I didn’t grow up eating organic—but somewhere along the way, I started asking different questions about food.
Most people assume I must have been raised by hippie parents who only fed me organic food as a kid.
It’s not an outlandish assumption. The long hair, the sometimes questionable, partially torn attire, and the fact that I chose farming as an occupation all but guarantee a crunchy childhood.
But you’d be mistaken.
On the contrary, my childhood—and even my early adulthood—was very traditional.
I loved microwaveable pizzas, gummy snacks, and Mr. Pibb.
Food was less about nutrition and more about taste. And when it came time to start buying my own food, I was very much a “price over quality” kind of shopper.
It wasn’t until much later in life that I became interested in the quality of the food I was consuming—and how that quality depended almost entirely on how that food was grown.
A Call to Reconnect
When I returned home from San Francisco in 2017, I was looking for a fresh start. Three years in the city had taken a toll on my body and my spirit.
I knew I needed to change something, but I wasn’t exactly sure what. Returning home felt like a good place to begin.
At the time, remote work wasn’t really a thing at my company. And in the rare cases it was granted, it was widely considered career suicide. That didn’t stop me from asking my boss. I knew I needed to get home.
When I finally made my way back to Encinitas, a word kept repeating in my mind:
Reconnect.
I wasn’t sure what it meant at first.
“Reconnect… to what?” I would ask myself.
“Everything,” a voice inside me would respond.
“Okay…” I’d think, still not knowing where to start.
I remembered some advice from a friend: if you don’t know where to start, just guess.
“You’ll likely be wrong, but it keeps you from overthinking and never acting.”
So that’s what I did—I guessed.
That guess led me to rethink my lifestyle habits, and more specifically, my eating habits.
Rethinking Food
I wasn’t the worst eater I knew. I tried to eat what I assumed was healthy—high protein, low carb, and minimally processed foods—but I never stopped to consider the quality of what I was eating.
I was largely ignorant of the idea of “organic” food. Like many people, I believed it was just a marketing term used to sell products at a premium.
I had no awareness of glyphosate or the widespread use of chemical pesticides in our agricultural system, and how disruptive they could be to our bodies. I didn’t understand the conditions most animals are raised in within concentrated feeding operations (CAFOs). And I was unaware of the damage industrial farming has done to the natural world—like the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico, roughly the size of Connecticut, caused primarily by agricultural runoff from the Mississippi River.
The more I learned, the more I began to see that food—and by extension, farming—sits at the center of so many personal, social, and environmental issues.
From there, I started a garden—which led me to volunteer on farms, and eventually to become a farmer myself.
But all of this came later in life for me.
And the story is still evolving.
A Knowing (Beyond the Need to Prove)
I can’t necessarily prove that organic food is objectively better than conventionally grown food. I can’t point to a single definitive study that proves it beyond all doubt (though I’m sure there are many that attempt to).
But I do know this: My life and health improved dramatically the more I invested in quality, organic food.
You could argue this is a classic case of correlation versus causation.
All I know is that as soon as I started caring about where my food came from, I began to feel more connected—to my body, my spirit, my family, my community, and more. And those positive effects have continued to compound.
An Invitation To Reconnect
Yes, there’s often an added cost for food grown without chemicals.
Yes, it can take some adjustment to shop differently—farmers markets, natural food stores, CSAs.
And yes, you might even be met with some skepticism or criticism at first.
But if you haven’t tried it yet, I’d encourage you to give it a shot.
Try it for a month and pay attention to how you feel—your energy, your mood, your overall well-being.
You might be surprised by what happens.
And who knows—maybe you’ll start a garden and fall in love with farming too.
You don’t have to become a farmer to reconnect.
You can start with something small—like paying attention to where your food comes from.
That’s part of why we created our CSA. Each week is a simple way to step a little closer to the source—toward better food, and maybe something more.
If you’d like to try it, you can learn more here: