If you haven't been following the discussion under this post about Wal-Mart selling organic food, I recommend you catch up. It's quite insightful, with a range of views well-expressed.
One note of consensus seems to be this: "Organic," at least as denoted by the USDA label, falls well short of genuinely sustainable agriculture. Tom is better qualified than I to give a comprehensive description of the latter, but one important element is locality. Food that is grown, sold, and eaten within a single regional foodshed is closer to sustainable than organic mega-farms.
So, as a couple of people have suggested, perhaps one step in the right direction is a new label, to supplement "organic." This raises two questions:
- What label? What wording should be used?
- What standards? Food-miles traveled? Animal health? Soil regeneration? Something else? Opine in comments.
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Comments
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Ogranic George Posted 11:01 pm
15 May 2006
First if you had taken the time to read the OFPA and the Organic rule you would know that the word Organic is a protected word so "Beyond Organic" cannot be on the table. You do your readers a disservice even suggesting it.
Local has always been a part of Organics, which is why the Organic Trade Association made sure there was a certification exemption for small market gardeners. We also worked to get federal certification cost assistance, up to $500.00, for small Organic farmers who needed certification. That program is now in jeopardy so you may want to turn you energies to restoring that funding.
I would love to have a reasonable conversation about Organics with you or anyone else, all I ask is that you know the Organic rule. Then you can speak with some authority as opposed to blowing off steam
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Kif Scheuer Posted 1:46 am
16 May 2006
A "local" label is one step in the chain of
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Tom Philpott Posted 2:41 am
16 May 2006
You want us to believe that the "beyond organic" idea is the brainchild of "people, who did participate or spend any time working over the past 20 years to develop the Organic standards." But that's non-sense. I personally know at least a dozen old-school sustainable farmers who began growing in the '60s and early '70s who now more or less disdain USDA organic standards as too lax in the field and cumbersome with regard to paperwork. Some of them maintain the label anyway, some of them don't.
Below find a message from the pioneering Maine farmer Eliot Coleman, one of the most respected and successful old-school organic farmers working today. I find the word "authentic" too fraught; otherwise, Coleman seems on the mark to me--and to a growing number of growers and consumers:
The transition of "organic" from small farm to big time is now upon us. Although getting toxic chemicals out of agriculture is an improvement we can all applaud, it only removes the negatives. The positive focus, enhancing the biological quality of the food produced, is nowhere to be seen. The new standards are based on what not to do rather than what to do. They will be administered through the USDA, whose director said recently, "Organic food does not mean it is superior, safer, or more healthy than conventional food." Well, I still agree with the old time organic pioneers. I believe that properly grown food is superior, safer and healthier. I also believe national certification bureaucracies are only necessary when food is grown by strangers in far away places rather than by neighbors whom you know. I further believe good, fresh food, grown locally by committed growers is the very best to be found.
<bold>"Organic" is now dead as a meaningful synonym for the highest quality food.</bold> Responsible growers need to identify not only that our food is grown to higher, more considered standards, but also that it is much fresher because it is grown right where it is sold. Therefore, we have come up with a new term, one we define to mean locally grown and unprocessed, in addition to exceptional quality. It's a term we hope will be used, as "organic" was used when we began, by those local growers who accept that if you care first about the quality of what you produce, a market will always be there. We now sell our produce as "Authentic Food." We invite other serious growers to join us.
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kmp Posted 3:30 am
16 May 2006
I don't know about you all, but my weekends are pretty packed. One of the reasons that I care about the environment is because I like be outdoors - hiking, climbing, kayaking, biking.... in the words of Calvin & Hobbes "the days are just packed." My weekdays are similarly packed with, you know, working for a living, not to mention yoga, more climbing, soccer, dinner with friends, running... life, in general. I suspect I am like most people in that grocery shopping gets squeezed into all of that. While I am willing to work a little harder, travel a little further, and spend a bit more money on food that I believe is better for me, better for the Earth and better for my community - there is a limit.
Farmer's markets in my neck o' the woods are just starting to open (most open in June/July) and are open at less than optimal hours for a working girl; Tuesdays, 9:30-2:30pm, Saturdays, 10-2pm, and the like. Even my favorite market up in New Paltz I don't get to as often as I would like, because it is open from 9:30-5:30pm and we are often not down off the crags until dark (7 or 8pm).
My long-winded point is, if a store, like a Whole Foods, would just starting telling me where the food is from it would be wonderful. It doesn't have to be an "official" label even - a little dot on the map of the US, or "Tioga Valley, NY" or something. Without the information, it is very difficult for a consumer to make informed choices. Perhaps that little piece of information would prompt other consumers to start asking for "local" foods, or perhaps the store would then realize that putting up a "local" sign over the tomatoes from Long Island caused a marked increase in sales.
As for the organic label, it is what it is. You can say that the USDA stole it, perverted it, and it no longer retains the meaning it once had (and still has) for the pioneers of the organic movement. If that's what had to happen to move big Ag away from using chemical pesticides, I say so be it. Toss them the word and let's move on. So industrial organic is not what many of us think of when we think "organic;" - it is still a good thing that Earthbound Farms has kept a quarter of a million pounds of chemical fertilizer out of the soil. Do I think local, sustainable, organic (and tasty!) lettuce is better? Absolutely. Can I find it in the 45 minutes on a Tuesday night that I have to stock up on food for the next few days? Therein lies the rub.
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caniscandida Posted 8:28 am
16 May 2006
Here is something that appeared today by a journalist whom I greatly admire, Amanda Paulson, writing in the Christian Science Monitor, on the subject of "organic" standards being diluted:
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0517/p13s01-lifo.html
Lest I contaminate the strict scientific standards of David's poll, I must say I am surprised that "Sustainable," as of this writing, is coming in first. At best that is mighty unclear, at worst hopelessly dorky. I mean, you and I know what it means, sure; but as a label, do you honestly think that will work?
I agree with Kaela that "local" should be indicated wherever whenever. But it strikes me that each region is going to have to accomplish that, at least at first; it is hard to see how the Feds could be so organized at this point. There should be in place, if there are not already, consortiums between growers and grocers within every marketing region.
FYI, I voted for "small farm," having perhaps an unforgivably naive belief that small farmers retain a sense of dedication and integrity, and honest pride in what they send to market.
As for "Wicked Bitchin'," I can only observe that the boys'-locker-room tone of much of the writing in Grist has been the subject of disapproving comment already, and deservedly so.
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John Fish Kurmann Posted 9:57 am
16 May 2006
The world is sacred and I am sacred as part of it.
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John Fish Kurmann Posted 10:05 am
16 May 2006
Consequently, I cringe every time I see some variation on a claim of "sustainably grown" on a label. It simply won't stand up to scrutiny.
The world is sacred and I am sacred as part of it.
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kmp Posted 10:34 am
16 May 2006
We could call the new label "Herbie" and then define what Herbie means to us (aside from a VW Beetle, of course). Perhaps part of the issue is that "small farm" and "sustainable" and "local" have different meanings for everyone. But if we simply pick a word, any word, that does not already have significant context in the world of food - we could make it mean exactly what we want it to mean. Now I wish I could change my vote to "wicked bitchin'" although growing up in my hometown, you never heard that particular phrase without it's F-word modifier in the middle, so....
I just finished the Omnivore's Dilemma and I was sitting there wishing that someone - Michael Pollan or Joel Salatin or Tom or someone who's food opinions I would trust (someone other than lazy old me, of course) would just come to my neck of the woods and do all the food research and tell me which farms were good and which farms were bad and which could be better with a little prompting.... and I realized that in a perfect foodie world, all of that could be accomplished with [wait for it].... a label.
Kaela
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Rdurazno Posted 12:58 pm
16 May 2006
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atreyger Posted 1:40 pm
16 May 2006
But speaking of 'homegrown', what the hell happened to growing your own food? I'm not sure where our society went wrong, when we consider that to be a hassle and not a pleasure.
Peace
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mariposamaiden Posted 12:44 pm
16 Oct 2006
Yes, some of us in Canada are beginning to feel that "organic" has lost its meaning and vision, and are looking for an alternative method to identify the process of producing high quality nutritious food in a nurturing, low energy, sustainable manner... :)
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bookerly Posted 7:30 pm
16 Oct 2006
Do any of these proposed new labels include any standards for the treatment of farm workers?
patrick
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