So important to think about the why? In the Usa we have large scale organic farming which honestly is barely different from conventional farming in terms of being cost heavy on the planet, quite corrupted again the goal of profit over anything else. its become simply conventional farming with frills, dubious certification parameters and what we now call green washing - pandering to our desire to do the right thing without actually changing our relationships to resources. On the upside this has driven folks wanting a relationship with food to skip the labels and get in touch with local gardens and growers, very similar to the beautiful gardens here at Organic Leas. Being in relationship with your food rather than scaling up and creating more. Also minors lettuce is very rarely grown here - its a common wild green that indeed, was sometimes all the early settlers had. One of my greatest delights is introducing small children to the amazingly varied tastes of wild edibles ;)
So interesting! I guess any time you get largescale anything, you can start to erode some of those good intentions that once set you apart. Also, if a product is seen as premium - as organic tends to be - then there’s suddenly a financial incentive to monetise the hell out of it. As you say, greenwashing at scale. It’s a shame really because you want to believe that these projects can be scaled up and retain their core values, and move away from being the idealistic fringe towards becoming mainstream, affordable and accessible. I still hope that they can!
fascinating and heartwarming interview. thank you! Ellen Dahrendorf
So important to think about the why? In the Usa we have large scale organic farming which honestly is barely different from conventional farming in terms of being cost heavy on the planet, quite corrupted again the goal of profit over anything else. its become simply conventional farming with frills, dubious certification parameters and what we now call green washing - pandering to our desire to do the right thing without actually changing our relationships to resources. On the upside this has driven folks wanting a relationship with food to skip the labels and get in touch with local gardens and growers, very similar to the beautiful gardens here at Organic Leas. Being in relationship with your food rather than scaling up and creating more. Also minors lettuce is very rarely grown here - its a common wild green that indeed, was sometimes all the early settlers had. One of my greatest delights is introducing small children to the amazingly varied tastes of wild edibles ;)
So interesting! I guess any time you get largescale anything, you can start to erode some of those good intentions that once set you apart. Also, if a product is seen as premium - as organic tends to be - then there’s suddenly a financial incentive to monetise the hell out of it. As you say, greenwashing at scale. It’s a shame really because you want to believe that these projects can be scaled up and retain their core values, and move away from being the idealistic fringe towards becoming mainstream, affordable and accessible. I still hope that they can!
totally, i think it's more about scaling up the practice!