Somewhere you won’t no by heart

One conversation I had recently with a buddy of my mine was on the topic of Organic foods. We went to coffee at the Grind in Lincoln Square the other day. He ordered an egg sandwich and a coffee. Then he noticed the Ham was organic and added that to the sandwich. Makes since. 60% of the nation’s Pork Farms are owned by 4 corporations. One of these corporate farms put all the waste of the farm into one giant, uncovered vat and basically cooked it down. These idiots didn’t relize that the liquid was seeping into the ground and poisoning the water of the surrounding rural area. Ended up poisoning quite a few of the locals. Finding this out obviously shocked me. But I am very happy for the organic farmers. They make me smile. I told my buddy Tim at coffee that it was only a matter of time before the USDA starts slacking on rules and mandatory routines needed for the production of USDA Certified Organic.

Which could be true. However, I was reading the Chicago Reader article “Pie In The Sky” about the Local Chef Michael Altenberg’s quest to open up the first 100% organic restaurant in Chicago. He goes on to explain how before anything can be taken off of a delivery truck, the driver must first have an affidavit explaining how the truck was cleaned and with what products. Chef Altenberg goes on to explain, “the driver has to come in and sign an affidavit saying that if organic tomatoes and nonorganic tomatoes were on the same truck, there was no chance of those two things commingling.” I love this. This is great! I can only imagine the amount of passion and natural farming that is necessary in just getting the product on the Truck. He also goes on to explain the humor he finds in articles he reads about “Organic” Chefs going to local farmers markets. “There are a ton of guys out there getting photo-ops of them walking with baskets and sniffing a tomato. But come on. Stand at my back door [at Bistro Campagne] all day and see what I get in—and this is just a 90-seat restaurant. I have truckloads of product coming in. If you and I were going to walk together and shop for my day at the bistro, we would have to have, maybe not a semi, but a substantial truck sitting there. You’d be following me with a dolly and we’d be picking up pallets of products. It’s just not realistic. It makes for good fluff in food magazines,” He explains.

 With all this I am hoping that everyone is out there doing what they can to not only keep their own health up but also supporting the push for naturally farmed food.