Eliminating the Middleman

Food food starts with good ingredients. When you consume food that is organic, the hands that bag your produce are often the same that picked the fruit, tilled the soil and sowed the seeds that grew to fill your plate, your senses and your belly.

Weighing the costs and benefits of getting organic to your doorstep

By Dan Sankey
Published: February, 2006

Food food starts with good ingredients. When you consume food that is organic, the hands that bag your produce are often the same that picked the fruit, tilled the soil and sowed the seeds that grew to fill your plate, your senses and your belly.

This interconnectedness is the essence of the beliefs of those who choose to farm, eat and live organically. It’s an appealing choice in theory, creating a healthier you and earth, but it has the impediments of the cost and availability.

Organic produce home delivery services aim to smooth the transition by eliminating the middleman. What started as Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), a co-op style of consumer supported farming, has evolved into Internet-based home delivery services.

Farm Fresh to You is the delivery service of the Capay Organic farm, which was started as a family farm by the parents of Thaddeus Barsotti, who manages it with his three brothers. They offer delivery to your door weekly or bi-weekly, with flexible options for personal taste. Included is a newsletter listing recipes to help expand your palette to what is locally and seasonally grown. Delivery boxes range from $21 to $29.

When we started no one knew what organic meant, Barsotti said. As it has grown, big agriculture businesses now offer it, but the organic certification doesn’t take into account the lifestyle. The difference between us is black and white.

To these growers organic farming is foremost about the soil. The Ferry Building’s farmers market is organized by the Center for Urban Education about Sustainable Agriculture (CUESA), which hopes to educate the consumer about the benefits of CSAs and organic produce.

[Organic farmers] don’t grow produce, they grow soil, said Christine Farren CUESA’s manager of communications.

Planet Organics delivers a wide array of groceries, including meats, teas, pre-made pizzas and baby products. Their CEO Larry Bearg explained that his children were the impetus behind buying Planet Organics in 1997.

My wife and I were doing research about foods, while expecting our daughter, and found that pesticides in food effects kids more than adults, Bearg said. We became converts for our kids, but we discovered organic food had such a huge difference in flavor.

Flavor is one of many benefits of buying food from local growers. [Industrial agriculture] grows crops for shipping mass distances, picking before crops are ripe, they are gassed (for insects) and cold stored, Farren said. Organic farmers grow for flavor, not just cosmetics or size.

We get so many calls and emails saying, ‘I haven’t tasted food this good since my grandma’s farm,’ Bearg said. It’s the freshness, depth and complexity of flavor organics provide.

That said, Consumer Reports found organic produce can cost up to 50 percent more than conventional food, and the nutritional benefits are still being investigated, but delivery services maintain many features to silence critics.

When you factor in the time, gas and stress saved by eliminating trips to the store the cost is more than made up for, Bearg said. It also eliminates impulse buying, especially the worst snack foods which are marketed to kids.

The benefits, nutritionally and environmentally, just seem logical, said Julie Cummins, CUESA’s education director. She cites studies that show food loses nutrients with age. The USDA’s lab’s found green beans lose 60 percent of their nutrients in three days.

The best argument for organics may just be your taste buds. If you just really like to eat, like us, Bearg said, you’ll find organics just have a better, truer taste.