When I first sold my
family’s vegetables at farmers’ markets in 1980, Slow
Food hadn’t been born, and the phrase “local foods” was not
yet in the lingo.
The word “organic,” however, was in
vogue, and our customers always asked you the same question: Are
you organic? Nine years old and barefoot, I tried not to appear
flummoxed. I stumbled over answers, most of them beginning, “No,
but…”
These replies failed to satisfy. People
wanted to know in a phrase whether our food was clean and safe.
I’m still grateful to the customer who said, “Explain how you
do farm.” Soon, our signs read “No Pesticides” or “Our Chickens Run
Free on Grass.”
We lived in a rural area of Virginia and
had always used ecological methods, like mulching to keep weeds
down, but we also used chemicals on a few crops. By the early
1990s, we gave up all those poisons. But we never sought organic
certification, even as organic foods, with sales growing 20 percent
a year, became the hottest niche is the $500 billion food market.
The truth is that we didn’t need an organic label.
Customers trusted our signs, and sales were brisk. In 2002, when
the Department of Agriculture’s National Organic Program
established federal organic standards, amid dire predictions that
small farmers would lose market share to organic behemoths, the
effect on my family’s farm and income was — zilch. The
organic rules are irrelevant to farmers like us who sell to chefs,
shops and consumers — and who can talk to buyers directly.
Don’t get me wrong. The organic standards —
which ban synthetic fertilizer, antibiotics, hormones, pesticides,
genetically engineered ingredients and irradiation — are good
for farming, the environment and public health. The organic seal is
vitally important in shops, where the consumer is several steps
removed from the farmer. “Organic” is a legal guarantee that food
meets certain standards.
That’s why it is a shame
that the Organic Trade Association — a food-industry group
whose members include such giants as Kraft, Dean Foods and General
Mills, which own national organic brands — is seeking to
dilute the organic standards.
If Big Organic gets its
way, xanthan gum (an artificial thickener), ammonium bicarbonate (a
synthetic leavening agent), and ethylene (a chemical to ripen
tomatoes and other fruit) will be permitted in products labeled
organic, despite a court ruling last June, that said they are not
acceptable.
Whatever the outcome of that fight, consumers
should look beyond the organic label and seek out products that
exceed the organic rules. For example, most organic cattle are fed
grain, but even organic grain is the wrong diet for ruminants.
What’s natural for cows to eat is grass.
Beef, lamb
and dairy products from grass-fed animals are more nutritious than
grain-fed versions, with more vitamin E, omega-3 fats and
conjugated linoleic acid, a fat that fights obesity, cancer and
heart disease. I seldom look for the organic label on beef and
butter. “Grass fed” means a lot more.
Unfortunately, the
organic rules are all but silent on the importance of grass to
animal and human health. Fresh green pasture is good for pigs and
poultry, too, but it’s quite possible that the organic bacon
or turkey burgers in your refrigerator came from animals that never
left the barn.
If the organic label loses its meaning,
farmers with higher standards will have to devise new ones. The
next generation of labels will say “grass fed” butter and
“pastured” pork. These foods — and others raised with
ecological and humane methods — are superior to industrial
organic foods. The Agriculture Department may never tell you that,
but smart farmers will.
Nina Planck is a
contributor to Writers on the Range, a service of High
Country News (hcn.org)in Paonia, Colorado. She is the
author of The Farmers’ Market Cookbook and
the soon to be published, Real Food: What to Eat and
Why. She lives in New York
City.
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