GOOD, CLEAN & FAIR – FINDING THE WAY…

And Seeing Through the Corporate Trickery

WE ARE WHAT WE EAT in every way and food is the symbolic key to leaving the
celebration sober and smarter than before. It’s the foundation of our everyday lives that’ll
make or break us. We started to rebuild that foundation with organic food and yet
corporations have twisted some of it for their own ends. Now we’re moving towards more
food localism. We’re going to have to take organic and local and go beyond them in the
spirit of fairness and trust. Today’s politics, culture and economics stand against all of this
and yet there are still people with the focus and determination to make real change happen.
And this change will need every bit of your passion and dedication to a better way. We
need to seize the bull of policy and governance, so to speak, and guide it deftly towards a
brighter future.

SETTING THE STAGE

Organic foods really took off when people forgot the environmental and social reasons for
it and focused on personal health and the idea of a new fresh and trendy “package”1. We
can deny it no more – organic food, especially the unprocessed kind2, is simply better for
you compared to chemically ‘spoiled’ or highly processed food. First, you reduce your
exposure to pesticides that can harm you and your children while they’re still growing3.
Secondly, organic food has more health and brain boosting nutrients and cancer fighting
anti-oxidants on average4. It can be as high as 40% for vegetables and 90% for milk
depending on where it’s made for example. In a world where poor diet is rapidly killing
millions of rich and poor people alike through preventable diseases like Type 2 diabetes,
heart disease and cancer – you can bet that we need more real, healthy, better tasting food!5

Organics has become the new quality norm for many people these days6. “The demand is
so huge that it’s rising at 20% per year and is growing ten times faster than all other
agriculture sectors”, 7 according to Laura Telford, the executive director of Canadian
Organic Growers. “There aren’t even enough organic farmers to meet that demand and
we’ve had to import the majority of it.” Organic fresh fruits and vegetables as well as dairy
are the big-ticket items. Still it’s unfortunate to know that only 1.5% of our national
population are certified organic farmers which isn’t enough to feed 32 million people in a
desperate, socially and environmentally needed way. Why aren’t we making a bigger effort
to make farming a real, respectable career? Why aren’t more people reconnecting with the
land in a time when few can make a decent living in a tide of falling workers wages and
rising corporate profits?8

CORPORATE CON MEN

The shortage of farmers isn’t the only challenge to organic food and agriculture. If you’re
buying heavily processed organic foods you’re overlooking the small family farmer.
According to Irena Knezevic, a PhD scholar at York University, “Most of the major organic
brands are owned by large corporations such as ConAgra, Cargill, Kraft, Coca Cola and
Pepsi.”9 They’ve taken the name and skin of “organic” and threw out everything that really
mattered to communities, people’s livelihoods and the environment - all in the name of
profit without moral or political limits. How could they possibly pass up such a savoury
opportunity even if it meant cutting corners10 to exploit your desire for a better life?
Organic food generally remains something for those who can afford it – often labeled
“yuppy chow”. Some associate it with looking thin. Its become a sort of “food fetish” says
Knezevic.11 The story doesn’t end there however.

THE SMALL FARMER AND “THE CON”

As this corporate organic “industry” grows larger, small organic farmers continue to
disappear. These are the real people who work toward a better way of growing food and
living lightly. This is definitely a growing problem in the US. In Canada, our small
number of producers has managed to stave off the control of corporations like Wal-Mart
since the Canadian market is so small that farmers held the bargaining power12. In the US,
corporations have used the original small organic farms they bought out as public relations
show pieces (the “front”) to maintain the illusion of real people, real food. This is used in
their public relations and advertising. Corporations want to appear “small and authentic”
and avoid the reputation of the “big, bad corporation”.13 Of course all the money they
throw into their fancy packaging is all the harder to compete with according to farmer Kim
Perry, whose store Local Family Farms in Verona sells local and organic products from
around Kingston and countryside. All one can say is to keep trying to stay informed and
avoid eating too much corporately processed organics if possible since we wouldn’t be
doing our local community and friends any favours.

PULLING A FAST ONE

Of course trying to read the labels and stay informed can be as hard as trying to thread a
needle with sand thrown in your eyes. There are over 30 different organic certification
symbols and standards in Canada14. Try making sense of that! Unfortunately, only the
USDA organic certification is the most well known. That standard has been stained by lax
enforcement over the organic practices fraud perpetrated by Aurora Organic dairy for
example15. Canada is working on a nation wide certification for 2008 that will make it
easier to recognize Canadian ‘certified organic’. There are concerns however that labeling
will continue to increase corporate control over organic foods in Canada. After all
government subsidies would favour large “organic”16 factory farms over small farms17.
The labeling doesn’t deal with social and environmental damage from importing food (food
miles18, food safety19), unfair labour practices20, using migrant labour21 or losing out on
helping local communities or economies by buying local22. To some, these sorts of labels
are just one more marketing tool in the corporate bag of “tricks”.23 Certainly there are
labels you can respect such as Local Food Plus (LFP), based out of Toronto. It’s the only
certification right now that does factor in being socially responsible (fair wages for all
workers, animal welfare) among many other things.24

PASSING THROUGH THE MIRAGE

Deep down you’re all responsible people who are looking for a truly better way to live your
life, help your community and enjoy real food. Buying local when possible is one of those
ways. Buying local and organic gets you to the next step. Buying fairly traded foods that
can’t be grown here for one reason or another yet support local economies of developing
nations brings us even closer to the high ground. Kim Perry offers her kind and honest
advice when trying to walk this path. “It’s a simple answer. Check out the Eating Close to
Home directory and talk to all the farmers in it. It’s like trying to find a good mechanic.
Check the organic food link from the Sleepless Goat or the Local Harvest newspaper that
the National Farmers’ Union puts out. Research it like anything else, use the Internet.”25
The message she tells us is getting across. The gist: to buy locally from farmers or
producers you can see with your own two eyes and hear with your own two ears – people
you can trust. How could you possibly go wrong! There are many organic farmers in
Kingston and countryside. Thoughtfully encourage your local conventional farmers to
slowly adopt humane and environmentally friendly practices. Of course this is only
halfway up the hill, my devoted friends! Real change means forcing policy makers and
bureaucrats to put limits on corporations, to join, promote and support local and organic
agriculture, just labour practices for migrants and farm labourers as well as fair trade. It
means uniting and raising our voices for a better world for our children. It means
becoming leaders – among friends, in our communities and even through government.
Only then will we be ready and able to realize a brighter day ahead and have food down the
road that truly nourishes us.

Sunny Lam is an independent writer and consultant on issues of sustainability, food

systems, urban agriculture and communication. He is a Master’s graduate from the School
of Environmental Studies at Queen’s University, a founding member of the Farmers’
Market @ Queen’s and a former volunteer organizer with Food Down the Road. (416 845
0818 or sunny.lam@gmail.com)

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1
Guthman 2004
2
Rembialkowska et al. 2007
3
Curl et al. 2003, Roberts et al. 2007
4
Desjardins 2007, Halweil 2007, Ungoed-Thomas 2007, Niggli et al. 2007, Bergamo et al.
2003
5
Pawlick 2007, Jobin 2006, Roberts 2007b0, Theuer 2006
6
Tinderbox 2007
7
Macey 2006, Telford 2007, Knezevic 2007
8
Russell and Dufour 2007
9
Knezevic 2007
10
Mercola 2007, Cornucopia Institute 2007a,c
11
Telford 2007, Knezevic 2007, Guthman 2002, Guthman 2004, Biro and Johnston 2007
12
Telford 2007
13
Biro and Johnston 2007
14
Telford 2007
15
Mercola 2007, Cornucopia Institute 2007a,c
16
Cornucopia Institute 2007b, Guthman 2004: Earthbound Organics is a monoculture
operation that grows only chemical free salad greens for acres as far as the eye can see.
Hardly in keeping with true biodiversity.
17
Knezevic 2007
18
Perry 2007, Knezevic 2007, Knechtel 2008, Lam 2006, Lam 2007, Halliday 2007
19
Perry 2007, Mercola 2007
20
Guthman 2002, Guthman 2004, Biro and Johnston 2007
21
Guthman 2002, Guthman 2004, Biro and Johnston 2007
22
Knezevic 2007, Lam 2007, Knezevic 2007, Cornucopia Institute 2007a,b
23
Knezevic 2007
24
Friedmann 2007
25
Perry 2007