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Keeping it Growing |
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Keep it Growing: Beyond organicby Jesse Dutton Miller Everyone knows that if a piece of food says Organic on it then it's the best piece of food that you can buy. You don't need to think any further about where it came from, just toss it in the shopping cart and head on over to the cheese cooler.... Ha ha ha, just kidding, folks. While Organic certification lets you know that your food was grown without certain chemicals, it doesn't mean that your food is necessarily grown in an ecological or sustainable manner. Food labeled organic is often grown on corporate monoculture farms with very little love for the land or for the employees. Treating workers well is part of sustainability, just like taking good care of the land. It's also important to consider that there are some small farmers who use rather sustainable practices but can't afford to get certified as organic, or don't want to addhere to some of the strict rules. (For example, egg-cartons can't be reused to sell certified organic eggs.) It's not a good idea to write off local farmers who aren't organic automatically; if you're concerned about their practices you can talk to them. To me, it's sometimes worth eating local food that has had selected chemicals used in on it (some pesticides biodegrade in as little as 12 hours), rather than getting an organic item trucked in from a monoculture farm a thousand miles away. Organic standards, laws describing specific practices that must be followed or avoided for a farm to be allowed to call itself Organic, were developed when NAFTA was ratified so that there would be standards for the increasing international Organic trade. Organic standards are a good idea, but in practice they're not perfect, especially for small operations. Here's an example: This winter I worked at a permaculture date farm in southern California that used no chemicals anywhere on the property. (Did you know that dates grow on palm trees?) The owner Robert Lower considers himself the “most organic” farmer in California, and possibly the West coast, and offers $1000 to anyone who can prove to be running a “more organic” farm. (If you'd like to challenge him, I can hook you up with him.) Robert chose to give up certified organic status in 1990 because of his disagreements with new organic standards. According to Robert, the California Certified Organic Farmers (CCOF), the oldest third-party organic certifying agency in the state, influenced the development of both state and federal organic standards. CCOF raised issues, which Robert calls “smoke screens,” such as the use of raw sewage as fertilizer, genetically-modified seeds, and irradiated food to distract from some of the chemical uses that were included in their proposed standards. Robert objects to the permitment of sulfur storage, which means introduction of SO2 gas into the storage area to help preserve food; he also objects to the use of chemical growth regulators such as gibralic acid. Growth regulators make plants grow faster and hold a longer shelf-life but detract from the flavor and overall quality, Robert says. They're commonly used on grapes, and Robert had trouble competing with other “Organic” farmers who used these chemicals. Besides the fact that organic regulations permit some rather dubious chemicals, they also don't address some of the greater issues of sustainable farming. When I say sustainable, I mean it quite literally--growing food in such a way that can continue for a long time. This means taking care of the land so fields will still be fertile for generations. It's easier to do this when the farm is viewed as a living ecosystem, connected with neighboring landscapes and their wildlife, rather than as a food factory. People who do sustainable agriculture consider their system inputs and outputs; where do materials and seeds come into the farm from and where do products and wastes go? Generally it's good to keep as many resources on-site as possible; when waste vegetation is composted on-site and not removed, the nutrients will return to the local soil. Keeping resources local also reduces petroleum use. Seed saving is another important topic in sustainability which I'll discuss more in the future. If you'd like Until next time, happy gardening, friends. If you haven't planted yet, go get dirty. It's not too late to get your garden growing. Jesse Emerson Sequoia Sempervirons Dutton Miller is a senior enrolled in the Practice of Sustainable Agriculture. He works at the campus childrens' center. Please send feedback to zapatilla@riseup.net.
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The Center for Ecological Learning and Living Evergreen Organic FarmLocation:2712 Lewis Rd, Olympia, WA 98505 Phone: (360) 867-6160 Organic Farm Manager: Melissa Barker Academic Faculty Contact: Martha Rosemeyer Farm Caretakers: Community Gardens Coordinator:
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