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News by Maureen McNamee Natural food store comes to aid of organic egg supplier Community Natural Foods has started a petition in support of its organic egg supplier, who has run afoul of the Alberta Egg Producers Board. Garrett Umpherson, director of marketing for the health food store on 10th Avenue S.W., says organic egg producer Rosemary Giberson of Poplar Bluff Farms in Strathmore received a letter from the board stating that she has 30 days to remove chickens that are in excess of the 300 she is licensed for. "She has approximately 600 hens on her farm and she absolutely feels that she doesn’t want to do that," he adds. Umpherson says the store already has more requests for eggs than it can accommodate, and questions why the board wants to intervene in organic egg production when 90 per cent of its business isn’t organic. "Right now the demand far exceeds the supply, so we’re very concerned that we could lose one of our largest suppliers. Plus we don’t feel that the marketing board understands organic practices." Community Natural Foods is lobbying Alberta Agriculture Minister Ty Lund to exempt organic producers from the egg board. The petition is available at the store, and so far 320 signatures of support have already been forwarded.

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