"Farming looks mighty easy when your plow is a pencil and you're a thousand miles from the cornfield." - Dwight D. Eisenhower
During our first week of Culinary Medicine, we had the pleasure to visit one of the local farms outside Orlando. Not only did we get a thrilling hayride around the farm, but we also got to see their distribution center. We also got to learn a little bit about some of the pitfalls small farmers face. For instance, we learned that some of the local produce shops do not actually sell as much local produce as they claim. Luckily, the store where my roommates and I shopped, Fresh Field Farms, was not one of those. This highlights the importance of investigating where your food is coming from.
Organic vs Conventional
This is definitely a controversial topic and there are many people who are in one camp or the other. I must admit, before culinary medicine, I never even thought about buying organic. My maternal grandparents grew up in a small farming town in Wisconsin, so our family has always had confidence in conventional farming practices and tried to support local farmers for the freshest produce when possible, regardless of any organic labeling. The National Organic Program (NOP) within the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) determines the requirements for organic products to be labeled and sold as such. Regulations for produce and livestock are laid out in these regulations and include much more than simply avoiding certain pesticides and antibiotics. For crops, regulations require particular land requirements, seeds and planting, crop rotation practice, in addition to crop pest, weed, and disease management practice. Livestock regulations include the origin of the livestock, feed, health care, living conditions, and pasture practice. Basically, there are a lot of rules that are required for farmers to get the USDA Organic seal, but it does not necessarily mean that organic food is more nutritious than conventional.
However, it is equally important to realize that just because produce is not certified organic, does not mean that it is harmful. The USDA has standards in place for conventional farmers as well. Many farmers raise crops and livestock well-above the conventional requirements, some even in an organic-fashion, but are not able to use the label due to a technicality. It may not be feasible for smaller farms to adhere to all of these regulations. Imagine a small local farm that follows all regulations of an organic farm but cannot label their products, because their smaller distribution center is not certified appropriate for keeping organic and conventional products separated. Compare this to a larger farm that is farther away and uses the exact same growing practices as the smaller farm but is certified organic because its distribution center is larger. I would argue that the produce from the local small conventional farm would be a better purchase than the organic-labeled produce from the larger farm. The decreased distance it would be required to travel would not only mean that it would be more nutritious than the organic-labeled, but it would also have a smaller carbon footprint.
There are some groups out there that would lead you to believe that conventional farming is dangerous, and vilify the conventional side of the market. For example, the Environmental Working Group (EWG) distributes annual lists: The Dirty Dozen and The Clean Fifteen, which are meant to tell you which foods have the highest level of pesticides found on them and those that are the cleanest, respectively. But the methodology of their analysis is quite flawed, as found by a peer-reviewed study published in the Journal of Toxicology. In fact, what the data really shows is negligible levels of pesticide residue found on those listed on “The Dirty Dozen.” In the EWG’s annual report, they draw conclusions about pesticides based on an observational studyshowing a “surprising association between consuming high-pesticide-residue foods and fertility problems.” What they fail to mention about this study is that subjects were sampled from an infertility clinic, seeking assistive reproductive therapy. This is a weak study design and conclusions about causality cannot be drawn from it. Furthermore, socioeconomic status does not appear to have been taken into consideration during the analysis. People of higher economic status have greater means to buy organic foods that are presumed by the EWG to have lower levels of pesticide residues, but socioeconomic status also has a tremendous influence on people’s health and access to care, which can, in turn, affect fertility. Another limitation mentioned by the authors is that their methods did not provide a means to match specific pesticides with adverse outcomes with fertility. It is also worth mentioning that “EWG is a proud affiliate partner of Amazon’s charitable giving program,” which is interesting given Amazon’s recent purchase of Whole Foods, a company that touts selling “highest quality natural and organic foods” as one of its core values. EWG also receives funding from corporate sponsors such as Organic Valley, Stonyfield Farms (“America’s #1 Organic Yogurt”), Earthbound Farms (US producer of organic salads), and Applegate (producer of natural and organic meat).
I am not going to tell you whether you should buy organic or conventional. Ultimately, that is up to you. But what I will tell you is that when deciding what to put on your plate, you should look beyond the label. Use a critical eye. Think about what is most important to you and your family when it comes to your food. Is it supporting local farmers? Is it decreasing your carbon footprint? Is it limiting pesticide exposure? Whatever the motivation, do the research and draw your own conclusions. Don’t let the labels tell you what conclusions you should come to. Talk to your local farmers, grocery-store butcher or fishmonger, and let them know what is important to you so that they can help you pick the product best suited for you. At the end of the day, it is important to remember that labeling is a marketing tool. There are lobbyists and marketing companies who are paid a great deal to make you believe that an organic seal or label means you are purchasing a higher quality product, but that is not necessarily the case.
Farmers Markets
You would think that a farmers market is the last place you need to ask around and find out where the produce is coming from. Afterall, I think many people work under the assumption that a farmers market is where local farmers come to sell some of their goods. Except this isn’t always the case. In fact, sometimes produce from other countries is even sold at farmers markets. If you came to the farmers market to support local farmers, it is all the more important to ask where the food they are selling came from. This is probably one of the easiest venues to find out this kind of information though. More often than not, you are speaking directly with the seller and competition can be high within the same farmers market, so they are usually very willing to chat and tell you about their products.
If you are finding that your farmers market doesn’t have a lot of local goods that are being sold, you can always find some of your local farms and ask them if any of their produce is sold at local farmers markets. Sometimes they even have their own markets that you can go to and buy directly from the farm. This isn’t as convenient as a farmers market can be, especially if you live in a metropolitan area. So this might not be a good option as part of your routine but it can be a fun way to break from your routine when you have some free time.
Nutrition Content
When marketing companies are talking about food, they love using the word “fresh.” But the meaning behind this word is extremely variable. Usually, when they use the word “fresh.” they are more often than not referring to the products taste or texture, rather than its nutrition content. However, taste and texture do not always go hand-in-hand with the nutrition content.
Think about your food’s journey from where it was grown or raised to your table. Produce, for example, will often come from different parts of the country or even the world. Once that produce is picked, it is removed from its source of energy and water. The same is true for animal products, such as meat, seafood, and eggs. As the cells begin to break down and die, its nutritional value begins to deteriorate, and the produce slowly begins to decay. Now, obviously, the rate of decay for many items in the produce section is very slow. It is a long time until the amount of decay reaches the point that we would consider it to be inedible. The distance that food will travel is highly variable and changes throughout the year as various produce goes in and out of season in particular areas, so it stands to reason that the longer a product has to travel, the greater the amount of decay and loss of nutrients that will occur.
However, as with many things, quantity does not always mean quality. If we think of nutrition content as the quantity, then it is equally important to consider the nutrition quality. There is not much use to eating the freshest foods with high nutrition content if you are are not going to eat foods that have good nutritional quality. We generally don’t worry about this too much with fresh fruits and vegetables, but it requires that we eat a wide variety of these. Different types fruits and vegetables have varying levels of micronutrients, highlighting the need to consume a wide array of produce.