—Updated 5/7/2001—

Gorzynski to abandon organic farming

By TOM KANE

COCHECTON CENTER — Organic farmer John Gorzynski is disgusted and angry. This could be his last season being an “organic” farmer.

“I’ll keep farming the way I always have but I may not be a government certified organic farmer,” he said.

The USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) is changing the definition of ‘organic,’ and they’re taking the heart out of it, he said last week as he plowed his fields.

“They’re lowering the [standard of the] definition,” he said. “They’re including crops that have been raised with the assistance of chemicals, which is against what we organic farmers have practiced for years.”

Gorzynski was one of the first organic farmers to sell his products at the Union Square Farmers Market in New York City.

“I’ve been at this for 26 years, and now this,” he said. “I won’t be allowed to grow the way I have and use the term organic.”

Gorzynski said the changes benefit large corporations, which are now moving into the lucrative organic farming market. Gorzynski said that the international organic markets, especially those in Europe, will oppose this move. “I think [the U.S. is] doing it to get the European market to come down to our level, but it’s not going to work,” he said. “There is a strong opposition in Europe against American genetically engineered products now, what Europeans call “Frankenfoods.”

Gorzynski said he believes government regulations will include genetically engineered products under the organic label. “Even now, the USDA doesn’t require these GEOs [genetically engineered products] to be labeled as such.”

The USDA is still holding hearings on the move and will not impose its regulations until this August, he said.

Gorzynski is uncertain whether to become certified or not. If he does not, he will be unable to refer to his produce as organic.

“I still have one summer using the old regulations,” he said.