by Janet Perry

Created on: April 10, 2009

I picked as fast as I could, grinning and looking over at the two young women who were picking a few feet away. They were Mexican workers. They chatted casually, laughing and throwing glances back my way. They knew I was trying to keep up with them. I was in the best shape of my life and loved friendly competition. They casually picked at twice the speed that I did. They were accustomed to working using the simplest and most efficient means possible. In other words, they didn't waste movement when they worked, much the way coaches had urged me to do on the track or in the swimming pool. They were happy, which is the most important note to this memory. They worked for people who were respectful and thankful for their workers' efforts. We could laugh together about my efforts to keep up.

I also remember stories of workers who must pick their way to the restroom... that could be sitting a half-mile away. Even pregnant workers were not allowed to simply walk to the restroom. I have heard stories of workers locked up during the picking season and threatened with physical harm. These practices are not the way of the American gentleman farmer. These are the rough practices of greedy hoodlums, who care more for the profit than the the bounty they produce; who care more for the bottom-line than their fellow human-beings. These same employers will spray the fields with pesticides while their workers are still present, causing burns to the eyes and skin, illness, and birth defects.

Organic farming came about because of a love of the garden, for the healthy practice of allowing foods to grow as they were meant to, insuring a healthier, tastier bounty. It also came about as a way to get away from the unhealthy practices adopted by the production farms of today.

Many large production farmers have since found that their grandfather's way of farming made more sense after all. Salesmen had convinced them to adopt newer, speedier methods of raising their crops, but as they saw the downfall to these methods, organic and old-time practices made more sense. The older methods were generally more time-consuming, such as planting a border of 'bug-repellant' plants around a garden area instead of spraying for bugs. The outcome is healthy workers as well as a healthy bountiful harvest.

When I think of the question, 'Should organic farming be outlawed?' my first reaction is to laugh. Someone must be kidding, right? Perhaps the most important question here is, "Who is asking this question, initially? Is it production farmers, perhaps? The same ones who need us to buy their pesticide and oppression-laden harvests? My answer to them, Is a resounding NO!"

As long as good men care about the legacy they leave their children, and as long as good women insist on feeding their families foods ripe in goodness, not tragedy, then organic farming will thrive. This is as it should be.

We could take the question to the next level and ask, "Shall we enforce the spraying of pesticides onto citizen's backyard gardens?" You may laugh, but research Malathion spraying in Los Angeles during the late 80's. If Organic farming were outlawed, many of us would simply grow our own organic produce, as we are that committed to healthy foods and healthy practices. Organic farming is not only the only sensible way to grow our food, it is a sensible way to treat the human beings who are growing our food. It is a right, not a priviledge, and one worth defending. It will never be outlawed.

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