Isn’t “organic” one of those words that seem way, way overused, especially by those who don’t know what it means, along with other hip terms like “gluten free”, “non-GMO”, and “carbon-neutral”? Back when I was a farmers’ market manager in Ft. Myers, I had countless potential vendors make their pitch to me using those terms. The products they wanted to bring to market? Nail treatments, energy bracelets Made in China, yoga mats. Needless to say, I turned them down. Overused and all, organic means something, and those other terms mean something as well – often, not what those using them think, but something nevertheless. That’s why it’s useful, when having a conversation about these issues, to clarify our understanding of them right at the beginning. Technically, you can call a chicken raised in a factory-industrial operation an “organic” chicken if you’ve fed it OMRI certified feed and used certain medications instead of others. However, the chicken lives pretty much the same miserable life as his non-organic cousins a mile down the road: never sees the sun, is restricted in his movements, has its beak clipped, is grown fast in overcrowded, fetid warehouses. Only difference is a higher quality of feed. There’s many examples like this. Organic produce from California or Immokalee, FL, grown by almost-slave labor, the vast dark pool of the undocumented, who have no rights and can’t complain, using the same soil-destroying methods of conventional agriculture, only with different brands and certifications for their weedkillers, plastic mulches, fertilizers and pesticides; the produce is then hauled thousands of miles in refrigerated trucks consuming oceans of diesel. So, everyone has their own definition of “organic”. Ours is something like “nurture the Earth first, often and always, if you expect a wholesome harvest. Never let the short-term goal of a harvest make you lose sight of the reason you’re here in the first place: to give back, nurture, understand, cultivate the Earth and her myriad ecosystems, so she keeps giving back year after year, even long after you’re dead. Not just one harvest, but many.” Of course we stick to organic best practices, nurture permaculture plots, incorporate pollinators and improve soils, do a lot of work by hand instead of relying on chemicals (certified organic or not). Overall the food we produce has a better claim to the label “organic” that many products you’ll find on supermarket shelves, each with its (very expensive) certification. We don’t have the resources to maintain staff in order to deal with organic inspections and certifications. Not that we haven’t done it in the past: as grower and consultant at the organically-certified Shangri La Farm-to-table operation in Bonita Springs, my partner Millisa dealt with that every year. The difference: that operation had deep pockets and could afford it. Smaller operations have a hard time keeping up with bureaucracy. Planting, weeding, harvesting and all the rest consume every available minute and dollar. I guess I’m trying to say that our approach is holistic (another overused word). “Holos”, Greek for “whole”, is the origin of this one, and it refers to an understanding of any given subject incorporating a totality of correlated factors. In the chicken sample, we wouldn’t consider poultry raised in such conditions “organic”; in the vast growing fields of Immokalee, the produce wouldn’t meet our definition of “organic”, either. How could the Earth smile on suffering hens and broilers, or on suffering, exhausted laborers sleeping 12 to a trailer for a few hours before heading back to the fields? Our guiding principle is “Please Her First”. Works for farming, and also in a marriage! The subject of local food production is particularly important to me. I grew up in South America, Buenos Aires, Argentina. It was my lot to start life in the 1970’s and 80’s, so I witnessed a veritable tsunami of events sharing one important trait: they all made food difficult to find – this, in an agricultural powerhouse like Argentina, land of wheat, beef and wine. Leftist guerrillas, rightwing guerrillas, military coup, Falklands war, democracy restored and new coup threats, hyperinflation, default, bank deposit confiscations… I’m sure I’m leaving a few out, and I’m only in my 40’s. I got the travel bug in my 20’s and saw a considerable part of the world – and of the war, civil unrest, and economic crises that make the shelves go bare: the former Yugoslavia and other Soviet bloc countries, Mexico during the Zapatista uprising in Chiapas. I labored in an Israeli collective farm, and helped grow vegetables in Patagonian greenhouses. To top all this off, my family were fighters and survivors in World War II, and I grew up with their stories – literally having to boil and eat your shoes, just like in that Charlie Chaplin film. Is it any wonder I’m obsessed with local food production as the best hedge against scarcity and famine? Not to mention all its other benefits: first of all, building community. Dollars spent in local food stay local, benefitting the whole community in one way or another. Another great thing about areas that support abundant farms big and small is their food security. Even if the crop is put on a train and sent far away, some of it always remains. A farmer needs to make sure he, and his workers, eat first. Local food is fresher, riper, tastier and more nutritious. Local food production skills and lore are kept alive. A critical mass of individuals understand local growing conditions, seasons to plant, errors to avoid. It’s not only farmers that keep their knowledge alive. By growing food locally, they interact, benefit, barter with, support and encourage a multitude of other skills and trades, from welding to forestry to education to commerce. In short, this is how we feel about the important if often misunderstood key concepts of “organic” and “local”. This is an ongoing conversation that we hope to continue with other growers and thinkers. Yes, I said “thinkers”. I believe thinking is a major part of farming. Not just about the chores and tasks for the day, but about the big picture, the long term, the ultimate reason why we do what we do, and how.