ORGANIC- what is it?

WHAT IS ORGANIC ?

Sixteen years ago, I learned the difference.

Over a decade ago I found myself in Kampala, Uganda to attend The First  Organic Coffee Conference organized by  The International Federation of Organic Agricultural Movements (IFOAM). We learned new terms in the meeting like “organically-grown”, “in conversion”, Organic certified or certified organic and got introduced to the world of soil, healthy soil and organic movements. That was 2004.

Four years later I would find myself opening an organic and natural retail store called ECHOstore. Though the O meant “Organization” ---the organizations we worked with to get community products to market--- it may also just as  well mean ORGANIC as we were conscious about sharing with our market what we knew about the subject. E was for environment, C was for Community, H was for hope and now we have given it a new meaning which is Health, and O may now officially be ORGANIC. This is ECHOstore 4.0. Responding to Health issues, promoting Organic food and other products and still conscious about Community work and of course, Environment.

But there needs to be an awareness drive to make people understand that ORGANIC means soil and not water as a medium for growing food. ORGANIC means not using any chemicals, fungicides or pesticides in our farming practice. ORGANIC may as well mean natural and unadulterated by man’s inventions and interventions.

Yes, there needs to be an openness of the consumer to learning what is ORGANIC. Pundits will tell you that Certification is the enemy. That it costs money for the farmer. But certification has now been studied to include PGS or Participatory Guarantee Systems where communities vouch for each other on being Organic and this may not need expensive audit trips that cost the producer and ultimately, that cost is passed on to the consumer.

How do we know it’s organic? Some questions to ask your producer….

1.    Do they use soil?

2.    Do they use pest control that is not made from chemicals? In other words, do they make use of natural available pest control like Pepper, soap and other handy available natural controllers.

3.    Do they use biodiversity as a tool to control insects? Planting flowers as “insect food” may mean they will not go to our food—the vegetables, the plants.

4.    Do they use open-pollinated varieties of seeds and not GMO or manufactured seeds?

5.    Where do they store their produce like coffee, seeds, seedlings? Is it stored near industrial supplies like cement or chemical sprays?

This is now our mission: to educate, to influence and to engage consumers and producers to shift to organic ways. The detractors usually would tell you: certification is expensive, it makes products expensive, it’s hard to do, it tastes the same….and so on.

It’s a choice. Organic practice and the support for organic producers is a choice.But it’s the way to make the world the way it used to be. Before the weed killers, before Malathion, before insecticides, before DDT.

So, do learn more about ORGANIC and learn to taste real food. Make soil. Use soil.