Supporting their beliefs, a recent Huffington Post stated that pesticides often used on commercial farms may be linked to attention-deficit disorder in children. The article also mentioned that the pesticide levels found in the urine of children who ate organically grown produce declined to undetectable or nearly undetectable amounts, showing that organic food may be better for mental as well as physical health.
As far as the cleanliness of produce from local farms, Danielle Leoni, a manager of The Breadfruit, a locally supportive Jamaican restaurant, said that a ladybug in a pound of mint proved to be the worst she has seen. The kitchen staff simply picked out the ladybug and washed the mint again, she explained.
“If something lives on my food, I feel better eating it because at least something can live on it,” Leoni added.
Organic food took off in the 90s and when larger, commercial farms wanted to join the movement, stricter certifications were set in place, said Nick Gentry, owner of PastaBAR. He added that meeting the certifications often became too expensive for smaller, local farms and caused the farms to lose their organic title.
Leoni said that using local food does cause their prices to increase and the higher prices do sometimes turn people away, but she said she thinks it is worth it.
Local organic food “is why we’re here, but we understand it’s not for everybody,” Leoni said.
Gentry said he agreed that he runs into problems with the higher price of locally grown food.
“To tell you the truth, it probably hurts me,” he said. “It’s not expensive, but it’s not cheap.”
Michelle Saccone, a manager and server at Cibo, an Italian restaurant that uses locally grown produce, said that her customers come because of the locally grown food.
“I think the clientele looks for that and that’s why we have such a good clientele–because there are people who are searching for that kind of thing,” Saccone said.
Leoni said they rely on word of mouth advertisement to keep The Breadfruit thriving, and she finds that people will seek the restaurant out because of its dedication to locally grown food.
Similarly, instead of lowering his prices, Gentry said, “I’d rather slowly grow my customer base.”
Saccone explained that she believes the food itself draws people to Cibo.
“It is definitely a balance between trying to import the really good stuff that we can get from Italy and then trying to incorporate the local food into the menu as well,” Saccone said. “Having that balance is really what I think has made it successful.”
Contact the reporter at evie.carpenter@asu.edu
