[USCC] correction

[Allison L H Jack]

A postscript:

Patrick McNelly caught my typo and poor geographical knowledge, thanks!

The product is of course Milorganite and it is from Milwaukee, not Detroit.

My point about the confusion surrounding labelling is the same however. On 
the front page of Milorganitie's website it says "For better results. 
Naturally." Home gardeners wishing to increase their soil organic matter 
may be confused about what "natural" means and may or may not know that the 
biosolids feedstock used in Milorganite is not allowable in commercial 
organic agriculture under the 2002 federal regulation.

I volunteer and garden at the Ithaca Community Garden where the rules 
clearly state that plots must be "maintained organically" but don't provide 
any guidance on what that means or which legal definition of "organic" 
they're referring to. Does that mean I can spray copper sulfate on my plot? 
You can't imagine the level of confusion among gardeners!

Edo made a comment about potential consumer backlash if they discovered 
that a compost was made from manure at a conventional livestock facility. I 
would argue that the average consumer is too confused to evaluate organic 
amendments at this level of detail. Also, as far as I know, there is no 
push to change the National Organic Program's rules to restricting compost 
feedstocks to manure from certified organic livestock facilities.

-Allison
Cornell University

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Allison L H Jack
Graduate Student
Department of Plant Pathology and Plant-Microbe Biology
http://pppmb.cals.cornell.edu
Cornell University
335 Plant Science
Ithaca, NY 14850
607.273.5762
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"...Advancing a productive and sustainable agriculture"
from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences mission statement