{"id":2449939,"date":"2012-09-07T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-09-07T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.outsideonline.com\/uncategorized\/organic-agritourism-good-your-health\/"},"modified":"2022-02-24T13:17:59","modified_gmt":"2022-02-24T20:17:59","slug":"organic-agritourism-good-your-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.outsideonline.com\/outdoor-adventure\/environment\/organic-agritourism-good-your-health\/","title":{"rendered":"Organic Agritourism: Good for Your Health?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/figure>Photo: Egan Snow<\/a>\/Flickr<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

As summer wanes and garden harvests start to dwindle, this news lands with a thud: a recent study performed at Stanford University indicated that
\neating organic produce doesn\u2019t necessarily mean eating more nutritious produce.<\/p>\n

If you figured this would raise the ire of organic food
\nadvocates, you were right. Much of the debate that arose from this research and the
\nbreathless headlines it generated, however, focuses on what the study did not
\nconsider. There is no question that food raised “conventionally”\u2014that is to
\nsay, with the aid of any number of synthetic pesticides\u2014does harm to those
\nwho grow and produce the food, and to the surrounding ecosystem.<\/p>\n

The takeaway is that while an organic tomato might not make
\nyou healthier than a conventional one, a conventional tomato may well do more
\nharm to its producer. So buying organic is one way to vote for better
\nagricultural working conditions. It\u2019s one way to vote for fewer fertilizers and
\nchemicals entering the environment. (Suggested reading for more on this is “Eat
\nOrganic: It\u2019s Good for Other People\u2019s Health<\/a>” over at Earth Island Journal<\/em>.)<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s another element to organically-raised food that
\nwe should consider: it is a conduit for connecting people and landscapes.
\nWithout organic farms, adventure travel would suffer.\n<\/p>\n

Take, for example, World
\nWide Opportunities for Organic Farms<\/a>, or WWOOF. Since the early 1970s, this
\norganization has connected travelers, who are willing to volunteer their time
\nand efforts, with organic farmers that will provide a place to stay and food to
\neat. While that alone might not sound like a hair-raising adventure, traveling from
\nfarm to farm can extend and deepen an experience abroad.<\/p>\n

Alexander Tarr, a Ph.D. candidate in the department of geography at the University of California, Berkeley, says he and his then-girlfriend spent nine months
\ntraveling through Europe in 2006\u2014a trip made possible by WWOOF farms.<\/p>\n

“We worked at eight different farms, a variety of different
\nplaces,” he says. “We had saved up some money, both quit our jobs and were
\nplanning to start grad school, so it was like a pre-grad school gap year. We\u2019d spend a few weeks at a farm, and then go to Paris for
\na few days, then back to another farm and then maybe go to Morocco.”<\/p>\n

The farm stays are far from sedentary\u2014you\u2019re expected to
\nwork seven hours a day, six days a week, and Tarr notes that they often worked longer
\nhours just because the farmers did and “it would have been weird to say, 'OK,
\nyou might have a half-day of farming left to do, but I\u2019m going to bike into
\ntown….'”<\/p>\n

There are WWOOF farms in North and South America, Europe,
\nthe Middle East, Africa and Asia. Consider this: you're not only staying with
\nfarmers who have local knowledge and can direct you to the best trails, lakes,
\nrivers, etc., you're also living with people who have to obsessively watch the
\nweather and understand local weather patterns.<\/p>\n

Even domestically, organic farms can enrich travel and serve
\nas a base camp for meandering. Agritourism (a fancy name for farm tours) doesn't
\njust mean staid pumpkin picking or wine tasting. Pro skier Alison Gannet and
\nher partner run a 75-acre organic farm in the North Fork Gunnison Valley of Colorado,
\nfrom where she\u2019s staging a 25-mile bike farm tour<\/a>,
\nas part of the Paonia Mountain Harvest
\nFestival<\/a>, September 27-30.<\/p>\n

Have you used farm work-stays as part of an epic journey? Know
\nof another great, active farm tour? Let us know by leaving a comment.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2014Mary Catherine O'Connor
@mcoc<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Photo: Egan Snow\/Flickr As summer wanes and garden harvests start to dwindle, this news lands with a thud: a recent study performed at Stanford University indicated that eating organic produce doesn\u2019t necessarily mean eating more nutritious produce. If you figured this would raise the ire of organic food advocates, you were right. Much of the … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"uuid":"25d81db5751ad4117b70bad31e2b87ca","footnotes":""},"categories":[2547],"tags":[2594,2624,2601],"byline":[],"ad_cat":[],"legacy-category":[],"class_list":["post-2449939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-environment","tag-biking","tag-nature","tag-science"],"acf":[],"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","meta":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"Organic Agritourism: Good for Your Health?","url":"https:\/\/www.outsideonline.com\/outdoor-adventure\/environment\/organic-agritourism-good-your-health\/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.outsideonline.com\/outdoor-adventure\/environment\/organic-agritourism-good-your-health\/"},"thumbnailUrl":"","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":""},"articleSection":"Environment","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"sperkins-pom"}],"creator":["sperkins-pom"],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø Online","logo":"https:\/\/www.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/favicon-194x194-1.png"},"keywords":["biking","nature","science"],"dateCreated":"2012-09-07T00:00:00Z","datePublished":"2012-09-07T00:00:00Z","dateModified":"2022-02-24T20:17:59Z"},"rendered":"