organic geese food?

[user69820]

I just got an egg from my summerproject geese, exciting!

Can you please tell me what is considered organic feed for geese? I am feeding them poultry food from the store. If I put "organic goose eggs" on my eggs for sale sign, what feed should I be feeding them in order for them to qualify for "ORGANIC EGGS"? Thank you, I will just read the post and if any questions, I'll step up to ask? Thanks to anyone who post in advance. Chris

 

[Olive Hill]

You're a little late. In order to produce organic eggs your geese should have been handled according to organic standards throughout their lives.

 

[user69820]

Well, I guess I will call this summerproject, scrambled eggs and read up on raising geese organically? Thank you.

 

[Cottage Rose]

Are you talking about selling organic eggs for human consumption as a taxable business?
If you're a business then you can only use the word organic if you meet the requirements of the law governing that, but if you're just selling fresh eggs to your neighbors as long as you're feeding all organic feeds and grains and you don't use any chemicals, herbicides or pesticides on your property then I think you could say they are organically raised.

 

[Olive Hill]

Quote:
You're right that regulations differ between those running a business of a certain size and those selling backyard products (or even just those from a smaller business). In both cases however, the same requirements of organic production apply. The difference is that businesses of a certain size must be certified, backyard growers do not, but may claim organically grown as long as they grow in accordance with organic standards and maintain records to that end. Either way -- in a large business setting or small backyard hobby operations -- for poultry and poultry products meant for human consumption the birds must have been maintained in accordance with organic standards from their second day of life onward.

Even excepting all regulations -- as, believe me, I'm not the USDA's biggest fan

-- the bottom line is these geese have not been raised organically. It would be unethical to market their products as something they are not. And it's really no service to the public as unethical and loose applications of food labeling only serves to further muddy food industry lingo and make it harder both for farmers to label their products succinctly and for families to find and procure the foods they want.

 

[Cottage Rose]

I think it would only be unethical if you said you were certified organic and weren't.
As long as your customers know exactly what you feed and what your forage conditions
are there would be nothing deceitful in that.
I would think if consumers are finicky about what they eat they would ask anyway.

 

[Olive Hill]

So, just to clarify you're saying it is ethical to advertise eggs from geese that were not "organically raised" as "organically raised" as long as you don't say they're "certified"? Completely setting aside all legal matters that's just plain lying. The geese were not by any stretch of anyone's imagination "organically raised" yet it's perfectly acceptable to say they were if you quick switch them to organic feed after they've already started laying to make a buck? Everything about that is deceitful.

THIS is why consumers need to ask pointed in depth questions of their producers, unfortunately many don't even know what they should be asking.

 

[Cottage Rose]

Okay this is getting way too nit-picky for me.
I'm not advising anybody to be deceitful.
Maybe it would be better to simply say ones birds are fed "chemical free" feeds
to eliminate any confusion on the consumers part by using the O word.

 

[goosedragon]

Quote:
Oh heck I will trout out 10 geese and lets see you find the ones that aren't Organic. In most cases the O word is just a bit of marketing BS.

 

[Olive Hill]

If they're not fed chemical-free feed though?

That's what I don't understand about your position -- and would really, genuinely like to understand -- the geese have been fed conventional feed. It's not "chemical free", it's not "organic", not in any way shape or form. I'm not trying to be "nit-picky" I'm trying to understand on what basis you're making your recommendations because in having read your other posts and talked with you via email I don't see you as a deceitful or shady business person at all. That's why it just doesn't make sense to me. Sell them for what they are -- goose eggs. If you don't have organic goose eggs, you just don't sell organic goose eggs. If you don't have chemical free goose eggs, you just don't sell chemical free goose eggs. It's not rocket science, it's just honesty. I sell goose. They're not organic, they're not "chemical free". They are truly free-range. So that's what I call them, free-range goose.

And to some extent I suppose I'm interested in your thought process -- if what I'm getting from your statements are in fact what you mean to portray, that it's okay to switch the geese to organic feed now and call them and their products organic (or "chemical free" as a concession to my opposition). Because the misrepresentation of products is a rampant problem in the food industry that is not limited to the food giants. Small farmers do it, too. And I've always had to assume it's simply poor ethics combined with the desire to make a buck, but as I said I don't view you as a person having a poor ethical compass, so am intrigued at how you would come to the conclusion you have.