Conscious Choice: Organic Foods Expo Coming to Navy Pier

March 2005

Organic Foods Expo Coming to Navy Pier

by Erin Meyer

Business is booming in the organic-products industry but factory farms are reaping an unfair share of the profits, according to local advocates. They plan to help change that by re-establishing a person-al relationship between you and the farmer who grew the broccoli on your dinner table.

“Big business is gobbling up small family farms in Illinois faster than you can imagine,” said Jim Slama, co-founder and president of Sustain, a local nonprofit advocacy group organizing an organic trade show, the second annual FamilyFarmed.org Expo March 6 and 7 at Navy Pier.

“Most of [the] money generated by the sale of organics in Chicago is not being circulated back into the regional economy,” Slama said.

But Slama and other organic advocates contend that the market is ripe for consumers to take the next step toward sustainability. The group has developed a regional organic label to connect consumers with regional family farmers. The label will include the logo FamilyFarmed.org, the place of production, and the name of the farmer who grew the product.

The first priority of the labeling system is to connect organic-produce consumers with regional family farmers and in turn protect the environment and public health, according to Slama.

“The system is a work in progress,” he said. “But the label could evolve to include definitions for fair trade and fair pricing, labor standards and even stronger protection for the environment.”

You can look for them in groceries this summer, or if you can’t wait that long to get the 4-1-1 on your local farmers, you can meet some of them at the expo, which is designed to give growers the chance to establish a relationship with consumers, retailers and restaurant owners, Slama said.

One of the expected highlights will be the presentation by Deborah Koons Garcia, who produced “The Future of Food,” documentary that explores the genetically modified food industry. She will lead a discussion about agri-business along with Percy Schmeiser, a Canadian canola farmer who was taken to court by food giant Monsanto.

The documentary will be shown at the expo. “This is a thought-provoking film,” Slama said. “It calls into question all of the major tenets of the current agri-business model of food production.”

The expo speakers include some local chefs in the organic movement. Among them will be Gale Gand, chef and partner of the restaurant Tru, and host of the television program “Sweet Dreams,” which appears regularly on the Food Network.

“The chefs are there because they want to support the farmers,” said Slama.

Also scheduled to speak is Jim Riddle, chair of the national Organics Standards Board. He probably will have plenty to say as he will be coming from the annual National Organic Standards Board meeting in Washington, D.C., where advocates will have weighed in on organic standards for usda certification.

Throughout the expo booths and workshops will be designed to give organic enthusiasts and foodies the inside scoop on everything under the sun, including organic cooking demonstrations.

Growing Home, Inc., a co-op that provides job training to low-income and homeless people, will have a booth featuring vegetables cultivated on 10 acres in LaSalle County.

“Growing Home teaches underprivileged people all aspects of organic farming,” Slama said.

At last year’s event, approximately 500 regional organic producers got together with more than 100 Chicagoland restaurant purchasers and 25 retailers, including Whole Foods and Dominick’s, all anxious to sample regional wares. (Conscious Choice is a co-sponsor of the expo. Jim Slama, a co-founder of Conscious Choice, is a current board member of the magazine’s parent company, Dragonfly Media.)

“It’s all about access,” Slama said. “Large portions of organic products are handled by big retailers.”

In 2003, more than 40 percent of organic food sales were handled through supermarkets and grocery stores, mass merchandisers and club stores, according to the national Organic Trade Association, based in Greenfield, Mass.

Only 3 percent of the $63 to $80 million of produce purchased in the Chicago metropolitan area was grown regionally, according to a 2002 study conducted by Prairie Partners, a consulting firm based in Lake Forest, Ill. The bulk of organic produce is shipped in from Florida, New Mexico, California and the Netherlands.

Sustain estimates that the market for organic food in Illinois represented more than $550 million, or 20 percent of all organic products sold in the Midwest in 2004.

Multinational corporations recognize the growing demand for organics and increased sales and are threatening to push the little guy out of business.

In addition, the monolithic U.S. Department of Agriculture is disinterested in protecting the integrity of organics, according to Mark Kastel, co-director of the Cornucopia Institute, a farm policy research group.

“All the other sectors of agriculture fight like hell against regulatory oversight,” Kastel said. “Ironically, here we are, the organic farmer, begging the USDA for strict regulations.”

USDA standards do not reflect many of the values of small-scale organic farmers, he said, adding that the agency does not take into account scale, treatment of animals or reinvestment in the community.

“USDA standards serve the interests of large-scale industrial farms that have access to trucks for distribution and marketing departments,” Slama said. “We are trying to level the playing field a little by creating an infrastructure for marketing and distribution for small-scale farmers.”

Erin Meyer is the Associate Editor of Conscious Choice.

Get More Info:

The FamilyFarmed.org Expo takes place on March 6 & 7 at Navy Pier, Chicago. Cost on Sunday is $15, $5 kids under 12 and $30 for families (up to 2 adults and 5 kids). Tickets may be purchased at the website: www.familyfarmed.org.

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