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Add to FavoritesIn this age approaching global over-population and total environmental degradation, when extreme climatic uncertainty is the rule rather than the exception, it is preferable to promote, support, and utilize locally grown organic foods.
"Locally produced" refers to foods that are grown and harvested as close as can be to the consumer. Essentially, the closer we are to the food we eat, then the more care we are likely to take in its production, storage, and preparation. Food security is a direct impact of growing locally. The ideal, of course, is that each consumer grows their own food in their yard or, perhaps, in a neighborhood "community" garden. Nearby farms are the next best thing to home gardening.
Any definition of "localy produced" must take into consideration the relationship between one's dietary needs and preferences, and the geographic capabilities of one's place on the planet. Local bananas are not currently an option in Oregon, for instance. The distance to the nearest banana-producing land in Southern California (and mostly in Central and South Americas) is energy prohibitive. The energy (and energy polutants) expended to produce and deliver a banana exceeds the energy (and other net benefits) one can derive from its consumption, so far away. This is not true for apples, pears, blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, huckleberries, kiwi, filberts, and many farm and garden vegies which call the Pacific Northwest home.
Wheat is an American dietary mainstay. Although not grown within walking distance to most Oregonians, wheat and other grains are considered local. because they are grown in the same region. So it is that "locally produced" includes regional attributes that maintain acceptable transportation impacts: financial and environmental.
"Organ ic" is the term applied to food production and processing that does not utilize any artificial components, such as petroleum-derived fertilizers and pesticides. Genetically modified plants and animals are not organic certifiable, nor are radiated foods.
Soil, plant and animal friendly practices are inherent aspects of any organic designation. Fields are rotated and include time to lie fallow, anathema to high production corporate synthetic farming. Organic matter such as winter cover crops that add nitrogen, naturally, are plowed back into the soils to improve soil quality. Large, disease-prone monocrops are discouraged in favor of diversity. Food security is a natural side-effect of food that is produced organically.
As mentioned, food security is concomitant to local and organic food production. Not only is the food less vulnerable to large scale tampering, it is also free of pesticides and herbicides that are transferred to the table from mass-produced, petrochemical farms, and put consumers' health at risk.
Rene' Dubos, an eminent microbiologist, environmentalist, pathologist, and Pulitzer writer, once wrote: "The point of importance here is that the most significant effects of environmental pollutants will not be detected at the time of exposure to them; indeed, they may not become evident until several decades later." [So Human An Animal, Scribner, 1968] Dubos saw the connection between failing health in the second half of one's life and the exposure of subtle, tolerable polutants in air, water and soil (and by extension food) in one's earlier years.
Inherent in the movement to local and organic is the intent to not only distance ourselves from the polluted corporate agricultural landscape, but to turn the tide against such insane, albeit profitable, practices. While big, oil-dependent, corporate farms are killing the land, polluting the water, and jeopardizing the health of people everywhere, smaller, more local, organic farmers and gardeners are fighting back with practices that are sustainable beyond the fast buck future.
There is a synnergy in the relationship of local and organic. People are empowered to do more for themselves when they are able to eat the fruits of their labors. Food tastes better when it is organic, allowed to ripen, and emerges out of a relationship between consumer and farmer. If we are to assure ourselves a place for our children and grandchildren on this planet, we must produce our foods locally using organic methods.
Learn more about this author, Michael Burgwin.
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No
Responsible, accountable, people should eat what they want to eat; however, it is commendable to support local economies. As it is, there are too many restrictions, binding or non-binding on what one should do, or not do.
There is no doubt that food grown or livestock raised, without the added chemicals that do somehow infiltrate the food and eventually find its way into our bodies, is better; but, on the other hand, there is growing evidence that some tampering with our food, such as irradiation, stricter requirements, etc., can also be a good thing.
It's all up to the consumers. When they are given legitimate reasons to change their lifestyles, they will. They drive the economy. Sometimes they drive it into the ground,(using to many soil contaminants, and abusing their privileges in other ways; and sometimes, by overuse, they drive it sky high. They do this when the demand is greater than the supply.
On second thought, I will update this 2007 article to bring it up to the now which is 2008. Last year the economy was better than it is now and consumers everywhere have had to adjust their lifestyles. Perhaps this was inevitable since too much haste to get rich quickly was making too much waste. The waste being the overuse of our environmental resources. We have been warned to slow down and live longer.
The price of gasoline has been prohibitive to long driving considerations and this is where most of our food comes from, from long distances. This, if looked at carefully does not make good sense. (It makes good sense only when it is seen from the standpoint of an economy that is overly stimulated by the desire of things far away rather than wanting those things closer to us.)
That parenthetical statement is precisely why our economy is faltering right now. We were doing too much too soon and too much of our natural resources was being consumed in too rapid successions. Were we to do the common sense thing and buy what we needed - including organic food - close to home we would have saved some money by eliminating the middle man.
When our food have to go through so many different hand before it gets to our table, it can be costly indeed. A farmer, as an example, takes a package of lettuce seed and from that one package grows a huge amount of lettuce. If he is the type of farmer that has customers come in and pick their own, then the only people that have handled the lettuce is the grower, possibly one or two helpers, and the consumer. See what a saving in wages, gasoline and time that has been.
When seen in this new light and with an eye toward refreshing our environment, then yes, we should buy our locally produced food. If that food is organically grown, so much the better, go ahead and buy it; but expect to pay more it since it took more effort to grow it this pristine.
Learn more about this author, EMoore.
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