A recent court order has required Olera Farms to comply with all British Columbia Egg Marketing Board rules and regulations. It has been a long and draining fight to try and maintain independence for the organic movement. Olera Farms devoted all its resources to this fight and it has personally drained me financially and emotionally. We did so many things throughout the fight. A petition of support for an independent organic industry raised 7000 signatures in 2 months. A letter writing campaign to the Ministry of Agriculture resulted in over 60 communications a day. I thank the consumer support for both these initiatives but at the end of each we were mandated to talk with the marketing boards and no change resulted. I cannot think of what more Olera Farms and those that supported us could have done. Thank you once again.Sadly I must announce the immediate closure of the certified organic egg grading business of Olera Farms. I will maintain the sale of frozen raspberries and vegetables and hope to be able to continue with organic production on our farm. I regret the loss of chickens ranging freely in my raspberries and await the full force of the egg board as they send in auditors from Deloitte and Touch to assess the full penalty I must pay for daring to develop a form of production that has hens eating healthy food and ranging freely. This same egg industry is presently resisting the pressure from consumer groups to increase the space given to caged layers from 43 square inches to 67 square inches. The paper this letter is written on is 93.5 square inches.
Effective immediately (November 1, 2003) Olera Farms will not be purchasing or selling organic eggs. I am sorry for the inconvenience to my customers; however, I just cannot carry on.
In spite of my inability to carry on with supplying organic eggs the issues leading to this situation remain very important to me. The laws allowing conventional agriculture to control the production of certified organic products or any other small scale niche market must be changed so that those that develop and serve these markets can not be put out of business as I have. Please write your MLA or the premiere on this matter.
Yours truly,
A. L. (Fred) Reid
