Tuesday, November 2, 2010

FRESH Opinions

Two weeks ago we were delighted to host Beach Organics, a local organic store, for a screening of the movie FRESH and the opportunity to meet local organic vendors. The fascinating and frightening topic of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) and their effects were also discussed. At the Weeping Radish, we are strong advocates for local food, knowing who your farmer is and how they raise their products, rather than only buying Certified USDA Organic, so an evening on USDA Organic was an interesting experience for us.

Now don’t get me wrong, I think organic growing practices are better for consumers and the environment, but I do not think USDA certification, or any certification from large corporations, guarantees these benefits. There are many people, however, who believe in the power of that seal as much as they believe in the benefits of truly organic products. It has been my experience that when blind faith in certification and buzzwords takes over the consumer ends up looking foolish and local farms get hurt.

That Sunday evening, for example, I was having an intelligent conversation about regulations in the food industry with a very nice lady when she asked about our products. She was practically heartbroken when I said they weren’t organic. My response to her “I only eat Certified Organic,” was to show her a bag of USDA Certified Organic frozen broccoli. Slightly to the left of the certification seal was written in small letters “Made in China.” It was definitely a shock to this lady to know that the organic standard she held dear was being given to products from a country that exported poisoned baby formula. How can a local farmer compete with products like that? More importantly why would they want to? Why would a farmer submit to an expensive and irrational inspection process when the integrity of the certification is questionable at best?

Another woman’s response to “organic” vegetables from China was that the really important certification was Non-GMO. The short film on GMOs was more thought provoking and inspired less cynicism in me than the longer FRESH movie; almost everything in FRESH was portrayed with more impact and detail in Food Inc. The other film described how easily GMOs could be spread from one field to another and the horrible mutations occurring in lab rats fed GMO foods. What they didn’t mention was that close to 80% of all corn, beans and cotton in the US is now GMO seed with the majority coming from one company (Monsanto). Some people might dare to call that a monopoly, but monopolies lobby very hard to keep their existence quiet. I have to wonder though, as concern over GMOs grows, and with a powerful monopoly already in place, how long before that certification process becomes just as unreliable as USDA Certified Organic and with much worse consequences?