Susan Davidson says her role as an organic farmer is to bring her customers closer to their food.
She eschews conventional pesticides and believes changing the way we grow food will make a difference in the world.
"I need to include what's happening in the environment, what's politically happening in our food system, and who's in control of what I eat," said Davidson of Aldergrove, B.C..
Growing crops organically is more expensive, and that pushes her costs higher.
Last year the Canadian Food Inspection Agency launched new standards on organic production to make sure the food is worth the price.
"They need to have spray records, they need to show exactly what they've sprayed, they need to have records on the source of the seeds and how they tilled the land," said Christina Hilliard, a fresh food inspection specialist with CFIA.
Organic farms are audited by private inspectors who report to the CFIA. The agency says it's getting results.
"We have taken action against products that aren't certified under the standards," she said.
But organic producers like Stephen Cipes of Summerhill Pyramid Winery believe that the inspections and the paper trails aren't good enough.
He thinks government should be testing the end product for pesticides at a higher standard than regular produce.
"I would like to see a certificate that says, this wine has zero toxins in it, period," he said. "That way I don't care what happened before that, I know when I'm pouring it into my glass and into my body that it's zero toxins."
That's what CTV News found out when we had several organic potatoes and organic snow peas tested -- there were no pesticides at detectable levels.
Susan Davidson admits that kind of testing would make customers feel better about buying organic, but there would be other problems.
"Once you start requirements, you're really bumping up the whole costs and there's already strong resistance to the costs associated with organic farming," she said.
To learn more about CTV's investigative series Food for Thought, click here.
