I recently moved from NYC to the Pacific Northwest in order to become an organic farmer. I left the media world of Conde Nast to learn the tools of the trade from one of the pioneers of the movement, Sue Ujcic, at Helsing Junction Farm.

For 16 years, Sue, and her business partner, Annie, have run the premier Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm in the Puget Sound, with 600 annual members.

Each week, Seattle and Portland residents receive a box of fresh, seasonal, organic produce delivered to their neighborhood.

Sue likes to say that CSAs are putting the "culture"
back in agriculture by revisiting the way we think
about food and farms. There are no banks or government
subsidies involved; just farmers and people working
together to sustain farms, provide quality food and
join a growing movement that is keeping water and soil
safe, and maintaining open spaces and farmland for the
future.

I'm writing this, because recently Sue and I had a rather distasteful experience at Whole Foods in Bellevue, WA (one of the wealthiest cities in the US).

As many of your readers know, Whole Foods has been taking over the American organic market, but rarely buys locally-grown produce in its stores. (See: Last week's New Yorker article by Steve Shapin http://www.newyorker.com/critics/atlarge/ or Field Maloney's piece in Slate: http://www.slate.com/id/2138176/ )

We browsed the store's produce aisle, noting that every single organic item was from California. When we approached the store manager to ask if we could leave a brochure for our CSA on their bulletin board, we were told it was a "conflict of interest." Sue asked how it was a conflict to provide their customers information about local farms. Sue said she was confused, because Whole Foods claims that they support local, organic farmers, but all of its produce was from California. The manager could not explain.

I lived in NYC for 5 years, and was often frustrated at the lack of organic produce at the greenmarket, or in the natural food stores. When I could, I bought locally, and only seasonally.

I urge Tree Hugger readers to think about their "organic" purchases at Whole Foods carefully.

Anyone who is interested in more information is welcome to contact me directly: naomistarkman@yahoo.com

Thank you.

If you have a chance I'd love for you to check out the bags I've sourced from Brazil made of recycled canvas that truckers used to protect cargo loads.

In any case these are really terrific too! Thanks!