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Uncovering the Origins of Organics

Just last night, my friend mentioned a graphic she'd recently seen on the web, illustrating all the links between organic food producers and the larger, sometimes multi-national food companies that own them. Lo and behold, today's Well over at the New York Times has linked to it and creator Philip H. Howard's website at Michigan State University. The text in the movie isn't too easy to read, but Howard's website is full of illustrative graphics that promise to inform and surprise.

New York Times: When Big Business Eats Organic

Farming on the Y-Axis

On my way to class this afternoon, I was listening to an interview with Dr. Dickson Despommier, a professor at Columbia's Department of Environmental Health Sciences, on the Leonard Lopate show.  Despommier is doing work on vertical farming, an agricultural model for an increasingly populated world with increasingly limited resources.  From the abstract to the Vertical Farm Essay:

Over the next 50 years, the human population is expected to rise to at least 8.6 billion, requiring an additional 10⁹ hectares to feed them using current technologies. That quantity of farmland is no longer available. Thus, alternative strategies for obtaining an abundant and varied food supply without encroachment into the few remaining functional ecosystems must be seriously entertained. If traditional farming could be replaced by constructing urban food production centers - vertical farms - then a long-term benefit would be the gradual repair of many of the world’s damaged ecosystems through the systematic abandonment of farmland.

Some upsides to the initiative hold a lot of appeal (cutting down on fossil fuels, converting abandoned property) while others seem just a little far-fetched at this point (we can't go to the moon or to Mars until we know how to farm indoors on Earth), and, as with any innovation, it's probably not out of the question for some drawbacks to reveal themselves in time.  But on the whole I have to say I'm intrigued, and I'll be really curious to see if this or something like it comes to fruition in the coming years.

A Matter of Taste

Dan Barber, chef and co-owner of Blue Hill and Blue Hill at Stone Barns and the creative director of the Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture, wrote an incredible opinion piece in the New York Times Sunday magazine addressing the upcoming congressional revision of the Farm Bill.

This is a sweeping bill, omnibus in every sense... If you’re a chef or a home cook or someone who just likes to eat, it affects you, because it determines what you eat and how what you eat is grown.

And the food that we grow on 200 million acres of harvested cropland is inedible. Stand in the middle of our farm belt and you’ll see cornfields extending to the horizon, but the harvest won’t be dinner, not until it’s milled and processed into flours or starches, or used to fatten our animals on feedlots. Just four crops — corn, rice, soybeans and wheat — account for the vast majority of our harvested acreage. Not surprising, given that these same crops account for 70 percent of the total subsidies allotted to farmers.

No one wants farmers to suffer, especially chefs. But if we’re spending $20 billion or so a year on farm subsidies, we ought to invest in the foods we eat. And I mean eat, not process into something that resembles food.

If you have not read the entire piece, please do yourself the favor.  And then write your local representative.

Amber Fields of Bland (registration required)

Organic Shmorganic

On my way home from the gym today, I walked past my corner bodega and glimpsed something in the window that made my brain stop whatever it was doing (not much) and go whooooa.  Kellogg's ORGANIC Raisin Bran?! I could not believe my eyes.

Sure enough, shortly after launching Toasteds Organic Harvest Wheat Crackers in June of last year, Kellogg's came out with a line of organic versions of three of their more popular breakfast cereals.  If I wasn't convinced of the usurping of the word "organic" by Big Food before, this is pretty much the nail in the coffin.  As far as I can tell, the effort by Kellogg's was the result of Wal-Mart's decision to claim their piece of the organics market, and, as Melanie Warner said in the New York Times, "because of its size and power, Wal-Mart usually gets what it wants."

Yuck.

Mark Morford of the SF Gate almost perfectly sums up how I feel, if with a little more snark:

Did you know? Did you already understand the real definition? Because that's what "organic" was really supposed to mean, way back when: local, sustainable, ethical, connected to source, pesticide- and hormone-free. But the vast majority of organic product now flooding the market only gloms on to that last aspect (and sometimes, barely even that), to meet the USDA's impotent organic guidelines. Ah, government. There's just nothing like it to make you want to smack yourself in the skull with a brick.

SF Gate: The Sad Death of Organic
New York Times: Wal-Mart Eyes Organic Foods (registration required)

Something's Fishy

The New York Times ran a pretty good article last week about the debate over organic fish: Free or Farmed, When is a Fish Really Organic?

Good question. 

The debate settles largely on two things: carnivorous versus herbivorous fish and wild versus farmed fish.  The first issue is decidedly more clear-cut than the second (though it's all relative), since the USDA organic guidelines as they stand for land animals require that those animals are fed a strictly organic diet.  It's a bit cyclical, but basically a carnivorous fish can not be labeled organic if its feed -- other fish -- is not certified.

As for the second issue, the matter gets a bit more hairy.  Martin explains the divide between fishermen and those in the aquaculture industry over what should be considered organic in terms of the fishes' living conditions.  Aside from a brief mention of the opposition to aquaculture for its common side effect of water pollution, though, there is no discussion of extant pollution, which can have an enormous effect on the quality of seafood meant for human consumption.

To be fair, I was reading the seafood section of Marion Nestle's What to Eat when this article was published, so I think this absence was a bit more glaring to me.  The thing is, pollution seriously affects a lot of the fish Americans eat on a regular basis, including canned tuna, swordfish and the fish that's at the heart of this organic debate -- farmed salmon.  But since pollution affects both farmed and wild fish, how can anyone say one is more deserving of an organic label than the other?

This article highlights something that's been driving me absolutely crazy of late, and that's the hype around all things "organic."  Lobbies and regulations and marketing have given that word such a strict meaning that it's easy to lose sight of its purpose: to produce food that is both good for us and good for the earth it's raised on.  In my opinion, that goal is so much more important than any certification that, when it comes to seafood, it makes a lot more sense not to worry about "organic" and instead question the origins and environmental impact of the fish we want to eat.  Luckily, several organizations have worked to put out guides that do just this.  They rank fish according to health and environmental factors in order to make our seafood choices a little easier.  I picked one up at the conference at Princeton in November, and it fits nicely in my wallet.  I must say, it's come in quite handy.

If the USDA can find a way to effectively incorporate work like this into their organic guidelines for seafood, more power to them.  But until then, let's not stress over semantics.  If you're interested in keeping yourself safe or are concerned about the environment (or better yet, both), I'm certain that any one of these guides will prove helpful.

Oceans Alive project at the Environmental Defense
Seafood Watch from the Monterey Bay Aquarium
Seafood Choices Alliance

A Little About My Philosophy

So, this blog isn't about telling anyone else how to shop for, cook, or eat their food.  It's really just about the way I do those things and my hope that it in some way interests the six of you who read this thing.  That said, I thought I might explain where I'm coming from.  It'll at least make sense of why I used brown rice to make risotto.

There have been two developments within the last couple years of my life that have been significant enough to change the way I deal with food.  The first is having a roommate who began eating an entirely low-GI diet, and the second is reading Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma.

Rather than attempting to explain the glycemic index myself, the Wikipedia entry on the subject is pretty good.  When my roommate started on the diet, I realized that there wasn't much "diet" about it; it was really just common sense.  Eat your fruits and veggies and grains.  Don't eat refined sugar.  Don't eat enriched flour.  "Enriched" is misleading, anyhow; it's really just wheat flour that's been processed to the point of losing its nutrients, so some of them have to be added back in.   

Whether or not it's good for blood sugar levels, it's definitely good for the body.  Almost as soon as I started paying attention to these things, I leveled out.  There were no sugar highs or crashes.  The daily 4pm energy slump at work disappeared.  I honestly felt calmer.  And while I'm always willing to make exceptions where it's important to do so (you try saying no to my mom's cheese blintzes with orange cream sauce), it's not a bad way to eat.

So that's one.

The other is something best explained by simply recommending the book to you.  The Omnivore's Dilemma is an intense read.  Pollan explains the ramifications of eating meals at the end of four food chains: industrial, organic (both big organic and local organic/sustainable), and hunter-gatherer.  It's disturbing, fascinating, and entertaining all at the same time. 

The short version is that it's made me examine where my food comes from much more thoroughly.  Industrial food is not only environmentally unsound and inefficient (more calories go into producing it than end up feeding the people who eat it, and they come largely from fossil fuels), but it's also pretty gross.  Read the passages about Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations and how many ingredients are in a Chicken McNugget and you'll catch my drift. 

Thankfully those passages are followed later by Pollan's experiences working at Joel Salatin's Polyface Farm in Virginia and hunting and gathering an entire meal near his home in California.  Some of what he ends up doing to eat entirely from one food chain is either too unrealistic or unhealthy for daily life, but there is a lot to take away from each account.

So these things have combined to make up about 90% of my food choices.  It basically means that I'm doing a lot more shopping at farmer's markets; buying organic, especially if it's also local; trying to eat meat that comes from animals which have been given the chance to fulfill their biology (grass-fed beef, for instance); favoring whole grains over their processed counterparts; and generally eating fresher foods than I used to.

I realize that all of this leaves me with the vast potential to get holier-than-thou, but that's where I draw the line.  I won't ever go to a dinner party and refuse to eat the green beans because they didn't come from an organic farm in upstate New York.  I won't tell someone to stop eating their steak because it came from a cow that never got to graze in a meadow.  I just choose these things for myself because it makes me feel good, physically and otherwise.

And there you have it.  Approximately two parts information to one part self-indulgence.  Time to go see what I've got left in the fridge.

On Tomatoes

My love of the tomato blossomed relatively late in life.  I did that thing kids often do, swearing off the actual fruit (probably without even having tasted it) and only eating its most un-tomato-ey incarnations: ketchup, canned tomato soup, artificially sweetened pasta sauce. 

It wasn't until I was a sophomore in high school that I ate my first slice of raw tomato in earnest, in a turkey sandwich made for me by my friend's aunt on Long Island.  (It goes to show how momentous the experience was that I still remember it so vividly.) By the time my mother's landmark Summer of the Tomato came around, I was finally able to pop one in my mouth in its most naked state without so much as a wince. 

Since then, I've taken it upon myself to make up for lost time.  Thankfully, this season is off to a spectacular start. It began when I was home with my parents, with some startlingly sweet and juicy yellow gooseberry tomatoes from Walker's Roadside Stand in Little Compton, Rhode Island (261 West Main Road). 

(I will keep from saying more about Walker's now; it most assuredly deserves its own post.)

And just today I experienced what can only be described as tomato bliss, in the form of one Yellow Perfection (aptly named) and a handful of red grape tomatoes, all from a farm in upstate New York that I swear the man I spoke to said was called Standard Farm, though I've found no evidence of them online.  And we all know if it's not on the Internet, it must not exist.*

Anyway, the tomatoes needed very little adornment, but I took the liberty of dressing them up with a sprinkle of extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper, and some chopped Anise Hyssop that I got from Pumpkin's Organic Market (1302 8th Avenue, Brooklyn) this past week.  It's a member of the mint family, with a strong licorice scent but very subtle flavor--a very nice alternative to basil.

In hindsight, the tomatoes didn't need even those little additions, so I think I'll polish the rest off tomorrow in their natural state.

* August 21 update: After some investigating, I discovered that the farm is actually called Stannard Farm, and they are located in Johnsonville, NY.