| A couple of years ago, I visited an organic vegetable | | | | from the way food is produced. Even for conscious |
| farm in southeast Minnesota, not far from the | | | | consumers who think about values other than |
| Mississippi River. Nestled in a valley that sloped down | | | | convenience and price -- avoiding pesticides, the |
| from rolling pasture and cropland sat Featherstone | | | | survival of small farms, artisan food, and, of course, the |
| Fruits and Vegetables, a 40-acre farm.Featherstone | | | | most basic values, freshness and taste -- choices |
| was part of a local food web in the upper Midwest, | | | | must be made. Should we avoid pesticides at all costs |
| selling at a farmers' market, through a CSA | | | | or help small local farmers who may use them? |
| (community supported agriculture) and to co-op stores | | | | Should we reduce food shipment miles, or buy food |
| in the Twin Cities. But the partners, Jack Hedin and | | | | produced in an ecologically sound manner regardless |
| Rhys Williams, who began in 1995, were having a | | | | of where it's grown? These questions arise because |
| tough time economically and realized they would have | | | | we want to do what's right.The problem, though, is that |
| to boost sales if they were to become viable. The | | | | these questions set up false choices. What Hedin and |
| farm earned about $22,000 a year -- split between the | | | | others showed me was that when it comes to doing |
| two partners -- so they had to take on debt to keep | | | | the right thing, what really mattered was thinking about |
| going; this, after a 60 to 70 hour work week.Hedin told | | | | the choice -- to be aware, to stay informed, and to be |
| me he made some calls and eventually landed a deal | | | | conscious of our role as consumers. But what you |
| with Whole Foods to supply the natural foods chain | | | | actually chose -- local or organic -- didn't really |
| with organic heirloom tomatoes. When I visited, they | | | | matter.Hedin, for example, was competing against |
| were in year two of the contract, picking the tomatoes | | | | farmers he actually knew on the West Coast, who |
| before their peak ripeness, then shipping them to | | | | also supplied organic produce to Whole Foods. I met |
| Chicago for stores in the Midwest. The deal had | | | | one, Tim Mueller of River Dog Farm, in the one-bar |
| become the biggest sales channel for their farm; while | | | | town of Guinda, California. His farm sold produce at |
| still "local," they were not as local as when they sold in | | | | the Berkeley Farmers Market about 90 minutes away, |
| their backyard.There was a lesson here, one that | | | | but he was also tied to wholesale markets. (I saw |
| often gets lost in the debate about which is better, | | | | River Dog's heirloom tomatoes in western |
| local or organic? Too often this is understood as a | | | | Massachusetts.) For these organic farmers, selling |
| zero sum game -- that the money you spend on | | | | wholesale was a foundation for economic |
| organic food at the supermarket will mean less for | | | | sustainability.Moreover, by expanding the organic |
| local farmers. After all, the food you buy is being | | | | market, we may be actually helping local farmers. The |
| shipped from who knows where and then often ends | | | | USDA surveyed farmers' markets and found that |
| up in a processed food product. I've heard the | | | | about a third of farmers selling direct were organic -- |
| argument that if all the money spent on organic food | | | | local and organic, that is. In comparison, just one |
| (around $14 billion) were actually channeled to local | | | | percent of all American farms practice organic |
| food, then a lot more small farms would survive and | | | | agriculture. So for smaller-scale farmers selling direct, |
| local food networks could expand. Well, Featherstone | | | | organic food has become a key component of their |
| was doing precisely the opposite: it had entered the | | | | identity. By bringing more people into the organic fold, |
| organic wholesale marketplace and then sent its | | | | through whatever gateway they happened to choose, |
| tomatoes hundreds of miles away to survive as a | | | | the pool of consumers considering local food would |
| small and, yes, local farm.As consumers, it's hard to | | | | likely increase too.That's at least what Jim Crawford, a |
| understand these realities since we're so divorced | | | | farmer from south central Pennsylvania believed. |