are reading this web-log, because this means that there is still hope
for you, keep reading!).
- "2007 PT Award for "Best Demonstration of Inaction as a means
of Petrified Thinking" - goes to the group of provincial regulators who
would block the adoption of a national compost standard, because of a
strongly held inner wisdom that this would lead to catastrophic trace
metals contamination of lands due to excessive compost application
rates. You are awarded this honor for your ability to completely
disregard the scientific fact that we have already lost 30% of our
fertile topsoil across Canada to date and this rate of topsoil loss is
also rapidly increasing due to run-off, poor agriculture practices, and
urban sprawl activities. Especially for refusing to accept our common
sense argument that potential cost of compost and practical application
rates established for soil improvement would obviously prevent such
catastrophes (which is apparently how it works in all other provincial
jurisdictions across Canada who had already enacted the national
standard with success).
- "2007 PT Award for "Lifetime Achievement Award for Rules in
Support of Petrified Thinking" - this award unanimously goes to our
labeling law makers, who consistently apply restrictive and excessive
laws onto compost products, reducing our competitiveness versus less
environmentally sustainable purveyors of peat moss and chemical
fertilizer products. Recent example includes the continuous harassment
over guaranteed minimum nutrient analyses even though compost is clearly
not a fertilizer product, we are an organic matter product.
- "2007 PT Award for Latest SNAFU of Petrified Thinking" In
this astonishing SNAFU, we are told that we can no longer use of the
term "organic". This word would be restricted from use from our
industry, even though our entire mandate surrounds the processing of
organic residues into renewable sources of organic matter. A better
idea, we have been told by this group of policy-makers, is to allow only
"Organic Certified" groups the exclusive right to use this word. Sure,
Composters are supporters of this groups mandate of anti-chemical and
anti-pesticide beliefs, however, a quick review of their infamous "OMRI
List" will show that 90% of the products listed are obtained from
non-renewable natural resources. Who is more organic? Them or us?
Stay tuned for next years awards...
Posted by: Organic --- sorry --- banana peel, apple core, coffee grounds, paper and wood residuals resource pro | June 5, 2007 10:46 AM
I am wondering if you could elaborate on the time frame in which 4 million tonnes of waste is recovered according to your survey. Is that per week, month, year? Can this survey be viewed somewhere online?
Posted by: Treva Aberle | November 5, 2007 11:56 AM