The Northern Light

Media Credit: Kenna Bates - The Northern Light Organic produce is part of Anchorage's Midwives Birth Center's Natural Parenting program. The center offers organic foods at a slim 10 percent mark up every Tuesday from noon to 6 p.m. The USDA began certifying organic foods in 2002. There are current [Click to enlarge]

Media Credit: Kenna Bates - The Northern Light Although Alaska offers local organic produce, chemical-conscious consumers must look to out-of-state sources for more exotic fare. The USDA makes no claims regarding the healthfulness of organic produce, but does provide information about its regulatory g [Click to enlarge]

Media Credit: Kenna Bates - The Northern Light Three-year-old Sage Yeshua eats an organic tomato at The Midwives Birth Center, July 18. Many farmer's markets in Anchorage offer organics. [Click to enlarge]

Organic foods, sequestered by their high prices and fancy little USDA stickers, snuggle up in their own little corner of the produce aisle.

According to the USDA, which created national standards for organic food in 2002, organic produce is grown without most conventional pesticides, synthetic ingredients, sewage sludge, bioengineering (GMOs) or ionizing radiation.

Certified organic meat, eggs, poultry and dairy are produced from animals not inoculated with antibiotics or growth hormones, according to the Organic Consumers Association.

Mark Rempel, owner of Rempel Family Farm in Palmer, started farming conventionally (using pesticides and chemical fertilizers) but switched soon after.

Rempel took over the family farm in 1990.

"I began to spray," he said. After donning a special protective suit to spray the produce, he started to wonder about those chemicals and their effects on their human consumers.

"So as I was spraying," said Rempel, "it dawned on me that I was spraying something that killed plants, that killed insects. What were the residues doing to me? I was eating that."

Rempel began exploring natural alternatives and hasn't looked back.

"I haven't used chemicals since 1992," Rempel said.

According to their Web site, the USDA "makes no claims that organically produced food is safer or more nutritious than conventionally produced food." It only differs in the way that it's grown.

River Bean of Arctic Organics in Palmer said organic farming offers a sustainable advantage.

"Conventional farming is a vicious cycle where you get more and more dependent on chemicals," said Bean. "They [conventional farmers] kill everything in the soil, so you have diseases and a lot more problems, plus a lot more dependency on just feeding those plants. Our operation is sustainable."

Organic farming eliminates chemicals from the growing process. To make the operation more economically viable though, some larger farms lobbied the USDA to come up with national standards so they could label and market their organically grown products as certified organic.

Bean said he believes the USDA's organic standards are lower than the previously-used Alaska Organic Association standards, and that he ultimately chose not to pay for national certification. After USDA initiated the national standards in 2002, no other agency was allowed to certify agricultural products as "organic." Bean continues to grow food under his own standards, but without the USDA's seal of approval.

Other growers in Alaska, like Rempel, decided to certify with USDA after the policy change.

"I decided it was better to stay in the loop and have the accountability, to have somebody else check my ground, check my produce, to make sure I am indeed doing what I say I'm doing," Rempel said. "It gives a quality assurance to the customer."

Rempel's produce carries the official stamp of USDA organic approval, which he reapplies for each year from Washington state. The USDA has 56 accredited certifying agents domestically; none are in Alaska.

Does organic food €" USDA certified or not €" taste better or have any other benefit to the consumer?

Rempel said he thinks the microbes in the soil make the produce better overall.

"I know my lettuce will last two weeks, easily," he said. "I know the reputation of conventional local lettuce is not so good. I think mine tastes better. I think the [organic] tomatoes taste better, because they're grown in dirt."

Rempel and his family sell produce at the Wednesday market at the Northway Mall, and the South Anchorage market on Saturdays. He may move to the Downtown Saturday market in August.

Bean sells his organic produce at the Anchorage Farmers Market at Clark Middle School on Saturdays.

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