sustainable farming/integrated pest management?

[kristin0713]

What do you think of this method of farming? More specifically, would you buy produce regularly from a farm that is committed to farming in this way even if you could not be sure if, when, and on what they actually did use the "minimal" pesticides? This farm is local to me and grows tonnnnnns of produce. It would be so convenient AND economical to get most of our produce from here but I still worry about things like strawberries, which absorb pesticides so easily. WDYT??
http://www.phillipsfarms.com/who-we-are.htm

[Gracefulmom]

I'm a member of a CSA that practices this method of farming. I know them, I trust them, they feed their own children the food that's grown. I'm confident that they would tell me when they needed to use pesticide, if I asked.

Honestly, though, I think their pesticide use is rare. I think they say they use IPM because it's easier than the legal red tape of being certified organic. That would vary from farm to farm, of course, so you may want to ask some more direct questions of your farm.

I find bugs every week in my CSA box... so I think they're pretty comfortable with the live and let live approach.

[serenbat]

we no longer do, we are about an hour from you and we have a local farm that in the past we picked 30+lbs of strawberries from and we said no this year, we really don't want the risk (they "lightly" spray)- instead we are driving 3+hours each way to pick organic blueberries to make up the difference

to each their own but to us we really don't do the risk, we do ask where we buy and only do non-sprayed and we do non-certified organic - we end up driving for what we want but we really weighted the choice and made it this way

have you looked into other places near you?

[Arianwen1174]

I would totally do it! But it would also be difficult on our budget to do much organic and this is a great middle ground. Now I'm going to look into places around me that do this, thanks!

[kristin0713]

we no longer do, we are about an hour from you and we have a local farm that in the past we picked 30+lbs of strawberries from and we said no this year, we really don't want the risk (they "lightly" spray)- instead we are driving 3+hours each way to pick organic blueberries to make up the difference

to each their own but to us we really don't do the risk, we do ask where we buy and only do non-sprayed and we do non-certified organic - we end up driving for what we want but we really weighted the choice and made it this way

have you looked into other places near you?

Where do you go that is 3 hours from you? Maybe it is closer to me. The thing is that this farm is actually 30 minutes from me but they participate in a farmer's market in my town twice a week. So it is very local. There are no other farms that close that are all organic. I wish I just knew exactly when they sprayed and what they used, but the woman that I tried to talk to last time didn't give me anything specific. She just said it is very rare and minimal that they have to use pesticides and they exhaust all other options first. I specifically asked about the strawberries and she said she didn't know

I really am not about to drive a few hours for fresh produce when I can either get farm fresh right here in my county or organic from the grocery store. I wish they would do away with all the dangerous chemicals altogether so nobody ever had to worry about it.

[serenbat]

we go to Hammonton nj - we live 20 minutes north of Easton

we use a pick your own site to find places- last year we went 2 days and picked over 20 lbs of blueberries, we were also able to pick raspberries near us-wild ones, there were lots of signs that we saw on the way down for organic BB and also saw a dinner that had a big sign saying they use organic eggs!!

we have to travel for what we want, there are some places near us for veggies that are organic, and also at a flea market near me there are people that sell organic

have you tried Rice's market or the Golden Nugget, both place we sometimes go to and they also have local produce

we also have to travel for our dairy- an hour + away in Barto, PA- so we have gotten use to driving, we go to the GN Flea Market also from our place and that is an hour +away--it would be nice to get things local but we can't always do that and make a day of it when we have to drive

I am just too leary of people that won't tell you what they use and how much of it.

I don't know if you want to think about also using the Easton Farmer's Market- on a Sat (oldest in the country!!) - I get their email, you can sign up, they really are trying and offer different things each week -
www.eastonfarmersmarket.com

they are getting meats and dairy there too