Comments on: Local vs Certified organic

By: Johan

Johan — Tue, 25 Apr 2006 18:57:38 +0000

local organic is probably always the best.

some (FOE etc) believe and so do I that even though much of the positive environmental of buying organic produce from the other side of the world is lost by transportation it could work as a signal from consumers to the local producers that they want organic produce. far fetched?

if the choice is between a toxin laden or organically grown banana even if it is from a far away country the choice is pretty obvious …

buying vegetables of the season is also important. an example: in winter in sweden buying tomatoes grown in the canaries requires a less energy than tomatoes grown in greenhouses in sweden. so if they are grown according to the same scheme the tomatoes from the canaries has a better environmental impact in spite of the long haul.

this is probably the reason why one should aim for buying local produce that are in (their natural) season.

By: tmacm

tmacm — Tue, 25 Apr 2006 18:25:17 +0000

I agree that local is almost always better. Unfortunately, we can’t buy local red peppers in April in Toronto, or at least not organic ones, unless someone’s been holding out about an organic hydroponic pepper grower that I haven’t heard of. Agribusiness should be rewarded for growing organic, however, or else they will just keep dumping more chemicals on our food. I guess what I’m saying is that the occasional organic pepper from Mexico is a reasonable compromise as long as you’re making a concerted effort to buy locally most of the time. It’s not a perfect world, more’s the pity.

By: Renee

Renee — Tue, 25 Apr 2006 12:38:21 +0000

I agree, last week I spent more on an organic red pepper at the supermarket near my house. I read the tag on it (the one that has the number for ringing up) and realized it was grown in Mexico.
All of the resources used getting the pepper from there to here made me question the integrity of buying organic.

By: sarah

sarah — Mon, 24 Apr 2006 22:17:13 +0000

I’ve been thinking a lot about this topic for the last few days because I’ve been reading the just-released and much-anticipated (by me, anyway) book The Omnivore’s Dilemma, which is about this question exactly. I’m halfway through it and it’s great. I’m learning so much about different kinds of farming and ranching strategies (industrial to smallscale sustainable/organic, and everything in between), and also about their myriad causes and ramifications (economic, environmental, nutritive, cultural) that I can’t recommend this book heartily enough to people who are interested in this thread.

Anyway, my two cents is that local is generally better, and that it’s often organic to boot (just not “officially” so–and, anyway, it’s uaully pretty easy to figure out where your local farmers stand), BUT that big organic is such a important improvement over typical industrial agriculture that we shouldn’t feel like we have to pick sides.

By: Gayla

Gayla — Mon, 24 Apr 2006 20:33:11 +0000

This is a good topic of discussion. Ultimately I think buying local is the better choice, especially if you buy from a farmer’s market where you can talk to the grower about their practices, etc.