Cambridge Now!

Are you a locavore?

 

Being a locavore and satisfying the requirements of The 100-Mile Diet is not easy. I think I’m doing pretty well when I purchase my food at The Cambridge Farmers’ Market and if I do purchase groceries during the week at the grocery store, I read the labels and choose items that are produced in Ontario. Buying local means it’s good for the farmer and the environment. 

 

At the recently held Green Living Show in Toronto I was looking for local ‘green’ companies and found Organic Meadow Co-Operative Inc. that produces organic dairy products close to home, in Guelph. Organic Meadow “started 16 years ago around a kitchen table in Guelph,” and now has 60 farmers scattered throughout Ontario, with 19 in Southwestern Ontario (Cambridge, Stratford, Norwich, etc.) and 19 in West-Central Ontario (Elora, Clifford, Harriston, Walkerton, etc.)

 

 

Food localism is a concept that gained fame with the writing of the book The 100-Mile Diet: A Year of Local Eating by Alisa Smith and J.B. MacKinnnon (Random House Canada, 2005). It is Waterloo Region’s One Book, One Community choice for 2008. Smith and MacKinnon discovered that the food eaten by the average North American travels 1,500 gas-guzzling miles from farm to grocery store. The Vancouver couple spent a year eating only food that they could get within 100 miles of their downtown apartment. Smith and MacKinnon are “locavores”, a term first used by The Locavores of San Francisco in 2003 to describe the group’s efforts to eat only locally grown food. 

 

 

Foodlink is a non-profit organization that creates partnerships with food producers, processors, retailers and consumers to promote the sale and consumption of locally grown and produced food. Foodlink is both a marketing tool for regional farmers and an information source for regional consumers. To learn more about where you can buy locally grown food, visit Foodlink and find out where you can get  the Buy Local, Buy Fresh map.

I spoke with Steve Cavell, CEO of Organic Meadow about how it all started.

 

In 1989, a group of farmers decided to form a cooperative and purchase a grain mill in Durham, Ontario to grow and sell certified organic grains. These farmers had come to the realization that commercialized farming practices were not sustainable for them. It wasn’t until 1995 that milk was produced by the Cooperative and there was such enthusiasm for this product that by 1998 other products such as eggs and frozen vegetables were added to the list of products. 


The Dairy Farmers of Ontario (previously known as the Milk Marketing Board) agreed to a separate pick-up of milk to ensure the ‘organic’ designation. Originally, all of the milk went to the Pine River Cheese Factory, just outside of Kincardine, and in fact, all of Organic Meadow’s cheese is still produced there. The first run of milk for Organic Meadow was produced at Fred Steen's dairy in Erin, and Organic Meadow has been at the Steen’s ever since. 

 

In order to be ‘organic’, the milk must be certified by a third-party agency (Organic Crop Producers & Processors) as set out by the Canadian General Standards Board. At the moment it is voluntary, but by December 14, 2008 it will be law. 

 

Organic farmers manage their farms responsibly, and in accordance with sustainable, earth-and-animal friendly farming practices. When Organic Meadow says that their milk is organic it means that every step in the production of the milk has to meet stringent requirements. It takes three years to certify a farm as ‘organic’. There’s the obvious such as not using herbicides, fungicides and pesticides, but also it means not using Genetically Modified Organisms. The designation also relates to the farm animals. The Cooperative discourage the use of antibiotics in all but the most extreme cases, such as if the animal is suffering, and “if antibiotics are administered then we suggest removing it from the herd. There are a number of homeopathic treatments that can be used instead,” said Mr. Cavell.

 

“We have a number of farms in the Cooperative that have not had to administer an antibiotic in ten years. Our belief is that if you have healthy soil, and that means you practice crop rotation as our grandfathers did, then you’ll produce healthy crops, and if you feed an animal what it’s meant to eat, and that means a high grass diet, then the animal will be less likely to get sick.” 

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A high grass diet is far better for a cow than a grain-fed diet. According to the website Eat Wild, grass feeding benefits the animals, the environment, the farmers and your health and offers information on why it is best for beef to be grass fed. 

 

“A high-grain diet can cause physical problems for ruminants, cud-chewing animals such as cattle, dairy cows, goats, bison and sheep. Ruminants are designed to eat fibrous grasses, not starchy, low-fibre grain. To prevent reactions (to this diet), the animals are given chemical additives along with a constant, low-level dose of antibiotics.” – Jo Robinson, 2007 of Eat Wild.

 

Steve Cavell emphasized that in order to be certified organic, “the cow is fed organic food, the animal husbandry standards and practices are different on an organic farm, and there are also different processes used in the processing plants. There is no chlorine used in our dairies, and that means no chlorine is used in the lines. Instead they are rinsed twice, and there are a number of other procedures that have to be followed. These plants also have to be certified by the same 3^rd party agency.    Essentially, we have a certified organic farm, using certified organic animals, producing certified organic feed, which goes into an organically certified processing plant. From there it finds its way to retail and to the consumer.”

 

Organic Meadow Farmers

 
Visit with two Organic Meadow farmers by visiting the Organic Meadow web site.  Harry and Jeannie Peeters' cows spend their days in an idyllic existence that is sure to produce great milk. 

You can also visit the farm of Odilia Osthaus as she tells you about “A Day In The Life Of An Organic Meadow Organic Farm”, and of her cows, Lily, Rosie, Melon and others. 

 

To find Organic Meadow products close to you, you can go to their website and use the handy Store Locator.

If you can’t find Organic Meadow at your store, ask your store manager why not?