The forces behind Eat My View, which collected more than 100,000 signatures, and other similar campaigns must have been rubbing their eyes at the sight of Michelle Obama armed with a shovel on the White House lawn.

She had come to turn the sill on an organic garden; their dream was becoming a reality.

The White House is giving over a sizeable chunk – 1100 square feet in fact – to plant 55 different vegetables, fruit, berries and herbs year round (in keeping with the seasons, of course).

Most of its produce will cater for the White House and visiting dignitaries but some will also be donated to a soup kitchen down the road.

Launching the project, Mrs Obama said she wanted her daughters to eat healthy food and be reminded of where food comes from.

It’s a message the supporters of Eat My View, including prominent activists Michael Pollan and Alice Waters, have been pushing for years. Everyone needs to look at the source of their food and eat as locally as possible. And who better to lead from the front than the new president and his family?

Fresh is best: "Deep green" consumers will stand by the organic food sector. Picture: ILoveButter

First the bad news. As previously reported, growth in the organic food sector has slowed considerably as a result of the economic downturn. This is particularly true in countries regarded as the heavy hitters in the industry – the United States, France, the United Kingdom and Germany.

In the US, for example, sales were up 5.6 percent on the previous year last December, compared with 25.6 percent growth a year earlier. In Germany, growth has slowed from 14 percent in late 2007 to 10 percent late last year. In Britain, the mood was even more sombre, with a drop from 16 percent to a mere 2 percent last November.

But here’s the good news. While the industry has clearly taken a big hit worldwide, it is growing, which is more than can be said of much of the economy. And, apart from Britain, where some pundits predict sales will go into the red, the outlook is for continued growth.

Tom Pirovano, director of industry insights at market research firm The Nielsen Co, told Reuters news agency that he believed most organic consumers were committed to the sector.

“I’m not convinced that we are going to see big declines in organics any time soon,” he said.

Ronnie Cummins, national director of the Organic Consumers Association, agrees that core supporters are simply not prepared to return to a highly-processed diet.

“They are trying to stretch their money but they are not willing to stop buying organic,” he said. “We think in the long run the prognosis is good. The energy crisis and climate change can only really be addressed with organic production.”

Similarly, in Germany and France, the mood is one of optimism. Elisabeth Mercer, the head of Agence Bio, the country’s main organic food group, says demand is still rising.

“In Europe, apart maybe from the UK where the market seems more fragile, I do not believe there will be a drop in consumption this year although growth rates may be less spectacular,” she said.

Even in the UK, Patrick Holden, the director of the Soil Association, the country’s leading organic certifying body, remains upbeat, particularly about local organic produce.

Like Ronnie Cummins, he draws the distinction between “deep green”, or committed, consumers and “light green”, or swinging, consumers. He says the former constitute 80 percent of demand for organic produce and make their choices based on health and environmental reasons not cost. These, he believes, are in for the long haul.

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.

Oranges ain't oranges: It pays to know where your food comes from. Picture: Algul

There was a fuss at the markets the other day. It started when my friend Jen asked a stallholder where the oranges came from.  The woman exploded with exasperation.

“Everybody wants to know something!  Where’s this from?  Where’s that from?  People think I’ve got nothing to do but answer questions all day.”

She went on bellowing, “Once you could just have a stall, now it’s a hundred questions!  It’s fruit, lady – you just buy it!”

Jenny was amused and unrepentant. “I don’t care,” she calmly explained, “I’m not buying something from the other side of the world.”

I agree with Jen that there is something really wrong about produce that has clocked up more overseas travel that you have. While it might seem innocent enough to fly an orange several thousand miles there is more to it.

That variety may not be the juiciest, most fabulous orange.  Instead, it may be chosen for its ability to handle jet lag and months in cold storage. Who produces that orange and how it was grown have become invisible to us.  It could have been soaked in DDT and harvested by child slaves for all we know.

As the stall holder said: “Just shut up and buy the orange.”

I am really glad she’s having a tough time running a produce stall these days.  I think anyone in the food industry needs to be prepared to answer a lot more questions.

Consumers are waking from their blissful ignorance.  We are  discovering that those who control food production and supply may not have the interest and health of the customer or the planet as their priority.

Come on, let’s all start asking a lot more questions about what is on the label and how well travelled our produce is.  Our little annoying questions seem to be adding up.

It’s a vision of Arcadian splendour from a simpler time; it is the way people shop in nursery rhymes and historic novels. It’s a very long way from slinging a bag of pre-washed lettuce leaves into a trolley at a fluorescent-lit supermarket.

But increasingly, it’s also the way many of us want to shop now. The past 10 years have seen a massive revival in farmers’ markets, where growers sell their own produce direct to consumers, reviving an interest in locally grown produce and breathing new life into local economies and communities.

The United States’ Agricultural Marketing Service estimates there are around 4400 operating farmers’ markets in the country. In the UK, the National Farmers’ Retail and Markets Association (FARMA) has certified around 550 markets since it started in 1997.

Rising stocks: Farmers' markets are enjoying a revival. Picture: ellievanhoutte

A recent UK survey showed 30 per cent of people had been to a farmers’ market in the past 12 months and 30 per cent had been to a farm shop, but 88 per cent would like to buy direct from farmers.

Rita Exner, association secretary of FARMA, says UK farmers’ markets are worth £220million a year. Even in straitened economic times there is no sign of people wanting to depart from the principle of getting the freshest, best local food available to them at farmers’ markets.

“People are fed up with being processed through a supermarket and love buying direct from the producer,” Rita says. “They can talk and get answers to questions about the food they are about to buy. It’s a very sociable experience, too.”

Stacy Miller, the executive secretary from the Farmers Market Coalition in the US, agrees. She says surveys of market customers reveal they are most attracted by the freshness and appearance of the produce, the variety of goods available and the atmosphere of the market.

Many consumers also say they are attracted by the idea of buying organic produce. Rita says most farmers’ markets have about 10 per cent organic produce and there is one small wholly organic farmers’ market in London. “But they are mostly small farms and they take more care not to use chemicals indiscriminately,” she says.  Stacy says although many American producers are not actually certified organic, they use organic practices.

“If the producer is right there, you can ask questions. A sticker or a label is not as important as being able to ask the grower about how something was grown,” she says.

People are increasingly concerned about food safety, not just in relation to chemicals but also recent outbreaks of E.coli. “If you buy a bag of spinach leaves at a supermarket you just have to trust that someone has looked at it and it is in a good state but here, there is a relationship of trust that has been built up,” she argues. “You can ask, and if you do get sick, well you have accountability – you have their phone number, you can ask questions. How do you get that from a grocery store?”

While FARMA provides a certification process for farmers’ markets in the UK, in the US there is no nationwide certification process but many states have their own accreditation processes that take into account local demands and conditions.

In general, the aims of all farmers’ markets are similar – to bring farmers, growers or producers from a local area together to sell their own produce which has been grown, reared, caught or made by the stallholder. This means consumers get the freshest, most local produce possible, supporting the local community and economy and reducing “food miles”.

Rita Exner says there is a very real interest from consumers in trying to spend their money in a way that benefits the local community. “They are identifying with people who have businesses in their area,” she says.

But, as Stacy Miller, points out, farmers’ markets also provide a “self-interest entry point” for just about anybody. “There is farmland preservation, rural entrepreneurism, small business development as well as community development, nutrition, general health and wellbeing and social capital. Then there is economic development from the economic multipliers – there’s a lot going on there.”

One immediate benefit was making consumers more aware of the value of good quality produce. “They are bringing people back to the notion that there is a whole world of flavours that don’t exist when something has been harvested long ago and stored on a truck,” Stacy says.

Farmers’ markets also have a role to play in educating people about what’s in season, and how to prepare it. “They remind people what a real version (of a fruit or vegetable in season) tastes like or why there are no lettuces in the middle of summer because it is too hot to grow them in the sun. It is neat, people get into the flow of things,” Stacy says.

And Rita says when people do buy in season, they get a more varied diet. “They buy what’s available and in season instead of the same things year round.”

In the UK and Europe there is a noticeably growing interest among consumers in diet and health and a desire to be reassured that what they are eating is really good. There is also increasing scepticism about so-called “local” food in supermarkets.

“It may have been harvested 20 or 50 miles away but by the time it has been to a packing plant 150 miles away, it has done a round trip of several hundred miles,” Rita says.

But consumers should not necessarily expect goods to be cheaper at farmers’ markets. While fruit and vegetables in season are often inexpensive, Rita says meat is not always as cheap as supermarkets. “But it’s better quality and you know it has lived decently, it has lived a good life,” she says.

Stacy says as long as fuel costs in the US are subsidised, the true cost of transporting and packaging food will not be reflected in the supermarket price. When it is, locally-grown product will be a good economic alternative, she says.

“But there are costs associated with freshness. There is a risk of loss when products are so ripe and fresh and farmers are paying people decent wages,” she says. “It goes back to quality, the cost may be higher but the value is exponentially higher.”