Local Food: Organic or Chemical Free?

Chemical Free Corn, Photo by Pamela Kimsey

If you are a family who prefers clean food without chemicals, then you’ve probably sought out organic foods. This is great with the exception that the organic food you are likely to be eating has traveled across the countryside to get to your plate. What’s more is that it is most likely to have been imported from another country.

It’s not my intentions to say that organic food isn’t a healthier choice for consumption. What I am saying however, is that much of our high impact food system might need a little more understanding from a consumers standpoint.

A loaded statement perhaps, but the reason your food is traveling thousands of miles is small farmers are just about extinct in the organic market place. Or are they?

The truth is, since the USDA now owns the actual word “Organic” in the marketplace, small farms cannot sell their products as organic without the seal of approval from the United States government. In order to achieve this  stamp of approval requires mountains of paperwork and plenty of fees.

It seems to me that things are a little backwards these days. I for one cannot understand why the chemical users are not the ones required to fill out the mother load of paperwork. Shouldn’t that be, in order to  justify the harm they indict on both the human body as well as the planet?

How long before big ag completely eliminates small farmers? Perhaps we may be able to help keep some alive by simply finding out where they are. Getting to know your local farmer really goes a long ways. Frequenting the farmers markets is a great place to begin.

It is still perfectly legal for a farmer to say that their produce was grown Chemical Free, No Pesticides, No Herbicides, No Synthetics used. Everyone I’ve encountered have been quite eager to share this information. They are very proud of those facts and rightly so.

Local food once made up  strong and healthy communities across our great nation. One I personally desire for many future generations to come. May we all find a way to seek out our small local farmers.