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BC THE ORGANIC WAY by Marya Skrypiczajko
I often wonder why in North America we are so disconnected from food and its origins, the pleasures it offers and its true value. In BC we spend approximately 10 percent of our disposable income on food, compare that with Europeans who spend 25 percent and third world citizens who spend more than 50 percent of their disposable income on food and it seems we undervalue both farmers and what we are eating.
In fact, many farmers, organic and conventional alike, are not getting fair wages for their work. Talking to organic farmers around the province, I discovered that those who have large single crop farms can do well, as can those who export to Japan and Europe, but that many small-scale farmers find it challenging to get a realistic price for the food they grow. Some even claim to lose money on certain crops.
Food prices are determined on the North American market; not on a local level, nor by the true costs of the time and money that goes into production. Prices in BC are generally determined by those in the US where the growing season is longer, where there are more large-scale farms, and where there is much low-paid illegal immigrant labour. As well, prices for conventionally-grown grain, dairy products and meat are kept unrealistically low by way of government subsidies to those farmers. There are only a few rare programs in Canada that subsidize organic growers, yet organic prices are linked to conventional food prices because consumers are only willing to pay a certain percentage more for organic than conventional food.
It is fair that organic prices are higher than conventional prices given that so much more time goes into organic food production and because organic farmers do not benefit from government subsidies. But how much higher should organic prices be? If they are too high then lower income earners are completely cut off from being able to buy organic food. The organic food movement is not about catering to a niche market of only well-off people; it is about creating the healthiest food possible in the gentlest way possible.
We have to get used to spending a higher percentage of our earnings on food and hope the government will one day subsidize lower-income earners’ food expenditures.
The importance of good quality food is up there with clean air and water. We must realize that fresh organic food is not just good for us while we are eating it, but that it has long-term effects on our health and the health of the soil. We need to have a lifetime of eating healthy food to protect our bodies from disease.
In the past, it has been government policy for food to be inexpensive. This has created a pattern of thinking that food should be cheap. But we have always accepted vehicles, fashions and entertainment to be expensive and so we are conditioned to pay a lot for these pleasures. We live in a culture that does not respect the work of farmers and, in general, does not feel they deserve a fair income for their work.
There has been a lack of public education on the incredible nutritional value of fresh, organic food. People obviously feel they are not getting what they need from food if they are buying vitamins on a weekly basis. When I was researching an organic food guide to BC recently, I found that there are more vitamin stores in BC than organic food stores. Approximately two thirds of North Americans are overweight. Both the Canadian and US governments are studying this problem and looking for solutions. It seems we are short-term thinkers when it comes to food; we think about how much the bag of groceries will cost at the moment of purchase, how simply we can get food into our bodies and how much we love fat and sugar.
The anomaly is fair trade foods such as coffee, chocolate and tea for which we are willing to pay higher prices. It is ironic because these are not the foods we need to live healthy lives. It is completely fair that these farmers are given decent wages for their work and respectable working conditions. But then why do we not want the same for our farmers? I think it goes back to education. There has been a lot of publicity regarding the value of fair trade products.
While there is more and more positive publicity for organic food, there is still an ingrained belief that a plate of lentils and potatoes, a bag of apples or a cheese sandwich should not cost more than a couple bucks. So what can we do? Buy local, buy organic, buy directly from the farmer or the baker and remember the true value of food.
Marya Skrypiczajko is the author of BC the Organic Way – Where to Find Organic Food in British Columbia
www.bctheorganicway.com
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