To Be or Not To Be, Organic

Version:1.0 StartHTML:0000000179 EndHTML:0000011647 StartFragment:0000002650 EndFragment:0000011611 SourceURL:file:///Macintosh%20HD/Users/erinmercier/Desktop/Farm_Tour.doc

Last Saturday I was pleased to accompany Elise to an event sponsored by CAGJ (Community Alliance for Global Justice) As described by there website

“Our visit to Carnation, WA will begin at Local Roots for a farm tour, and then continue down the road for a work party at Jubilee Farm! Both farm stops will offer opportunities to talk with the farmer and ask questions!”

Obviously this was a great opportunity for us. First stop Local Roots Farm this is a small farm (about 5 acres) and a big inspiration. About 3 years ago Jason was recently married living in a small apartment in capitol hill and having recently passed the BAR exam was a high paid and very unhappy lawyer. His wife on the other hand was interning on a farm and would come home singing. She was only interning for a few months before the land owner (whose name I have regrettable forgotten) noticed her enthusiasm as well as his, shall we say, ripening age and offered the sweet hearts a proposition. Jason quit his job and they split the land three ways all of them now having equal ownership and equal responsibilities. I was impressed by the amount and variety of food that came off of this small farm.

I asked Farmer Jason where he sells his food and to my delight he said to many local restaurants, the Madison Market , CSA partners and a variety of farmers markets. I then asked if his produce would be at the Ballard Sunday Farmers market, as I knew I would, and he said no. “But why not” I replied, this unfortunately opened a can of worms I was not prepared for. I believe the reason he gave was something to the extent that the Ballard farmers market and, the vendors there in, are allowed to participate by the vote of one person. Obviously disgruntled he began opening my eyes to the fairness of this as well as the fact that many of the vendors are retail and not even local retail at that. I have been stewing on this for a while and I understand that from a marketing standpoint it makes sense to appeal to all the yuppie condo dwellers that have been destroying the Ballards vibe for some time. I also know that I am an avid supporter of a non food booth at the market, when the rainy season sets in I usually buy a candle a week from ascents candle. So I am torn but I do lean toward the side of farmer Jason who says farmers markets should be for farmers.

A bit later in the tour we began talking about organic certification, and it turns out that Local Roots farms is not certified as organic, it also turns out that the regulations on organic certification are buried in bureaucracy and loop holes that I am only begging to understand. Thankfully Russ Parsons of the LA times does a pretty good job of describing some of the issues here: http://www.latimes.com/features/food/la-fo-calcook1-2009jul01,0,2885942.story So fine organic is all jaded by the media and the money so what do I look for in food now? Well one option is to be CNG (Certified Naturally Grown) as their website states

“Farmers created Certified Naturally Grown to provide an alternative way to assure their customers that they observed strict growing practices. CNG strives to strengthen the organic movement by removing financial barriers to certification that tend to exclude smaller direct-market farms, while preserving high standards for natural production methods.”

Another thing to keep your eye out for is to be Salmon Safe and as their website explains,

“Almost a decade after we first started certifying fish friendly farms in Oregon's Willamette Valley, Salmon-Safe has become one of the nation's leading regional eco labels with more than 50,000 acres of farm and urban lands certified. The Salmon-Safe retail campaign has been featured in 200 supermarkets and natural food stores.

Salmon-Safe is an independent 501(c)3 nonprofit devoted to restoring agricultural and urban watersheds so that salmon can spawn and thrive. We're based in Portland, Oregon."

FYI Local Roots is certified as both Salmon Safe and CNG but to be clear, not organic, are you still with me?

Great, now its time to move on to our next farm this was less chat more dig. We harvested potatoes, I loved it! Again I was impressed by the amount of food we harvested just one strip of land and it gave us about 5 or 6 huge bags, three cheers for mother nature.

The big lesson I took away from Jubilee was Farmer Eric’s (a philosophy teacher turned farmer) method of sharing. At Local roots they had 5 interns that basically were in it for the experience and making about 200 dollars a month working 6 days a week in 12 hour shifts, this is not very sustainable. However Jubilee had a lovely solution members would donate 4 hours weekly to the farm and be given weekly large shares of food in return. Farmer Eric said he has about 80 people on work share, that’s a lot of weeding! Of course this can only work on a larger farm that have that much extra food to give to workers but either way it left me optimistic, as I hope it did you.

A (food) chain of problems

In watching an interview with Bill Moyers following the 2008 Presidential election, it was quite apparent that author Michael Pollan feels that the state of the U.S. food industry should be a central focus for President Obama when attempting to create change in our country. This was another reminder for me in how massive this issue of food safety is. While the problems might start at the top, they definitely infiltrate across every mouth in the nation.

Within the brief 20 minute interview, the many issues with food in our country were discussed, proving that the way food is managed by our government and the few major companies involved, affects each and every individual. Because of the decisions being made in agribusiness there are now 32 million Americans who are struggling to put food on their tables. Unfortunately, a lack of food is not the only problem. The decreasing quality of the food we eat is equally detrimental to society.

The sad fact is that although cheap food is readily available in our country, according to Pollan, it is actually extremely expensive. The costs of cheap food include farm subsidies, pollution effects and quality of water, all of which lead to public health consequences of obesity, Type 2 diabetes and heart disease. Pollan includes costs to the atmosphere in this list, deeming agribusiness as the biggest contributor to green house gases. It seems that every way we turn, change is desperately needed.

Through this interview, Pollan urges Obama to look at the problems with the food industry through a global perspective that is interdisciplinary in nature. Without doing so, Pollan believes that he will be missing an opportunity to look at what is possibly the most important question, how do all of these dots connect?

An eye-opening and mouth watering inquiry

As we embark on our summer of studying the local food movement in Seattle, I have become more conscious of the role that food has in my life. Besides the basic nourishment factor, my life truly does revolve around food. Growing up and still today, my family plans their days, especially holidays, around what we are going to eat together. Every Sunday my parents spend the entire day cooking spaghetti sauce on a brick on their stove and on special occasions, such as every Christmas Eve dinner, they accompany the sauce with homemade raviolis. Each year before the holiday season, I start to dream of ravioli and when the day arrives to start the dough and meat rolling process, I finally feel that twinge of holiday spirit.

As I read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver, I am recognizing how even though food has always been a central part of my life, it has been there in a somewhat superficial or incomplete manner. I have never been aware, or actually really thought about, where my food was coming from. Although the food we ate was bought from the grocery store chain around the corner, I was always under the impression that what we ate as a family was healthy and even, “pure” because the meals were homemade instead of a frozen meal from Market Day. Because cooking is a large part of my family’s culture, the act of being together while you create a meal was what always stuck out as important but the rest of the story went untold.

In reading this book which accounts for a year in the lives of a family who vows to buy only food raised in their own neighborhood, grow it themselves or learn to live without it, my notions of the sanctity of food and the connections it can build between family and community are being transformed. The act of cooking is without a doubt significant to the author’s family and their local food journey, but it is taken to a new level since there is a story, and even a relationship, between the family and each and every tomato chopped, egg boiled and Thanksgiving turkey carved. Through this inquiry project, I am coming to learn quickly that I have been missing the most important chunk of the story of food and it feels embarrassing, intriguing and overwhelming. I’m watching myself read each chapter of this book with increased admiration to the farmers whose livelihood it is to keep us fed and a new found concern as to what corporations are controlling one of our most basic human needs.