Conscious Choice Seattle: Have Your Local and Organic and Eat It Too

Photo by Richard A. Huston

August 2004

Have Your Local and Organic and Eat It Too

The Puget Sound region’s bounty of area farmers markets provides the best answer to the Buy Local vs. Organic Debate: It’s getting easier to find both

by Emily Garland

The organic food market is booming. The industry accounts for $15 billion (three percent) of all grocery store sales in the United States, and that number is rapidly increasing.

At a 20 to 24 percent annual growth rate, it is the fastest growing component in the food industry. In comparison, conventional food sales are only growing one to two percent per year. At this rate, (which has held strong and steady since 1991) most food sold in grocery stores by 2020 will be organic. That’s why stores like local PCCs and Whole Foods Markets keep turning more and more shelf space over to organic and natural foods.

But there’s an evil twin in this runaway success story: Organic doesn’t always mean better for the environment.

Here’s why: Much of the fruit and produce labeled organic in grocery stores comes from hundreds, even thousands, of miles away. Translation: A significant amount of organic produce comes from California and, not insignificantly, a growing number of bushels are arriving from Mexico, Central America, South America and other parts foreign.

The passage of free trade agreements, including the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1993 and, more recently, the signing of the U.S.-Central American Free Trade Agreement in May, allows food to be imported from even farther away. That takes money — needed dollars, to be sure — away from local farmers. Buying organic can actually translate to harming the local agri-economy.

Now, there’s a sour taste for you.

One place where consumers can be assured of buying local, and, happily, increasingly organic, food is at one of the numerous farmers markets in the area.You can have your local and organic and eat it too.

Michelle Margroff, her husband, Jim Ellingboe and their friend Jannine Talkovic are weekly visitors at the Saturday University District Farmers Market. Ellingboe raves about the freshness of the wares, and says she and her husband buy only organic produce when they attend.

Talkovic agrees, and emphasizes the importance of buying local.

“It forces you to be more aware of seasonality,” she says. “The grocery store sells organic produce, but it could be from another region of the country that doesn’t line up with the seasons here. It just helps you be more in tune with what season it is locally.”

Food miles and lack of freshness

Chris Curtis, director of the Neighborhood Farmers Market Alliance, a nonprofit that organizes the five Seattle Neighborhood Farmers Markets, urges the importance of buying locally.

“The average distance food travels to the plate is 1,500 miles, and to me that’s an obscene fact,” Curtis says. “[At Seattle Neighborhood Farmers Markets] the average is 90 miles, which is good because we’re not burning fossil fuels; it’s infinitely better for our environment on every level.”

Curtis estimates the typical food-mile distance could easily balloon to 2,000 to 5,000 miles, given the implementation of various free trade agreements, including the May pact with Central America.

Holy sweet potato.

Most of the nearly 30 farmers markets in the Puget Sound region allow only farmers (and some crafters) who produce on land they lease or own in Washington. So the food is guaranteed to be not only more local but fresher than much of what is available in grocery stores. The broccoli you steam Saturday night was likely still in the ground Friday morning.

Thirty-eight of the 130 or so farmers who attend one or more of the Seattle Neighborhood Farmers Markets, which include Columbia City, Lake City, Magnolia, University District and West Seattle, are certified organic with the Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA). Many other farmers practice organic methods, but choose not to certify for various reasons. Your chances of buying both local and organic get better every growing season.

The expenses provide one explanation why some organic-method farmers don’t seek official certification. As mandated by the WSDA, vendors must reapply each year for organic certification, and are subjected to annual application and certification fees. Application fees are $200 per vending site, and new applicants must also pay an additional $100 fee. Certification fees are determined by the amount of organic food a vendor sells in a year. Each vendor must also maintain extensive records in order to stay certified.

Despite the hassle, there are a good number of farmers who say maintaining certification is important for business.

“One of the big reasons for certifying is customers know you’re being held to a set of standards; without that, [organic] is just a word,” says Elizabeth Goronea, 24, of the Ellensburg-based River Farm Organic Produce.

The white tent over the Goronea family’s stall is just one of the many at the Seattle Neighborhood Farmers Markets that boasts a large yellow laminated square bearing the WSDA Certified Organic seal. Located on a 60-acre farm, the Goroneas began by growing and selling primarily garlic, but have since shifted to producing a wide variety of fruits and vegetables, including cucumbers, squash, lettuce, eggplant, tomatoes, peppers and melons.

Farmers markets in full bloom

The Goroneas have been selling at Seattle farmers markets since the University District market, the oldest and largest “farmers only” market in Seattle, began in 1993. They have witnessed the many farmers markets expand in the last decade, both in the number of vendors and consumers.

“So many more people are shopping at the markets than when they first started, it’s really amazing,” Goronea says.

The number of markets nationwide have grown about 80 percent in the past 12 years, says Charlie Touchette, executive director of North American Farmers Direct Marketing Association. Today there are over 3,400 farmers markets in the country, compared to 800 or so in 1994. Washingtonians have enjoyed similar increases. In 1986, fewer than 20 markets existed, and by 1995, 53 were in operation across the state.

“People love their markets,” Curtis says. “Though we organize them, the community feels like they have some ownership of them.”

Goronea and her father, as well as her boyfriend, who works for the farm, travel the 100 miles to Seattle three times a week where they split the Columbia City, Lake City and University District markets, while her twin sister and mother sell at the market in Ellensburg.

Goronea’s family had no farming history when her father quit his job as a merchant marine around 1994 to become a self-taught full-time farmer. He began practicing organic methods in an effort to preserve a patch of land, and was organically certified soon after. Goronea said they have never applied anything not approved by WSDA organic standards to their land.

“We pick a lot of bugs off by hand and smoosh them,” she says. As the only produce growers in their immediate area, Goronea explains the farm doesn’t face invasions from neighboring bugs.

River Farm does use the approved Bt pesticide, a natural bacteria product from the African daisy, which kills bug larvae, and sometimes supplements with small doses of the allowed product Bio-Grow. The Goroneas use green compost and manure.

Decidedly not certified

Michael and Shelly Verdi, of Whistling Train Farm in Kent, practice organic

farming methods. But they are not certified organic with the state. Michael Verdi, 53, says he is unhappy with the United States Department of Agriculture’s (and by extension, WSDA’s) acceptance of certain fertilizers and pesticides as well as other more conventional practices under the organic label.

“We became certified in 1999 or 2000 and things just went downhill from there,” Verdi says. “They just keep accepting more and more objectionable things to us. You can cage chickens and clip their beaks and still call them organic.”

The Verdis declined to reapply for USDA certification last year and opted to become part of Certified Naturally Grown. The multicolored seal adorning the Verdi booth indicates membership with the self-described “non-profit alternative eco-labeling program for small farms that grow using USDA Organic methods but are not a part of the USDA Certified Organic program.” The donation-based label is geared toward farms that distribute locally or directly, and does not charge fees or require excessive paperwork.

The alternative label is fairly new, Verdi says, which explains why only seven Washington farmers are certified with the organization.

Whistling Train Farms produces an extensive variety of vegetables and herbs as well as pork, chicken and eggs.

“Everybody who gets our eggs realizes immediately how much better they are,” Verdi says. “They are [truly] free range, so the yolk is much richer, darker and it stands up by itself; it doesn’t flatten out. You can tell that the chickens were happy and healthy.”

Verdi says his animals have roomy stalls and a large outdoor pen. He uses chicken manure and pelleted fish fertilizer.

But Verdi hasn’t always used organic methods. He was a conventional farmer for many years, and it wasn’t until the death of his first wife in June 1997 that he considered switching to organic.

“I’m not real sure what to blame [her death] on,” Verdi says, “but I’m sure her diet didn’t help. It would be almost hypocritical of me to not want to eat organic.”

Organic dating game

Still, Verdi says because he was a committed conventional farmer, he did not switch to organic until 1998 when he met his second wife, Shelly, an organic farmer.

“When other market people found out I was dating an organic person they kind of snickered, and said you’ll never convert him, and here I am,” Verdi says, laughing.

The conversion to organic was initially traumatic, Verdi recalls.

“I would lose crops to weeds, and know that half an hour on a tractor could take care of that,” he says. “But once I realized what I was not putting into the food, what I was doing for people, it was satisfying.”

Although the expenses and paperwork were not primarily responsible for his decision to discontinue his organic certification with the government, Verdi says these factors discourage many from going through the certification process. This is especially true for the many farmers with language barriers, he adds. Immigrant farmers are not an insignificant part of the community of growers.

For instance, Youa Her and Kaying Garden in Carnation is an officially un-organic farm largely due to the Hmong farmers’ poor English, two of their sons explain.

“They are not going to do organic; their English is not good enough,” says Shoua Lor, 27, at the University District Farmers Market.

His brother, Kuoa Lor, also 27, selling the family’s wares the next day at the West Seattle Farmers Market, adds that his parents are unlikely to go organic because it would be too difficult for them. And, due to all the paperwork, certifying organic would be almost impossible.

Although both brothers reported a high demand for organic products at the markets they attend, they still almost always sell out of their vibrant flowers and produce.

One reason is people like Molly Parks. She is a regular customer of farming families such as the Lors at the U District market. She is not a diehard organic-only consumer.

Parks, 30, said she comes to the University District Farmers Market twice a month for flowers and vegetables.

“I just don’t buy into the whole organic thing,” she says, rifling through a crate of tomatoes while her son Hunter watches from his nearby stroller. “There’s stuff everywhere, why spend the extra money?”

An older woman who wished to remain unnamed echoed Parks’ lack of enthusiasm for organic goods.

“I’m not especially into organic,” she says. “I can’t really taste that much difference.”

She and her friend have been coming to the West Seattle Farmers Market every Sunday for five years. They come to support the farmers, they said, but also largely for the social scene.

Chalk up another reason to buy local — and organic whenever possible.

Curtis, director of the Neighborhood Farmers Market Alliance, says customer surveys have shown that many people attend farmers markets simply because it is a fun and unique experience, complete with the rare opportunity to talk directly to the person who grows the food you eat.

“A lot of people just make it a weekly ritual,” she says. “People used to go to church for that reason. I think it’s an important part of people’s lives and it just can’t happen at a grocery store.”

Emily Garland is a staff writer for Evergreen Monthly.

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