As the current executive director of PASA (Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture), Hannah Smith-Brubaker knows the organic label should be about building soil "and there isn’t in my mind a debate about that!"

Also a farmer, Hannah is on the policy committee of the Organic Farmers Association and is working to prohibit hydroponic production under the organic seal. She is also working to incorporate animal welfare standards back into the organic label since the USDA dropped the Organic Livestock and Poultry Practices standards.

"The organic label has to stand for animals on pasture. It just has to!"

Hannah and her partner Debra Brubaker operate Village Acres Farm and FoodShed, a 35-acre diversified operation that has been certified organic for over 25 years.

Located in central Pennsylvania, their mission is to “connect people to their food, the earth, and eachother."

They integrate long rotations that foster fertility through leguminous cover crops, pastured livestock, and compost prior to veggie production.

Debra was taught from a young age by her family that organic farming is not just input substitution of conventional farming, where farmers just apply "organically approved" off-farm inputs in order to keep plants alive. Rather, fertility is provided "from the roots up" by building soil quality through organic matter and using diverse nitrogen fixing and deep rooted cover crops.

Debra's dad was Roy Brubaker, a leading organic pioneer in Pennsylvania. Like her grandfather, Roy taught Debra that food with integrity comes from farmers with integrity. Label or no label, I think we can all agree with that! 

Help us keep farmers with integrity part of the organic seal and support the Real Organic Project!

Yours in the dirt,

Linley

Linley Dixon
Associate Director / linley@realorganicproject.org
Real Organic Project / realorganicproject.org