by Garvin Nelson

Created on: September 02, 2008

I think it is just better all the way round for us to buy local and organic food. I will try to explain why below.

I think that the concept of locally grown must be dealt with to explain why it not as difficult to access local crops as some imply. I like to define locally grown in terms of time rather than distance. I look at locally grown as the time it would take a farmer round trip from home to the market to sell his goods in a eight hour work day. Thus in a country with a good road network local could be one hour at highway speeds say 50 miles. In a country with a poor road network it may be only two miles. The energy cost and carbon dioxide produced in long distance transport will be reduced when we buy local.

Organically grown crops are also better for the environment. Why? Organically grown crops do not
have pesticides that kill or maim beneficial insects or other soil organisms. There is no fertiliser run-off to pollute waterways. The use of nitrogen based fertilisers also release nitrous oxide a potent green house gas. Locally grown organic crops will use less energy to be grown and will generate a less of a carbon foot print as a result.

The soil quality in organically managed farms is better than those using artificial methods. Ancient soils called Terra Preta de Indio or Amazonian Dark Earth's are soils that were created by ancient societies in South Americas. Terra Preta soils are very bio-active and self-regenerating and actually absorb carbon dioxide out of the air and release no nitrous oxide. These organically maintained ancient soils are key to organic agricultures benefits to the earth and us as well.

Organic crops do not use pesticides thus there will be no pesticide residues that could harm us the consumers. Pesticides and other toxic by products from their use tend to concentrate up the food chain. And since we are at the top of the chain we will store the most toxins. Feed the animals we eat organically grown fodder and we will get less toxins as well. Organically reared animals are also healthier to eat as there is artificial hormones and antibiotics used in their growth.

Genetically Modified or GM crops are food crops that have been modified at the DNA level to enhance or create features not present in the plant naturally. The safety of these crops is questionable as the test done to prove their safety are usually small sample sizes and often lack critical peer review. Since organically grown crops are not Genetically Modified in any way they are inherently safer to the consumer.

So why are organically grown food stuff so much more expensive? Well economies of scale, there are less farmers growing organic crops so the cost will be higher. We need to encourage farmers to get into organic farming if we are to see cost reductions. It should be noted that organically grown crops will always be a little more costly as organic farming is labour intensive.

More info on Terra Preta soils.
http://www.css.cornell.edu/faculty/lehmann/terra_pre ta/TerraPretahome.htm

More info on Organic Farming economics:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organic_farmi nghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organic_farming

Organi cally Grown food healthier?
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0IS W/is_2001_Oct/ai_78900839

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