For at least two-thirds of my life, my family has shopped at the Clayton Farmers Market, about fifteen minutes from my childhood home in the suburbs of St. Louis, Missouri.  My mother has made friends with all of her favorite farmers and is fiercely loyal to them. She has been known to say, "There is nothin better than a MISSOURI FARMER TOMATA." The same goes for peaches, apples, melons, cherries, blackberries, broccoli, brussel sprouts, beets, lettuce, grass-fed beef, and clover-fed pork.

Over the years some of her farmers have decided to stop coming to market for various reasons. Some transition to restaurant supply, go to other markets, others drop off the grid completely. She called me the other day saying that one of the farmers who has been there from the beginning, Brett from Biver Farms, isn't coming back next year. When I asked her why she forwarded me this letter from him:

Dear Friends and Patrons,

            I am saddened to say that I must retire from my half of Biver Farms. I sincerely appreciate the many bonds that have been made over the last 15 years and I feel as if I could not have had a better clientele. While my reasons are divers, I came to a realization this past April that my occupation is both financially and emotionally unjustifiable. I have since known that this would be my final season.

            I encourage all of you to support the Clayton Farmers Market, and the talented growers and artisans that participate.  I know that the kind words of support that so many of you shared with me over the years truly helped me and believe it iperitive that you support me the other vendors in a similar way. I am sure that if given enough support, the market can achieve the potential that it possesses.

            I hope to somehow, someway keep in touch with many of you who have never failed to impress or inspire me over these many years. I ask that you provide contact information to help me to do so on the sheet provided.  I do not yet have a firm bearing on my future, but I believe that it will be agriculturally or educationally orientated.  While I greatly appreciate the rich experiences of my past, I look forward with a good deal of excitement and anticipation.

Thank you all so much,

Brett Palmier

I would be lying if I said I didn't get a little misty-eyed reading it through.  In order to purchase anything Brett brought to market, you had to get in line right at 8am when the market opened. He was one of the most popular stands, with a line 30 people deep at any given time, all eager to buy his fresh organic produce.  It's heartbreaking that good people trying to make an honest living cannot because of extraneous circumstances. I wish Brett the very best and know he will be dearly missed.

A Good Food Investment!

Probably the number one criticism for the Food Movement is the cost of incorporating its principles for eating into every day life.  The assumption is that only people with the means to eat well are able to do so. Though there are some obstacles that need to be overcome with regard to access, eating well is much more affordable than you would think.

True, organic or farmer’s market-purchased food is more expensive, compared to conventional alternatives.  However, local, seasonal produce is undeniably less expensive than say, buying blackberries in the middle of January.  Furthermore, it is a better food investment due to the fact that it is fresher, in some cases just picked, and thus has a longer shelf life. As a kid growing up in Missouri, we would always frequent the same farmers market. When the corn was ripe for picking, the third-generation farmer who had the sweet corn stand would go out into the fields at midnight, harvest until the wee hours, and drive to the market in the morning with ears of corn that were just picked hours before. And let me tell you, I have yet to eat corn that tasted that good. He would give out samples, RAW samples, because it was so tender and fresh that you could just husk and eat.  But I digress…

Proponents of the food movement do say that fresh, local, and organic is the best way to eat, but all three of those goals are flexible, negotiable. You have to make them fit your own lifestyle. Here the concept of the “food investment” that I mentioned earlier comes into play.  When we buy food, essentially we are making an investment: the food should provide you with essential vitamins and nutrients, give you energy, stay fresh long enough to eat everything you have bought, taste good, and above all satisfy your hunger.  And because all of the merits of making a good food investment directly benefit the consumer of that food, it is in our best interest to invest wisely.  Sometimes, though local or organic produce is not the best food investment and other times it is. (I’m not budging on the “fresh” part. Everything you buy should be fresh, and if it’s not we have a bigger issue at hand…)

Allow me to elaborate:

ORGANIC FOOD INVESTMENTS:

• Strawberries – when these guys are sprayed with pesticides, they soak it up like a sponge, and then those pesticides (that KILL other animals) end up in our bodies. Not good. So buy them organic, BUT ONLY IN SEASON. (the FDA doesn’t regulate what kinds of pesticides are used on South American commercial farms—but more on that later.)
• Apples – (and apple sauce, apple juice, etc.) have you ever seen a truly pesticide-free, homegrown apple? Well it’s not pretty—think smaller than your palm, dull (conventional apples are waxed to make them look pretty) and covered with spots.  These little rascals are kind of a pain in the butt upkeep wise because they are so susceptible to disease and infestation by any number of nasty creatures. So to combat this, farmers in those big huge farms spray up to 40 (!) different chemicals on them. Yikes!
• Celery – not one you would think of off the bat right? Well this stuff soaks up pesticides like there’s no tomorrow.
• Peaches – the skin on these delicious creatures is so fragile! And if you have ever had a homegrown peach… there is just nothing better in the entire world.
• Spinach
• Sweet Bell Peppers – doesn’t matter what color they are, they still are packed with chemicals.
• Potatoes – Did you know that the potato is America’s Favorite Vegetable? It also has one of the highest concentrations of pesticides of any vegetable… So pick their orange cousin, the sweet potato! Its much friendlier (and has A TON of anti-oxidants)
• Blueberries, Cherries, and Cranberries – delicate skin = lots of pesticides
• Lettuce – they spray this stuff like crazy! And remember the darker the green, the better it is for you (READ: Say no to iceberg!).
• Kale – but I’m guessing that most people don’t have to worry about this one… Even though when prepared right, its DELICIOUS (click here for an awesome kale recipe)

IT’S OK TO BUY THESE FOODS AT A NON-ORGANIC VENDOR (like the FARMERS MARKET, or Schnucks, or whatever)

• Bananas, grapefruit, watermelon, oranges, mango, avocado, eggplant, kiwi, papaya,  or ANYTHING else with a thick skin – these fruits have their own natural protection layer!
• Onion – lets face it no bug wants to eat an onion…
• Sweet corn – takes a lot of fertilizer (more on that later) but nothing reaches the kernels.
• Asparagus
• Sweet peas
• Cabbage
• Broccoli
• Tomatoes – this one comes with a big BUT: yes they run a cleaner toxin screening than most, but they are still showered in pesticides. I would grow my own, but if not get them as fresh as possible, like from a farmer’s market, because if you get them from the store, they are picked when green and ripened with ethylene gas. No bueno.
• Sweet Potato 

But still there is a question of access. Lower income neighborhoods sometimes simply do not have access to fresh food. These areas have been named “food deserts” and exist mostly in urban areas, where the streets are lined with fast food retailers (sorry, I can’t bring myself to call McDonalds a “restaurant”), and even the grocery stores are filled with a plethora of food-like substances (Hamburger Helper anyone?) but very little truly fresh produce. Furthermore, if a family has one dollar to spend to feed their child, they will spend it on the most complete meal they can get—and that cheap meal comes off the dollar menu. You know there is something wrong with the system when a head of broccoli costs more than a hamburger, fries, and a soft drink.  This is largely the reason why socioeconomic status is the greatest predictor of obesity, and why one in three Americans born after 2000 will be diagnosed with early onset Type II Diabetes. But then Diabetes also has a cost, (especially for those who do not have health insurance) and the money that a family could be spending on healthful food has to be spent on medication to make bearable a disease they got by eating poorly. And to add insult to injury, they still have to eat the same food that made them sick in the first place because they cannot afford to shop at a grocery store.  It is a problem, and one that needs to be addressed on the policy level.

Regardless of whether it has to do with health of the American People, food deserts, at the end of the day it all traces back to the food we eat. Isn’t that enough of a reason to invest in what fuels our functioning as human beings?