“I grew up on a chicken farm farmed in the old way. It wasn’t called organic back then, but it was much kinder to the animals and healthier for the humans too.” – Ruthanna, caller on 09.02.20 On Point – ‘Writing the Unknown Pakistan‘
My last post mentioned Ars Open Forum, one of the most common sources of jump-off points for my thoughts and conversations. This one comes from another source which provides me with a similar bounty of food for thought: NPR. The subject of yesterday’s On Point was Daniyal Mueenuddin, an author whose recent debut collection of short stories has been highly praised. He is a Pakistani who spent part of his childhood in the US and received all of his secondary and college education here. On graduating from college he was offered a choice by his aging father: take over the family’s failing farm in rural Pakistan or go and live his life in the West (with no hard feelings either way.) He chose to stay and now twenty-some years later his stories about the people he knows in his life as a farmer bring him back to this country.
Of course I was struck by the parallels between the life he is living and the life that I am considering and I definitely want to read his book ‘In Other Rooms, Other Wonders,’ but the bit that brings me back to my own plans is the quote at the beginning of the post, from a somewhat rambling caller who compared her own childhood experience with Mueenuddin’s choice to go home and farm. I said earlier that I would try to describe what some of the terms that are being thrown around so freely of late mean in context.
I think that one of the most fundamental errors a farmer can make is to forget that a farm’s purpose is to produce food. I don’t mean to be so idealistic as to pretend that you don’t need to make enough money to support your family along the way, but so many fail because they think of their product only as a commodity with a monetary value and lose track of the literally carnal pleasure of good food. The words slathered liberally across emerging food products on the shelves of your grocery store and in the pages (digital and analog) of the media attempt to re-connect with that idea with varied degrees of success and honesty.
Organic – The relevant portion of the Merriam-Webster definition says “food produced with the use of feed or fertilizer of plant or animal origin without employment of chemically formulated fertilizers, growth stimulants, antibiotics, or pesticides” and that is indeed the core of it. However, the word has come to have very different meanings to different people. Those who (re)developed the idea of organic farming in the US as opposed to commercial/industrial farming intended it to have a broader meaning, not only the avoidance of chemicals, but also a respect for natural systems. The meaning of the word as it is used on food packaging can be unfortunately narrow by comparison. If used honestly it will at least mean that the dictionary definition has been followed, but the laws on food packaging are not without loopholes.
Natural/Green – These two are pretty general to start with and have been over-used to the point of being nearly useless lately. Natural should be easy: what happens if nature is left alone. However, what happens when nature is left alone after we have interfered is not the same as what would have happened before we arrived. We have been interfering since we learned to use tools, so which baseline would you like to use? Green implies positive for the environment although things like ‘clean coal’ and hybrid cars are certainly a very qualified positive.
Sustainable – This one is being abused too, but it is harder to dilute. A sustainable system (on any scale: garden, farm, industry, nation, planet) is one which does not require significant external inputs to keep running over the long-term. Of course, that’s long-term relative to human lifespan since even the universe itself is not sustainable in the unqualified long-term.
Local Food – Food grown and produced in the local area. Generally seasonally appropriate. Money stays in the local economy. Food not transported thousands of miles is fresher more sustainable. If you’re lucky, it might be possible to find such things on the market shelf, otherwise available from a farmer’s market, a CSA (community supported agriculture) or direct from the producer.
Slow Food – More of a philosophical thing, slow food is the opposite of fast food. Slow food is not transported long distances, it is not preserved by chemical means, it takes more time to prepare than a microwavable instant meal and it is not available in the same form, taste and preparation across the entire country, let alone the world. Slow food tastes better than you may know it is possible for food to taste.
I’m not satisfied with any of these ‘definitions.’ Figuring out what these words mean to me an others is going to be an ongoing project.
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