There's no talk about food without talk about farming. So Mary Alice Johnson explains as she guides a visitor around her 10-acre fruit and vegetable farm. ALM Organic -- named for the first letters of three Arabic words meaning beginning, middle and end -- is carved out of the West Coast rainforest near Sooke, a small rural community 20 kilometres west of Victoria, B.C.
No flat fields and ruler-straight rows here. Instead, the lay of the land mimics the ocean on a blustery day. It's hard to tell weeds from vegetables. Blackberry vines ramble wildly along fence lines, and mounds of rotting mulch dot the ground like mini-haystacks.
A farmer's pride and passion
Dressed in gumboots, black fleece pants, a tattered grey wool sweater and a smile as wide as the sky, Johnson points to a lumpy plot of dirt. "I can tell you exactly what went into that bed there...what manure, when it was put in. I would never consider farming any other way than organically -- I can't imagine putting poison on the ground and then eating food grown in it," she says.
An increasing number of people agree. Food frights such as mad cow disease, genetic engineering, E. coli contamination, additives and pesticides have put food safety on the public's front burner. Almost three-quarters of Canadians have tried organic food, though it may cost from 20 to 200 per cent more, and about 40 per cent buy it fairly often, reports a recent Environics International Food Issues survey.
An organic boom
Canadians' demand for organics is so great that we must import about 80 per cent of the organic products we consume. Worldwide production, processing and consumption of organic foods are booming. Stroll through the supermarket and you'll spot everything from tea to turkey to brownie mix sporting organic labels.
Organics are the fastest growing sector of the food industry. Organic farming is so promising, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada wonders if it could save the family farm. "The premium prices that organic foods command may be essential to maintaining the existence of small farms in developed countries such as Canada and the United States," it said in an October 2000 report. All this optimism makes Johnson a rare thing in Canadian agriculture -- a happy farmer. While mainstream growers complain about increased production costs, shrinking markets and unfair trade practices, "I sell everything I grow at good prices," she beams.
All this positive buzz around organics begs a veritable shopping list of questions. What does the word organic mean? What can consumers expect from the organic label? Has the mushrooming organic market affected the product itself? Could mainstream agri-business, which is getting into organics in a big way, co-opt the very essence of organic? And, most importantly, is the public's faith in organics justified? In other words, are products labeled organic truly healthier, more nutritious and safer than products without such a label?
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