Organic farming certification is the most recognizable food certification label to most of us.  We choose organic food for different reasons; some for health purposes, some for better taste, to say thee least of wanting to prioritize environmental sustainability.  We're given a seemingly clear and simple distinction between organic and conventional food, and it’s easy to typify organic as “clean” food, and non-organic as “not clean”.

But the privilege attached to these terms and the access to formal certification isn't available to all. Costs of applying for and maintaining the certification can be exorbitantly high. Language barriers, lack of assistance for the application process or access to resources needed to understand and implement certifiable processes all keep BIPOC and immigrant growers from benefitting from the financial gains an organic label would provide. 

Yet for a lot of small farms and in particular immigrant farmers, “regenerative”, “organic” and “sustainable” practices are nothing new! These farmers are caretakers of the land, applying generational cultural knowledge to sustain not only their livelihoods but the integrity of the soil, water and communities that depend on it. Take the continued practice of traditional Mesoamerican milpa farming, an intercropping system of regional crops like maize, squash, and beans (the beloved “three sisters”!). Or the integration of ducks into rice paddies and chili pepper plants or marigolds as pest control. Manure and decomposing plant matter keep the soil healthy. While many of these methods go beyond what organic certification requires, they're not recognized as such. So the organic label may fall under “clean”, but it's not always “fair”. Nor does it cover the wide swath of practices these farmers use.

So next time you venture out for your weekly produce, we encourage you to chat with your farmer. How do they approach their work? Ask them how they farm and why they farm that way...Understand that "organic" isn't the be all and end all. That clean farming doesn't always have a label. And maybe you'll get some gardening tips and recipes for your bounty!

See you at the market,
The Slow Food Team

🍴 FEATURED ORGANIZATION

“Spreading Loving Intention Through Food and Flowers”
Brown Girl Farms is a Black, queer and female-owned farm based in Hayward, applying African Indigenous Agroecology practices with the ethos of “providing beauty and care to the community through market vegetables, African American heritage crops, and unique seasonal flower bouquets.”  An example? Chickens munch on end-of-season crops, breaking them down and providing added nutrients to produce healthy eggs, and at the same time enrich the soil through their manure, minimizing the need for city compost.  

Check out their online farm stand, sign up for the CSA program and look for seasonal products at Mandela Partners in West Oakland and pop-ups around the Bay.
 

📅  UPCOMING EVENTS

Opening Day of the West Oakland Farmers’ Market
Sunday, June 5 | 10am-2pm
18th St. and Peralta St. 
Prescott West Oakland is the new home of a year-round market serving fresh produce, dairy, flowers, meat, and baked goods to the community.

Sandor Katz's Fermentation Journey Book Tour
May 29- June 6 
Sandor Katz, fermentation expert, James Beard Award Winner, and NYT Bestseller is making the rounds for his Bay Area Book Tour promoting his book: Sandor Katz’s Fermentation Journey. His latest book shares special places, people, and foods that have shaped his understanding of the many delicious techniques for fermenting foods.

Black & Asian Solidarity Dinner with Chef German Nelson and Tu David Phu at Sobre Mesa
Saturday, June 11 | 7 pm
Find tickets here
(part of the Black Food & Wine Experience - 6/11 - 6/19)
Top Chef alums Chef Nelson German & Chef Tu David Phu will take you on a tasting menu of Pan-African and Vietnamese fusion cuisine with conversation to bridge the intersectionality around Black pride and “No Asian Hate.” 

📝 RESOURCES

📰 Read

Can Organic Farming Solve the Climate Crisis
Published in 2020, but still relevant!
“...some of the soil-building practices that science currently shows have the potential to make the biggest difference in the face of the climate crisis are now being used by farmers practicing regenerative agriculture, an approach that has emerged as the farm darling of the climate movement and is often framed as “beyond organic.”

Healing Grounds: Climate, Justice and the Deep Roots of Regenerative Farming by Liz Carlisle
“Liz Carlisle tells the stories of Indigenous, Black, Latinx, and Asian American farmers who are reviving their ancestors’ methods of growing food—techniques long suppressed by the industrial food system.”
“While feeding their communities and revitalizing cultural ties to land, they are steadily stitching ecosystems back together and repairing the natural carbon cycle.”

🎧 Listen 

Climate Cuisine by Whetstone Radio Collective: 
“Climate Cuisine profiles how sustainable, soil-building crops that share the same biome are grown, prepared, and eaten around the world.”

Healing Grounds: Liz Carlisle & Aidee Guzman by Real Food Media
Listen to Liz Carlisle and Aidee Guzman (author and featured scientist from Healing Grounds mentioned above) discuss how in order for regenerative agriculture to successfully combat climate change, we must follow the lead of BIPOC growers using ancestral farming strategies.

🐌 CALL TO ACTION

It’s officially Pride month! 🏳️‍🌈
Support Queer BIPOC farmers!
Donations will help with registration and travel costs for BIPOC attendees heading to the 2022 Queer Farmer Convergence- a gathering to interrupt racist, capitalist, colonialist, and heteropatriarchal legacies in U.S. agriculture, while building community and alternatives among queer farmers who might experience isolation in those intersecting identities.