If you are trying to buy eggs at the home of Oregon farmer Dr. Prakash Thombre, don’t be surprised if a free range chicken or goat tries to nibble at your leg.

“They are allowed to do that,” Dr. Thombre will say.

“As soon as the lights come on, they all think they are going to be fed,” the former operator of a bio-medical firm says. “We just feed them. They roam around anywhere, anytime. It’s my idea of operating this way, and we don’t call it organic, we call it a natural way of life.”

Dr. Thombre says the freedom his livestock enjoys helps them naturally produce quality products.

“What I feel is common sense should prevail,” Dr. Thombre says. “It’s natural because their body allows it. Like during the winter we don’t have any eggs because the chickens are usually trying to fight off the cold, so they build up a few feathers. They don’t lay in the winter.

“Then come spring, right now, they start laying big eggs. It’s a natural way of not pumping animals with any hormones or other chemicals, and letting the natural light do its work. That way it is much healthier.”

At the same time, Dr. Thombre, whose farm sits on Corduroy Road just within Oregon’s corporation limits, understands his limitations.

“We sell live chickens and live goats,” he said. “We cannot sell any meat, and we don’t do any butchering or anything like that. We will sell live animals. A lot of our goats go for forage and to people who like to buy the whole goat and then they can butcher it whenever they want to.

“We cannot sell goat’s milk. We do sometimes have it for pet use, but we do not sell it for human use. But we absolutely don’t have milk right now because there are the babies,” Dr. Thombre explained.

Dr. Thombre says it’s a natural way of life because it’s similar to his native India. Although he also grows chemical and hormone-free produce, his land has never been certified for organic farming.

Dr. Thombre says he doesn’t expect to make big bucks from his farm, anyways. The Ohio State University extension office says if a farmer markets less than $5,000 annually, he doesn’t need to obtain organic certification.

Sustaining soil fertility

According to the Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association, Ohio has 200 certified organic farmers cultivating over 41,460 acres. That accounts for .3 percent of all farmland.

Creating and sustaining soil fertility is the major objective for organic growers. The OEFFA claims conventional farming is depleting topsoil activity, and we also see in the Western Lake Erie basin where chemicals from conventional farming are polluting Ohio’s waterways.

According to the OSU extension office, to actually obtain organic certification a farmer must stop applying for three years any “prohibited inputs” to the land where the transition process will begin. Prohibited materials include all salt soluble products, urea, sewage sludge, synthetic insecticides, fungicides, herbicides, and ammonia-derived nitrogen products.

Locally grown organic fruits and vegetables are usually purchased within 24 hours of being harvested. Because locally-grown produce is freshest, it is more nutritionally complete. Produce from California can’t be that fresh, boasts the OEFFA.

Today it’s advantageous for any producer to market the word “organic,” even if it costs a little more.

“When (health and environmental benefits) and other hidden costs are taken into account, as they should be, locally grown organic foods are seen clearly for the value they are, even if they cost a few pennies more,” states the OEFFA website.

“We do buy local from Bench’s and any opportunity we can, we do,” said Mike Miller, manager of Miller’s New Market in Genoa. “It’s just helping to support the community and better taste, also. It’s fresh.”

The explanation is simple — surveys show that Americans worry about residues of pesticides and fungicides, materials not permitted in an organic production system either before or after harvest.

The OEFFA claims that organic farmers “often raise and sell unusual varieties you will never find on supermarket shelves.”

Organic foods are even becoming a big seller at grocery stores. The Andersons at the Woodville Mall is finding organic products to become more popular because “people are being more health conscious,” says assistant manager Mike Peitz.

“We buy local as much as we can to begin with, but organic is not necessarily local,” said Peitz.

Many organic wines come from California. Closer to home, producers in Clyde and surrounding communities also make a home hobby of distilling wine, but that may not give them the authority to market as “organic” or to distribute to a retail outlet like The Andersons.

“They (wines) come from all over,” Pietz said. “In order to become organic, first of all, it is important as to where (what state) they grow, to make the product that is being bottled, canned, or produced to be deemed organic.”

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