And then came November, and the airwaves and the CSA went quiet. I put three long-overdue spring weddings on my calendar and washed my last head of Claire's lettuce. But despite the joyful weddings to come, the news wasn't all good, and it wasn't all local. California's Proposition 37, a mandate to label GMOs, was defeated. Even though the vast majority of people say they want to see labeling, Big Money from Big Corporations saturated the airways and billboards with confounding messages, and we all lost.
With that last head of CSA lettuce gone, I headed to the co-op to buy vegetables. The heads of red leaf were tiny and trucked from California. Organic, yes, but not bursting with the energy of the farmer I know. It might have come from a small-scale farmer, or it might have come from a mega-farm irrigated by water from huge canals. I don't know, and it's not obvious.
Like the anonymous lettuce, it isn't obvious who provided the Big Money against Prop 37. We expect it to be limited to big corporations that sell only pseudo-foods, neon-colored and laden with unpronounceable ingredients. But it's far more complex than that. Many of those mega-corporations (exercising their right to free speech by supporting anti-labeling rhetoric) actually own some of the more popular organic brands. There's a nifty infographic from the Cornucopia Institute that shows who is really who.
The anonymity of the supermarket is like a huge online chat board--you can't tell if you're talking to a gorgeous blond or a pedophile stalker. Infographics can help, but there has to be a better way for the person who wants to eat real food and do the Right Thing.
If complexity hides the truth, then simplicity exposes it. Just as my magic trick this summer, we have a simple tool. Get as close to the source of your food as possible. It's helped by social media, to be sure: it's the old-fashioned analog conversation. A chat with the produce manager, a regular date with your year-round farmer's market sellers, a buyer's club, a cold frame in your garden. Small money, simple, and the Right Thing.
