We grow and produce our herbal teas in a way that goes above and beyond organic requirements, so you may be wondering why we are not currently certified organic, and it is a good question! As a consumer, I often choose organic produce over non-organic because I know that it is better for the environment and the health of my family than that grown with artificial chemicals, so it may seem a little odd that we have decided not to pursue organic certification for our own herbal tea as yet.
There are several reasons for this. As most of our herbs are perennials, there would be a 3 year conversion period (the time it takes for conventional land to ‘convert’ to organic i.e. for the influence of unorganic practices to wear off), before we could use the organic label. Then there is the time involved in completing paperwork to register and enable annual inspections, as well as the fact that registering as organic costs a considerable amount of money (e.g. for a small-scale farm, the soil association charges £475 for the application fee, then £475 annually).
It makes me uneasy that it is the farmers doing the right thing who have to pay extra to let their customers know about it. Surely, it should be the farmers (and producers in other industries such as clothing) who use chemicals known to cause environmental damage and human health problems who should have to pay to label their products as non-organic? It doesn’t feel right either, that the cost of organic certification is inevitably passed onto those customers who care about how their food is produced.
In the future, we may decide that the benefits of organic certification outweigh the disadvantages. But, in the meantime, we are lucky to live in a time when we can sell directly to our customers and tell our story through social media and other channels, to show them first-hand that we buy organic seed and plug plants wherever possible, that our herbs are grown without artificial fertilisers, pesticides or herbicides and that our plants grow healthily without these because we use regenerative farming methods e.g. creating ‘no dig’ beds using organic biomulch and compost, as well as companion planting. Hopefully, this means that our customers can see that we go above and beyond to grow herbal teas that are healthy for our customers and healthy for the planet, even if we can't use the word ‘organic’ on our labels.
