As a student in grade school, our teachers constantly drummed into our heads the old slogan, “Let the buyer beware!” With the broad government rulings and many companies now trying to make big money from organically grown foods, it is more important than ever to take this warning to heart. With the advent of an effort to produce “nutrient dense” foods -- meaning foods grown to provide more nutrition per unit of production -- perhaps a new set of rules will be forthcoming by which to judge what is considered as nutritious food. There is still some question, however, about the value of “organics” grown by those who merely purchase land and stop using commercial fertilizers and pesticides. Many crops grown in this way are of no real food value to organic buyers or anyone else. Without putting back into the land what you are taking out and adding essential nutrient that have already been depleted, what chance is there of growing nutritious crops on such soil? Allowing such careless actions and calling the products “organic” only gives truly high quality organic products a bad name.
This serves to pose and possibly helps answer the question, what is the worth of allocating the time and effort required to grow an organic garden? Done properly, growing a garden can save on the expense of groceries and contribute to better health at the same time. Although for many, the cost of food from the grocer can be earned in far less time than it takes to grow a garden of any type, so why bother? Perhaps the answer depends on what one considers most important. For example, what is the value of picking and eating a vine ripened tomato compared to one picked before it is ripe, shipped great distances and displayed on a grocery shelf, then purchased and perhaps kept several days before eating? How much flavor and nutritional value is sacrificed by the latter process?
Do fruits and vegetables seem to have less taste than they once did? And is that because as we grow older we begin to lose our sense of taste? While our sense of taste may decline somewhat with age, don’t believe for a minute that the loss of flavor in our foods is only due to a loss of ability to taste.
Several years ago, while working with a client who wanted to grow organic watermelons, the soil was tested and the proper nutrients were applied. When the melons ripened, I purchased some from him. We were good friends with our neighbors down the road. On the way home I went by there to give them one, but no one was home. So I left a melon on the porch.
The next morning there was a knock on our door and it was the neighbor. First he asked if we left a melon on his porch. When I said yes, he exclaimed, “I want more of those. For years melons have not tasted like the ones we had when I was a kid. I thought my taste buds were just worn out. But that melon tasted just like the ones we had when I was a kid!”
What you grow and how you grow it does make a difference.
Consider one client who grows 250 acres of peaches. Not only does he do a great job, but when you eat one of his peaches it is so juicy the juice runs down your arm. But you won’t find these peaches in any grocery store in the US. Buyers for the big supermarkets will not touch them. Their reasoning is that fresh, ripe, good-tasting,
juicy peaches such as these will not last long enough on the produce shelf. But in fact those peaches are harvested, shipped a day’s drive by truck to the coast and loaded inside containers, then shipped to England and Ireland where they bring a premium price.
I have the opportunity to consult with people who are growing many of the things we eat. My work is that of correcting fertility and improving soils so as to grow better plants which provide more nutritious food for people and better feed for livestock. The best advice I can give is to grow your own food - as much of it as possible. Even if you are able to grow only a few plants, do it. However little this may be, it is a start in doing something that is extremely important.
ALL ORGANIC FOOD IS NOT EQUAL