Organic Food for All

Responses to the recent Stanford University organic study have been all over the map. Some commentators, such as Marion Nestle, wrote that the study—which concludes that organic food is no more nutritious than its conventional counterparts—misses the point. No one buys organic food because they think it’s more nutritious. They buy it for what it doesn’t contain: pesticides. Others, such as Tom Philpott of Mother Jones, argued that the study underplays the health risks of even small amounts of organophosphate pesticidees. 

But most news reports let the study stand unchallenged. And Roger Cohen, a columnist at the International Herald Tribune, went a step further, gleefully celebrating the researchers’ findings because they confirmed his long-held view that organic food is a scam, a fad, a fable—“an elitist, pseudoscientific indulgence shot through with hype.”

Mr. Cohen may not be aware of the minefield he walked into by using the term “elitist.” After all, his beat is usually Middle East politics, not the U.S.’s sustainable food movement. The “elitist” slur has been lobbed at the food movement with such ferocity and regularity that it’s become a bit of a joke among movement activists. Are school gardens (most of which are organically farmed) elitist? Are the low-income folks in West Oakland who buy organic produce at sliding-scale farm stands elitist? Are the homeless people in my hometown of Portland, Oregon who get healthy, organic meals at Sisters of the Road, P:ear, or Outside In elitist?

Joking aside, the “elitist” tag is misguided because it perpetuates the notion that only upper-middle class people care about healthy, fresh, “organic” produce—and that’s patently not the case. As I’ve reported on the food justice movement over the past three years, I’ve met struggling people all over this country who love pesticide-free fresh fruits and vegetables and who find ways to get them on their plates—whether it’s via using food stamps at farmers’ markets, spotting deals at Walmart, or getting a plot at a community garden. Since when has it been “elitist” to not want poison on your food?

Little does Mr. Cohen know, but all across the country, small-scale projects are sprouting up that make it easier and more affordable for low-income populations to access fresh, affordable and yes, even organic produce. In West Oakland—a food desert—volunteers at City Slicker Farms have planted over 200 gardens in residents’ backyards. They may not be USDA-certified organic, but they are all grown without fertilizers and pesticides. (What I’ve taken to calling lower-case “o” organic.) This is also true of the crops grown at Cleveland’s 6-acre Ohio City Farm, which is adjacent to a low-income housing authority, and has a reasonably-priced farmers’ market that also accepts food stamps and WIC coupons. East New York Farms in Brownsville, Brooklyn, runs two community farmers’ markets where organic produce costs half as much as the produce sold at Union Square Greenmarket. There are similar initiatives in Baltimore, Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia, L.A., Milwaukee, and on and on.

Savvy shoppers know that when you buy organic produce at the farmers’ market, you save a bundle. One study found that organic produce is nearly 40 percent cheaper at farmers’ markets than it is at supermarkets. (Potatoes were the only exception.) And unbeknownst to Cohen, nearly 3000 farmers’ markets and farm stands around the country accept food stamps. Organizations like Michel Nischan’s Wholesome Wave sweeten the deal by running “double value coupon programs” that match up to $20 that is spent in food stamps at participating farmers’ markets. Over 300 farmers’ markets around the country participate in this Double Value Coupon Program, which has dramatically increased the number of food stamp shoppers at farmers markets. Though not all the produce at farmers’ markets is USDA-certified Organic, most of it is grown without pesticides and using environmentally sensitive techniques like integrated pest management. So when people like Mr. Cohen think that organic is synonymous with Whole Foods, I cringe. What about farmers’ markets and backyard gardens? What about Walmart, the largest seller of organic produce in the country? The assumption that Whole Foods is the only place to find organic food is in itself elitist. If Mr. Cohen spent any time in low-income neighborhoods (where not only are there no Whole Foods, there sometimes aren’t any grocery stores at all) he’d know that people of lower economic classes source their organic produce elsewhere.

Finally, many of us buy organic because we care about farmworker safety. While we’re all arguing about whether pesticide residue from conventional produce harms us eaters or not (and Cohen clearly thinks it does not), there is no doubt that the workers who toil in pesticide-laden fields get very sick indeed. (A recent study at the University of California, Berkeley’s School of Public Health found that even prenatal exposure to pesticides can have negative consequences.) Caring for others—how very elitist.

As for Cohen’s assertion that organic produce will never “feed the world,” I’ll defer to food justice guru and esteemed author Raj Patel. In his Room for Debate post, he pointed out that despite conventional agriculture’s current reliance on pesticides, we’re a long way off from feeding the world. One billion people are still malnourished despite the supposed high yields of GMO crops, and crops blanketed with chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Patel is hopeful, though, and his hope lies with certain kinds of organic agriculture, which studies show can outperform conventional ag. (With lower input costs and a smaller carbon footprint to boot.) “Far from being a ‘luxury for the rich,’” Patel writes, “organic farming may turn out to be a necessity not just for the poor, but for everyone.”