We're not looking to pick a food fight, but we are still pretty interested in your reactions to the increasingly polarized debate over local versus organic food.
The recent Time Magazine article was only the most recent salvo in this argument. The benefits of local and organic sometimes seem to be mutually incompatible, and with energy costs rising, do you choose the local conventional apple, or the organic one flown in from the coast? If you just had to pick, which way would you go?
I'd be more impressed by the whole local issue [specifically the smaller environmental footprint aspect of it] if so many people who espouse it didn't drive Range Rovers to their local farmers market to buy their locally grown produce.
The Time article is an interesting, balanced read, by the way. I talked about it in my most recent post too, coincidentally enough.
My vote for "local" is strongly influenced by my proximity to the many delicious varieties of New York State-grown apples. Lucky us!
is it ever that simple? i buy just about all local *and* organic produce and meat - which limits my options somewhat, but the quality is so great! there are planty of things i can't get locally (such as potatoes, at the moment, anyway), and then i try to buy organic if possible - it's a case-by-case thing.
i don't worry tooo much about the odd neither-local-nor-organic item, since i feel like i'm pretty successful at choosing "both" most of the time.
In order of choice:
1.Grown by myself in a community garden plot or pots...always organic.
2.Local Organic-
CSA's and farmers markets
3.Non Local Organic- if you know the stuff hasnt sat for too long since it was picked.
4.Local Conventional- because atleast it still is nutrient rich!
5.death...
seriously if your food is coming from 1500 miles away or further and is picked under ripe weeks ago, store in a warehouse and pumped full of chemicals to artificially ripen them so that when they finally get to you they are"vine ripe"...you might as well eat chemically engineered food bars.
I think we all need to use more common sense in our food choices in this day and age.
Read the article and you'll see, as Sally suggested, that it's never that simple. For delicate produce, local almost always tastes better. But it may not be organic--in fact, probably isn't in most cases. Tougher customers like squash can be trucked across country without affecting the flavor or quality. In places like the midwest where most farming is to produce grain for the rest of the country, even finding large quantities of locally grown food is tough, particularly [ironically enough] in smaller communities surrounded by farmland.
And regarding local or nothing, when I can get a nice plum in the middle of winter [I've got a juicy pluot sitting on my desk even as I type], I say hooray for Chilean farmers.
Fortunately, I don't have to make this decision too often, as I can find local + organic produce most of the time. However, in the realm of grain products, I buy organic non-local and wish I could find a local source.
I would go with organic over local, because there are some items that I simply cannot get that are local to me. When I have the option I do get local from the farmers market, but there are only so many farmers in the area. I do try and keep it smaller businesses though.
I'll probably never be comitted to eat 100% organic because then I'd have to give up on so many local producers.
Let's face it, organic certification is just another governmental inspection process that takes a lot of money. The inspection is not only limited to the producer but to every step of the process from farm to table. This means higher prices for the consumer but also higher expenses for the farmer.
For instance, I can buy pork, chickens, duck and rabbits from a farmer in Indiana. He is the third or fourth generation of a family of farmers on that land. Never, ever have any harmful chemicals or processed feeds been used on his land. He grows a couple acres of corn just for his pigs to roam around in and eat. The animals feed off of grass and acorns too. Is he organic? No, not according to the government.
Is my own garden organic? No, because it is not insepected by the government.
We need to support our local farmers and producers and make it worth their while not to sell their property to a corporate farm that will use the land for GMO's or organic for that matter. Because ultimately it's all about flavor isn't it?
The best food is food that is grown in good soil in season. Organic certainly doesn't equal good flavor. Just try an organic peach at Whole foods.
By knowing where my food comes from, how it was grown, who it was grown by I feel comfortable choosing local. As far as transportation goes, as long as we vote for alternative forms of fuel and for greater efficiency in automobiles we can only feel and do better about receiving any kind of produce. I guess we can't get away from the government?
It's like asking paper or plastic. Pros and cons on both sides. Someone once told me that you never make an apple pie from scratch, because first you would have to create the universe.
The same for the local/organic debate. It's wonderful that this debate is on the cover of TIME because that means that these ideas of eating differently are in peoples consciousness. Do what you can, buy local when you can, support global organic when you can't buy local.
For me it's nice to know that people in other countries benefit from people wanting organic food. Pesticidal poisoning of pickers no matter where they live is important. There's no more local - we are a global society. For me, my backyard IS China and the more I support global health the more I produce local wealth.
The big deal isn't organic or local (a little advice from a kid who grew up farming in the Summertime, organic is a fad). The big issue is that the farming consolidation and buildup during and after WWII promoted the idea of the factory farm. These large, consolidated businesses are all about production efficiency. Production efficiency disregards the quality of the product, the health of the land, or any notion of protecting and promoting the infrastructure of farming.
To a large extent, buying locally from smaller farming operations at higher than normal prices is the best way to get back to higher quality, diverse agriculture. It CAN be organic, but that isn't the sole concern.
If you want exceptional quality produce, then talk to some farmers en masse and tell them what you want and negotiate a price above market. If it is enough to offset their costs, a co-op will grow it for you. Or better yet, tell your local market that is what you want and they will buy it.
Market forces are what will make changes in our food supply. If you work the system, it will work for you.