But Are You Organic?

One of the things that folks ask us is, "but are you organic?"

Now, that's an interesting word; the definition is “relating to or derived from living matter.” So organic = life and life is good. Are we USDA certified organic? No - read on...

If you are a “life farmer,” you avoid things that kill, such as herbicide, pesticide, fungicide, etc., … all of which end in “-cide” (the Latin word for "a substance that kills").

I think we’ll all agree, with billions of dollars paid out in class action lawsuits from harm, that toxic chemicals are something we don’t want to mess with.

But, back to organic. Around 2000, the government saw multiple organizations using the word organic, and in their finite wisdom, put together a national organic program with lowest-common-denominator standards. It also forbade anyone to use the word organic, unless they filled out reams of paperwork, paid $1,000+ in fees to get “certified”, even if you had only $5000 in annual sales.  

Well we all know what the government does to anything they get their hands on… within a few years, the program started showing problems, and now we’ve seen a major corruption of the once pristine brand, and falsely labeled food to the tune of billions of dollars. There is some merit in that program, it's a step in the right direction, but we need to recognize the problems, too.

We’re currently not certified organic. We could be, we have been, actually our standards are stricter than theirs. We even sell some of our products to organic farmers.

But in the end, it’s just a green-and-white sticker.

What certification, how we’re certified, by whom we’re certified, etc., with really comes back to the ethos of why we’re here. We’re here to heal our community. To raise our kids around nature, and to feel comfortable with them running around the farm, helping daddy spread fertilizer or picking herbs straight from the greenhouse. It's not just about getting a price premium for our food, but protecting the most important little people in the world and giving them the best chance at life, a healthy, strong body, not compromised by anything that has the word, “substance that kills,” in it.

With a sticker, it's mental shortcut. People don’t ask questions, they don’t come on a tour, see how we raise their food, learn about nutrient density, and understand why it costs a few dollars more than the wilted, sad, week-old produce that comes from who knows where, handled by who knows who. We’re all about educating our community on what real food is all about, the true costs of raising healthy, nutrient-dense food, and the marketing tricks that Big Food and Pharma go through to convince you that their empty calories are “good for you.”

We want you to be empowered to ask the right questions about what you put on your table.

When you shop the Farm on Central, you know the farmer who grew the food, who tucked every plant into its home, who harvested those strawberries, who fought the bugs, cold, heat, bureaucrats and government agents to feed you and your most cherished possessions. Who goes to sleep every night exhausted… but knowing that they put in an honest day's work, doing the most important job possible, feeding our next generation.

Our goal here is, not just to live on a farm, but to farm "life" - to grow living food in living soil.

And that’s why we’re 100% certified kid-safe. Because that’s a bit more important than a sticker.

 

Note: Please pay attention to the product descriptions of items in our catalog. Due to the variety and breath of what we are now carrying in the growing farmers shop, not all our products are Certified Organic, we try to include detailed notes about sourcing and how they are grown.