AN APPLE A DAY ...Picking over the produce in their local store, shoppers scrutinize fruit for its color, skin, shape and smell. But how many really take a good look at the label? Maybe they should. "People subconsciously count on farmers like me to grow products that are okay to eat," says Peter TenEyck of Indian Ladder Farms in Altamont, New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of . "But they've become uncoupled from their food, where it comes from, and who grows it." TenEyck is one of 43 Northeast apple growers who have embraced the CORE Values ecolabel, developed by Mothers & Others, as a way to build a market tot sustainable produce and raise consumer awareness about locally grown food. According to Jim According to Jim is an American situation comedy television series originally broadcast by ABC. The show premiered with little publicity in October 2001, following the surprise hit comedy My Wife and Kids. VanKirk, the Northeast facilitator for Integrated Pest Management Integrated Pest Management (IPM), planned program that coordinates economically and environmentally acceptable methods of pest control with the judicious and minimal use of toxic pesticides. (IPM (1) (Impressions Per Minute) Generally refers to document scanners that scan both sides of the page at the same time. Thus, a scanner that scans at 100 ppm (pages per minute) can provide 200 ipm. See ppm and document scanner. ) activities (designed to cut down on chemical use), introduction of monocropping and non-native species made it all too easy for pests to get a foothold, putting farmers on what he calls "the pesticide treadmill." One way for farmers to wean wean (wen) to discontinue breast feeding and substitute other feeding habits. wean v. 1. To deprive permanently of breast milk and begin to nourish with other food. 2. themselves off of chemical dependency chemical dependency n. A physical and psychological habituation to a mood- or mind-altering drug, such as alcohol or cocaine. chemical dependency is through IPM, which integrates many different methods--biological controls (use of natural, bug-killing organisms like nematodes), crop rotation, resistant varieties and judiciously used chemicals--in a sustainable approach to managing pests. But unlike similar ecolabeling programs, the CORE Values' system is knowledge-based, encompassing whole farm ecology. Growers must submit a farm plan, outlining such practices as good pruning and nutrition, the best use of water resources and the most efficient method of fertilization. They are then inspected and certified by all independent third party, which includes other orchard owners, members of the federal land grant system and IPM specialists. "The good thing about CORE Values," says Steve Clark, owner of Prospect Hill Orchards in New York, "is that anybody can enter at any time. It's a journey on a road, and as long as you're always moving in the same direction, you can be part of the program." An equally important part of CORE Values--the label itself --has already appealed to many consumers. Farmers' markets and stores throughout the Northeast, including Big Y, Shaw's and Shop `n Save, now carry CORE apples, as do all 25 D' Agastino's markets in New York City New York City: see New York, city. New York City City (pop., 2000: 8,008,278), southeastern New York, at the mouth of the Hudson River. The largest city in the U.S. and all 160 Manhattan public schools. Despite the growth of large-scale mechanized mech·a·nize tr.v. mech·a·nized, mech·a·niz·ing, mech·a·niz·es 1. To equip with machinery: mechanize a factory. 2. agriculture, the path an apple takes from seed to supermarket is still controlled by the consumer. Clark points out, "If we can get a million people to say `I'm going to buy an apple that's grown well' there will be major changes in farming." CONTACT: Mothers & Others for a Livable Planet, 40 West 20th Street, 9th Floor, New York, NY 10011/(212) 242-0010/www.corevalues.org. |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion