GROWING IN POPULARITY

Availability of organic food increases in GV area

At one time, organically grown foods were looked on as almost a fad, feeding a small number of the world’s population with vegetables grown under strict agriculture standards.

But now, organically grown foods are almost everywhere. Green Valley’s four supermarkets have organic displays in their vegetable sections.

And there are some local growers and dealers.

Anne Duncan operates Tubac River House, an 11.3-acre spread in the Tubac area.

She doesn’t have a farm stand, relying on sales at farmers’ markets, to private customers and a stand from 2 to 4 p.m. Friday afternoons at the First Resort Naturopathic Medical Clinic, 170 N. La Canada Drive.

Depending on the time of year, she sells her own crops. Other times, she acquires vegetables from other growers or brokers.

At her Green Valley stand these days there are green beans and cucumbers, bright red tomatoes, shiny yellow bell peppers and purplish eggplant.

She even has fresh pineapple, although she jokes, “I haven’t yet figured out how to grow them locally.”

When the time is right, she also harvests lettuce, spinach, water melon, cantaloupe, okra and some herbs.

She uses greenhouses, for two reasons—to discourage insects and to extend the growing season.

One definition of organic foods says they “are grown without the use of conventional pesticides, artificial fertilizers, human waste or sewage sludge.”

Organic livestock are reared without the routine use of antibiotics and without the use of growth hormones.

An article on Wikipedia—the online encyclopedia—says as of April 2008 organic food accounts for 1 percent to 2 percent of food sales worldwide.

There have been warnings that organic farms yield less than from farms that rely on fertilizers and growth hormones.

Recent studies indicate that organic food production is increasing.

Duncan has degrees from the University of Arizona, one from the College of Agriculture.

After a bout of illness, she started thinking about how the effects of food on the body and became an advocate for healthy-grown crops.

Whenever she can she prefers non-cooked fruits and vegetables saying some “lose 85 percent of their nutrition after heating.”

She named a couple of other areas where to get organically grown food, or almost.

They’re Global Alliance Group east of Tumac‡cori and Agua Linda Farms operated by Stewart and Laurel Loew just east of the Interstate at the Agua Linda Exit. Agua Linda is not totally organic, but doesn’t use much of the fertilizers and insecticide that are found on farms of similar size.

Duncan’s Friday stand is on the grounds of First Resort, a naturopathic medical clinic, operated by Dr. Donald D. Mayfield.

Mayfield operated naturopathic medical clinics for five years in Ohio and in Florida for 30 years.

He has presented more than 100 seminars and lectures, served as an instructor in acupuncture school and appeared several times on radio and television.

Mayfield is a Fellow with the American Society of Acupuncture, a Diplomate with the National Board of Homeopathic Examiners and research associate with the Occidental Institute Research Foundation, Vancouver, B.C., Canada.

jlamb@gvnews.com | 547-9749