Jeff Kraus / Flickr
Earlier this summer I was selling veggies at the Farmer grocery store when I overhear a customer ask another vendor if her blueberry bush were constitutive . Politely , the vendor responded , “ Well , we ’re not certify … , ” cleverly allowing the sentence to trail off uncompleted .
This was n’t technically a lie . This vendor was not license . But the unfinished part of the sentence the customer did n’t get to hear was “ Well , we ’re not manifest , but there is also no means we could be . ” This particular farm was established — mean they used chemicals — but the vendor ’s response implied that although they were n’t certified , they never used chemicals . So I watched as the client , satisfied with that solvent , buy a dry pint of blueberry bush assume they were naturally grown .
This is just the earthly concern we ’re live on in now . Sure , some conventional farmers are switching over to organic practices , but others are just adjust to the times . In arecent resume , 23 percent of people believed locally grown produce meant it was constitutional , and conventional sodbuster — whether they ’ve understand the survey or not — bonk this . These farmers know that setting up at sodbuster food market and labeling themselves as homegrown , local , raw or “ not certify , ” will help the customer to assume she is fetch a chemical - free production . It ’s business , and I get that , but it ’s deceptive and the customer is n’t be getting a fair shake .
However , no formal farm is going to change this on a belief of ethics . formal farm are not going to start advertise their practices openly because if they did , they know their sales would plump . They will proceed to adapt to client ’s query and continue to keep the client coming back . It is the customer then whose obligation it is to see through the smoke and mirror if they so want .
Because I ’ve noticed — and I ’m sure ceremonious farmers have discover — that customers do n’t always try on that heavily . They might hear something that occupy some of their doubtfulness off , then not feel obligate to compress further . But I can not emphasize this enough : If food without chemicals is your goal , then it is on you to postulate more questions , hard as they may be , like , “ Oh , you ’re not certify , but do you utilise chemical ? ”
And even then , the farmer may say something like , “ Only if we ’re going to fall back a harvest . ”
But do not slow down . I get wind this “ only if we ’re going to lose a craw ” response a lot , and it always nark me . It annoy me because it ’s avoid the question , and it bothers me because in person , on our farm and on any truly natural farm , the farmer would n’t spray if they going to turn a loss the star sign , lease alone one crop . If you ’re intentions are to keep chemicals out of your food , be persistent . necessitate the farmer again , “ So did this product right here receive any sorting of chemic treatment — plant food , pesticide , weed killer or otherwise ? ”
The vendor will not likely lie in when press enough . These James Leonard Farmer are not poorly - intended — they’re just savvy businesspeople adjudicate to make a living . And many farmers I ’ve run into even see chemicals as completely innocent . Having spring up up using them , some view chemicals like a tool — just another part of farming . So when people ask if chemical substance were used , they may ascertain the question silly , like “ Was a tractor used to delve these potatoes ? ” And so they are not go to freely admit to using chemical because they do n’t want to suffer the sales agreement , and maybe because they do n’t think it ’s necessary .
Of of course , it is necessary . Residues from the types of chemical substance used on food are not only environmentally hazardous , but also linked to just about every known cancer , from brainiac to vesica . And if you need to ward off that , you have to be diligent .
I detest that the load is on the customer now . It seems absurd — if I may in truth editorialize for a moment — that those of us who do not treat our land or our Cartesian product are the ones who have to certify them . It seems ridiculous that schematic farmers are n’t want to put in sheer “ We Use Chemicals ” on their products . But that ’s the direction it is for the here and now . So like a pest evolves to be resistant to pesticides , so too must the client .
And many have . Not too long after the account I started this slice with , a separate client asked that same vendor the very same question , “ Are these organic ? ” Sensing something was amiss in the “ Well , we ’re not certify ” answer , the client iron further and eventually got the seller to concede . Then , having fulfil her distrust , the client walk away . Noblueberriesin hand .
