Because it's always been cool to grow stuff. Wait...

In talking with this one organic farmer at the market the other day, I just had to laugh because of how things change.  She was selling quail eggs, and Erin was asking what they were.  I told her how my FFA chapter had raised quail one year.  This farmer said, "You know, it's so funny. When I was in high school, we all thought the FFA kids were total freaks.  Now I'm an organic farmer.  I never would have seen that coming."

I could identify in a way.  It reminded me how in my high school, ag was king, but it was definitely conventional ag.  As the lone organic farm kid in my FFA chapter of roughly 200 members, I was regarded as a total hippie freak, even in a school where everyone was always growing or raising something, and you could totally get away with wearing a blue corduroy jacket to school any day of the year. (I still have that jacket.  If it fits them, my kids will wear it for their first livestock shows.  It's tradition.)  Even in that place, organic farming was seen as freakish and strange.  Now, 12 years after I graduated, I barely go a day without someone telling me how lucky I was to grow up on an organic farm.  I agree with them. I am lucky.  For one thing, I'm healthy in a world where it seems like an ever increasing number of people are sick. Growing up without constant exposure to chemicals and synthetic growth hormones is a good thing.  Who'd have thunk it? 

For another thing, it's good to know what real food is.  Today, food is a minefield.  You can't just go pick something off any given shelf and assume it'll be safe to eat, even if it is a food that should be healthy, like produce, cheese, or a nice cut of meat.  Things are covered in terrible pesticides. Some of them even synthesize pesticides within their own cells.  Some things are full of synthetic hormones that will kill you eventually if you consume enough of them.  Our food supply isn't safe.  Eating cleanly requires work.  Growing up with the knowledge of what good food is, and what it isn't, helps when it comes to navigating that minefield.  People often ask me questions about foods they don't know the safety of, and I'm glad to be able to help them learn about it, and if possible, find sustainable alternatives to things that they're better off without.

It's funny how organic farming has become cool.  It wasn't cool 10-15 years ago.  I will never forget the looks and comments I got when I stood up in agriculture class and said that pesticide use is unnecessary and not sustainable, and that maybe we should consider companion planting and beneficial insects instead.  Now, if I say those things, people listen, and ask how it works.  My organic watermelons are the envy of all my friends, and people think it's cool that dinner often is determined by what's ripe in my garden. 

I guess the idea is, it seems like people are coming around to the right side of things.  I know plenty of people who still think organic food is overpriced, or think there's no difference, but those numbers of people seem to be shrinking. I just wonder, now that it's finally cool to grow organic produce, when will we see societal change in the important ways, like banning (or at least labeling) GMO's, stricter regulations on pesticides, and more restrictions on hormones in meat and milk?  The people are calling for it.  Now it's time for the government and the industry to give us what we want.

In the meantime, it's as important as ever to keep shopping with your local farmers, and growing your own as much as you can.  We've gotten to a point where our supermarket shopping is pretty minimal.  In fact, this pay period, we won't be visiting the supermarket at all.  It can absolutely be done, and it should be done.




Next time:  Why the government should allow me to grow textile grade hemp.