To Be Organic by kristin

Listening to the recent controversy surrounding an NPR story about organics, I was amazed that the “scientific findings” in this particular study seemed to refute the idea that buying organic produce makes a difference to health.  And this in spite of a nationwide movement of people who are increasingly choosing farmer’s markets and locally grown organic produce (an even more important distinction, buying local, I think). On a personal level, I definitely notice the vitality of organic foods. In our salad bar, some of the greens are shipped from San Francisco and some are grown right here in Fort Bragg. The local ones look, taste, and feel much “brighter” and healthier. Nearly everyone knows that food picked right out of the garden has more nutritional value than vegetables that have been stored in your refrigerator for a long time. The proof of the pudding is in the eating, I say. Finally, when the United States is coming around to what Europe has realized for decades – that selecting produce grown on small farms, or growing your own with traditional farming methods does make a difference, a respected media outlet like NPR tries to tell us differently. The good news is that the public reaction and comments on the story were largely organic positive, which makes an immense amount of sense. The public is not going to be hornswoggled at this point in time. Sometimes its hard to believe that The Silent Spring by Rachel Carson came out almost exactly 50 years ago, in September 1962. Wake up scientists! You’ve been asleep almost as long as Rip Van Winkle. We all need to wake up to the fact that every choice we make that has to do with organics and supporting sustainable farming in our communities really counts. Whatever decisions we make about these issues will affect future generations and the planet for a long time to come. Which is one of the reasons I’m glad that serving organic food in our school and in our cafe has been Living Light policy from the beginning.