Join the Real Food Revival

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He adds that organic certification now means organic food is often no longer locally based. “Organic used to be the local grower’s bastion,” Coleman says. “They were organic and the rest of the world was not. But now organic can be shipped in from around the world.” He prefers the terms “deep organic farming,” “authentic food,” or even “Real Food” to describe what was traditionally thought of as “organic.” Gibson agrees and suggests “ecological farming” as another alternative term for organic. “I don’t want people tied up with certifications of USDA and agribiz; that makes it tough on small farmers,” Gibson says.

Like Coleman, Salatin is not officially certified organic. “What we don’t want is hardening of the categories,” he says. Salatin even resists calling his pasture-based operation “grass-fed beef,” a ‘Real Food’ term that is growing in popularity. “We call ours ‘Salad Bar Beef,’” Salatin says. “It’s never seen a feedlot, it’s forage-finished and grass-finished. We want to promote something that stimulates a discussion.”

Salatin also emphasizes the connection between local and seasonal eating. He encourages customers to know what foods are produced locally in each season and preserve local meats and produce for the off-seasons. Salatin says meat, dairy and eggs have seasonal peaks just like produce, with egg production highest in the spring, and grass-fed cattle naturally putting on more weight in the fall.

Coleman is working on seasonal eating from another angle. His work with produce has included developing techniques to use low-cost unheated greenhouses for winter production, so that even in cold climates like Maine, consumers can get more of their produce from local growers year-round.

The Next Step

The Real Food Revival is well under way, but many factors will impact its future direction. One important consideration is the cost of fossil fuels — if the price of oil continues to increase, it could be an advantage for farmers such as Coleman, who spend very little money to transport their produce. Food historian and Mother Earth News columnist William Woys Weaver says agribusiness is not only dependent on subsidies, but also on tax breaks and political favoritism, all of which helps to create food that is artificially cheap and that carries high environmental costs. “If the price of oil goes up much higher, we may witness an interesting shift, because local growers will then have a much bigger advantage in terms of production costs,” Weaver says.

Gibson is anxious for Real Food to take over the market. “It’s the 21st century and I’m in a hurry to get things done. I’d like to see organic agriculture go mainstream.” He wants to take the issue of Real Food into the suburbs with a concept he calls LIFE, Local Initiatives in Food and the Environment, which would encourage small food gardens in back yards. “In the country there is land but no market. In the city, there is no land. Where can it happen? The only thing left is the suburbs,” he says.

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