From the Los Angeles Times food section:

THE CALIFORNIA COOK
‘Organic’ label doesn’t guarantee quality or taste
Just because it’s organic doesn’t mean it’s the best. Let flavor dictate.

By RUSS PARSONS
July 1, 2009

…The real world isn’t black and white at all. Between pure organics and the reckless use of chemicals, there is a huge gray area, and this is where most farming is done.

Ignoring this means that not only are you being misinformed, but you’re also taking your eye off the real mission of supporting small farmers who grow wonderful food.

The sustainable agriculture movement recognizes this, claiming as one of its central tenets the much vaguer requirement of “environmental responsibility,” and plainly state that this doesn’t necessarily require growing strictly organically.

At Hamakua Springs, we try to grow our crops sustainably. This gives us the flexibility to do the common sense kinds of things we need to do for the long run.

At most places on the mainland, it is easier and cheaper to grow crops organically, because the winter cold kills off lots of the bad guy bugs every year. In Hawai‘i, organic farmers need to use more chemicals than their mainland counterparts. The intense insect and disease pressure in our subtropical Hawai‘i climate is probably why organic farming is such a small part of the total food produced here.

At Hamakua Springs, we use organic techniques whenever it makes sense, but having the flexibility to choose the best solution for a situation helps us to produce lots of food.

And as far as the image of organic farming being the domain of small family farms, that is, for the most part, no truer than with conventional farms. A study by UC Santa Cruz professor Julie Guthman, included in her splendid book “Agrarian Dreams,” found that the sizes and ownerships of working organic and conventional fruit and vegetable farms are not that different.

The real problem with most farming today is with a commodity marketing system that demands that every decision be made based on what will be cheapest, not what will result in the best flavor. That — not a simple choice between organic and conventional — is what makes even small farms behave like industrial giants and ship fruits and vegetables that may look great but have no taste.

At Hamakua Springs, we have made a conscious decision to grow what tastes best. Then we do what we need to do to get the crop to market. Could we grow tomatoes with a longer shelf life? Yes, if we wanted tomatoes with no flavor. Could we grow more disease-resistant tomatoes? Absolutely, if we did not care about taste. Could we grow tomatoes that are shinier and more attractive than what we now grow? Sure, and we would grow those if they tasted as good as what we grow.

Farming has evolved quite a bit in the last few years.

In large part, this is a credit to the organic farming movement, as many of the ideas and techniques it pioneered have now worked their way into the mainstream, reducing the use of chemicals even among farmers who aren’t completely organic.