interviews

In the past I was very hesitant about giving interviews to certain media. I did a few television interviews, one about organic food and another about the spinach recall last year, and both turned into horribly spun pieces of garbage. I will never do another television interview, mainly because I believe the local TV news media to be nothing but sensationalist idiots. Their lack of knowledge and interest is a detriment to real reporting of newsworthy stories, as their stories are presented with the depth of a dried up puddle. I was approached to do a TV interview about freeganism last year and asked the people involved to drop the story as their angle would only hurt the people who rely on the waste stream. Thankfully the story went nowhere, as no one would speak with them.

I feel that written stories are much better as they are usually pretty well researched. I did an interview this spring about mushrooms that turned out very well. I also did an interview about Community Supported Agriculture that has yet to be printed. The reporter was very interested, and I feel that the story will be well presented and researched. That interview led to another story idea about local foods that I am excited to be a part of, as one of the primary objectives of this project is to get the word out about local foods and community building. All of this is serving as a catalyst for local foods presentations, foraging workshops and simply getting folks interested in a community that offers so many food choices and the opportunity to support growing production.

There is hope that younger people are getting interested in local and organic food. This is evidenced by a high school senior’s project on organic food systems to which I gave the following interview:

1. How far back does organic farming/food go?

Organic agriculture is tens of thousands of years old. The widespread practice of using petroleum derived fertilizers and synthetic chemical pesticides is only seventy or so years old. The heavy use of these products came about almost exclusively from the need to retool the war time products of World War Two (mainly ammonium nitrate for bombs) into something else. That is when ammonium nitrate (nitrogen based fertilizer) became an input for increasing yields in agriculture.

2. Do you know organic farming’s origins? If so, what is it?

As I said, organic agriculture came about when hunter/gatherers began forming more permanent communities thousands of years ago. But the modern organic movement as we know it had its start in the early 1940s with Rodale and more roots in the counter-culture and back-to-the-land communes of the 1960s. In 1979 the organic movement was codified in California with its first official definition and legal guidelines for calling something organic. The Federal Organic Foods Production Act of 1990 established a federal standard and in the early 2000s the USDA published what is known as the “Final Rule” which strictly defines what is organic.

3. How long have you been apart of the Tidal Creek crew?

I have worked for Tidal Creek for four years.

4. What exactly is your job and what type of tasks do you prefer to do?

I am the Produce Manager for the store. I am involved in all aspects of purchasing, pricing and displaying produce as well as supervising the other produce employees. I am an involved manager so I take part in stocking, cleaning and other tasks that the other produce people do.

5. Why are organic foods more expensive than store brand food at a grocery store?

There are several reasons. The supply of organic products is often not enough for the growing demand. Also, organic agriculture receives no government subsidy assistance like conventional agriculture. Organic production also tends to have more hands-on labor, which can add to the costs of the produce.

Currently organic produce pricing is very competitive with conventional produce. The pricing of our in-season produce is often cheaper than at the larger grocery stores.

American consumers have become far too used to cheap food and the problems with that paradigm manifest themselves in how we look at farming and how separated we are from our food. Constant consumption of highly processed cheap food also manifest in health problems. There are also the issues of long distance transportation, diminished vitamin and mineral content of hybridized produce and just a complete lack of understanding of how farmers are affected by our buying decisions. Food should be something that we buy the very best that we can afford. We spend our money on non-essential things like cable television, candy bars, fast food value meals and electronic gadgets and then wonder why we are so unhealthy.

6. What are some benefits of buying organic food?

Organic agriculture nurtures and builds the soil and ecosystems contained within the farm. Buying organic supports that process. Buying organic also provides farms with incentives to transition to organic, and it also pays the farmer what they deserve to be paid for their work.

7. What is the process of importing organic foods to your store?

I buy from two national distributors, one in New Jersey and the other in Florida. I also buy from many, many local and regional farmers who I deal with directly.

8. Would you rather import foods locally or from else where? Why?

I absolutely prefer to buy local. I personally only eat locally produced food, so I always have it in mind to support local first. I also like to get to know farmers personally, get to know them by visiting their farms and seeing how they do their work. Also, the local food that I buy is the freshest it can be, as it is often picked the same day that I put in on display. As soon as produce is picked, its nutritional content begins to diminish significantly.

The closeness of the farm translates into higher vitamin and mineral content as the produce has not had a chance to break down in transit and also because it is picked at peak ripeness. Most produce in grocery stores is picked when unripe and allowed to ripen during the one to two week transport process.

9. Is the money that a consumer uses to buy organic food really worth it in the longrun? Why or why not?

Yes. Buying organic reinforces the decision of the farmer to grow organically. Buying local is even better, as more of the money used to purchase the food goes directly to the farmer and stays in the community.

10. What do you think the biggest misconception people make about organic food and its process?

People think that organic is some extra special way of dealing with the production of food, and they don’t realize that growing organically is something that farmers have been doing for thousands of years. People don’t realize that conventional agriculture uses things like un-composted animal waste and sewage sludge, irradiation and genetically modified organisms. These things are not used in organics – animal waste must be composted for 120 days, and sewage sludge, irradiation and GMOs are not permitted.