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| Yes | 41% | 144 votes | Total: 354 votes | |
| No | 59% | 210 votes |
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Add to FavoritesThere are several benefits from eating locally grown organic food, we just need to define what the breadth of the work locally means to get a greater picture. I would classify food in three categories regarding location: local, national (i.e. within the United States of America), and foreign (i.e. South America, China, etc.).
Buy purchasing locally grown food you are keeping your local economy alive. Sales revenue will stay within your city, the local farmers and families that make a living within that industry are supported, and the money then is more likely to spent back within that sector. Therefore there is a cycle effect on the economy and during this current crisis keeping your neighbors employed helps everyone out.
Also, smaller farms work harder to keep their crops and livestock alive without costly pesticides and drugs. This means healther and cleaner food for us all. Smaller farms also have more employees on a gross sales basis than large firms that find ways to use more expensive machinery to save a few bucks.
Next is buying nationally. Buy purchasing fruit, vegetables or food that is produced nationally you are also supporting the country. There are more stringent FDA policies in the US than any where else in the world. This means that your chances of getting a diesease or illness from food made within the United States of America is much lower compared to purchasing food grown locally.
Now the down side is that purchasing from National food companies doesn't remove the risk. As we have seen in the news and media, people are dying and getting sick off of national food products such as peanut butter and spinach.
However when you compare one death to the several millions to hundreds of millions of people who eat the food, it is very rare. But even so, buying food that is locally grown from smaller farms is safer and better for your micro economy.
Purchasing food from Overseas is very risky. I have never heard of one product coming overseas (fresh or not) that is free of issues. Toothpaste, candy, formula, and more. Killing and causing millions in health care costs all to save a few pennies.
In addition to the health and other costs by purchasing food that comes from outside of the United States of America, money is leaving too. This means that the money you earned will go to say China, the profits and money will then most likely not return to America and this is not the best policy for beefing up a struggling economy.
Buying locally produced food is key to help small and even large metro American cities, counties, and states pick back up. I have never seen a substantial price difference from something grown locally as compare to something from overseas.
There might be a 10-20% cost difference between national food and imported foreign food, but is that difference worth it when you think about job security, health care costs, and putting your family in potential danger with tained food, I think that those pennies will soon flee your mind and you will overcome the price gap.
However, it will be hard to always find organic food, let alone fresh locally produced food due to availability. Therefore, strive to atleast buy American produced food.
Next time you see a ballot or initiative by our government to make it easier and cheaper to bring in food from overseas say no. Instead, the government should tax imports to subsidize locally and domestically grown food making the choice easier for Americans and better for us all.
Next time you are in the Supermarket or your local farmers market, remember that every penny counts and if we all support each other and work hard America will return to a land of peace, happiniess and prosperity. But until we start working together in the simplest of ways, it will be impossible to return to our former glory.
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No
Try telling a person living in Bombay that he should eat only local organic food or that a person living in the Sahara should eat only what is grown out there. They would most likely starve. Also, with the outbreaks of salmonella due to the use of manure for fertilizer on organic crops, people could die from such food and have died.
Unless we build stack farms, underground farms, and ocean farms near and on Long Island, eating just locally grown food and organic food is an impossibility. Also, states like Florida and California that rely on food exportation financially would be worst off if everyone had to eat what is produced locally or organically.
A couple centuries ago, eating what was produced locally and organically was the norm. Farmers sold their produce to others nearby because there was no way to preserve most food so that it didn't spoil or taste rancid. Then came refrigeration and faster transportation systems that made food export easier and farms that produced more than enough food could sell it and send it far away. Instead of growing only what was needed in a region, farmers and ranchers produced an abundance of food and livestock for the markets. To go back to the systems we had a couple centuries ago could lead to starvation.
If it weren't for refrigeration, ships, trains, trucks, and planes, fish that comes from oceans thousands of miles away wouldn't be enjoyed except by those living in the regions where the fish is caught. High-quality produce is sold to distant markets because it costs just as much to ship that as it does to ship low-quality food which would be rejected. If you had the choice between buying locally grown fruit that is small and doesn't look so nice and buying attractive fruit, which would you buy? Supermarkets give us the choices we desire and that wouldn't be possible if we only had locally produced organic food to buy.
Let others eat the food I reject. Give me what looks and tastes good. I don't want to get sick because someone used manure that is harboring the salmonella bacterium in it and I don't want to need to buy three or four little potatoes for a higher price than one big potato that tastes better. Also, I still remember a comedy TV program that was on years ago which featured an investigative reporter. She had a falafel and accused the seller of giving her food poisoning. She ruined the seller from the bad review. Then she went to her local organic farm store and found out the so-called healthy food she was buying was mishandled and used contaminated manure to grow in. In that case, organic food was the bad food. People should remember that when we had only organic food, people died from food poisoning more often. But once refrigeration and preservatives started to be used, less food poisoning cases occurred. I don't want to be one who dies because I have to eat food I shouldn't need to eat.
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