On Wal-Mart and Organics

So what is wrong with Wal-Mart (or Whole Foods for that matter) selling organic foods? Doesn't that make organics available to everyone, everywhere? Isn't that a good thing? Well, it is not a bad thing, generally, except that it takes the focus off of a critical element in a more earth friendly food cycle; one that is more healthy for the consumer and farmer alike. And it forever divorces two concepts that have traditionally (to the extent one can use that word in this context) and historically (ditto) been one -- it takes the local element out of the organic food movement.

Make no mistake, I am not saying that organic food is not good, it is just not enough in and of itself. You see, local food is every bit as important, or should be, as that food is produced by organic methods. Local food is fresher and healthier. Varieties can be grown because they taste good, not because they ship well. Food can be harvested at the peak of ripeness, not weeks ahead of that schedule. And massive amounts of fossil fuel are not spent for the sake of delivering food around the country and even the world.

Everyone has local food. Every region of the country. True, some seasons are shorter than others, but here in Texas we can grow something ten months of the year.

So why don't more people eat locally? At why don't Wal-Mart (and even Whole Foods) carry more than say five percent local food? The answer is simple. People have become divorced from natural cycles. They have grown accustomed to eating the same things year round. To get grapes in mid-winter one has to look to Chile, with its seasons opposite our own. The same is true of almost everything we eat.

So, what must, or should, we do instead, at least in the minds of the contrary farmer? We should eat in a way that our grandparents ate. We should try a parsnip or (God forbid) even a turnip every once in a while, in Winter, when they are in season locally. We should gorge on strawberries in late Spring and early Summer; by the time they come around again we will really, really enjoy them. We should eat the abundance of squash, tomatoes, peppers, and yes, even okra and eggplant, during summer, when a huge variety is available and they taste like something (does anyone remember what a real tomato is supposed to taste like. And when it is cool, we should enjoy spinach, lettuces, cauliflower, and broccoli. Again, what grows out here on the farm (or any good farm or garden) looks and tastes nothing like what is at the store -- even at Whole Foods.

At some point, we will have no choice. Fuel prices will, at least for a time, make the current supply chain untenable. Shipping grapes across the world will no longer be feasible. Folks will be forced to eat locally. Had $4 a gallon gasoline persisted (and it ultimately will) we would have had to face this fact sooner rather than later.

Local, in short, is just as important as organic -- both are integral to a healthier food supply. And no one is bringing you local to any large extent except your friendly neighborhood farmer or gardener. For example, in Texas, that bastion of the tofu-heads (I mean that in a good way), Whole Foods, has one regional buyer who buys a grand total of five percent of the food the stores sell locally. So don't be deceived. Is an organic onion at Whole Foods or Wal-Mart better than that same store's non-organic onion? Maybe. I like to think so. Is it a substitute for an orangically grown onion grown here at home? Not by a long shot. And in the end, even if you don't care about the shipping, use of fuel, and freshness (which is hard to imagine, if you are reading this) what would you rather do? Who would you rather spend your money with? Would you rather buy your tomatoes (in endless, heirloom variety) from the contrary farmer in your county, and help him keep farming or, alternatively, would you rather pay Wal-Mart your dollar from some organic produce it ships country-wide, if not world wide, so that Wal-Mart can keep doing what it does? Do we want more farm entrepreneurs, or do we want even more corporate farmers and Wal-Marts? That is the ultimate question.

So visit your local farmer's market. You all have one. Visit ours on Thursday afternoon/evening in Fredericksburg, at the historic Marketplatz. Go early and go often. Do something good for you, and that farmer down the road trying to send his kid to college.