Standard Process Inc. Whole Food Supplements Since 1929.
Insist on More than Your Garden Variety
Christine Mason,
Farm Manager
One of America's greatest assets is diversity. We are a nation rich in variety from the clothes we wear to the homes we live in to the cars we drive. Why is it then, that our food has less variety and fewer choices now than ever before in our history? One alarming reason is lack of seed diversity. For some reason, we have allowed a small handful of companies to manipulate the majority of our seed stock. We have also come to rely on a very cheap food source in the form of subsidized corn and soybeans (watch "King Corn"…it is a great documentary and available at Netflix or other video providers).
Purple, yellow, orange, and white carrot varieties grown on the farm.
One aspect of managing the Standard Process Farm that I truly enjoy is the effort we put into evaluating different vegetable varieties. This year, in cooperation with the Research and Development department, we are looking at green, blue, and red corn amongst other varieties. Corn is not just yellow #2! We should all eat more veggies from the cruciferous family. You may have tried kale once and found it not to your liking…but was it blue kale or green kale or purple kale? Was it ruffled or flat? They all taste very different!
Thanks to years of carrot trials at the Standard Process Farm, I now enjoy mixing yellow, white, red, and orange carrots together when I freeze them for winter nutrition. They taste amazing together, the combination looks beautiful on a plate, and different colors have made vegetables more fun for our eight-year-old daughter.
There are sound agronomic reasons to have variety also. When we do vegetable trials at Standard Process, it is amazing the difference between varieties of the very same crop.
Some varieties tolerate drought, while some do better in wet weather. The same is true of disease and insect resistance. By the 1800s, 90 percent of the people in Ireland were dependent upon one basic variety of potato for the majority of their sustenance. In 1845, late blight (along with some very bad British policy) depleted the Irish population from 8 million to 5 million people as there were no other foods available as back-up staples.
I believe that eating a variety of vegetables has sound nutritional reason. Also, if Americans demanded more variety in the marketplace, more money and research would have to be dedicated to preserving heirloom varieties or ensuring that we can have a radish that is pink, white, or black as well as red. Joining Consumer Supported Agriculture (CSA) or finding a good farmer's market is an excellent way to purchase vegetables with a little more pizzazz.
Most certainly, the most rewarding way to ensure a little more spice in life is to plant the seeds yourself!