field notes: news & resources for re-linking the food chain

Meet Mike

Mike Thorn believes in change.  He believes that small farmers can build sustainable businesses. He believes that restaurants and institutions will one day be able to source local food with ease.  And he believes it’s time for high-tech solutions to support the vibrant, local businesses that are bringing good food to our tables.

Mike joined Local Orbit as the lead programmer in May, and he hasn’t come up for air since.  From developing new features for our pilot hub sites to figuring out how to solve problems created by rural satellite internet connections, he’s been busy.  Mike’s work on our upcoming release will allow us to tailor Local Orbit’s tools to each region’s unique needs and support a variety of food distribution business models.  It will also provide rich production and distribution information to help everyone involved in the value chain with future planning.

Mike’s food values come from his deep family roots.  His father, a professor and doctor, cooked dinner for his family every night, inspired by the foods of his Thai and Chinese upbringing.  Local produce was always on the menu and still is today; he purchases at least 50% of his food from Farmer’s Markets and blows away dinner guests with his unbelievable lamb curry that takes 10 hours of hands on cooking to perfect.

Mike was majoring in Chemistry at Eastern Michigan University, but chose to jump into the fast and furious world of internet startups instead. Soon after, his first startup consulting company was awarded a major project for The Dow Chemical Company, lasting 9 years.  Mike’s role in this project was the primary software architect for their laboratory information management system.  His software was used to outsource millions of dollars of routine testing, enabling shorter hold times on inventory and freeing expensive internal resources to focus on product development and refinement.  Later, he helped implement a web-based data mining processor that used natural language processing to calculate performance metrics for Fortune 500 companies such as Disney and RCI.  Most recently, he designed a HIPPA-compliant architecture for an electronic medical record system start-up, Therapy Charts

Mike is excited to see his work help farmers grow stronger businesses.  In the long run, he sees himself making an even greater contribution by helping our users run their businesses more effectively with the robust, easy-to-use planning and marketing tools Local Orbit is developing.   His goal is to bring the resources and tools that create advantages for big agriculture and huge retail chains to 10-acre farms and 10-table restaurants alike.

Most farmers who work farmer’s markets and farms stands are proud of what they produce. And many want to tell just how they do it.

There’s the grass-fed beef farmer who firmly believes you don’t need to use grain to finish beef cattle. Or another farmer who collects stinging nettles with gloves to provide greens early in the season.

Then again I never returned to the farm stand where the farmer talked glowingly about the power of Roundup, a herbicide that’s toxic to wildlife. I understand that it makes his job easier, but today there are a multitude of great alternatives.

Be Curious and Polite

Best not to turn the questions for farmers into an interrogation. Show your curiosity. Slow down. Listen and learn. Chat as you shop. Other shoppers nearby might pick up a thing or two. If the market isn’t too crowded, start slowly.

1. “Beautiful day. So how’s the season been going for you this year?” Sometimes better to start with “is there anything here you’re particularly proud of? Anything unusual?”
2. “When did you pick this fruit or vegetable? Is it ready to eat today? How do I store it?” Chefs will tell you that berries picked after a heavy rain are worthless. This year’s peaches were particularly insipid for the same reason. Some items like winter squash can last for months if stored correctly.
3. “Are you able to use organic or sustainable principles on the farm?” It’s so easy to ask “is this organic” but the fact is many farmers do not have the time and in some cases the money for organic certification. That doesn’t mean they don’t follow those very same principles on the farm.
4. “Does this produce come from your farm?” Small farms can grow an amazing amount of food but it is unlikely that they will have fruit trees and kale growing on the same patch. But that’s okay if your farmer gets produce from growers they know. It’s very likely they can talk about their neighbors’ practices.
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work picnic (11)
via David Clow on flickr

The Toronto Star sent Margaret Webb to find farms that produce the raw materials for junk food. The result of her search is a compelling and unsettling piece about the journey of food from field to factory to snack.

Ultimately, however, Webb articulates what many of us already know and are working toward in the way we eat, produce and distribute food:

Food is powerful. Change is possible with every purchase we make, in every link we forge between good food and good farming, and in every bite we take.

From Where they grow our junk food:

Follow the flow of food. That’s what any farmer will tell you. Because apples don’t grow in supermarkets.…to get to the root of the exploding obesity epidemic, I went in search of a junk food farm.

Such farms are not so easy to spot. No fields of Dorito bags waving in the breeze, no orchards blooming with soda pop, no soil bursting with 99-cent burgers.

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Following up on my last post, I ran across another resource in the quest for transparency.

What’s On My Food is searchable database that uses research from the USDA’s Pesticide Data Program to rank the toxicity of fruits and veggies (fresh, canned and frozen), meats, grains, dairy products and water. (via Bitten)

I’d love it if someone could turn this into a mobile tool for people faced with the choice of $8.99/lb for organic, local garlic vs. $2.99/lb for conventional, domestic garlic, as I was yesterday.  I chose the cheaper garlic because my budget is limited.  And while there’s no specific data on garlic in the database, I learned that onions, a similar crop, have extremely low amounts of pesticide residue, which made that choice a little easier.

Peaches and apples, on the other hand, are a different story.  Armed with data on the residues found in these fruits, it was an easy choice to buy the more expensive local, pesticide-free options.

As I’ve noted before, when we get cheap food, we aren’t necessarily paying for its true cost.  There are hidden costs to the environment, to individual health, and to local economies.  With an unlimited budget, I’d always choose the local, pesticide-free option.  Most of our food budgets, however, are limited.  Easy to use, data-driven tools can make it a little easier to spend wisely and eat well.

Post script on the price of garlic… read on

The best way to know your food you is to purchase it directly from the people who produce it.  The farmer who grew your salad or raised the chicken you’re roasting for dinner.  The artisan who made the cheese that’s going into the omelette you’re making with the eggs that came from the farmer who also grew the potatoes you’re going to eat on the side.

That’s why we created Local Orbit and our sellers are committed to our core standards.

However, we can’t always get to a farmers market (and Local Orbit isn’t widely available – yet!),  and there are plenty of foods you can’t buy locally.  The trick is figuring out, in the words of Good Guide’s Transparency Manifesto, three simple things everyone should know about their food but don’t: Where did it come from? How was it made? What’s in it?

As Collin Dunn writes in Treehugger, Labels on food items are as numerous as the aisles they’re sold in, and many proclaim that they’re helping you be healthy, helping the planet, or both. The truth is that there are myriad labels out there that aren’t worth the shiny sticker they’re printed on; certifications that promise to be “all-something” or “whatever-free” that aren’t under any government or third-party oversight, free to be molded and marketed by anyone who puts a product on a shelf.

You don’t have to put up with that, though. Here are seven certifications that’ll help guide you to green food enlightenment.

From Pringles to starfruit, you can learn about specific products on the Good Guide site – and you can use their mobile applications to help you at the grocery store.

For fish and seafood, the Environmental Defense Fund’s mobile seafood selector is really useful.  For fruits and veggies, check out the Environmental Working Group’s shoppers guide to pesticides.

The simplest guide to avoiding confusion: if you don’t know where it comes from, choose something else.

Food safety is not just a legal responsibility, but a moral and ethical obligation you have with your customers. (Chris Blanchard, Rock Springs Farm)

The Rodale Institute’s New Farm just posted Malcolm Robinson’s Handle With Care, which discusses food safety and handling practices for fruit and vegetable growers.

It highlights a Post-Harvest Handling Decision Tool from Iowa’s Value Chain Partnerships. (The Value Chain site is, in general, great resource for farmers and other folks working to strengthen regional food systems.)

Handle With Care emphasizes common sense and outlines accessible actions and processes to maintain food safety.  Some excerpts:

• Good post-harvest handling gives farmers a competitive edge, additional profits and fewer food safety concerns.

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