Adirondack Erratic

A couple of years ago I stumbled onto this organization, Kitchen Gardeners International, which aims to promote kitchen gardens around the world. Founder Roger Doiron wants us to join together to grow the “localest” food of all, and to encourage others to do the same. KGI organizes several events to highlight backyard gardening including a Grow-Off Show-Off contest and an annual Kitchen Garden Day and spearheads creative ways to introduce the wider public to the joys and benefits of small scale gardening . Currently, Roger is campaigning to encourage the next president to plant a garden on the White House Lawn.

The website and e-newsletter are well put together, but the recent addition of a KGI forum has added a new dimension to the conversation. I have a feeling this site may turn out to be one of my most visited garden sites.

The first 2008 newsletter from GardenShare has a provocative article about workers’ rights and large scale organic farming. GardenShare focuses on hunger, community and local food in St. Lawrence county.

Elizabeth Henderson from the Agricultural Justice Project writes, that although the growth of large-scale organic farms

…still carries with it the benefit of reducing pesticide use in agriculture, these new organic farms often perpetuate the injustices present in agriculture in general -inadequate income for small-scale farmers and exploitative working conditions for farmworkers.

The article goes on to refer to a number of workers’ rights lawsuits against organic producers on the West coast. As Henderson points out, the organic label covers growing practices, not labor conditions. Yet another reason to buy from your local farmer, rather than Del Monte!