Organic produce…room to grow!

At least there is some locally grown organics. Hopefully, the local growers will either, fill the organic certifications or just grow organically without certification. This last option requires a lot of trust from the customer. Get to know your grower, go visit his farm.

Regional organic foods remain rarity

BY ELIZABETH BASSETT

July 26, 2010

Buying regional foods helps local farmers and growers, but people still often have to turn to grocery stores to buy certified organic goods.

It’s not difficult to find organic foods in grocery stores these days.

It’s also not hard to find regional food at local places like farmers markets and some stores.

Regional organic? That’s another thing entirely.

Only a small amount of land in Texas is devoted to organic growing, but various programs are supporting those who choose to produce food that’s safer for the environment and for those who eat it.

Beverly Thomas of the organic Cold Springs Farm in Weatherford has tomatoes, melons, peppers, eggplants, greens, herbs and more growing on what will soon be 17 acres. Shares of her harvests are bought through a community supported agriculture program, and she also takes the fruit and vegetables to farmers markets in the Fort Worth area.

Some of her foods, like the delicate heirloom tomatoes, aren’t hardy enough to be shipped long distances, and she offers them to people in North Texas.

“Those are often the best, by far, and the best tasting,” she said. “You won’t find those in the grocery stores.”

By the fall of 2011, Thomas hopes to have 34 acres producing on her farm, all organic. She made the switch to become certified organic last August with assistance from the United States Department of Agriculture and a transition to organic program, a three-year program that provides technical and financial assistance for farmers to grow 100 percent organic.

“She’s only one [in the county] in the organic incentive program,” said William Donham, district conservationist with the USDA-National Resources Conversation Service office in Parker County.

The program is a new one, Donham said, and after an application process, farmers can be chosen to partake in the program and receive federal funding to help with things like ground cover, fences, herbicides and pesticides. They also can turn to agents like Donham for questions.

With Thomas being the first in the county to enter the new program, the entire process has included a lot of research and planning to go through a process that includes very detailed standards that have to be met to become certified organic.

“We’re not normally schooled in organic cultural methods, so it was a big learning curve,” he said.

Thomas takes her goods to farmers markets run by the North Central Texas Farmers Market Association, where she sells next to other regional growers and food producers. Greg Johnson, president of the association, said she is the only certified organic grower who sells at the markets.

There are new farmers markets in the Fort Worth area — one in Pantego and another in Richland Hills — that were made possible by a grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to Tarrant County Public Health.

As part of the Live a More Colorful Life! campaign, the public health department focused on expanding sustainable access to fresh, regional and seasonal fruits and vegetables, said Ann Salyer-Caldwell, associate director of community health promotions at Tarrant County Public Health.

In addition to partnering with the farmers market association to create more markets, the health department funded grants to create community or school gardens. Richland Elementary School received a grant to create an organic garden on its grounds, near the Richland Hills farmers market, and part of the intent with the markets and gardens is to create access that will continue even after the CDC grant money runs out, Salyer-Caldwell said.

“We work with them to get things started, but in the end, we want something that will be in place not just today, but in five years,” she said.

The Richland Elementary garden, created at the beginning of last school year, is also wholly organic and a learning experience for kids, who tend for and harvest okra, beans, spinach, melons, peppers, zucchini and tomatoes, said Audra Squire, a primary developmental skills teacher at the school.

As supervisor for the garden, Squire opted for organic because that’s the way she grows at home. With donations of supplies from a local church and volunteered time from parents, she got the garden built in the courtyard of the school. She’d had a garden on the school grounds before, but it wasn’t well secured and got ruined, she said.

Not only do students get to learn about the growing process, but they get to taste the organically grown fruits and vegetables.

“I’ve seen kids that would not touch a salad, that are very finicky eaters . . . when they grow it themselves and get to pick it, they eat it,” she said.

Squire is tending the garden with help from staff during the summer, while kids are on vacation, but she said in a few years, when the garden is more established, some of the harvest could be sold at the nearby farmers market. She’s also hoping that by exposing the students of the Title I school (and their families) to organic, fresh produce, she can influence them to eat healthier and support local farmers. A family can even grow some of its own food organically, with a small garden or pots.

“It’s amazing how many times they eat at McDonald’s a week,” she said.

Around the state, there’s roughly 155,000 acres dedicated to organic crops and another 300,000 of organic pasture for grassfed beef and poultry, said Amanda Vanhoozier, secretary of the Texas Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association.

“Of all the farmland in Texas, that’s one tenth of one percent, in production for organic,” Vanhoozier said. “Is that meeting the need? No. Is there room to grow? There’s terrific room to grow, and the more little farms that grow up for sustainable or organic will help fill the need.”

TOFGA was established in 1992 and is a nonprofit that includes farmers, ranchers, commercial growers, retailers, wholesalers, processors and more that support the organic industry in the state. Vanhoozier works for the city of Coppell and has done public education on environmental and water quality issues, and when the city was looking at a farmers market and support for its community gardens, TOFGA helped.

Classes and workshops offered by TOFGA and other organizations – the USDA-NRCS office offers some too – as well as a wealth of information shared farmer to farmer is making it easier to grow organic. However, it’s a time-intensive and long-term commitment, since the soil needs to be rebuilt to get away from lasting effects of non-organic pesticides or herbicides. And any growing venture takes time, waiting on nature.

“Really, agriculture in the United States has been based on the information that’s given to farmers, so when that information gets more on the side of sustainable and for the environment, the more they will switch over,” she said.

Cutline Cover: The Cowtown Farmers Market, supported by the North Texas Farmers Market Association, offers local, seasonal goods, some made with organic ingredients or grown with largely-organic growing

methods, but there is only one U.S.D.A. certified organic grower who frequents the local markets.

Support CSA!

 Powered by Max Banner Ads 

Share this

Hide Sites