Are we leaving [our children] a better landscape of a clapped up beat up ’64 valiant with no doors, blowing smoke?
Let’s take the old adage ‘what’s in a name?’ and replace the word ‘name’ with ‘label’. That’s what Greek gardening guru Costa Georgiadis wants us to do. He – along with celebrity chef Pete Evans and author and speaker Therese Kerr – is taking the fight for nature to the whole of Australia and is asking us to question where our food, textiles, wine and beauty products are coming from; all for the benefit of our children’s future and the world we leave behind.
This month, not for profit organisation Australian Organic launched its new community service campaign One Logo Says It All. The One Logo Says It All campaign aims to increase consumer trust by educating shoppers to only purchase organic products that display the Australian Organic Certification logo. Products bearing the Australian Certified Organic logo are free range, GM free, pasture-fed, water efficient and biodiversity friendly as well as grown free from synthetic pesticides, herbicides, hormones and antibiotics.
Costa tells Neos Kosmos that the important thing for him in this labelling is to find the truth, the naked truth behind what is going on. And even though it can take up to three years for farmers and producers to get accredited with this label, consumers need to think about the bigger picture – their health, their children and the ecosystem.
“The important thing for me is it is all about the truth in labelling and there are a lot of untruths in labelling, and a lot of greenwashing going on,” Costa explains.
“When I look at why I support organic, I support organic because it’s all about health and knowing exactly what’s gone into the growing of the food, the manufacture of the food, the processing of the food and then the transportation and sale of the food.
“The difference between certified organic and just saying something’s organic is that you don’t have any proof, there are no guarantees that these labels and these claims are correct if there are no audits and checks to maintain a standard.”
Whatever we put into our bodies is a by-product of where it’s gone along the way, so if you are eating organic, washing your body with organic soap and using organic textiles, then you can guarantee good health, he says.
“Our body is our sanctuary; for whatever bargain you get, you need to put away the money to cover the health issues that will come later on – that’s how I like to look at it.”
Over 14,000 products wear the Australian Certified Organic logo and can be found in all major and independent retailers across the country. By buying a product that bears this label, you are not only encouraging a healthy lifestyle, you are ensuring that the land is nurtured as well.
“When something has been grown organically it means that the farming practice is nurturing, it is having to uphold certain rigid standards of what’s taken out is put back in again. It’s not just pillaging the landscape to get whatever we can out of it whenever we can.”
He says buying organic has far reaching benefits. Just the ecological benefits alone – the waterways are preserved and aren’t being flooded with toxic chemicals – and with that preservation comes the rehydration of the landscape and that means the entire ecosystem is thriving.
“You have habitat where you get birds and insects and bees which help with the pollination which helps with pest control because you have natural predators. If you have woods and bushlands you then have owls that can look after the rats and rodents; if you have a biodiverse bushland you have flowers that will brings in bees as pollinators and wasps that will knock out pest insects,” says Costa.
“So the consequences are far and wide – it’s not just this broccoli costs $1.80 extra per kilo – it’s more what is it value adding to the environment; and the reason I spent so much time in schools, for the kids? Are we leaving them with a better landscape or a clapped out, beat up ’64 Valiant with no doors, blowing smoke? That’s what you have to ask yourself when you make any purchase.”
Costa has been an ambassador for the Australian Organic Schools program for many years. The program educates children about where their food comes from and the benefits of organics for our health and the environment. It provides free teaching resources to support schools to grow organic food, integrate food growing and preparation into the schools’ curriculum, and contribute to whole-school environmental sustainability. As it stands, there are 1350 schools Australia wide that have a garden plot for their students.
Costa says Greek Australians have an advantage, as many have been shown, from an early age, the joys of home-grown food, either through parents or grandparents.
“The thing you can’t underestimate is the power of kids eating something fresh,” he says. The students become friends with the produce, they connect with the land; the growing, the harvesting, the maintenance, the cooking and the eating of the produce.
“By having a school garden in the grounds, the teachers have their laboratory and they can go out and assign tasks to the students, do scientific experiments – it means kids are getting exposed to seasons, by growing the produce, they understand vegetables and fruits come from living beings and are a consequence of seasons. Then they can understand why mangoes are cheap in the middle of the season and are expensive at the end, and why you wouldn’t want to buy them out of season.”
Giving children this knowledge is invaluable; it shows them they are in control of their bodies, and that they can make a conscious choice to do so. It gives them the power.
“It opens up dialogue with the children,” says Costa.
“If you tell them, if you eat processed and not fresh, ‘let’s have a look at the label and see what this emulsifier and 631 is and reconstituted wheat germ and all that really is’ and you can explain to them that that’s what you are putting in your bodies.”
He says that even though the label comes with guarantees of an organic product, the responsibility lies with us to speak to the producers, the farmers and really ask what is going on.
“You have to be proactive as the manager of your health and you can’t leave it in other people’s hands,” he says. And even though it might cost a bit more, he implores us to ask ourselves ‘is our health worth it?’.
“The crazy side of it is the more people demand this, and the more it becomes normal, then the more it will become mainstream.”
Follow this link to watch Australian Organic’s community service announcement www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kB4TgNhnbs