Photo: Bill Everitt

Certified organic products are part of an exclusive club, and they should be.

That's the position of the BC Association of Farmers Markets in response to the recent announcement that the Ministry of Agriculture will be bringing in new regulations for farmers claiming to be organic.

Jon Bell, president of the BCAFM said the new rules back up their own policy from last fall.

"We're quite happy that the government is going in that direction," he said. "If a vendor at a farmers market uses a sign saying 'certified organic,' then they need to have some paper backing that up and that's a third party certification. That's what all organic growers have."

With any of the other words such as 'unsprayed' or 'pesticide free' there's no guarantee consumers are getting what they pay for, said Bell.

Producers who have paid for the third party inspection are adding costs to their process and charge a premium for their products. The new rules will serve to differentiate them from other growers who are not going through that process, but are still charging more.

"We're quite happy that there is transparency in the marketplace, that's really what it comes down to," he said.  

Gord Forbes, owner at the certified organic Forbes Family Farm in Oliver, said he is happy with the rules as well. 

"I'm not too worried about pesticide free or spray free - the process is quite costly and time consuming, so fair enough," he said. "But if you're using 'Certified Organic,' I think it should be maintained as a standard."

Forbes said his farm has been organic for more than 20 years and he thinks it would be useful to have a website that showed everyone who was certified organic to increase transparency for consumers.

"I see it quite often at farmers markets, (growers) even call themselves organic and yet I know they're spraying herbicides or using chemical fertilizers," he said. "It's just too confusing for consumers to try and hunt through and see who is what."

Shelby Phipps was shopping at Old Town Farm Market in Penticton Thursday evening. She said she avoids buying organic foods because she doesn't believe all the labels.

"I live near an orchard which says it's organic, but I see them spraying all the time," she said. Phipps added if there were stricter rules, she might be more inclined to shop organic.

An Old Town Farm Market employee said they try to focus more on farmer-grown produce than necessarily organic produce because it can be hard to tell if imported foods are actually organic.

One shopper at Superstore who declined to give her name said she doesn't usually buy organic because of the higher price. 

"I'm an old lady, I have to weigh the difference between cost and how much better the food actually is," she said.