Visit date: January 27
The night starts out with a blind taste test of a variety of veggies (carrot, celery, lettuce, kale, orange, and wine thrown in for fun) grown conventionally and organically by small farms (rather than commercial organic). We gather around the big wooden table to discuss – organically grown veggies are, for the most part, deeper in color and the flavors more enhanced. Presented side by side like this, it's easy to say "buy and eat organic".
Through ninth grade biology, revisited tonight, we learn about the layers of the earth: top soil (rich in humus/minerals), sub soil (rich in minerals), rocks/fragments (little life), bedrock (no life). Organic farmers strive for the purist form of top soil which contains all the nutrients to create yummy veggies. (It is estimated that 1 inch of topsoil takes 100-500 years to grow!) Unaltered top soil is dark, almost black. The better the top soil, the more effective the nitrogen cycle for plant growth. Better top soil also means more effective photosynthesis to produce sugars which are then exchanged with other organisms in the soil. From an environmental perspective, good soil prevents run-off and erosion during rainy season. The soil retains nutrients so the water moves through the soil rather than taking dirt with it, creating muddy water.
When the "cides" (pesticides, herbicides, fungicides) are introduced in traditional farming, top soil is harmed. It starts with fertilizers to speed growth, sucking more than the necessary amount of nutrients out of the soil. Pests, which are attracted to abnormal things, invade the veggies because of their abnormal size. Now pesticides enter the equation to rid the pests. Weeds, an indicator or what's in the soil, start to grow to repair the damage caused by the overgrown veggies. Rather than respecting the weeds and what it has to tell farmers, farmers buy herbicide. And of course fungus starts to grow, introducing the need for fungicide. The cycle continues. And it can be said rather than making money off their land, they spend more money on these "cides", needing to farm more to make up for lost revenue, and again, the cycle continues.
So the story here, organic is the better way to go – more nutrients, better for the environment, less "cides". But why don't more Americans eat organic? Because in some twisted fate, the government has subsidized farming so much that crops sell for less than what it takes to produce them. This causes farmers to grow more, which inflates the market and drives prices down even further. So at the supermarket, conventionally grown veggies are cheaper than organic. Most Americans have a small sense of the benefits of organic, but unless they sit in a room like us and sample veggies side by side, their budgets just can't afford these high prices. Or, maybe they can, but the conventionally grown veggies taste just fine. (I'm guilty of this.)
On the other hand, we have "food deserts", areas where residents don't have access to fresh, affordable food. Subsistence is mainly off of fast foods and convenience foods, many of which are chemically created using some form of corn to provide calorie-dense foods. So here's to President Obama's Healthy Food Financing Intiative to reduce food deserts.
Check out the Food Environment Atlas for some more stats.
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