What's Organic?

Organic foods are better in every way. They taste better and are better for us. They're also better for our farmers, animals and the environment.

Organic foods are produced without using synthetic chemicals like pesticides, herbicides and artificial fertilisers or growth hormones and anitbiotics. They are produced to a certain production standard which means they are processed without ionizing radiation or food additives and the produce must not be genetically modified.

This all combines to make for higher quality produce, and because organic farming doesn't use any artificial fertilisers, it's better for the environment and the health of the farmers.

What's Biodynamic?

Biodynamic agriculture is a method of organic farming that treats farms as unified and individual organisms, balancing the holistic development and interrelationship of the soil, plants, animals as a closed, self-nourishing system. Biodynamic farming emphasis is on manures and composts with the exclusion of the use of artificial chemicals on soil and plants. Methods unique to the biodynamic approach include the use of fermented herbal and mineral preparations as compost additives and field sprays and the use of an astronomical sowing and planting calendar.

What's an Organic Certification?

Organic certification is a certification process for producers of organic food and other organic agricultural products. Requirements vary from country to country, and generally involve a set of production standards for growing, storage, processing, packaging and shipping that include:

• avoidance of most synthetic chemical inputs (e.g. fertilizers, pesticides, antibiotics, food additives, etc), genetically modified organisms, irradiation, and the use of sewage sludge;
• use of farmland that has been free from chemicals for a number of years (often, three or more);
• keeping detailed written production and sales records (audit trail);
• maintaining strict physical separation of organic products from non-certified products;
• undergoing periodic on-site inspections.

Certified organic producers are also subject to the same agricultural, food safety and other government regulations that apply to non-certified producers.

The products on this website are organic or biodynamic, unless otherwise stated. Their certification codes are detailed below:

• ACO - Australian Certified Organc (previously BFA)
• AUS - Austria Bio Garantie
• AusQ - Aust.-Qual (A new Australian Organic Certifying body - 2007)
• BCS - BCS OKO-Garantie GMBH - Germany
• CCOF - Californian Certified Organic Farmers
• COF - A313 Certified organic in accordance with California Organic Foods Act 1990
• CUC - Control Union - Netherlands (formerly SKAL)
• DEMETER - Bio-dynamic Research Institute
• ECOCERT - Certified organic by ECOCERT
• IBD - Instituto Biodinamico - IFOAM accreditated (Brazil)
• IME -Certified organic by Institute for Market Ecology (Switzerland)
• INA - Intrenational Nutritional Agriculture Cert. (Europe)
• NASAA - National Association for Sustainable Agriculture Australia
• OFC - Organic Food Chain
• OFC-C - Organic Food Chain in Conversion
• OHG - Organic Herb Growers Association
• QAI - Quality Assurance International
• TOP - Tasmanian Organic-Dynamic Producers Inc.
• USDA - United States Department of Agriculture