Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
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do you want us to do with this?' They have seen some ugly fruit, but not
this bad. They say, 'What do you want us to do with this?' Just do the best
we can and that is all we can do. We started packing them as Eagles' Nest,
then I stopped and started putting them in generic boxes because I didn't
want my name on it.”
Rob notes that his certified organic packinghouse is different in terms of
action and regulation. “If you look at a regular carton of fruit, it will say
'fungicide' on it. And that is why I am certified organic here. If somebody
packs conventional fruit, they have to apply fungicides to the fruit as it is
going through the line. That is the deal. A fungicide to keep it from rotting.”
But Rob feels that their fruit stands up fine. And Mary knows from her
customers. “My fruit has a longer shelf life because it is highly mineralized.
Due to the components of the fertilizers we use, it has the minerals it needs.
And of course it has been growing in clean soils since the 1940s. I have
a very long shelf life. Solids, pound per solids, you're not going to beat
us.”
Mary explains that she is careful to maintain detailed paperwork, so that
each box, bin, pallet, and truck load is clearly attributed to each grower.
“I have my boxes designed so where it says certified organic, I stamp the
number. I buy from other people. I buy their crops, pack them, and sell
them. So I stamp in their number. That is for product identification. And
then on my manifests I also write whose product was inspected. If there
were three of us there, I mark what number was whose. Each product can
be identified. If they have problems, we know who to fall back on. Nobody
else is doing that, and this is how we are giving everyone free rein.”
Mary and Rob are concerned about fraud and lack of integrity in organic
citrus. Mary says, “People who have just recently been certified are in it
for the money. They see money is being made because the conventional
market has bottomed out. It's the money. So what happens is they get in the
business, and twenty acres is a nice living, and they figure out real quick that
you can do whatever you want and the chances of getting caught are very
slim. Oh, we had one finally get caught. He was packing 70,000 to 80,000
boxes of fruit a year, but he only had the same amount of citrus owned as I
do. And then he was going out and getting it from abandoned groves, but
it wasn't certified. All the buyers would say things, and I would say, 'Well,
gee, he only has twenty acres.'When he got busted, they all said, 'Why didn't
you tell us?' Hey, I don't bad-mouth. That makes me look bad. I told them,
'Why do you think I kept saying that he only has twenty acres?' I said, 'Can
you figure out what I was trying to tell you? There is no way this guy can be
doing this. You should be leery of him.' ”
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