Here's cheers: Shake off the blues and raise your glasses to an organic year. Picture: dotw

It was in retrospect, to paraphrase Mr Dickens, the best of times. Slowly awaking to the scale of society’s environmental and health problems, more of us were taking a closer look at the source of our daily bread.

Who made it? Where was it made? What was it made with? Should I be eating it?

Organic was no longer a “hippy” term, but had become hip. Speciality stores were popping up all over the place. Hell, even the local supermarket had organic ranges. Organic had gone mainstream. 

With double digit growth year on year, the organic food sector – a fiesty David in the land of Goliath – was the envy of the rest of the food market.

And then came the Crash. Or Recession. Or Downturn. Call it what you like, depending on where you live and your circumstances, but there is little doubt 2008 knocked the stuffing out of more than the world’s banks.

As one financial institution after another crumbled around us, citizens previously preoccupied with the size of their bottoms were suddenly more worried about the bottom line. Can I afford to spend the extra to eat better? What if I don’t have a job tomorrow? 

By the end of 2008, many pundits, particularly those with interests vested elsewhere, were tipping the demise of the organic sector. “Ha! We told you it was just a fad, an elitist food concept designed to make the rest of us feel guilty about what we eat.”

So as we embrace the New Year, is that outlook as bleak as some would have you believe?

There is little doubt the industry has been affected. Those who regard organic as a discretionary spend, a “nice” thing to do if you’ve got the extra cash, were quick to cut back. It was certainly scary to see so many resorting to cheap fast “food”, seeing the multinational chain’s profits soar as falls were felt in healthier spheres.

But the doomsayers ignore the fact that for an increasing number of people organic is not an optional extra. The food they feed their families has become a number one priority. They would rather stint on new clothes or replacing the old telly than sacrifice the quality of their food. These people are not fairweather friends.

“The core organic consumers are sticking with their values,” the Organic Trade Association’s Barbara Haumann said recently. “They will shop around, or find other things they can cut.”

With soaring energy costs, the gap between organic and non-organic food prices has closed, as organic methods typically use far less energy in production and packaging.

There are certain organic products that will do better than others. In Australia, for example, business analysts IBISWorld tip a big year for organic dairy and chocolate, and a trend toward “greener” meat choices, such as chicken and pork, and ethical eggs. 

In the US, the American National Restaurant Association has put organic produce, wine and cocktails in its top 20 trends, with locally grown produce at the top of the list.

Outside the all-important consumer, there has also been a groundswell of support for organic among some big international players. 

In April 2008, the results of a six-year global investigation involving heavyweights such as the World Bank, WHO and UNESCO, concluded that the way most of food is still produced is simply not sustainable.

The International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development (IAASTAD), which involved some 400 scientists, government agencies and community groups, urged the world to abandon its reliance on petrochemical fuels and pesticides and embrace more sustainable farming systems. “Modern agricultural practices have exhausted land and water resources, squelched diversity and left poor people vulnerable to high food prices.” 

In October, the United Nations issued a report that showed, contrary to one of the common arguments put forward by organic opponents, organic farming can feed the world. In fact, Organic Agriculture and Food Security in Africa argued that it offered the best solution for food stability in that troubled continent. There were already signs of success – an analysis of 114 projects in 24 African countries found that yields had more than doubled in those that used organic or near-organic methods.

So while the best of times are behind us for the moment, we need not fear the worst. Double digit growth may be a thing of the past but the industry is still growing. This is simply another hurdle in what has already been a long and tortuous path for the organic movement.

Too many of us now know the importance of securing a better way for the future. We know what we eat today affects so much more than our bottom lines (and bottoms). Most importantly, more of us care enough not to abandon this particular food fight.

Here’s to a happy, prosperous – and sustainable – 2009.

But I love to hear stories of farmers bucking the system and reaping the rewards. Take George and Kate Heathcote.

The publicity shots from the British reality TV show, A Farm Life, for which they agreed to be guinea pigs might make them look like an old-fashioned cliche, but this is a thoroughly progressive family in so many ways.

George does most of the cooking and the lion’s share of child care of their three kids aged three to seven, while Kate works as a registrar surgeon in Portsmouth. 

The farm is also largely George’s responsibility, although they all muck in, literally, when required.

And, unlike so many others on the land, the family is doing well, thanks to a savvy decision to float modern farming methods.

Warborne Farm is organic, from its 300 varieties of vegetables and 100 varieties of fruit, to the myriad animals it produces.

The couple uses crop rotation, rather than chemicals, to sustain the soil that provides their livelihood. While the more labour intensive farming method requires more bodies than usual, the Heathcotes make up for it by cutting out supermarkets and selling their produce direct to customers. 

“Supplying supermarkets was a soul-destroying enterprise,’ George told the Daily Mail ahead of the show’s launch. “No one seemed to care about quality. We were given rock-bottom prices for lamb, for example, which meant we had to cram as many sheep as we could into fields to get maximum yield.

“Overstocking meant sheep were poorer quality. It was also bad for the environment, because the land was overgrazed. I knew there had to be a better way. I wanted to grow food in season that I was proud of, for people who cared and appreciated it. I also wanted to protect the environment.” 

Within a few years of going organic they sell 200 boxes a week. Okay, it’s not going to earn them a listing in Forbes rich list, but it does earn them a good living and they do a world of good at the same time. What a lesson for their kids, too (and all without a television in the house).

More power to them and their kind.

But as crunch time moves mercifully closer and the smooth-talking senator looks ever more likely to take up the mantle of 44th president of the United States, Barack has the chance to embrace his inner farmer in a powerfully symbolic, yet practical, way.

On the road: The WhoFarmMobile takes its message to Times Square, New York. Picture: heyheygig

The WhoFarm Mobile, complete with organic garden on the roof, has been travelling the country drumming up support for its mission to make the next resident of the White House an organic man.

More precisely, the organisers of the White House Organic Farm Project, or WhoFarm, want their prez to commit to digging up a good portion of the White House gardens to create an organic haven.

They’ve created a petition to that effect, in which they argue such a farm would be a model for “healthy, economical and sustainable living everywhere”.

The farm would provide fresh food for the president, his family and guests to the White House, as well as for school lunch programs and food pantries in Washington DC.

The main man wouldn’t be expected to get his hands dirty – although no doubt a tilling of the soil would make a great photo opportunity. Rather, it is proposed that school children and those with disabilities work the farm to set an example of “hands-on learning”.

Sowing seeds of the past

The plants can’t be any old garden varieties; this is the White House, after all.  Instead, proponents want seeds taken from the heirloom varieties from the farm of Founding Father Thomas Jefferson, as well as donations from generous farmers and home gardeners (GMO free, naturally).

And something good would finally come from the waste (non-verbal at least) generated from the White House, the US Capitol and the US Supreme Court. It would be turned into compost for the garden’s soil.

The duo behind WhoFarm, Daniel Bowman Simon and Casey Gustowarow, say Alice Waters gave them the idea for the project. The sustainable food icon has been talking about her desire to see the president eating from his (or her) own garden for a number of years, a topic she returned to in accepting her Global Environmental Citizen Award from The Harvard Center for Health and the Global Environment this year.

Daniel was there to hear it and felt strangely compelled to bring about her dream (which also included edible schoolyards, by the way).

WhoFarm has also earned support from prominent author Michael Pollan, who published an “open letter” in the New York Times Magazine to the “Farmer in Chief”, urging the incoming president to tackle the issue of food head-on and appoint a White House farmer, as well as a chef. “This new post would be charged with implementing what could turn out to be your most symbolically resonant step in building a new American food culture,” he argues.

It’s certainly hard to think of a better place for the new prez to bring about change than in his own backyard. What do you think?