Any farmer can call themselves organic, says Judi Morton. The public doesnt understand that it means nothing.

Morton has grown organic produce and raised organic meat at Tulaberry Farm in the Slocan Valley for the past 20 years.

The BC Ministry of Agriculture is drafting legislation that would require anyone selling products as organic to be certified by a provincially or nationally accredited certifier.

One of those certifiers is Kootenay Organic Growers, of which Morton is a board member and past president. She is also on the board of the Certified Organic Associations of BC. She welcomes the proposed change, as does Jocelyn Carver, the marketing manager at the Kootenay Co-op.

Because organic food is priced higher, Carver says, there is obviously a strong profit motive for a business to use the word organic misleadingly in order to charge more. We have seen this happen with a number of products over the years, actively advocated against it, and called attention to misleading labeling where we are able.

I think it is an important vote for honesty and transparency in advertising, a quality sorely missing in North America, she said.

Jesse Woodward, who runs the Baker Street and Cottonwood markets for the West Kootenay EcoSociety, echoes those opinions and adds, I have talked to a farmer in the valley who is certified organic and worked incredibly hard and spent a fair amount of money getting that done and they feel strongly that because they have done all that work they should be able to truly use the word certified organic.

But I have also heard through the grapevine that some other smaller farmers are feeling hard done by, because they either cannot afford the process of certification or are not willing to go through it, but have what would be considered an organic farm. But like sustainable or green these terms get thrown around, and no one knows what they mean. I think it is a good move to have some rules around it.

What does getting certified involve?

Farmers have to apply to a local certifying organization which, in turn, hires a highly trained independent inspector certified by the International Organic Inspectors Association.

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Province moves to regulate the definition of 'organic' food