Certified Organic

Certified Organic
Justin Smith

As I arrived Tuesday evening at the Soil Born farm, Sacramento’s only certified organic farm near Hurley and Watt, I wandered about on the three acre farm trying to find farmers and saw no one. The farm is right next to Jonas Salk Middle School, and beyond the hedgerows is a parking lot. All of a sudden some rustling, there was a five year old kid milling about in a chicken coop with roughly ten chickens in it. Then voices, finally there they all were, about ten volunteers underneath a shaded wooden canopy, talking quietly and peeling garlic.

Various volunteers were clipping dried garlic and organizing them by size into cardboard boxes. A brief explanation on where to clip and how many layers to peel, a volunteer handed me a pair clippers. I couldn’t help but to think at this time, how dreadful and racial talking points have become when I hear that Mexicans are the only people “willing to do this kind of work”.

Soil Born farm was created in 2000 by Marco Franciosa and Shawn Harrison, and is governed by three objectives, food production, food education, and food security. Soil Born is host to multifarious activities beyond just farming, ranging from cooking classes, herbology classes, volunteer night, tours, youth programs, and there is even a psychiatrist who brings patients to the farm. Sara Smith-Rubio the youth program coordinator, speaking about the Jonas Salk Middle School youth program, ”We want to show these kids that food comes from somewhere, not just from the grocery store”. Another program Soil Born is involved with is Project FEED (Food, Education, Equity, Diversity) a food access project and market in Del Paso Heights provides health and nutrition education classes.

To be certified organic in California no herbicides or pesticides can be used which are known to be carcinogenic and are problematic soaking back into the ground and flowing back into rivers. The objectives Soil Born employs are the essence of why organic farming is important and fundamental to every local and certified organic farms everywhere. Responsible land use means rotating crops so as to not deplete nitrogen, and fatigue the soil by planting the same plants in one area. Food Security has many aspects and is a condition in which the community can access culturally appropriate and nutritious foods, disallowing the use of pesticides and herbicides, supporting local, regional, family-scale, and sustainable food production, and community self reliance. E coli a precarious and reoccurring problem for farms and the public, is minimized with the use of smaller and certified organic farms.

While talking over the potluck dinner held every Tuesday for volunteer night E coli became a topic of discussion. Randy Stannard the Food Security Coordinator said, “When you look at the recent E coli outbreak related to spinach, essentially a very localized problem in a few fields in Monterey County ended up causing a problem in several states across the country...this is more apt to happen with our increasingly centralized food system. We need to support our local farmers and encourage a local food system by joining a CSA [Community Supported Agriculture], shopping at certified farmers markets, asking for local produce at our grocery stores, and demanding fresh, locally grown food in our institutions such as schools and hospitals”.

The increasing importance for local organic foods is evidenced by the increased price of petroleum, and the ludicrous nature of shipping fruits and vegetables from different countries, such as Mexico, or Guatemala when they can be grown and bought in Sacramento. Being a self sustaining producer of foods ensures food access and less reliance on imported food not to mention conserving energy.

Through a system known as CSA buyers known as shareholders invest in Soil Born at the beginning of the season. In return shareholders receive the farm’s produce once a month which can be picked up at Soil Born farm or the Sacramento Foods Co-op. Soil Born’s produce and importance is sure to proliferate with the pending acquisition of the American River Parkway, a 25 acre plot of land located in Rancho Cordova. Soil Born’s produce can be found in a few Sacramento restaurants like The Waterboy, Piatti’s, and caterers such as Mulvaneys, and at grocery stores like Whole Foods, and the Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op.