“Dave Chapman and dozens of other longtime organic farmers packed a meeting of the National Organic Standards Board in Jacksonville, Fla., this week. It was their last-ditch effort to strip the organic label from a tide of fluid-fed, “hydroponic” greenhouse-grown vegetables that they think represent a betrayal of true organic principles.
“It really goes to the foundation of what organic farming means,” says Chapman, who grows vegetables on his farm in East Thetford, Vt. Abby Youngblood, executive director of the National Organic Coalition, said that “we’re seeing, here in Jacksonville, a lot of support for the founding principles of organic, which are really about soil health, regenerating the soil,” rather than simply feeding plants the nutrients that they need.
Their protests, however, failed to convince a majority of the board, which voted, 8-7, against a ban on hydroponic methods in organic farming.”
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