by Delia Hitz
f our current agricultural system were a person, she'd
be headed for a twelve-step program and job retraining - chemically dependent,
in debt, diseased and in competition with "new" organic growing
methods full of vitality and economic common sense.
We tend to think of modern agriculture as a miracle
of efficiency and productivity. In reality, every year we rely on more than
800 million pounds of fossil fuel-derived products to make it "easy"
for us to produce our food. In the process we compromise our future by destroying
the elements on which continued food production depend: clean water and
soil, and healthy, diverse ecosystems.
Organically-grown foods are produced without the assistance
of chemical pesticides. Non-organically-grown foods are currently cheaper
at the supermarket, but at what cost? Regulating pesticides and commodity
support programs cost federal money. Water pollution, topsoil loss and health
problems are expensive problems to reverse after the fact - when they can
be reversed.
Last month, San Diego Earth Day was awarded
a grant from Mothers and Others for a Livable Planet to create "The
Shopper's Campaign for Better Food Choices." Mothers and Others is
a non-profit environmental group based in New York. The goal of the campaign
is to increase consumer demand for organic foods and to make organics consistently
available in mainstream supermarkets.
Organic products sales are on the rise nationwide, reaching
a high of $1.89 billion in 1993 - an increase of 23 percent over 1992. Of
that total, supermarket sales were $140 million, an increase of 19 percent
over 1992 figures and a whopping 341 percent increase over 1991. So both
natural/ whole foods stores and supermarkets are seeing annual increases
in sale of organics.
Of course, the money spent on organics remains a small
fraction of the money spent each year on traditional produce - about $47
billion in 1992. And the money spent on organics at supermarkets is a small
fraction of the sales in natural foods or "alternative" markets.
San Diego is primed for an explosion in natural foods
marketing, according to experts across the state. San Diego is the leading
county for organic agriculture in the state - in a state and a nation that
lead the world in organic farming. There are more than 500 registered organic
growers and food producers in San Diego County. A large amount of their
product is exported.
The campaign will begin by focusing on 3 or 4 specific
supermarkets. By Earth Day this April, the project hopes to have established
productive dialogues with supermarket managers, involving them in Earthweek-related
promotional activities such as supermarket tours, farm tours and a Farmer's
Market at this year's EarthFair in Balboa Park.
For the most part, the dangers of pesticide
exposure to humans are not, and most likely cannot be precisely known. Testing
and regulating pesticides for safety is expensive and the government's methods
are outdated and inaccurate.
Most pesticides were registered before current laws
requiring testing were in place, and now must be re-registered. Less than
10% of the pesticides needing re-registration have gone through the process,
and in the meantime they stay on the market. The tests cannot account for
the many difference in people's sensitivity (e.g., children, elderly, ailing,
multiple chemical exposures). They also don't test for many serious, non-cancer-related
health impacts on the immune, nervous, reproductive and hormonal systems.
These omissions are especially important for children, in whom these systems
are still developing.
Of the known dangers of pesticides, 73 of about 300
approved for use on food crops are "probable" or "possible"
carcinogens. Four of the most commonly used pesticides - atrazine, alachlor,
metachlor, and 1,3-dichloropropine - are classified as either "probable"
or "possible" carcinogens.
Pesticide dangers are not limited to humans. The EPA
has identified agriculture as the number one non-point source polluter of
water. In October '94, the Los Angeles Times ran a series of articles on
"Sexual Confusion in the Wild," reporting that pesticides and
industrial chemicals are infiltrating and disrupting the endocrine and reproductive
systems of embryos of fish, birds and other wild animals. Some males try
to lay eggs. Some females are unable to reproduce. Some animals have organs
from both sexes. Many of the chemicals have been identified as organochlorine
pesticides widely available and used by farms and households.
The practice of monocropping - planting large
plots of land with the same single crop year after year - also takes its
toll on the soils and ecosystems. Lack of plant diversity weakens the soil
and deprives it of the full range of needed mineral and nutrients. Crops
grown is such soils are more susceptible to pests and disease, so farmers
must use even more pesticides.
Federal farm policy favors large-scale monocropping,
making it difficult to financiallly sustain an organic farm. To get bank
loans and federal subsidies, farmers must maximize their yields - even at
the expense of the health of the farm. Organic farming would be much easier,
more efficient and profitable if federal research and technical assistance
programs offered farmers good information and economic incentives.
For organic agriculture to transform conventional
agriculture, all sectors will need to participate: farmers, distributors,
retailers, government and consumers. But the critical force - the catalyst
that will push the others to act - is the consumer. Retailers and distributors
will ask farmers for more organics if consumers demand them. The government
needs to know that consumers support changes to align policies and programs
with healthy, sustainable practices.
In this process, the mainstream supermarkets have special
significance. Organic foods must compete exactly like any other product.
But just as any product carries an image and meaning as part of its value
to the buyer (e.g., hipness, trustworthiness, youth, sophistication, power),
the significance of organic foods lies in the customer's awareness of their
connection to their personal health and the long-term health of the land.
When this awareness becomes mainstream, the growers, retailers and the government
will have to acknowledge organic agriculture as an integral part of maintaining
and nurturing our bodies and health, our economy, our earth and our future.
The Shopper's Campaign for Better Food Choices is volunteer-based.
To participate in research, petitioning, public education and event planning,
contact Delia at San Diego Earth Day (619) 272-7370.
(Statistics above are taken from "Green Supermarkets"
in Green Alternatives, Dec/Jan 1993-94; the Natural Food Merchandiser's
1993 Organic Times; San Diego Business Journal, 10/24/94, "Work Starts
on Organic Standards"; Mothers & Others Action News for a Liveable
Planet, Vol 1/No. 2, Spring/Summer 1993).
Delia Hitz recently moved to San Diego from the Los Angeles area,
where she specialized in public outreach, education and community organizing.
In 1993, whe was the Executive Director of the nonprofit Los Angeles Physicians
for Social Responsibility. Currently, she is heading up the Shoppers Campaign
for San Diego Earth Day.
