A day with the Organic Elders....

Last Thursday I attended the Next Generation all day intensive at Organicology. It was a star studded event of the organic movement. I enjoyed getting the opportunity to listen and talk with folks who have been in the organic trade movement for thirty plus years. I was continuously struck by the passion and dedication that these folks have for the organic movement. Many organic leaders spent the first part of their career making little or no money and being told they were hippie activists with no real cause. Now many of them are the experts in their field continuing the fight for organics as business owners, policy advisors, and farmers. Here is the list of the organized leader (there were also many other leaders in the room besides these folks):

Anne Schwartz, Owner, Blue Heron Farm & Executive Committee of Washington Tilth;
Bob Scowcroft, Founder & former Executive Director of the Organic Farming Research Foundation*;
Bu Nygrens, co-owner, Founder & Director of Purchasing, Veritable Vegetable;
Lynn Coody, Founder & Principal of Organic Agsystems Consulting;
Mark Lipson, Organic & Sustainable Agriculture Policy Advisor, USDA, Office of the Secretary*;
Dag Falck, Organic Program Manager, Nature's Path
Michael Funk, Chair & Co-Founder of United Natural Foods Inc*;
Roger Blobaum, Organic Research Coordinator, The Ceres Trust;
Theresa Marquez, Mission Executive, Organic Valley/CROPP Cooperative*;
Zea Sonnabend, Policy Specialist, CCOF & Organic Farmer, Fruitilicious Farm*
*Recipient of Organic Trade Association's Leadership Award - the highest honor given annually to an individual who has shown leadership and vision in furthering goals of the organic movement.

I found it interesting that at the beginning of the day I wasn't as passionate about organic as the leaders in the room. Organic, in my opinion, is a step in the right direction but are not to be confused with sustainable agriculture. What I learned after listening to the leaders (or Elders) was how the association I have with organics is only a fraction of what these Elders believe organics stand for, as well as what they believe the should stand for. We had some inspiring conversation about the values of organics. We all share the same values for our food system: health, social equity, environment, and community. But the USDA certified ‘organic' is currently only addressing the farming practices that pertain to chemicals. This is great, but as I mentioned it is NOT sustainable farming. USDA Organic doesn't address fuel in tractors, how the produce is packaged, living wages for farm workers and the water used. Organics are also not creating equity in the food system. It could even be argued that because organics are sold at a premium they create less equity. One of my big take-aways from this all day intensive was that as part of the next generation of champions we need to continue the fight for both sustainability and equity in our food system. Maybe it will be new certifications, maybe it will be new government regulation, maybe it will be new social services, or new innovative business (and maybe, or rather hopefully, it will be all of these things). We need to accomplish something as and possibly more meaningful than the USDA organic standard in the next thirty years.

One thing that came up often as well was the idea of Organic as a transparent movement. I think our entire food system needs some serious transparency. If transparency is the future, then how do we get folks to take the first step? Who is going to be brave enough to admit their weakness, and the areas that need improvement and risk their competitors taking advantage of their weakness. The business world is historically cut-throat after all.

The Intensive structure allowed folks who have been in their professional careers in the organic food industry for 30 plus years to talk about not only the organic movement but talk about leadership. Questions we got to ask included: (1) what were the characteristics they thought were assets to their career, (2) what where some of their biggest mistakes, (3) what were some words of wisdom they had to pass on, and (3) what they thought they could learn from the next generation. Dag Falk's words of advice stuck with me; to be fearlessly transparent as the biggest asset to his career and the biggest suggestion he has for the next generation. He talked about a current challenge in the industry that is in need of some fearlessly transparent champions. It was around this idea that we need to make sure consumers understand that the USDA organic standard is a practice standard (as in the fruit isn't tested rather farms are inspected). He believes that if this isn't clarified to consumers there could be a backlash and hurt the movement. He also talked about why he was part of the Non-GMO project. It is a project that tests produce and products to insure there are no GMO's contamination. Some of his peers in the Organic movement thought it best to not address the issue of Organic products being contaminated with GMOs. He didn't agree. He thought it was best to be transparent and then provide another tool. The non-GMO project provides customers a verified scientific quantified certification that the product is below a certain GMO contamination. It is actually a consumer tool that pairs nicely with the USDA Organic certificate if you ask me.


Fearlessly transparent. I like it.