Keep Organic In The Soil

Growing without soil is not organic and misses the point. While I have no issue with hydroponic growing it should not be considered organic. Taking this step is simply an attempt to hand over the organic farming segment to BIG AG rather than actually promoting organic growing.

I support this effort in its entirety, for the future of our children and our children's children that they have safe food with as much nutritional value as it can possibly impart.

SOIL IS ALIVE AND TRANSMITS IMPORTANT NUTRIENTS - TUBES AND ELECTRIC LIGHTS ARE NOT ORGANIC. DIRT, SUN AND RAIN + PLANTS = ORGANIC.

Keep Organic in the Soil. " The people who keep posting about soil-less growing systems being "debated" within the organic community are trying to decieve us. There is no debate. The question of hydroponics has been asked and answered going back to 1990. No. Go develop your lovely sunless and soiless agriculture. Go bring fresh lettuce to our cities. Go fill old shipping containers with wires and plastic tubes. Be great at what you do. Be proud. Just don't call it organic."

KEEP ORGANIC IN THE SOIL!

I am a certified organic grower in Florida. I take care of and increase the soil fertility of our fields every year. This idea of using soil less mixes in grow bags has nothing to do with the soil. If the hydroponic agribusinesses like Wholesum want to say their production is done organically then create your own label like nonGMO and others have done and be proud of it. Certified Organic is soil based, period.

1. Wrong label sought: If hydroponics wants a label, then they can have one provided it is truthful: "This food was grown hydroponically." 2. Hydroponic free-loading: It is not only misleading to the public and inconsistent with the standards as created when the Organic labeling was implemented to now change and label hydroponic as organic, it also allows the free-loading of one industry, the hydroponic industry, on the backs, work and money spent by another industry, the organic industry, so hydroponic can increase their profit without making the investment into the very standards the label requires for which they, the hydroponic industry, now want to use. That is simply unfair and smacks in the face of for what we as a nation stand. 3. Harm to Organic growers: Granting Organic labeling to hydroponics erodes the value for those who have invested their time, resources and energy into the standards of organic and robs them of the return and distinction they should receive for that investment, an investment into a particular system and methodology which hydroponics has not made. Hydroponics can label with transparency what they have invested in--hydroponics. "This product was grown hydroponically." 4. Soil and specific soil implements are the fundamental underpinnings of Organic. 5. Organic is a label to provide truthful information to the consumer of how and to what standard the food was grown and raised. Hydroponics is not organic. 6. The Board: This issue has been reviewed before. The Board itself has ruled. If the Board expects to remain credible, it must stand by and enforce its prior decisions or its very authority and wisdom are also undermined ("also" being in addition to eroding the rightful profits of those who have made investments in Organic standards, and "also" being in addition to the erosion of transparency, truthfulness and the expectations of the public through wrongful changed standards of the labeling). I am a cons

Organic is about the soil. Period. If hydroponics wants some kind of certification, let them work toward their own. But they cannot piggyback onto organic, which has always been about the soil.

In the ongoing debate about whether or not soil has to be an intrinsic and necessary element of organic farming, I don't think enough has been made of the fact that "while plants don't directly absorb organic matter, they do absorb the metabolic products of soil organisms that feed on and break down organic matter" ("The Hidden Half of Nature," p. 90). In other words, it's what's coming from the microbial life that feeds on what's in the soil, NOT what's in the soil directly. That's why soluble feedings of nutrients is just not the same as growing in good soil. Evidence from the study of micro-organism life and activity in soil, plant, and animal (including human) reveals that we simply don't know enough, yet, to identify even the broad parameters of what we don't know. We are barely beginning to understand the ways and work of bacteria; how do we dare pretend we can do away with them or ignore their contributions to plant (and human) vitality? What hubris is that? Water-soluble nutrients fed to plants is equivalent to simple carbohydrates fed to people: it feeds, and can stimulate growth, but it doesn't nourish - it is fundamentally lacking in the myriad of micronutrients and 'waste products' of soil bacteria that are the unique results of the many thousands of teeming versions of bacteria that digest and recombine organic matter into many thousands of inter-related chemical compounds that build health rather than just provide carbon and calories. It is the healthy soil-based vegetable growth that facilitates robust health in the people who eat from it. It really is that simple and obvious.

SOIL is Sustenance, Ommm and Intelligence for all LIFE...it bridges the microcosm to the macrocosm. Take it out of our food - and you remove the intrinsic intelligence of life. KEEP SOIL in ORGANIC!

Hydroponics is NOT organic. Organic is the total system of soil, air, water, plants, insects, animals. Do not allow hydroponically produced food to be labelled organic. Thank you

hydroponic=nothing but chemicals, plastic and water.

Keep up the great work!

Thank you for your work!

Yes, keep the soil in "organic"....

Healthy SOIL, healthy food.

Grown in PVC....not organic! No minerals, no life force.

Feed the soil, not the plant!!

What could be more sacred than soil?

Echoing many other comments -- hydroponics does not belong in organics! I want my organic food grown in organic soil. Water is for drinking, not for growing organic plants in.