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Posted 18 June 2007. Crop Management.


Nature's Avenger Organic Herbicide Gets OMRI (Organic Materials Review Institute) Listing


Cutting Edge Formulations.


Buford, Georgia (May 15, 2007)--Cutting Edge Formulations, the manufacturer of Nature's Avenger™ Organic Herbicide for the consumer market and GreenMatch™O for the agricultural market, announced today they received official notification that Nature’s Avenger Organic Concentrate and Ready-to-Use (RTU) and GreenMatch O Herbicides are now listed by the Organic Materials Review Institute (OMRI).

For those not familiar with OMRI, the organic community recognizes OMRI clearance of products for use in organic farming and gardening. OMRI is a national nonprofit organization that determines which products are allowed for use in organic production and processing. OMRI Listed—or approved—products may be used on certified organic farms.

"This is the last big hurdle for Nature's Avenger Organic and GreenMatch O Herbicides to be able to be sold to and used by the organic community," said Joe Jankauskas, CEO of Cutting Edge Formulations. "Most in the organic gardening and growing community will only use products that have passed the extensive review of OMRI and are shown to be OMRI Listed."

"Currently, weed control for organic gardeners and growers is primarily accomplished with mechanical tillage and hand labor, which is very expensive. The availability of an effective, easy-to-use, and cost-effective organic herbicide to control weeds will revolutionize how the organic community and "Green" conscience consumers manage their weeds. And it even smells nice – a huge bonus, relayed by some our customers."

In the Organic Farming Market, a 2005 report on the value of herbicides, the Crop Protection Research Institute cites the lack of an effective herbicide “as the single largest obstacle that organic growers encounter.” The following quotation, from one of the largest organic producers in North America, underscores the expense of having no organic herbicides in organic agricultural production:

Controlling weeds without herbicides takes a lot of time and is very costly for us. We do all our weeding by tractor or by hand, which is very labor intensive. Conventional farmers spend only about $50 an acre on herbicides that knock out every weed in sight. Organic farmers may have to spend up to $1,000 an acre to keep weeds under control.

Nature's Avenger Organic was registered by the EPA in August 2006 and received clearance for use in organic production under the USDA National Organic Program. In January 2007, organic clearance from the Washington State Department of Agriculture’s Organic Food Program was obtained.

Nature's Avenger Organic and GreenMatch O Herbicides are non-selective, post-emergent weed killers based on citrus oil and are highly effective, environmentally friendly alternatives in weed control. Extensive testing has proven that these products outperform organic or "natural" herbicides currently on the market and Nature’s Avenger Organic is just as effective but faster acting than the leading synthetic herbicides.

Nature’s Avenger Organic Herbicide is distributed by various lawn and garden distributors across the U.S. while GreenMatch O is licensed to Marrone Organic Innovations and distributed by Monterey Ag Resources in OR, WA, ID, UT, NV, AZ and HI. Registration is pending for all products in CA.