Vegetables Are People, Too

"Vegetables Are People, Too"
The nuance of this long snappy title for my 2014 Growing Season Calendar is being revealed as we speak. I see it in CSA efforts all over the world."Vegetables Are People, Too" is in fact a love story to CSA farming. Robyn Van En, the originator of this model of agriculture in America, translated a term from the Japanese model "teikei" as food with a face. Vegetables are people.

What started all the efforts to put a face to farming? It came partially from a rise in industrial farming and the opening of global trade that pressures companies to source from all over the world. Florida grocery stores now sell oranges from Canada. Illinois stores sell tomatoes from Mexico even in the summer.  Documentaries like Food Inc. and others have spiked a concern over GMOs and the conditions under which food is produced: pesticides, labor conditions, animal conditions, etc. They are legitimate concerns, so that's why people have started to care. Where is my food coming from?

The CSA experience/relationship puts people back into the picture of food production by building community. This is done through events on and off the farm, emails, notes, photos, updates. Some CSA members will even come out to put an hour or two into harvesting or weeding. Not required!

CSA puts people back into the much larger picture, too. It is a voice saying "I want to have a meaningful attachment to food again. Before I buy a vegetable, I want to know if it was grown with synthetic, persistent pesticides. I want to know if my food has been bioengineered in a lab. I want to know the farm laborers are not slaves. If there's a huge pile of manure from a factory farm next to my cabbage, I want to know that, too, because I'd probably not want to buy it then."

You can certainly go to the store and find cheaper produce. Plenty of multinational corporations will be happy to accommodate you. I go there in the winter on my way home from my off-farm job and I'm super hungry for a piece of cheese or something. Ideally, I'd have sourced that cheese from an ethically sound place, but sometimes you need a piece of cheese when you need a piece of cheese.

No one has to become a monk when they join a CSA farm, but you will naturally--by default--become more respectful and more connected to the whole picture which everyone--by default--is a part of anyway.  Farmers grow, you eat.

Two Words: Organic and Sustainable

“I love organics.”

I hear this from people a lot, mostly after I tell them I have an organic vegetable farm.  But what does loving “organics” mean to people? 

In February, I tackled this subject in a presentation to a monthly Green Drinks group, a network of people in the area that care about the environment and all things “green.”

The way I broached the subject was to ask the audience to consider what part of “organics” resonates with them.  Then I broke it all down:

"Organic"

No synthetic chemicals and no GMOs.

Why should we care about the use of synthetic chemicals? Pesticides have been around since WWII and were invented alongside chemical warfare. Since their relatively new introduction into the world, pesticides have been scientifically linked to problems with many body systems: reproductive, endocrine and immune. And, frighteningly, pesticides have also been linked to cancer. The most heart-palpitating, gripping seminar I’ve ever attended was by a scientist in this field of study.  He said that small doses of pesticides from residue on food and in our water have a real impact across generations because pesticides cause gene mutations.  A user-friendly website that you can go to learn more is here: http://www.sustainabletable.org and then follow links to Food and Industrial Agriculture Impacts. Or peruse as you wish.

USDA Organic Certifiers mostly care 

about what farmers do NOT do,

  but most small organic farmers think of their farm as an ecologically integrated system in which

what we DO do is just as important. 

That brings us to another word, “sustainable.”

“Sustainability”

      Sustainability results in a positive environmental impact.  It is “organic” seen as a long-term agricultural system. Sustainable farmers consider the future of our food, soil, water, air, ecologies, communities and even our own human genetic makeup.  Sustainability includes how a farm’s scale impacts these things plus the local economy and farmer autonomy.

From a sustainability standpoint, pesticides and chemical fertilizers are bad for many reasons.  For one, chemical fertilizers are required in vast amounts; they are expensive and most of them come from non-renewable sources. Pesticides have harmful environmental impacts, too, including pest resistance, loss of biodiversity (like bees!), soil contamination and pollution.

Buying “organic” with the USDA label from the store is great.  Buying direct from a small farmer who is committed to the system and the long-term sustainability of organic agriculture is even better!

All the things "sustainable" farmers do:

We rotate crops to manage pests and fertility way into the future (indefinitely!).

We build our soils with green manure crops and compost alive with healthful microbes.

We integrate natural ecological happenings such as beneficial insects.

We use diversity to manage natural risks and weather.

We monitor plant health closely, keeping them less susceptible to pests and disease and more delicious to humans.