Is Santa Barbara Blueberries An Organic Farm?

Great question! The concept of organic has drawn a lot of positive attention to how we grow and raise food as a society, and the impact of agriculture on our environment.

Organic Agriculture was originally conceived from a desire to improve soil quality and the environment, and from a rejection of the use of synthetic chemicals and fertilizers in farming. Organic agriculture is a subset of sustainable agriculture. 

Sustainable Agriculture is based on the principle that we provide quality food in the present without compromising the ability of the land to provide quality food in the future. Natural sustainable farms, including organic farms, use ecosystem-friendly sustainable farming practices, natural fertilizers and soil amendments in environmentally healthy quantities.

Gaining an organic certification label means that a food producer has successfully navigated a checklist that a government or industry certifying organization has developed. The good part of a certified label is that regulating body verifies that the food producer is actually doing what they say they are doing. While giving credit to the certification process, one should also keep in mind that science, growing practices and the people on the governing certification body seats constantly change. Checklists change based on decisions made by members of the certifying body at the state and federal level. For small farms serving primarily local communities, certification management can be an onerously time-consuming, expensive and fickle process. There must be sufficient reason for a natural sustainable farm like Santa Barbara Blueberries to make a commitment to an organic certifying body. The organic label must be worth the effort, both to the customers and to the food grower. It isn't always worth the effort. Not only here in California, but all over the world, the tangle of administrative red tape overhead will always favor big corporate farms.

Just as every small farmer individually decides whether or not the organic label is worth the effort, everyone that seeks to buy healthy local food decides how important the organic label is. It seems sacrilegious for me to say this, but produce grown on a certified farm is not necessarily healthier, safer or more ecosystem-friendly than produce grown on a non-certified natural sustainable farm. Just as getting a driver's license does not guarantee the quality of the driver, getting an organic certification does not guarantee the quality of the farm. The growing practices of the farm are far more important than the label.

For folks that find this hard to believe, it is relatively easy to research recent illnesses linked to organic farms and ranches over the years starting at the Center for Disease Control (See CDC E-Coli Outbreaks and CDC Salmonella Outbreaks). Since 2005, Santa Barbara Blueberries has been inviting people onto the farm to pick their own fruit right off the bush without a single man, woman or child ever getting sick as a result.

Santa Barbara Blueberries is a natural sustainable farm, not an certified organic one. We do build and sell an organic labelled product though, our Wild Dirt Primal, so we are not guessing about what it takes to be organic certified in California. This means we use natural fertilizers, soil amendments and sustainable farming practices to grow quality berries and sustain the farmland and adjacent wilderness areas for future generations. Like certified organic farms, we do not use synthetics, chemical sprays, herbicides or pesticides on our berry plants.

While Santa Barbara Blueberries greatly respects our sister farms and ranches that have earned their organic certification, and we understand why some people will only eat organic, we are happy to be a natural sustainable farm and loving stewards of the valley oaks wilderness of Restoration Oaks Ranch.

- Ed Seaman,
  Owner/Operator, Santa Barbara Blueberries