For most of history Escherichia coli (E. coli) wasn’t considered a problem. Then, in the 1980s undercooked hamburgers, unpasteurized apple cider, and raw ground meat started making people sick, some deathly sick. There have since been thousands, maybe millions, of outbreaks around the world, all involving undercooked, unpasteurized, or raw foods contaminated with E. coli.

E. coli occurs naturally in the intestines of animals. Tim Sly, an epidemiologist and professor of public health at Ryerson University in Toronto says that “when intestinal contents are used as nitrogen sources, we need to make doubly certain that the fruits and vegetables, grown in and on that soil are very carefully washed OR properly cooked.” He claims that the use of organic growing methods is more dangerous to consumers.

Unfortunately, Sly is not alone in making this argument which is impacting the confidence of consumers in organic fruits and vegetables, though the evidence suggests that the use of organic practices are actually much safer than conventional.

The manure used as fertilizer in fruits and vegetables is not the issue in E. coli outbreaks. Manure applications happen when plants are young and when they are in the height of productivity and can use the nitrogen input, not directly before harvest. The farmers are not spraying manure on plants before they bring them to the market. Organic regulations will not even allow this, they require a long period between application and sale (e.g. the NOP regulation requires that 120 days between application and harvest). Studies have found that the NOP regulation of 120 days between application and harvest is safe and could even be significantly reduced.

Furthermore, farmers in organic and in conventional agriculture both use manure. Therefore, focusing criticisms of E. coli risk on organic producers is unfair. Most organic famers increase the safety of their foods by using aged and composted manure as a fertilizer. This manure is known to be safer than the slurry form which is used by many conventional farmers. The composting step may remove as much as 95% of the risks involved in manure application.

Finally, the soil science on this point is old and well documented. Manure has been used for fertilizer for centuries without an issue. This suggests that E. coli is not able to metabolize the low organic carbon availability in soil and that antagonistic interactions with indigenous soil microorganisms kill it off rather quickly.

The real dangers of E. coli are in animal products and not in vegetables. The most common cause of E. coli infection, according to the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC), are undercooked meat and contaminated milk. Furthermore weather, site, and storage conditions are the main factors for E.coli contamination and these are the same for both organic and conventional products.

The truth in all of this is that the safest food you can get is food that comes directly from the farmer. Large scale slaughterhouses and food that travels long distances and is handled by many people is the most likely to cause illness. Locally grown food promotes your health and the health of your food community.

Thanks to the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM) comprehensive information about organic agriculture is now available to people around the world; for farmers, researchers and policy makers in all aspects of organic agriculture. The goal of the Growing Organic pages is to provide a hub of information for developing organic agriculture. IFOAM believes that development of organic agriculture around the world will be facilitated through this knowledge resource.

The Growing Organic web pages are a source of information for developing organic sectors of all kinds, even growing organic food and composting in the backyard. They represent the cumulative knowledge and experience of IFOAM, the umbrella organization for Organic Agriculture, and are a community resource designed to represent and serve global Organic movements. I like to think of them as a kind of Organic Wikipedia.

The Growing Organic Pages cover eight major topic areas relating to organic agriculture: Policy, Advocacy, Strategic Relations, Quality Assurance, Marketing, Training, and Research.

Online at IFOAM Growing Organic pages.

“The ultimate goal of farming is not the growing of crops, but the cultivation and perfection of human beings.” -Masanobu Fukuoka

The merging of traditional sustainable practices from the east and west is gaining relevance in development strategies for a sustainable future. Masanobu Fukuoka was at the forefront of merging the two. He was a radical farmer, activist and teacher who developed natural farming methods for what he called ‘the road back to nature’. Fukuoka had a uniquely dualistic East/West perspective of food production and a vision of people and nature co-existing in the farming system. He worked in the sciences as a plant pathologist, but when recovering from a severe attack of pneumonia he realized he had to work to put humans back in harmony with nature. He then quit his job, returned to his family’s farm and devoted his life to small-scale natural farming systems, using natural rhythms of the land without tilling, weeding or applying pesticides and fertilizers.

Fukuoka’s vision and action for a world in which civilization and nature can peacefully coexist was carefully documented. He was the author of several books including ‘The One Straw Revolution’ with great influence on farmers and activists around the world. Fukuoka also wrote: The Road Back to Nature and The Natural Way of Farming. The resources available online are from the Fukuoka Farming Website, Mother Earth News, One Straw, and Natural Farming.

Learning from the apprentices and farmers following Fukuoka’s way of natural farming can be done all over the world. The Center for Sustainable Community offers workshops by Larry Korn who studied with Fukuoka.

“It’s good for the beekeeper because it’s a fascinating undertaking. … Bees are so integrated as part of the environment that everything around them affects them in some way.” -Michael Bush of Bush Farms

Keep Bees! The work is simple, enjoyable, healthful and could be the difference between a healthy ecological system and a system in peril. Bees are a ‘free lunch’ in terms of pest, mold, and various other plant disease control agents. With each visit, bees help plants communicate by passing information from one to another. If one plant the bee visits is being attacked by caterpillars, for instance, the bee travels from that plant to the surrounding plant community with that ‘message’ in the form of defense chemicals and scents from the original plant. Other plants respond to this by producing the anti-caterpillar defenses before they become the caterpillar’s next meal. Bees are a key species in the farm ecosystem and are being targeted by carelessly applied chemicals.

The benefits of promoting and nurturing bee populations are overwhelming. Agro-biodiversity benefits in every way; on-farm crops benefit from bee visits for pollination and plant protection; off-farm ecology benefits and in turn restores natural controls through a return to ecological balance.

The best way to help the bees is to start keeping your own. To start keeping your own bees pick up a book, or better yet, talk to your local beekeeper association or society; they are proud, happy and informative people. Responsenet is working on a set of pedagogical and direct action programs to support wild bees and to promote sustainable beekeeping practices. The International Bee Research Association has resources for professional and new beekeepers. And Apimondia the International Federation of Beekeepers’ Associations offers a network for information, and connections to local beekeepers.

“I don’t want you just to sit down at the table. I don’t want you just to eat, and be content. I want you to walk out into the fields where the water is shining, and the rice has risen. I want you to stand there, far from the white tablecloth. I want you to fill your hands with the mud, like a blessing.” -Mary Oliver

Organic agriculture has recently gained a bad name in some circles but it deserves a fresh look. Organic is often criticized because many products available in the supermarket are from large organic corporations with single bottom line ethics. Industrial organic production and global shipping are unsustainable practices and do not exactly meet the IFOAM Principles of Organic Agriculture. With giant organic corporations the fundamental notions at the heart of organic are lost. As Michael Pollan pointed out many times in his 2007 publication Omnivore’s Dilemma organic is not the end-all-be-all of ecologically sound farming practices. In fact many small farmers are doing away with the label altogether opting instead for a better relationship with the customer. When buyers are also owners and farmhands, as in the Japanese Teikei and the US Community Shared Agriculture (CSA), the need for an organic or fair trade label goes away altogether.

For more information and resources about Teikei and CSA check out A Visit to the Home of Teikei by the Rodale Institute and visit Local Harvest.

The solution to getting back at the heart of organic is to start producing organic food on your own. Resources for small personal production are available from Garden Organic as well as from your local farmer. Find the organic farmer nearest you through Local Harvest, Serve Your Country Food and through the IFOAM Organic World Directory. Show up and lend a hand, this is a great way to learn how to do the work in your own garden or greenhouse and to share the work of animal production. Small, local organic farmers need your help. They are struggling despite the relatively high market value of organic food the competition is fierce with industrial organic bringing market prices down.

For more resources and information linking you to local farmers check out the 100 Mile Diet, Locavores, and the Eat Local Challenge.

Encourage young farmers. The average age of a farmer is increasing every day, meanwhile the responsibility of global production goes onto the shoulders of fewer and fewer of them. Young farmers are gathering their resources and networking around the world to make good food for local people (Crop Cooperative, Greenhorns and Freshman Farmer).

“In short, I am convinced, both by faith and experience, that to maintain one’s self on this earth is not a hardship but a pastime, if we will live simply and wisely.” – Henry David Thoreau

“Infinite growth of material consumption in a finite world is an impossibility.” – EF Schumacher

When the economist E. F. Schumacher published ‘Small is Beautiful’ in 1973 he was working with the premise that sustainable economies are possible. Schumacher believed in an economy of enough, an economy which supports social and natural systems in a sustainable way. Many economists and political theorists since have supported his notion that the economy must benefit people and the environment rather than degrade it. The Italian writer, activist and ‘Good Clean and Fair’ advocate Carlo Petrini is chief among them. Carlo Petrini has proposed that small and slow economies help us eat better food, have better health, create stronger communities and live better lives.

Visit the EF Schumacher Society and Slow Food International to learn more about the philosophy and work of these two visionaries.

The best way to support the slow economy is to start in your own home and community. Economy and ecology share the same greek root oikos which means home or community. Focusing energy on the local community and economy can help to create a more sustainable future worldwide. Go to the yard sales and markets, get to know the farmers and craft-workers in your village. It is possible to get the things you want from a local crafts-person just look around and see what you find. Global artisan networks like the Women’s Global Artisan Network and Ten Thousand Villages can help you research local connections.