noteworthy

A DESTINED HARVEST
BY MARY WARNER

12 EDIBLE METRO & MOUNTAINS | FALL 2009 WWW.EDIBLEMETROMOUNTAINS.COM

 “We play an important role in the whole food movement
by helping farmers and producers focus on doing their job,
which is creating LASH products”
M
ost hospitals and school cafeterias have at least one
thing in common besides fluorescent lights: They
don’t serve locally produced, organic food. While
more than a few people have been lamenting the
demise of the school lunch and questioning the health benefits of hos-
pital pudding, there’s one Georgia-based company trying to change
the way we eat in these places. In fact, Destiny Organics is well on
their way.
Destiny Organics formed eight years ago as a produce wholesaler
known as Destiny Produce. Back then, their trucks ran on diesel and
they sold conventionally grown fruits and vegetables. When the
demand for organics grew, they shed convention for a local, sus-
tainable inventory. Today, Destiny Organics is Georgia’s only certified
organic food distributor; and in addition to produce, they offer dairy,
meat, artisanal products and dry goods produced or grown in Georgia.
Their social responsibility doesn’t end with their products. Destiny’s
fleet of delivery trucks now run on bio-diesel, and the company re-
cycles 95 percent of everything that comes through their door.
“They have boldly stepped out to do what other people have talked
about doing,” says Will Harris, owner of White Oak Pastures, a local,
artisan, sustainable, humane (LASH) cattle farm in Bluffton, Georgia.
Harris is a fifth-generation cattleman whose family operates Georgia’s
largest grass-fed beef producer. Before Harris broke ground in 2007 to
Photo by Bill Klouda
build a $2.2 million processing plant on his property (to control the
quality of his meat), White Oak Pastures’ beef was available at Publix
and Whole Foods Markets. Still, Harris wanted to reach untapped
Photos Courtesy of Destiny Organics
ISSUE 3
communities in Southern hamlets where organic interest was just
starting to sprout, and within the halls of socially conscious institu-
tions. Destiny introduced him to these places.
“We play an important role in the whole food movement by helping
farmers and producers focus on doing their job, which is creating
LASH products,” says Dee Dee Digby, the owner of Destiny Or-
ganics. They help farmers and producers with sales, marketing and
distribution, while delivering quality products to retailers, co-ops,
buying clubs, resorts, restaurants and institutions. Yet Destiny’s role
hasn’t always been as encompassing as it is now. Digby admits that she
knew little about sustainability when she began her company. After a
few years in the field, however, she sounds like an expert. Today, one
of the most important things she does is educate prospective suppliers
about the benefits of sustainable and humane farming.
“I have enormous respect for the knowledge Dee Dee has of the in-
dustry and equal respect for her passion. Destiny Organics seems ab-
solutely focused on getting the highest quality, making it their mission
to procure the best for their customers,” says Harris.
Cheryl Wilson feels the same. A native of Columbus, Georgia, with a
background in community-supported agriculture subscription services
(CSAs), Wilson has been with Destiny since 2008. To her, the
company was making a greater impact on the community by “dissemi-
nating organics” via their distribution plans. After a few conversations
with Digby, she was hired to help with sales and cultivate new clients.
EDIBLE METRO & MOUNTAINS | FALL 2009 13
Wilson is the model spokesperson, speaking energetically about
Destiny’s latest news: They are the focus of a study at the University of
California-Santa Cruz on innovative business models, and they’ve
formed an alliance with Emory University, an institution that has set a
goal of ensuring that 75 percent of food served on campus will come
from local or sustainable sources by 2015.
“The students at universities are driving the demand for organic
food,” says Wilson. The problem is that many institutional food
service departments use contract-dining services that provide both
food and nonfood items. It’s a challenge to keep prices low and
provide a variety of products. To serve customers on an institutional
level, Destiny will have to expand their product line while continuing
to educate the public about the benefits of sustainable living.
Hospitals will be on board soon, although their problem is not all
cost. For many, it’s that they simply don’t have a kitchen. Since staff is
also minimal, items that pass through the door and out to patients’
bed tables are often pre-made. Few of us plan on being in the hospital,
so we have little say in what our options are to eat. Yet, in a place that
puts a premium on health and recovery, food should reign supreme.
The problem runs deeper. Earlier this year, the CDC invited Michael
Pollan to its headquarters in Atlanta to address the obesity epidemic.
While the crux of the epidemic may seem obvious to those of us who
14 EDIBLE METRO & MOUNTAINS | FALL 2009
have adopted an organic and sustainable lifestyle, Pollan’s appearance
signifies a change in thinking on a national level about the correlation
between food consumption and obesity. In the past, junk food like
chips and sodas conveyed pleasure or fun, while healthy food choices
were for “nuts”—not so any more. Pollan spelled out that changing
the way we consume will take time, education and a return to our
roots. It will also take companies like Destiny Organics to provide lo-
gistical support to disseminate foods produced by mid-sized farmers.
Once an agrarian society, the South is a natural habitat for a regional
distributor like Destiny Organics to prosper. According to Cheryl
Wilson, when Dr. Joan Dye Gussow, a leading organics supporter and
writer, spoke at the Georgia Organics conference in 2003, she read
aloud a list of agricultural products from an early 20th century
farmers’ almanac. The list was extensive. Gussow was making the
point that Georgia has the potential to expand its agricultural com-
modities and return to a bountiful harvest. Destiny Organics is
bringing us one step closer. e MM
Mary Warner is a writer living in Atlanta. She can be reached at
maryhelene@gmail.com.
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