8/16/05 - Hi, I'm Jim Zeek. My self appointed role has been to be a spark-plug for Apple Hill Organics, a loose collaboration of organic specialty crop growers all certified by California Certified Organic Farmers. The certifier name is important because of its tutorial role over the last 17 years as my interest and expertise in farming have developed. For the last 24 years I have played minor and major roles in the areas of writing, enforcement and conflict resolution related to certification standards for producers processors and handling of food and personal products bearing the “organic” label.

I was not always a farmer, as the case of many growers in the “organic” category. Though everyone's story is unique, many of us share one a common belief: we are alive in our time and place as uninvited quests. We don't really own the turf we’re on or have the right to destroy it along with those with whom we share the earth. We are the “gate-keepers” for all those generations to succeed us.

Having been a life-long amateur naturalist and armchair scientist, though I studied three years to be one in the wood products field, my epiphany came one summer while building a garage or a friend. Located across the street was a pear orchard. During the few weeks the garage was coming together the orchard operator could be seen dressed head to toe in yellow slicker gear, rubber gloves and respirator suited for use around lethal organic aerosol compounds. In this costume be clambered onto his tractor and trailed the spray rig through the orchard.

Having grown up in this community, though like most others I left to seek my destiny, hopefully, greener pastures, I had learned in those first 19 years. The moth that made worms in pears and apples was becoming resistant to DDT. These little creatures were developing the ability to ingest this very potent poison with immunity and pass that ability on their progeny. As I watched one particular day I realized the same cycle was about to play itself out. My reaction was, “There must be a better way for us all”. It wasn't just the moth larvae being targeted. It was every living thing in the orchard, including the farmer. The epilogue to this story is we now have coddling moths increasingly resistant to Guthion, weeds resistant to Round-up and powdery mildew resistant to fungicides just to name a few outcomes conventional farmers live with each crop cycle. From any point of view this picture seems to be at odds with any known concept of long-term sustainability.

This realization, plus the death of a close friend and grain farmer from a brain tumor of the type associated with those significantly exposed to some types of herbicides prompted my choice to farm organically.

It is worth noting that last week during an interview on a local National Public Radio station a Public Health Officer stated that, ”we all have traces of pesticides in our bodies from the environment and foods we eat” in commenting about the potential health hazards associated with spraying West Nile Virus infected mosquitoes that pose a significant potential local health hazard.