Animal, Vegetable, Miracle_ A Year of Food Life - Barbara Kingsolver [63]
Because organic farming is labor-intensive, holding prices down has even led some large-scale organic growers into direct conflict with OSHA and the United Farm Workers. Just over half of U.S. farm workers are undocumented, and all are unlikely to earn more than minimum wage. Those employed by industrial-scale organic farms are spared direct contact with pesticides in their work, at least, but often live with their families in work-camp towns where pesticide drift is as common as poverty.
The original stated purpose of organic agriculture was not just to protect the quality of food products, but also to safeguard farm environments and communities through diversified, biologically natural practices that remain healthy over time. This was outlined by J. I. Rodale, Sir Albert Howard, Lady Eve Balfour, and all other significant contributors to the theory and practice of modern organic agriculture. Implicitly, these are values that many consumers still think they’re supporting with their purchase of organic products. Increasingly, small-scale food farmers like Amy feel corporate organics may be betraying that confidence, extracting too much in the short term from their biotic and human communities, stealing the heart of a movement.
The best and only defense, for both growers and the consumers who care, is a commitment to more local food economies. It may not be possible to prevent the corruption of codified organic standards when they are so broadly applied. A process as complex as sustainable agriculture can’t be fully mandated or controlled; the government might as well try to legislate happy marriage. Corporate growers, if their only motive is profit, will find ways to follow the letter of organic regulations while violating their spirit.
But “locally grown” is a denomination whose meaning is incorruptible. Sparing the transportation fuel, packaging, and unhealthy additives is a compelling part of the story, but the plot goes well beyond that. Local food is a handshake deal in a community gathering place. It involves farmers with first names, who show up week after week. It means an open-door policy on the fields, where neighborhood buyers are welcome to come have a look, and pick their food from the vine. Local is farmers growing trust.
9 • SIX IMPOSSIBLE THINGS BEFORE BREAKFAST
Late June
When I was in college, living two states away from my family, I studied the map one weekend and found a different route home from the one we usually traveled. I drove back to Kentucky the new way, which did turn out to be faster. During my visit I made sure all my relatives heard about the navigational brilliance that saved me thirty-seven minutes.
“Thirty-seven,” my grandfather mused. “And here you just used up fifteen of them telling all about it. What’s your plan for the other twenty-two?”
Good question. I’m still stumped for an answer, whenever the religion of time-saving pushes me to zip through a meal or a chore, rushing everybody out the door to the next point on a schedule. All that hurry can blur the truth that life is a zero-sum equation. Every minute I save will get used on something else, possibly no more sublime than staring at the newel post trying to remember what I just ran upstairs for. On the other hand, attending to the task in front of me—even a quotidian chore—might make it into part of a good day, rather than just a rock in the road to