By: Kurt Dramm
Organic food purchases now exceed $50 billion dollars. In 2010, organic food sales totaled almost 23 billion. Each year, organic food demand increases at an increase of 5% to 12%, with an average of 9% increase per year.* This demand has been driven by women and men shopping for clean, healthy, local food for their families.
The Covid-19 pandemic has forced families to stay at home with the advent of consumers starting “victory gardens” to produce a portion of their healthy food. To produce the healthiest, best tasting, safest vegetables and fruit they need to be using fertilizer, soil amendments, and safe insect and disease control. The above inputs are produced under the guidelines of the National Organic Program from the USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) and can be located by looking for the seal, “OMRI” (Organic Material Review Institute), located on the labels. Only food can be called organic! Inputs can only be listed as being produced under the guidelines of the National Organic Program.
Many of the OMRI listed fertilizers are produced using fish scrap. Remember your grade school history lessons – the pilgrims learned to grow great corn by following the example of local Native Americans who always placed a fish with each corn seed.
Fish fertilizers are composed of 18 amino acids, enzymes, vitamins, and nutrients, which when applied to the soil and plants, feed the plants along with increasing the biology of the soil. A biological soil is a living soil with billions of microorganisms and earthworms. It’s a must for healthy vegetables and fruits.
Fish fertilizers are produced using fish scrap from fishermen and fish processors. There are a number of companies that produce fish fertilizers. There are 2 or 3 on the East coast, 2 in the midwest, and 2 or 3 on the West coast. Dramm Corporation (Drammatic® Brand), is one of the largest producers.
*Statistics from news release of the National Organic Trade Association*