clasoil's Blog

Do I hate January in Michigan or what! !  I just drove 200 miles in lake affect snow and the roads are awful.  Michigan is such a beautiful state with all the water and scenic beauty.  I love all of that unfortunately we have to put up with the down side (Winter!)  None the less, this is an exciting time for greenhouse growers.  It's time to "Fire UP" and that always means spring can't be far away.  Michigan growers ship flowers all over the country.  Today I met with a good grower who had just finished shipping fresh organic herbs (over 75,000 plants) to Seattle  Washington.  Edible fresh herbs are fast becoming a big market for growers.  Mich flower growers are finding new ways to create more income and fresh herbs and vegetables are a great help.  

Growing naturally has its challenges and new growing systems are making it much easier to create healthy plants that are chemical free!  Sadly the organic market is so poorly regulated that many growers who should never be allowed to sell organic products are using the market to sell good vegetables but not organic vegetables.  Just because it says USDA Organic don't automatically assume products are grown to organic standards.  Most of the time growers get that approval through paper work and there is very little actual policing of growing.

I say this to point out that there are many very reputable growers who are being taken advantage of by a few Jerks.  Poor regulating could be the kiss of death for this business.  Hopefully we will get a handle on this issue.  Gotta go.