growing trust 121She is more than just part of the community—she was a cofounder of
the hugely successful Ashfield farmers’ market. She sells to individuals
and restaurants, and enjoys a local diet by relying on other producers for
the things she doesn’t grow. “We don’t have chickens, for example, be-
cause so many other people do. We trade vegetables for eggs and meat.”
Their favorite local restaurant buys Amy’s produce all summer, the
last two months for credit, so that in winter she and Paul can eat there
whenever they want. He deems the arrangement “a great substitute for
canning.”
Like many small farms, this perfectly organic operation is not certifi ed
organic. Amy estimates certification would cost her $700 a year, and she
wouldn’t gain that much value from it. Virtually everyone who buys her
food knows Amy personally; many have visited the farm. They know she
is committed to chemical- free farming because she values her health, her
products, the safety of interns and customers, and the profoundly viable
soil of her fields and greenhouses.
Farmers like Amy generally agree that organic standards are a good
thing on principle. When consumers purchase food at a distance from
where it’s grown, certification lets them know it was grown in conditions
that are clearly codified and enforced. Farmers who sell directly to their
customers, on the other hand, generally don’t need watchdogs—their
livelihood tends to be a mission as well as a business. Amy’s customers
trust her methods. No federal bureaucracy can replace that relation-
ship.
Furthermore, the paper trail of organic standards offers only limited
guarantees to the consumer. Specifically, it certifies that vegetables were
grown without genetic engineering or broadly toxic chemical herbicides
or pesticides; animals were not given growth- promoting hormones or an-
tibiotics. “Certified organic” does not necessarily mean sustainably grown,
worker- friendly, fuel- effi cient, cruelty- free, or any other virtue a consumer
might wish for.
The rising consumer interest in organic food has inspired most of the
country’s giant food conglomerates to cash in, at some level. These big
players have successfully moved the likes of bagged salads and hormone-
free milk from boutique to mainstream markets and even big box stores.